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Tangents

portraits of the bride – looking for the less obvious image

August 30, 2010

wedding photography – looking for the less obvious image

While waiting with the bride and her bridesmaids before the ceremony, their excitement made for good candid photos.  But, as ever, I was on the look-out for the less obvious photo. Trying to find something unexpected …

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lens choice for wedding photography

August 18, 2010

wedding photography – choice of lenses

With this recent review of the Nikon 24mm f1.4 the question came up about which lenses I use when photographing a wedding, and how I use them.

How do you juggle the various lenses you have for weddings and decide which ones to bring to a wedding and when to use them? Do you carry them all and just use them when you feel, or do only take specific lenses knowing what the wedding/venue will be like and know in advance that you will certain lenses at various times during the day?

Choosing which lens to use while photographing a wedding, is obviously an extension of your own style. It affects how you want to portray your subject, or the scene, through choice of depth-of-field, perspective and angle of view … or even through some special effect, such as a fish-eye lens or tilt-shift lens.

While the specific lens you use for any shot might be motivated by stylistic choice, there are also practical matters that come into play.  Sometimes the lens I choose will simply be the one already on my camera.

I also like having a wide arsenal of lenses available to me to use.  There is a reassurance in this idea, that I have the best and fastest that is available.  I want any limitations that exist, to be my own as a photographer, not because of my equipment.

So here’s how I juggle lenses and cameras …

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wedding photography resource page

July 30, 2010

In the spirit of the resource pages on off-camera flash photography, I wanted to do the same for all the blog posts on wedding photography. I pulled together the more important articles, and this resource page on wedding photography is now accessible from the menu on the left-hand side. (About 12 links down from where it says ‘Articles’.) In this way it will be a permanently anchored reference that I will keep updated as I add new posts to the Tangents blog.

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favourite recent images – portraits of a bride

July 25, 2010

I frequently post a favorite image from the past weekend.  This time, I’d like to post a few images.  All are portraits of the bride, Denise, on her wedding day.  This might show some of my approach and style in wedding portraits …

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portrait with bounce flash

June 29, 2010

example of bounce flash photography

As another example of bounce flash technique, here is a portrait of the bride from a recent wedding. The technique is quite simple, and should be obvious by now to regular readers of the Tangents blog:

I used a wide aperture, focused on the eye closest to the camera .. and bounced my flash towards the bride, but blocked by the black foamie thing.  No direct flash.  No diffuser cup.  No tupperware.

Because of this indirect directional light, we have this broad swathe of light coming in from camera-left.  The intention was to mimic window light. The nearest window didn’t have much impact though on the final image.  I was more concerned by getting a clean enough background, devoid of hotel-room clutter.  I wanted that deep red wall-paper behind her as the single background element.  A simple composition to help make the image more striking.

Focusing was tough, since the bird-cage veil got in the way.  So I had my assistant delicately lift the veil. As soon as I grunted a “got it” to indicate that I’ve locked focus properly, he would gently drop the veil into position again.  I could then fire off a few frames.  And there we have it – a strikingly effective, yet simple portrait of the bride.

1/125 @ f4 @ 1250 ISO
Nikon D3; Nikon 70-200 mm f2.8 AF-S VR II (B&H) … at 70mm

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favourite image from the weekend

June 13, 2010


[ click on the photo for a larger image ]

Often seen in wedding portfolios, this is always a fun setup to do with groomsmen – the Reservoir Dogs style walk towards the camera. A great group of guys, good light with a nice background, and you have the ingredients for a photograph that the couple will just love.

I fired off a rapid series of shots to make sure I have at least one image where the motion and expression of everyone worked.  I didn’t need flash, and it would’ve been difficult to set up properly with a large group of people walking towards the camera.  So the light depended entirely on the shot being set up like this, with the light from behind them somewhere.  The post-processing? No actions or filter.  Just a few sliders in ACR (hosted in Bridge), to give a faded retro look.  Hopefully the final image has a cinematic look to it that will be a wonderful reminder of the couple’s wedding day.

settings: 1/500 @ f5.6 @ 400 ISO
Nikon D3; Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 AF-S VR II (B&H)

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wedding photography: TTL flash with off-camera manual flash

May 19, 2010

wedding photography: using on-camera TTL flash with additional manual flash

A common technique used in photographing wedding receptions, is to use additional lighting to lift the general light levels in large reception rooms.  The additional lights can be wirelessly controlled TTL flash .. but more often would be manual flashes. Then an on-camera flash can be used, either in manual, or in TTL.

My preference when working like this, is for my on-camera flash to be used in TTL mode, and the additional light(s) to be in manual.  Here is an example from a wedding this weekend:

This reception room is a large boxy room with high ceilings.  The ceiling is too high to get good results easily by just bouncing an on-camera flash upwards behind you without a diffuser cup on the flash.  And I prefer to not work with such a diffuser, unless I really am forced to.  For my tastes, these type of diffusers give too flat a kind of light.

I have posted an example before where I used a few additional lights in manual, with on-camera flash in TTL.  The question invariably comes up about how you control the manual flash.  The answer is that with manual flash, you usually don’t.  You set it up before the time to give just a touch of light to the background, and then use the on-camera flash to do the rest of the work.  The additional lights here were triggered by PocketWizard Plus II units.  With wireless TTL setups, you can off course control the off-camera flashes from the camera itself.

Here is how I had set up the additional light:

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photographers, what is your back-up plan?

May 10, 2010

You can’t really see it in this photo taken from the lounge at this small airfield in Wisconsin, but the snow was coming down hard there.  Hard enough to cause flight delays and cancellations.  However, en route to the airport, the snow was only falling lightly, so I wasn’t concerned at the time.  After all, this is just a few weeks away from the start of Summer.

I had presented a week-long workshop in Wisconsin as part of the Wisonsin Professional Photographers School at Treehaven, and was due to fly back home to New Jersey on Friday afternoon.  I absolutely had to get home sometime that Friday night, since I had a wedding the next day that I was photographing.  So when the progression of flight delays and cancellations were announced, it was soon obvious I would miss my connecting flight in Minneapolis.  This was enough reason for a mild state of panic – at some point I knew I would be late for the wedding the next day.

But I had my iPhone with me.  Of course.  I have this thing clutched in my left hand most of the day anyway. But I digress.  I had the contact info of all my photographer friends in New Jersey.  I sent out text messages to a few of them, hoping someone would have the day open to help me out.  A few were even willing to change the times of their existing photo shoots to help me out.  However, my friend Geri Nelson was free on the day and immediately offered to help out.  Better yet, she lives in the same town as the bride and myself.  I phoned my bride, and left a phone message with her.  And then I finalized details with Geri.  From the timing it looked like I would be able to join the wedding at the start of the ceremony.  Which meant I would rely on Geri to cover the bride’s preparation.  But, just to be sure in case of more hiccups, I told Geri to be prepared to shoot the entire wedding.

The flight left at 7:30 pm that Friday night, and I over-nighted in Minneapolis. The next morning then was a mad dash to get home from the airport, and grab the rest of my equipment before heading out to photograph the wedding.  I did arrive just before the ceremony, and easily got into the swing of events. Geri stayed with me through the ceremony and portrait session, and I continued until the end of the wedding reception.  I was also fortunate that I had a couple that was easy-going and very cool about it all.

The point to this rambling anecdote?
When trouble hit, I had a system of back-ups in place, whether formal or informal …

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tips and advice for second-shooting weddings

May 4, 2010

This eye-catching image was shot by a friend of mine, Josh Lynn, who worked with me on this wedding.  As such it is perhaps the perfect image to lead this article with advice and tips for 2nd-shooting a wedding.  It shows initiative at getting an interesting angle.  Exposure is perfect.   Framing and composition is great.  Excellent timing .. with a little bit of luck there in the mix.  This image is also a good point for the topic of the second photographer’s business ethics.

For me, a second photographer isn’t merely someone who assists in carrying bags and equipment, and takes the occasional photograph.  Rather, a second shooter is a fully fledged photographer working independently, but closely with, the principal / main photographer.  A second photographer is there to augment the main photographer’s coverage of the wedding.  As such, there are certain things that could be (and should be) expected from a 2nd shooter at a wedding.

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anticipation and timing

April 17, 2010

style in photography – anticipation and timing

I’m sure every photographer has this experience, where your shutter trips, and you just know you have the shot.  Something that you see – whether anticipated or just lucky timing – and you capture it.  This is how I felt when I captured this moment between Marie and Andrew at their wedding this weekend.  I got it!

A bit of background to this image:
During a Catholic wedding service, there is a short time after the exchange of vows and rings, where the couple are seated again for the Mass.  With everyone’s attention now on the priest and the rest of the proceedings, this is usually the moment where a couple have their first nearly-alone time.  From experience, I know that invariably the couple will then steal glances at each other, or lean in to each other to talk.  Or they might reach out with a momentary fingertip touch.  Just a little something where they spontaneously show their connection with each other.

And this is how I was ready for this brief moment where Marie shaped an I-heart-you with her hands for Andrew.  

In that sense this then is not a lucky shot.  When you are photographing a wedding, or any other kind of  event, whether news or sports or whatever it might be … the key to getting images that capture something essential about the event, is to be prepared, to observe, anticipate, and ‘read’ the event.  It’s all about anticipation, awareness and timing.  Those moments are there.

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