August Wedding

Here are a few thoughts on the experience of photographing this wedding with Jenny, a good friend and colleague of mine, who has already done quite a few weddings solo.  We bring slightly different techniques, style, knowledge and experience together and the two of us can photograph much more of the day than if going it alone.  Jenny is great with people, with poses, thinking on her feet and her studio lights.  I'm keen on mixing flash and ambient light, wide aperture lenses and taking my time where I can.

Jenny had already hooked the job and had organised much of what was to be done.  She specifically asked me to help with the groom arriving at the church, the ceremony, the reception venue shots, the receiving line and anything I got the chance to do.  I believe its very wise to recce the venues first and meet the couple, which gives us confidence and means there are no nasty surprises...well fewer!

I went with a Lowepro Commercial all-weather shoulder bag packed rather full, with Nikon D700, D300 and D80 bodies, 14-24 F2.8G, 24-70 F2.8G, 70-200 F2.8G VR2, 50mm F1.4G, 35mm F1.8G, Carl Zeiss 100mm F2 Macro Planar, SB800, SB900 Speed lights, Lastolite Ezybox Hotshoe and stand, tripod, spare batteries...yes it was heavy!  I never want to get caught without a backup if something goes wrong and if you don't take something you can guarantee that you need it.  Undoubtedly the workhorse kit is the D700 body, 24-70 lens and a quality Speed light.  One could probably shoot a whole wedding with that, but it would get rather dull.

Groom's arrival: I tried to shoot the groom, his best man and ushers in some conventional and more funky poses that would help make it fun, and at a variety of apertures to use depth of field.  This was one of the more "Reservoir Dogs" style shots where stern poses, a low shooting position and tilted angle create a certain look.  The light was pretty good outside;  overcast, no harsh contrast but not too flat, so features and contours were picked out ok.  I shot this with the 24-70 in ambient light.

I wanted a few detail shots too, hence the buttonhole taken at wide aperture.  As more guests arrived I captured a fair number of reportage style snaps outside.

The ceremony: Wow, it varied between dark and very dark!  Jenny specifically wanted me to do much of the shooting as I am lucky enough to have a D700.  Even with a fast zoom like the 24-70 F2.8 I was struggling to keep ISO values down.  For me flash is not an option, even if allowed, in a traditional church.  To me it ruins the ambience and is unpleasant for the guests...its meant to be wedding after all!  As always one has to balance a number of factors in deciding how to play it...

1) I was restricted to the south aisle (to one side of the couple) only so needed a zoom to get different compositions
2) Using a zoom wide open has its risks...DOF and field curvature tends to lead to a fair few misses, particularly with off-centre subjects.
3) Image quality, especially contrast can be worse wide open.
4) Closing the aperture even 1-stop meant a worsening of quality due to higher ISO and the risk of using lower shutter speeds.

While I would have loved to use a fast prime I had to settle for the 24-70 as the most versatile lens on the D700 as it covers such a useful range.  You need to watch the field curvature and distortion at wider angles.  I popped the 70-200 on the D300.  I trust that awesome big zoom lens totally, even wide open, but to be fair the D300 was struggling to get brilliant quality at the 3200 ISO often required.  I even used the D80 at about ISO 1000 (rather grainy) with the little 35 prime wide open at F1.8.  I tried to capture all different aspects of the service and those involved, including some of those smile and laughter moments.  I set the D700 on Auto ISO so I just had to set the shutter and aperture values I wanted without worrying about major exposure changes.  If the light is more constant I tend to use manual but it varied a lot here as both I and the couple were changing location throughout.  If you spend lots of your time fiddling with settings you miss the moment...the first kiss, for example is always very brief indeed!

D700, 24-70, F4@ ISO 4500

D300, 70-200, F3.2@ ISO 1800

The below shot was a pre-planned one based on the recce and knowing that it would be impossible to hold the highlights in the backlit stained glass while retaining detail in the church.  The couple specifically wanted a shot showing the window and church interior so I had discussed what I needed them to do for me.  While Jenny shot the register signing, I set up my tripod and when the couple emerged, I took the 5 bracketed exposures required to combine them in Photomatix later.  I also paused the couple closer to the camera for another bracket.  I used F5.6 and ISO 400 to keep exposure times reasonable.  Love it or loathe it, HDR is a viable way of capturing a tonal range that is otherwise impossible.

D700, 24-70, F5.6@ ISO 400, merge of 5 exposures in Photomatix pro

After the service I did take some formal shots outside, but mainly left those to Jenny as I tried to get some of the more spontaneous goings-on. 

Reception Venue:  As the reception was held in a lovely old characterful school hall, the couple had specifically requested some shots to include the tables and hall details before the guests entered.  Jenny dealt with the task of the formal group shots while I got stuck-in with the 14-24 and Zeiss macro.  I took brackets of the shots where contrast range was impossible due to the bright windows, knowing I would merge them in Photomatix.  I shot many aspects including very wide shots of the ceiling.  It was nice to take my time and doing this job almost felt like a break from the hustle.

Controlled motion blur of the waiter setting bottles on the table

Top table with the Zeiss Macro

For the receiving line I set up an SB800 flash in my softbox to add to the limited amounts of natural light coming in through the porch.   I was able to manually expose for natural light at ISO 800, so set the flash to manual and triggered it remotely after a few test shots to find the correct flash exposure.  Nikon creative lighting by remote control is a wonderful tool.  Using TTL here would not have allowed lighting consistentcy.  There were a couple of real "gotchas" here....there was a big mirror on one wall that dictated my position and the queue formed in a very awkward position, snaking right across my shooting path.  Even so I got some reportage style snapshots of the spontaneity of things, though no masterpieces for sure.

After that there was a bit of respite as I don't believe in photographing people eating!  I then took some informal shots of guests and kids within the dining area before shooting the speeches.  The latter were a bit awkward as it was getting darker and the ceilings and walls were a no-no for bounce (too high, too dark).  So I boosted the ISO and used a tiny touch of direct fill.  Not ideal but ok. I also had this shot in mind during the reception so popped out to get it when I had a mo.

Order of service and reception venue

Outside Formals:  After dinner we grabbed our chance and took the couple outside for the formal shots in the grounds.  The light was lovely with low, warm sun and a blue sky.  I had decided to use very gentle direct fill flash for most shots, to add life to faces and eyes and in some cases kill contrast a bit or deal with backlight.  I set TTL-BL (balanced fill flash) on the SB900 and dialled it down by over 1 stop.  I shot in manual exposure mode with fairly wide apertures on the D700 and 24-70 both for DOF effect and to maximize the flash power.  I was aware that to maintain ambient exposure for quite a few shots I would have to stray over the sweet spot of max sync speed (1/250th sec) and use higher shutter speeds and FP sync.  Here the flash burns for a longer duration as the shutter curtains pass over the sensor, allowing use of the flash at high speeds but seriously reducing power and range.

D700, 24-70, F4.5 & max flash sync speed of 1/250th sec, plus an obliging swan!  Background deliberately underexposed by about a stop

D700, 24-70, F5 & max flash sync of 1/250th sec

Natural light only and speed limit sign successfully cloned out!

Ambient evening light only with exposure set to retain a nice sky

The below shot was one of my favourites of the day owing to the spontaneity of the moment and because my love of using ambient and flash light seemed to work very nicely here in balancing the lighting without looking obvious.  The couple were in shadow and there was still sunlight falling on the buildings and sky behind.  I therefore had to expose manually to retain detail in the far background and the shaded middle ground, while popping some gentle flash onto the couple.  To hold those highlight details I had to up the shutter speed to 1/320th sec into FP sync territory.

D700, 24-70, F5 & 1/320th sec

While Jenny took a few more groups who wanted photos I tried a different angle on the same groups to offer something different.  This is one such shot taken at F 7.1 to increase depth of field a bit owing to the number of people.  Yes the people are not looking at me, but the angle captures the sky and an unusual aspect and I have managed to indulge mixing ambient with FP sync flash again! Does the shot work?

D700, 24-70, F7.1 & 1/320th sec

I saw groups of guests milling around enjoying the late sunshine and because it captured an element of the day and the light was nice I took a couple of shots.  I used some fill flash to light the foreground as the sky was still bright and the contrast needed balancing.  This sort of shot is hardly a masterpiece but is a nice memory of the day and I try to shoot what I think the couple will want to remember.

Evening disco:  The great high ISO performance of the D700 allowed me to take some shots in near darkness at the disco and capture a few memories for the couple.  I took some shots to capture the first dance and nice moments like this little girl doing a solo in front of the DJ.  They were never going to be technical marvels of image quality but we are all lucky we can take photographs at all, as it would have been impossible a few years back.  I used a high ISO to let ambient light register and a tiny bit of direct fill flash on the couple to add life and texture to the dress, while trying to avoid casting a shadow.  In some shots a shadow was visible, but others were fine.  Ideally I would bounce but couldn't see it working here owing to the huge ceiling and dark wood panels.  Having since read more on bounce flash, particularly by the very helpful Neil van Niekerk, I may try it in future, even when it looks pretty hopeless.

D700, 24-70, F4 @ ISO 3200 with very gentle fill flash

D700, 24-70, F2.8 @ ISO 6400

The main things I learned from doing this wedding were;

1) Plan in advance:  visit the venue and couple.  That way you all know what to expect and you have an idea of the kit and settings you will need.  Make a written plan with timings and agree between photographers, what you will each be shooting and check your kit bag at least twice before leaving for the day.

2) Learn the exposure limitations of your gear and what the reasonable limits are for holding detail in highlights and shadows.  Always expose for the relevant tones...i.e. that of your subject (white dress!)...who cares if some backgrounds blow out for example?  When I step outside, I will initially set my shutter speed to max flash sync, ISO to 200 and aperture to F4, depending on brightness.  I know that is a good base for me when combining flash and ambient light.  If its brighter I will generally stop down the aperture (to a point) rather than increase shutter speed to retain the power sweet spot of the flash at max sync speed.

3) Get fast lenses...at least F2.8 to deal with the low light, to maximize flash performance and allow creative use of depth of field.  Image stabilisation may be useful for some shots but is no substitute for a wider aperture in many circumstances, such as using subtle flash or FP sync flash at wide apertures.  Even a £100 50mm will open up the possibilities well beyond a slower, more pricey lens.

4) KIS...keep it simple.  For lots of the stages in a wedding you don't have time to set up kit and get people to wait...you have to keep up with events.  Use one lens, set up the camera and flash to what you know will work in a particular scenario and keep shooting. 

4) Make sure you and your camera can focus accurately as you will have minimum depth of field to play with at fast apertures.

5) Use manual exposure mode for much of the time.  It allows you to compensate for the inevitable failure of the meter to deal with extreme tones like white dresses and black suits and allows you to lock the ambient exposure when adding some flash.

6) Get a full-frame camera body with good High ISO performance and place this above getting more megapixels for most kinds of wedding work.  The crop frame bodies may be way better than we ever had with film but you may still need the constraints of a tripod to get decent image quality.  I'm sure many shooters do weddings better than me with crop bodies, but FF does hugely extend the possibilities and flexibility of the shooting options.

7)  Get a backup camera body, lens and flash at least.  Ideally of the same quality, but anything is better than nothing.  I can't imagine how it might feel having your only camera, flash or lens pack up!

8) There never seems to be enough time.  You may not get some of the shots you wanted and you certainly will not get time to mess about with kit...finding your way around your camera has to be intuitive.  Don't worry if all doesn't go to plan...move on.   I found this especially with the groom shots at the church.  I had lots of ideas and managed to use a few but had to let the day progress naturally rather than interfering once I had got some key shots.

9)  Study other photographers work for poses and ideas to try as well as your own and visit some helpful websites on technique, such as Neil van Niekerk's Tangents.

10)  Try to produce a variety of shots ranging from formal poses to venue and reportage style.

11)  Learn how to use a flash gun both off and on your camera, in manual exposure mode, to enhance the ambient light already there.  Avoid simply shooting from the hotshoe with direct flash and little thought to exposure, as the light will be harsh, lack direction and be unflattering.  Generally try to bounce the flash behind or to the side.  Use direct flash for gentle fill light when shooting outdoors, but its use should be almost imperceptible unless you desire a certain look or you have to overpower serious contrast.

12) Be careful with your gear.  Its easy to bump, fumble or drop expensive kit in the rush to get a shot or change cameras and try not to leave it unattended while you are distracted.

13)  Enjoy the day.  Don't get stressed and pressured to a detrimental degree and don't panic.  Communicate happily with the couple and guests as the day progresses.  They will be happy to help you but will not have infinite patience and it is their day after all!

14)  Take water and some snacks for on-the-run nose-bagging.

15)  Personally I prefer to do weddings with a trusted friend photographer.  You feed ideas off each other, can troubleshoot each others problems and have more kit redundancy, plus you share the fun and stresses.

I really enjoyed it and look forward to more jobs.  It was an 11 hour day during which I don't remember sitting down once!  Then all the processing of proofs.  

Overall, a satisfying way to use photography outside of a hobby and where there is a lot to learn technically, artistically and in managing people respectfully, so as not to affect the progress of the day.  Jenny would no doubt have her own stories and worked every bit as hard as me, but it all worked out well for everyone.