by Bill Hurter
Most seasoned professionals carry backups and double-backups—extra camera bodies, flash heads, transmitters, tons of batteries and cords, double the anticipated number of memory storage cards, and so on. In addition, if using AC-powered flash, extension cords, duct tape (for taping cords to the floor), power strips, flash tubes, and modeling lights need to be backed up. An emergency tool kit is also a good idea, as is a stepladder for photographing large groups or producing an overall shot.
David Williams made this beautiful image with a fixed focal length Sigma 15mm f/2.8 EX DG Fisheye lens and a Fujifilm Finepix S2 Pro camera. There are many pros that maintain that fixed focal length lenses provide the optimal optical results.
Michael Schuhmann created this lovely portrait with a 50mm f/1.4 lens, which was transformed into a 75mm f/1.4 lens by virtue of the Nikon D1X’s 1.5x focal length factor.
Prime Lenses. Fast, fixed focal-length (prime) lenses (f/2.8, f/2, f/1.8, f/1.4, f/1.2, etc.) will get lots of use, as they afford many more “available light” opportunities than slower speed lenses. Anytime you can avoid using flash, which naturally calls attention to itself, you should generally do so. Additionally, although modern zoom lenses, particularly those designed for digital SLRs, are extremely sharp, many photographers insist that a multipurpose lens cannot possibly be as sharp as a prime lens, which is optimized for use at a single focal length.
Mike Colón, a talented photographer from the San Diego area, uses prime lenses (not zooms) in his wedding coverage and shoots at wide-open apertures most of the time to minimize background distractions. He says, “The telephoto lens is my first choice, because it allows me to be far enough away to avoid drawing attention to myself but close enough to clearly capture the moment. Wide-angle lenses, however, are great for shooting from the hip. I can grab unexpected moments all around me without even looking through the lens.”
Telephotos. Many photojournalists use ultra-fast telephotos, like the 300mm f/2.8 or f/3.5 lenses. These lenses, while heavy and often requiring a monopod for prolonged use, are ideal for working unobserved and they can help isolate some wonderful moments. Even more than the 80-200mm lens, the 300mm throws backgrounds beautifully out of focus. When used wide open at a relatively close camera-to-subject distance, the 300mm provides a delicately thin band of focus, which is ideal for isolating image details.
Another favorite lens is the 85mm (f/1.2 for Canon; f/1.4 or f/1.8 for Nikon), which is a short telephoto with exceptional sharpness. This lens gets used frequently because of its speed and ability to throw backgrounds out of focus, depending on the subject-to-cam-
era distance. Because it produces exceptional image contrast, the difference between in-focus and out-of-focus areas appears much more distinct, thus exaggerating the effects of shooting wide open.
AF Technology. Autofocus, once unreliable and unpredictable, is now very advanced. Some cameras feature multiple-area autofocus so that you can, with a touch of a thumbwheel, change the AF sensor area to different areas of the viewfinder (the center or outer quadrants). This lets you “de-center” photos for more dynamic compositions. Once accustomed to quickly changing the AF area, this feature becomes an extension of the photographer’s technique.
Since all but full-frame DSLRs have chip sizes smaller than 24x36mm (the size of a 35mm film frame), there is a magnification factor that changes the effective focal length of the lens. For instance, Nikon DSLRs have a 1.5X focal-length factor that makes a 50mm f/1.4 lens a 75mm f/1.4 lens—an ideal portrait lens.
Joe Photo made this exquisite detail with a Nikon D1X and 85mm f/1.4 lens at 1/250 second at f/1.4 at ISO 800. Many wedding pros consider the prime focal length lens used wide open to be the ultimate in precision and excellence.
Neil van Niekerk made this image with a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 lens and a Nikon D2H. The focal-length factor transformed the 50mm lens into a 75mm lens. The image was recorded at 1/13 second at f/5.0 with flash-fill. The smaller aperture was used to shoot at the optimum sharpness setting for this lens. File was recorded in NEF/RAW file mode. Credit: Neil van Niekerk for Milton Gil Photography.
Autofocus and moving subjects used to be an almost insurmountable problem. While you could predict the rate ofmovement and focus accordingly, the earliest AF systems could not. Now, however, almost all AF systems use a form of predictive autofocus, meaning that the system senses the speed and direction of the movement of the main subject and reacts by tracking the focus of the moving subject. This is an ideal feature for wedding photojournalism, where the action can be highly unpredictable.
A new addition to autofocus technology is dense multi-sensor area AF, in which an array of AF sensor zones (up to 45 at this writing) are densely packed within the frame, making precision focusing much faster and more accurate. These AF zones are user selectable or can all be activated at the same time for the fastest AF operation.
INCIDENT FLASHMETERS
A handheld incident flashmeter is essential for working indoors and out, but particularly crucial when mixing flash and daylight. It is also useful for determining lighting ratios. Flashmeters are invaluable when using multiple strobes and when trying to determine the overall evenness of lighting in a large-size room. Flashmeters are also ambient incident light meters, meaning that they measure the light falling on them and not light reflected from a source or object as the in-camera meter does.
LIGHTING
On-Camera Flash. Even at weddings, on-camera flash is used sparingly these days because of its flat, harsh light. As an alternative, many photographers use on-camera flash brackets, which position the flash over and away from the lens, reducing red-eye and dropping the harsh shadows behind the subjects—a slightly more flattering light.
On-camera flash is, however, often used outdoors, especially with TTL-balanced flash exposure systems. With such systems, you can adjust the flash output for various fill-in ratios, thus producing consistent exposures. In these situations, the on-camera flash is most frequently used to fill in the shadows caused by the daylight, or to match the ambient light output, providing direction to the light.
Bounce-Flash Devices. Many photographers use their on-camera flash in bounce-flash mode. A problem, however, with bounce flash is that it produces an overhead soft light. With high ceilings, the problem is even worse—the light source, while soft, is almost directly overhead. There are a number of devices on the market that solve this problem. For example, the Lumiquest ProMax system allows 80 percent of the flash’s illumination to bounce off the ceiling while 20 percent is redirected forward as fill light. The system also includes interchangeable white, gold, and silver inserts, as well as a removable frosted diffusion screen. This same company also offers devices like the Pocket Bouncer, which enlarges and redirects light at a 90-degree angle from the flash to soften the quality of light and distribute it over a wider area. While no exposure compensation is necessary when using TTL-flash exposure systems, operating distances are some what reduced. With both systems, light loss is approximately 11/3 stops, however with the ProMax system, using the gold or silver inserts will lower the light loss to approximately 2/3 stop.
Joe Photo used a “cloudy” white balance setting on his Nikon D1X and fill flash on camera to keep the colors, particularly the wedding gown) accurate as well as to add a bit of sparkle to their eyes. He adjusted the hue slightly in processing the image to clean up the whites.
Tom Muñoz made this lovely image with a combination of window light and bounce flash. The bounce flash—off the ceiling and far wall—helps to fill in the shadows and even out the overall balance of the window light.
Tom Muñoz created this exquisite image using window light, incandescent room light, and studio strobe (positioned out of view in the camera-right corner of the room) bounced onto the ceiling. The strobe provided a beautiful edge light on the bride and her bridesmaid.
Here, Tom Muñoz captured all the ambiance of the reception. He used a Canon EOS 1DS and 16mm Canon lens with off-camera diffused flash pl
aced high and to the left of the couple. He exposed the image for 1/15 second at f/2.8 so that the room lighting would record normally. This is commonly called dragging the shutter.
Barebulb Flash. Barebulb flash units with an upright mounted flash tube sealed for protection in a plastic housing are one of the most frequently used handheld flash units at weddings. This is because the 360-degree light coverage means that you can use all of your wide-angle lenses. One popular unit is the Dyna-Lite NE-1 flash, which has a 1000 watt-second pencil-style flash tube. This great location tool is compact and lightweight and can literally fit in your pocket.
These light sources act more like large point-source lights than a small portable flashes. Light falloff is less than with other handheld units, and they are ideal for flash-fill situations, particularly outdoors. These are predominantly manual flash units, meaning that you must adjust their intensity by changing the flash-to-subject distance or by adjusting the flash-output setting. At weddings, many photographers mount a sequence of barebulb flash units on light stands (using ball-head adapters to fine tune the position the light) for doing candids on the dance floor.
Studio Flash System. You may find it useful to have a number of studio flash heads with power packs and umbrellas. You can set these up for formals or tape the light stands to the floor and use them to light large areas. Either way, you’ll need enough power (at least 50 to 100 watt-seconds per head) to light large areas.
The most popular studio flash is the monolight unit, which has a self-contained power pack and, usually, an on-board photo cell to trigger it to fire when it senses a flash burst. All you need is an electrical outlet and the flash can be positioned anywhere. Be sure to take along plenty of gaffers’ tape and extension cords. Tape everything in position securely to prevent accidents.
One such monolight preferred by wedding photographers is the Dyna-Lite Uni 400JR, a 3.5-pound compact 400 watt-second unit that can be plugged into an AC outlet or used with the Dyna-Lite Jackrabbit highvoltage battery pack. The strobe features variable power output and recycle times, a full tracking quartz modeling light, and a built-in slave.
For big weddings many photographers will use remote lighting triggered by radio remote systems. The perimeter strobes carry a receiver that is on the same frequency as the transmitter attached to the camera so that when the photographer fires, all of the strobes go off at once. Photograph by Clay Blackmore.
Light stands are an important part of location lighting. You should use heavy-duty stands, tape them firmly to the floor, and try to hide them in corners of the room so they don’t blast direct light into your lens. The light stands should be extend to a height of 12-15 feet. Lights should be aimed down and “feathered,” so their beams cross, making the lighting as even as possible. The lights can be set to backlight the people at the reception and an on-camera flash used to trigger the system.
Umbrellas. Studio flash units can be used with umbrellas for lighting large areas of a room. Be sure, however, to focus the umbrella—adjusting the cone of light that bounces into and out of the umbrella surface by moving the umbrella closer to and farther away from the light source. The ideal position is when the light fills the umbrella but does not exceed its perimeter. Focusing the umbrella also helps eliminate hot spots as well as maximizing light output.
Reflectors. When photographing by window light or outdoors, it is a good idea to have a selection of white, silver, gold, and black reflectors. Most photographers opt for the circular disks, called Lite Discs, which unfold to produce a large size reflector. They are particularly valuable when making portraits by available light. An assistant is useful to focus the light of the reflector on the faces of your subjects.
REMOTE TRIGGERING DEVICES
If using multiple flash units to light the reception or dance floor, some type of remote triggering device will be needed to sync all the flash units at the instant of exposure. There are a variety of these devices available, but by far the most reliable is the radio remote triggering device. These devices use a radio signal transmitted when you press the shutter release and received by individual receivers mounted to each flash.
Radio remotes transmit signals in either digital or analog form. Digital systems, like the Pocket Wizard Plus, are state of the art. Complex 16-bit digitally coded radio signals deliver a unique code, ensuring the receiver cannot be triggered or “locked up” by other radio noise. The built-in microprocessor guarantees consistent sync speeds even under the worst conditions. Some photographers use a separate transmitter for each camera in use (for instance, an assistant’s camera) as well as a separate transmitter for the handheld flash meter, allowing the photographer to take remote flash readings from anywhere in the room.
TWO-WAY RADIOS
When using assistants and slaved flash units, it is a great idea to be in constant contact with your staff. Motorola makes a wide range of two-way radios with Bluetooth-enabled wireless headsets that allow you to be in constant contact with your assistants. Such communication is invaluable at large weddings when it may take valuable time for you to first find your assistant and then communicate with him or her. These devices make it simple to give your assistant an order—”Check the cables on the strobe in the southwest corner of the room, it’s not firing,” or, “Bring me a new CF card, this one’s almost done.” If an assistant is downloading images, you might also get valuable feedback from them as they see your finished images. The bigger the wedding and the more people you bring to the job, the more a two-way radio system becomes important.
WIFI TECHNOLOGY
With a wireless WiFi transmitter, it’s possible to transmit images directly from the camera over a wireless LAN (local area network). Nikon’s Wireless Transmitter WT-2A allows photographers to not only transmit images over a Wi-Fi network, but also allows wireless remote control of the camera over a Wi-Fi network from a computer running Nikon Capture software. Photographers can position the camera in places that may be inaccessible or restricted to photographers, and wirelessly adjust settings, trigger the camera, and instantly retrieve the images over the LAN. Locations such as the Space Shuttle launches, where security is unforgiving, can now be photographed remotely with greater control and instant image retrieval.
The applications of this technology are limitless. The latest versions of this software feature drastically improved transmission times and highly refined security protocols, making it nearly impossible for someone to intercept the transmission.
A single large umbrella was used to create on-location portrait light so that the photographer could create a formal portrait with portrait lighting in the church following the ceremony. Often, a handheld reflector is used close to the shadow side of the face to raise the shadow intensity. The main light was positioned to the left and above camera position. Photograph by Claude Jodoin.
5.
DIGITAL WORKING TECHNIQUES
Working with digital files is very much different than working with film. For one thing, the exposure latitude, particularly when it comes to overexposure, is almost non-existent. Some photographers liken shooting digital, especially JPEGs, to shooting transparency film: it is unforgiving in terms of its exposure latitude. The up side of this seeming flaw in the process is that greater care taken in creating a proper exposure will only make you a better photographer. But for those photographers who are used to +/-2 stops of over- and underexposure latitude, this is a different ballgame altogether.
Marc Weisberg created this quirky but delightful image in RAW mode and saved the file to an Adobe Digital Negative (DNG) file. The image was made with a Canon EOS 20D and 28-70mm zoom at 1/125 second at f/9 at ISO 200. The DNG settings included change of tint, exposure, white balance; increased sharpening and contrast; and slight color noise reduction.
Proper exposure is essential in that it determines the dynamic range of tones and the overall quality of the image—in fact, it is one of the key factors determining the quality of the final output from your digital fil
e. Underexposed digital files tend to have an excessive amount of noise; overexposed files lack detail in the highlights.
METERING
The preferred type of meter is the handheld digital incident-light meter, which measures light in small units—tenths of a stop. This type of meter does not measure the reflectance of the subjects, but rather it measures the amount of light falling on the scene. Simply stand where you want your subjects to be, point the meter’s dome (hemisphere) directly at the camera lens, and take a reading. This type of meter yields extremely consistent results, because it is less likely to be influenced by highly reflective or light-absorbing surfaces, like white dresses or black tuxedos.
There is another school of thought on where to point an incident meter. Some photographers insist that one must point the meter at the light source and not at the camera lens. Sometimes there is no difference in the readings, but sometimes there is—up to 1/2 stop difference, which can make a difference in digital exposures. It is advisable to get into the habit of metering in both ways. Then make two test exposures at the different settings and view them on the LCD to see which is more accurate.
As noted above, it is advisable to run periodic checks on your meter, if you base the majority of your exposures on its data. If your incident meter is also a flashmeter, you should check it against a second meter to verify its accuracy. Like all mechanical instruments, meters can become temporarily out of whack and need periodic adjustment.