Tessa and Dan, a few from Saturdays wedding

mmmatt

Well, all the threads around here about rain... I would have killed for rain Saturday! 11am outdoor wedding, and up until the groom took his spot it was perfectly overcast. The last cloud blew over just as the ceremony started. Ah well, I got 'er done and we have all had to do it. Afterwords we went to her mothers home and they have a large yard with a shared pond. Sounded good but kids were swimming in the pond, there was barely any shade except near the homes around the pond, there was a big pontoon swimming deck in the pond, porta-potties scattered around, crap all over the place. 5 hours later it would have been great but it was tough at 2pm. Then to top it off, the wedding parties bus broke down and they were almost an hour late, which gave me less than an hour to do all the family, wedding party, and bridal stuff. Sheesh!
On a positive note though, they complimented me all day. Of the 3 vendors that the b&g hired, I was the only one who came through for them. The violinist was late and held up the ceremony for 15 minutes which cut down on my time for formals at the gazebo, the bus broke down, and I ended up being the boyscout.

The girls had to check out of their room before the wedding but they were running really late so I contacted the front desk and got them a late check out. This basically gave me about 3 minutes for getting ready shots. The bride forgot her flowers at the gazebo and I rescued them for her. There was something else at her moms house to where I saved the day but I can't remember right now... ah well!

So that is the story of my Saturday, and here are a few early favorites. Any c&c is appreciated.

1. Well, I never manage to get a shoe shot so I made sure I did it this time! My getting ready shots were this and a grumpy bride in front of a hotel room window.



2. This is what I was working with... I think I may need to play with tis one a bit more.



3. One of the better ones from our 5 minutes shooting after the service at the gazebo. I have a similar one with the bride looking slightly less stressed but it is a bit flashey so I thought I would show you guys this one.



4. A narrow shooting corridor without houses or any other crap in the background.



5. We found some shade!!!



6. I assume this will be the wall hanger. Lots of cloning in this one!!!

6 revised



7.These last three are just some reception shots. I wish I was as comfortable shooting in noonday sun as I am shooting side-will bounce flash in a dark reception hall! This one had mirrors all over the place which nearly screwed up any wall bouncing, but once I got to know the room I was golden.



8.



9.




Well, that is it for now.

Thanks for looking and thanks for commenting!

Matt

Qarik

some pretty decent stuff there Matt. what a day!

zoomer

Sounds like a pretty typical wedding haha.

I think you did fine with the conditions. You must have used some serious photoshopping mojo to get the shot under the gazebo to look that even on the lighting.

You sure earned your cash on this one. Way to hang in there.

On the one you said would be the wall hanger there is a dark spot right in front of them at their feet. I may only be noticing it cause I am on my crappy work computer.

mmmatt

zoomer wrote:

Sounds like a pretty typical wedding haha.

I think you did fine with the conditions. You must have used some serious photoshopping mojo to get the shot under the gazebo to look that even on the lighting.

You sure earned your cash on this one. Way to hang in there.

On the one you said would be the wall hanger there is a dark spot right in front of them at their feet. I may only be noticing it cause I am on my crappy work computer.

Well lets just say that my daughter is going to be my reluctant mid day supermodel over the next few days while I find some go-to techniques for that kind of light. in and out of the hot sun was killing me. I spent more time chimping than shooting I think!

Actually that gazebo shot was just a slight burn/dodge and then an action to add a little pop. No major mojo. Looking close at the b&g faces they look a little diffused so I wanted to work on that and straighten that one... I thought it looked pretty straight but now I don't think so. I am probably going to end up wishing I shot that wider, but I probably have others that are the same thing...

The dark spot on the wide shot by the pond is a shadow from her dress... sun is almost directly overhead. I should probably dodge that out though. Good eye my friend!

And thanks Qarik for the kind words.

Matt

zoomer

The shadow from the dress is fine. The dark spot is about two feet to the left of the bride in front of her and to the left. As I said it may be that I can only see it because of my crappy work monitor, looks like a spot that got overburned when darkening the path.

Try going to plus 3 on your flash in ttl not ttlbl then adjust your exposure compensation down to where the blinkies are barely going off. That gets a lot of light on their faces, when the sun is behind them or to the side.

Works great for group shots but too much flash for closeups.

heatherfeather

zoomer wrote:

The shadow from the dress is fine. The dark spot is about two feet to the left of the bride in front of her and to the left. As I said it may be that I can only see it because of my crappy work monitor, looks like a spot that got overburned when darkening the path.

Try going to plus 3 on your flash in ttl not ttlbl then adjust your exposure compensation down to where the blinkies are barely going off. That gets a lot of light on their faces, when the sun is behind them or to the side.

Works great for group shots but too much flash for closeups.

Curious about your modifiers... Are you going bare? Or are you hauling in a softbox or brolly for this? (I have tried both ways, but am curious about your setup)


Matt- these are great! Some of your best that I have seen yet! I love the glowy feel of 6 (I see the spot zoomer is mentioning) and I love the light in 5. That is a yum shot! Your shoe shot is really well done too. I did 3 weddings this week and never got to do a shoe shot in any of them! So I feel your pain. Enjoy this one, though.

mmmatt

zoomer wrote:

The shadow from the dress is fine. The dark spot is about two feet to the left of the bride in front of her and to the left. As I said it may be that I can only see it because of my crappy work monitor, looks like a spot that got overburned when darkening the path.

Try going to plus 3 on your flash in ttl not ttlbl then adjust your exposure compensation down to where the blinkies are barely going off. That gets a lot of light on their faces, when the sun is behind them or to the side.

Works great for group shots but too much flash for closeups.

ahhh yes I see it now. That is exactly what that is!

Well in Canon land we only get flash comp of +2 but I will try that. I thought with Nikon the flash comp and exposure comp were conected? When one goes up the other goes down? With canon you only get exposure comp in A or T and that only adjusts shutter or aperture.

The shot of the gazebo was without flash. Shooting that far back I would only have blown out the back of everyones heads with a flash. I spot metered and shot A for the far back shots.

The big group stuff isn't the killer so much. I usually shoot all that stuff in one place that I pick (ie. shade) however trying to "walk around the pond" with these 2 yesterday when pressed for time really kicked my butt. I got it done, but it was a lot of trial and error based on chimping. I need to be faster at it so that is my goal for this week.

thanks again!

Matt

mmmatt

heatherfeather wrote:

Matt- these are great! Some of your best that I have seen yet! I love the glowy feel of 6 (I see the spot zoomer is mentioning) and I love the light in 5. That is a yum shot! Your shoe shot is really well done too. I did 3 weddings this week and never got to do a shoe shot in any of them! So I feel your pain. Enjoy this one, though.

Well thanks Miss Heather !!! Glad you like, and thanks for saying so. I'm going to hit that path again now. Unfortunately that glowing sepia things doesn't burn well so I may have to redo my final steps on that one. I know I saved all my cloning work in a psd file... people, pontoons, for sale signs, culverts, houses, garages... ee gads!

Matt

joshhuntnm

I am really impressed with #3. I'd be curious to see what that looked like out of the camera. Good work.

mmmatt

joshhuntnm wrote:

I am really impressed with #3. I'd be curious to see what that looked like out of the camera. Good work.

Thanks for the compliment Josh. I really like that one as well. That shot was underexposed by almost 2 stops. That's where the grain came from. The next frame I got the exposure good but like I said it was a little bit flashey for my taste and when I tried to do the same b&w conversion on it I couldn't get the same look, so that one I deliver in color and this in b&w. Actually I'm not sure my flash even fired. But this whole card says "flash did not fire" in exif and I know my flash was firing at least most of the time. Odd... Also my shoot times didn't show up in the exif. I must have changed a setting somewhere along the line. This was shot with my 40d because I'm saving frames on my 5d for when I need the high iso and the 40d is my backup so almost never gets used.

All I did to this one after the fact was correct the exposure in raw and run the Totaly Rad "Milk and Cookies B&W" action, then dodged her eyes a bit.

Matt

joshhuntnm

mmmatt wrote:

This was shot with my 40d because I'm saving frames on my 5d for when I need the high iso and the 40d is my backup so almost never gets used.

On another note, what ISO are you comfortable shooting with the 5d?

Jeff_Milo

I can defiantly see #6 hanging on a wall. Very nice work under tough light.

mmmatt

Thanks Jeff! That is very nice of you to say!

Matt

joshhuntnm wrote:

On another note, what ISO are you comfortable shooting with the 5d?

If you come pretty close on the exposure 1600 is really quite good. If you nail it, 3200 is at least a really nice b&w. I shoot 1600 all the time with it and I'm satisfied. I shoot at 1600 a lot with flash, but these two shots are ambient light and obviously from a different wedding.

ISO 1600 5d, 135 f2L @ 1/100-f2



ISO 3200 5d, 135 f2L @ 1/100-f4

Shima

I love the sepia toned wall hanger, awesome shot and fantastic treatment. I'm sure they'll love it!