A No Flash Wedding

BillMorton

First off, Hello to everyone (First Post)

I was part of a wedding recently (groomsman) but I couldn't help but to bring along my camera. Since I was traveling and also a part of the wedding, I opted for not using a flash for any of my pictures for a couple of reasons. First I like the feel of natural light better, second I lack depth in using a flash during a wedding, and lastly I was trying to travel light.

Anyway, here are a few of my shots, I would appreciate thoughts/feedback or even just telling me to start using a flibbn flash

Shot with a 7D & 24-70 2.8L
RAW processing was done in Lightroom and Nik Viveza 2/Silver Effects

1- The rehearsal dinner





2- Cake Preparation (This was delicious, banana pineapple ... family recipe)


3- Getting our boutonnieres


4- Detail Shots


5- Bride


6- Flower Close up


7- More Cake - This is a shot for the cake creator to use


8-Focus was on the cake ... I think I was hungry


9- Small wedding


10 - The Ceremony (had to leave my gear sitting out unattended for a while which was nerve racking)


11 - Married!


12 - Making it Legal


13 - Saw an opportunity for a quick portrait, I think it came out really well.


14- A toast. Shots are starting to get much more difficult in the low light


15-


16- Cake Time!


17- This shot is suffering from low light, I brought out the skin tones as best I could.


18- Experimenting with motion


19- Father/Daughter Dance


19a- Color


20- Mother/Groom


21-

Ed911

In the future, please try to make your posted images a little smaller...they are filling up my screen and running off the righthand side. Not very apealing...I really didn't bother to look at them in this format...who wants to scroll from left to right.

BillMorton

Ed911 wrote: »

In the future, please try to make your posted images a little smaller...they are filling up my screen and running off the righthand side. Not very apealing...I really didn't bother to look at them in this format...who wants to scroll from left to right.

Sorry Ed! I take it for granted that most people run fairly high screen resolutions. I'll see if I can edit my original post.

Edit: They are Smaller now, let me know if that avoids scrolling for you (I know how annoying that can be).

dbveto

Ed911 wrote: »

In the future, please try to make your posted images a little smaller...they are filling up my screen and running off the righthand side. Not very apealing...I really didn't bother to look at them in this format...who wants to scroll from left to right.

They look fine on my screen (1024X768) what size do you have?

Art Scott

well done.......

Ed911

I retracted my original statement and didn't have time to save so it ran as posted. I now see your images as acceptable. Sorry about the mix up. Originally, as they appeared, they were really large...but as I wrote my comment, they posted as large, but very acceptable. (Reduced to an acceptable screen size...)

I haven't had Internet at my office for the last 12 days and am doing business at Books-a-Million...and believe me, I've had way too many Mocha Lattes...lol...I feel like I have to buy something when I'm using their Internet. Thank you, Irene. lol...

Mark1616

Welcome to the forum and some nice shots to get started. The biggest thing for me would be to get the WB correct, that will really help in the look. I would also say that you are generally going to benefit from learning to use flash, not that you need it all the time, but there are times when the IQ really will improve. I'm not talking direct flash but bounced off a wall, ceiling or even people

BillMorton

Mark1616 wrote: »

Welcome to the forum and some nice shots to get started. The biggest thing for me would be to get the WB correct, that will really help in the look. I would also say that you are generally going to benefit from learning to use flash, not that you need it all the time, but there are times when the IQ really will improve. I'm not talking direct flash but bounced off a wall, ceiling or even people

Mark, thanks for the feedback. I ran a monitor calibration before getting started, and definitely leaned on the 'warm' side when adjusting the WB ... do you think I am still too far off and need to cool things down a bit? I did bring the WB down from what was recorded in the camera.

I have some proofs coming from Bay Photo in the next few days so I can make some comparisons.

I'll start trying to use the flash more, now that I have the built in Wireless trigger on the 7D, I can experiment with holding it in my hand to get an off camera flash without having to invest in a bracket.

Ed911

I would say that you would definitely benefit from using a flash. A lot of your images, from 12 and on are mostly soft and under exposed. All of your images should be as sharp as your posted 5. When shooting in low light...OOF/Softness often results from camera shake due to low shutter speeds, rather than missed focus by the camera.

As far as flash goes, try bouncing your flash...it's much easier than hand holding something off to the side...and you can get some really good results. Shooting with one hand holding the camera and one hand holding a flash is awkward at best. ...not that it won't produce some good results.

BillMorton

Ed911 wrote: »

I would say that you would definitely benefit from using a flash. A lot of your images, from 12 and on are mostly soft and under exposed. All of your images should be as sharp as your posted 5. When shooting in low light...OOF/Softness often results from camera shake due to low shutter speeds, rather than missed focus by the camera.

As far as flash goes, try bouncing your flash...it's much easier than hand holding something off to the side...and you can get some really good results. Shooting with one hand holding the camera and one hand holding a flash is awkward at best. ...not that it won't produce some good results.

Ed - I appreciate the input, thank you for your honest feedback. I will start working on using the external flash and get more comfortable with it.