I was the best man, then the photographer didn't turn up...

Stustaff

So well the title gives a lot away, I ended up being the person there with the best camera and kit, BUT they didn't want me not to be best man so I set vpcamera up as best as I could and then handed over to a guest with 10 mins of instruction.

Shots are with my Canon and a couple of different lenses, I'm sure I made some mistakes in the camera set up but was a bit distracted and weddings aren't my thing at all.

So the question is what should I be doing to make the best of these high ISO no flash shots, I'm using Lightroom 3 with some photoshop if required.

The preference is for nice colour and black and white shots, no strong effects/treatments wanted.

Any tips will be much appreciated, I'm going to add a file or two in a second but they are all pretty similar.

Thanks

Stustaff

http://stuarthill.smugmug.com/Friends/Example/27385289_VCq4cv#!i=2302799624

Images here

I'm hopeful you can view them from this link?

chrisdg

uh, we'd need to know "Stuart's middle name" in order to get beyond the password prompt.

Stustaff

Sorry it let me view it still even though I logged out! Let me go and change.

Now works.

http://stuarthill.smugmug.com/Friends/Example/27385289_VCq4cv#!i=2302799624

Mitchell

I only see two pics. Not much to comment on there. The backs of the B&G is ok. The other shot is just too far from the couple.

Stustaff

Hi Mitchell just looking for help ideas on the processing really, as I can't really do anything with the distance, composition etc

These are the raw unaltered etc images and cover the lens/settings used during the service.

So I can apply any advice to the church shots, once we got outside I had access to the camera and was able to take and set up most shots.

The church ones are the noisiest oddest light setup I have had to deal with.

chuckdee1

If your only worried about the noise, as far as I know, the only thing you can really do to them is to play with the noise reduction in LR. Unless they plan on making a large print, the noise shouldnt be too much of a factor. Sometimes when I have an image that was shot w/the ISO cranked up, I'll add some grain to it so the noise is actually accentuated. But that's just my taste.


____________________
Chuck Dee - AKA Chris
"My job as a portrait photographer is to seduce, amuse and entertain." - Helmut Newton
www.bellissimofoto.com

Stustaff

I have done a couple in BW with grain that will work large, the rest will be color for the wedding book and smaller prints, have tried a noise reduction of 60 in LR and it does reduce noise but is then a little soft, think that's about finding the middle ground I guess.

ziggy53

For the very best results you may wish to use the latest updated Canon DPP (Digital Photo Professional). When I use the latest version of DPP with my Canon 40D files, I get demonstrably better noise results, with visibly better shadow noise including reduced pattern noise.

Process the RAW files with DPP and save the results to 16 bit TIFFs. Then import the TIFFs into Adobe Camera Raw for further processing.

It's slower and more tedious than working in LR or PS alone, but I'm getting better results for critical images.

Stustaff

Thanks Ziggy I'll give that a look.