Settings for wedding photography .

Desmond

A while back I went through a disc of pictures taken by a professional wedding photographer who is in fair demand and charges quite a bit .[ a disc of the pictures was supplied to my friend as part of the deal ]
I noticed that 90% of her pictures were taken in Tv mode at 1/125th of second . I would have thought that most photographers would concentrate on aperture and depth of field . When shooting indoors I can understand the idea behind 1/125 in shutter priority but all the outdoors shots were in this mode as well and it was a very bright day .
I was wondering what other wedding photographers mainly use , Av or Tv mode ? I try to concentrate on aperture priority and very seldom resort to shutter priority . What thoughts ?:dunno

Shay Stephens

It can depend on the type of flash and camera you are using. When using flash indoors or out, you don't want your shutter speed to go faster than the x-sync of the camera. For my camera, that is 1/250 of a second. If I were using an auto mode for exposure with an external flash I would use shutter priority set to 1/250 or slower. And 1/125 is a pretty good compromise speed in a lot of situations.

If you use aperture priority, you risk having a shutter speed faster than the camera can sync and wind up with weird looking photos.

Desmond

Shay Stephens wrote:

It can depend on the type of flash and camera you are using. When using flash indoors or out, you don't want your shutter speed to go faster than the x-sync of the camera. For my camera, that is 1/250 of a second. If I were using an auto mode for exposure with an external flash I would use shutter priority set to 1/250 or slower. And 1/125 is a pretty good compromise speed in a lot of situations.

If you use aperture priority, you risk having a shutter speed faster than the camera can sync and wind up with weird looking photos.

With my Nikon cameras and flashes there is no limit to the flash synch speed . It can synch at 1/8000th with "auto fp " .

Shay Stephens

Desmond wrote:

With my Nikon cameras and flashes there is no limit to the flash synch speed . It can synch at 1/8000th with "auto fp " .

Nikon D80 flash sync=1/200 sec

If you are not using a dedicated Nikon flash, you sync speed is going to be limited to a maximum of 1/200th of a second or slower.

When using auto fp mode your flash output goes down because the flash is spread out over time.
http://webs.lanset.com/rcochran/flash/hss.html

gluwater

Desmond wrote:

With my Nikon cameras and flashes there is no limit to the flash synch speed . It can synch at 1/8000th with "auto fp " .

That is only true if you have the flash mounted in the hot shoe or with a TTL sync cord. If you are using external flashes hooked up with say a pocket wizard the max sync speed for most cameras is 1/250th. Shay was talking about off camera flashes.

z_28

Desmond wrote:

With my Nikon cameras and flashes there is no limit to the flash synch speed . It can synch at 1/8000th with "auto fp " .

Of course you have no limit - but till 1/200 with full power !
Every next step up will cut power of your flash.
Check your flash GN at 1/8000
It will be probably enough to lit weak catchlight in model eyes only.
At close distance :cry

Desmond

z_28 wrote:

Of course you have no limit - but till 1/200 with full power !
Every next step up will cut power of your flash.
Check your flash GN at 1/8000
It will be probably enough to lit weak catchlight in model eyes only.
At close distance :cry

Here's one at 1/4000th...

z_28

Desmond wrote:

Here's one at 1/4000th...

Nice picture - but where do you see flash light ?

Desmond

Hmmmm , I'm beginning to see your point ... remember I am still learning and fully appreciate any corection in my thinking where I am wrong , here is another one without flash and I suppose there isn't much difference ..

pathfinder

Shay Stephens wrote:

It can depend on the type of flash and camera you are using. When using flash indoors or out, you don't want your shutter speed to go faster than the x-sync of the camera. For my camera, that is 1/250 of a second. If I were using an auto mode for exposure with an external flash I would use shutter priority set to 1/250 or slower. And 1/125 is a pretty good compromise speed in a lot of situations.

If you use aperture priority, you risk having a shutter speed faster than the camera can sync and wind up with weird looking photos.

Wouldn't Manual mode make more sense if your concern is shutter speed not exceeding the max shutter synch speed, Shay?

It would seem that Tv would allow the aperture to vary if the ambient or flash distance varied, and I would think that control of DOF would be important. I understand the desire to control shutter speed with studio type external flash, but ......

Shay Stephens

pathfinder wrote:

Wouldn't Manual mode make more sense if your concern is shutter speed not exceeding the max shutter synch speed, Shay?

It would seem that Tv would allow the aperture to vary if the ambient or flash distance varied, and I would think that control of DOF would be important. I understand the desire to control shutter speed with studio type external flash, but ......

Yes, I would use manual. I tried using the "if" qualifier in my example but it might have come across as that is what I recommend. Sorry about that. My recommendation would be to use manual. But if one were to want to use an auto mode with external or off camera flash, shutter priority would be your best bet with the least surprises.