Blog
Techie bits - nothing too heavy
29/12/09
I’m not going to go into a text book style regurgitation of aperture/shutter speed or ISO settings, just a few methods which I generally adhere to.
ISO:
I always try to keep ISO as low as the shooting conditions will reasonably allow, this means less de-noising is necessary in post and that if I need to I can dial in the largest aperture possible for shallow depth of field.
Shutter Speed:
I use image stabilised lenses so slower shutter speeds aren’t usually a problem (within reason) from a camera shake perspective. Subject motion blur on the other hand can be a serious issue, particularly during stages like the bride’s entrance to and the bride and groom’s exit from the church, so shutter speed is definitely something to keep an eye on at these points (it's also worth shifting the focussing of the camera into servo mode so that it tracks the action effectively). I don't play that much with deliberate motion blur (2nd shutter sync and the like) in my images; it's just something that I've never felt is particularly appreciated by clients, many of whom just think you've got something wrong. I do on the other hand like to use flash with slower shutter speeds in lower light in order to let in as much ambient light as possible while ensuring a sharp subject; I guess you could describe this as a technical rather than aesthetic use of similar techniques.
Aperture:
Not much unusual here. I take care over adequate depth of field for large group shots, back of the church wide shots and so on. I do like to exploit the large aperture of my 75-200 for more intimate pics, but shallow DOF is something that I've learned to use carefully and sparingly during more crucial parts of the proceedings; I’ve spent far too many hours selectively sharpening either the bride or groom when one of them has been rendered slightly out of focus in a side on shot. OK in an ideal world I'd always loupe check focus between shots, but this takes my eyes of the proceedings, so I've found that a more cautionary approach works better for me in many circumstances. At the end of the day putting in a little selective blur in PS is a damned sight easier and more effective than trying to sharpen out poor focus.
Exposure:
In an ideal world I’d reach the nirvana of a perfectly distributed histogram curve in every shot, but in the real world relying on this is simply a non-starter. Although alowing more latitude than Jpegs even RAW files can only save so much information in over exposed hi-lights. As a result, when dealing with a white dress as a major element in my shot I frequently expose fairly well to the left to make sure that I don’t turn the bride into a perfectly exposed head atop a while blob. OK sometimes there’s time to get a good meter reading or to try a few test exposures and I’ll take advantage of this, but when things are moving quickly I know that I can rely on getting far more back from the shadows than I can from blown highs.
Other issues:
I keep my camera bodies closely time synchronised so that I don’t waste time in editing trying to place shots in sequence. It's not crucial, but when I have circa 500 images to edit every little helps.
As you probably gathered from the above I always shoot RAW as it allows far more recovery latitude in post. If I were a much more careful shooter I could probably get away with Jpegs as many wedding shooters do, however being more careful over exposure would inevitably slow me down and mean that a lot of the spontaneity of the day would be lost from my images.