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Download link: Episode 10
Potluck Photo: Episode 10
Question #1: What are some of the best practises when the subject is backlit? (I had a ceremony, and it was at a dock over a lake, and it was tough to get any textures behind the subjects – no flash because they were 50 feet away.)
Dave: I shot yesterday that way at the Royal Canadian Yacht Club, and it was a little challenging. So the best practise I think is expose the skin tones and let happens what happens.
Taylor: I always step back for the wide shot to get everything – expose for the entire scene when you’re shooting wide. But if you’re shooting at 200 mm, just go for the skin tones and sacrifice the background.
Another thing – if it’s possible, always try to have the background in shade for seperation (if that makes any sense at all).
Dave: The thing about the long lens is that you can line up – like, if the bride has light hair, you want to find something dark to put against it, and with the long lens you can do that. Like, you can pick your angle and use a dark building or if you’re at a lake, an island in the distance and line it up with her hair so you get that clarity.
And also, I try to avoid shooting really low like at 2.8, so I try to go up to 5.6 or F8 for that setting because it gives you more clarity, and if it’s really backlit, you can stop that glow.
Taylor: And I always try to put myself in that backlit situation – more controlled with photos of just them. And at that point, I’ll open it wide and let whatever happens happen because I like a little bit of light leaking in from the sun or something.
“Art is knowing which mistakes to keep” is a quote I picked up somewhere.
Question #2: Adobe RGB or sRGB in camera?
Dave: Taylor and I were chatting about that, and we don’t even know which one we use.
Taylor: Whatever default is in-camera, I just shoot whatever colour space my camera originally told me to shoot and I haven’t changed it.
Dave: I think I use Adobe, but I’m not even sure about that. I think sRGB gives you a more vibrant and dynamic spectrum, but if that’s not printable it’s no good to us, right?
Taylor: At the end of the day, whoever you’re printing through, a lot of companies will just convert it to whatever colour space they use – so at that point it doesn’t matter what you’ve shot it at.
Dave: sRGB’s good for web – I think it gives you better saturated colours and whatnot.
Question #3: Which batteries do you recommend for flashes?
Dave: In terms of rechargables, I use Ansamnn batteries – it’s a German battery, it’s a 2850 and holds a decent charge. You can charge it up and it’ll go all day. Just get a really decent charger – something that does triple charging and all that.
Taylor: I just use whatever Energizer batteries I bought from Best Buy. I think they’re re-chargable at 2300, so it’s enough – I typically always use more controlled with flash, so my batteries don’t tend to burn out. I don’t think I’ve ever punched through an entire set of batteries at a wedding, but every now and then it’s good to switch them out after important points, but honestly the only time I’m using flash is at reception; usually for a couple shots, and that’s about it.
Dave: I think it’s a pretty low cost thing to have. Every six months or at the start of every season, I’ll always buy six or seven packs of the same ones because you want to use the same ones at the same charge. So I’ll get a ton of them, and I’ll change them at the start of the day and change them for the reception – so I have them for the entrance walk and all that.
Taylor: Random tangent question: do you cycle out your cards every few months or do you let them ride until they look worn?
Dave: I like big cards, and I know some photographers use 4 gigs, but I use 32 gig which isn’t expensive – and I can shoot a whole wedding with them.
Taylor: And they’re always on sale – even if the sticker says $350, they’re always about $220 or $200.
Dave: I carry about 150 gigabytes a card just in case I have to shoot two weddings in a row and didn’t get a chance to download.
Taylor: Absolutely. I have four cards I cycle between now. Until the wedding’s edited and out the door, I like to have that physical copy of it, so I’ll shoot one copy per card and keep it at my house until I have to shoot over it. And usually if I have four cards, in theory I’m usually shooting about four or five weddings a month and it’s been working out well.
Dave: I back up that night to about two or three places and keep the cards as long as possible.
Taylor: Yeah, as soon as I get home I ditch everything to SmugMug so within about two hours I have my jpegs uploaded to as many places Smug Mug backs up – which is spread to about two or three continents, so I feel kind of safe about that. It’s in jpeg form, but most stuff’s in jpeg so that’s fine.
Question #3: What’s your favourite techniques to relax the subject?
Dave: This is an excellent question because when I was first learning, I just pretended to shoot through the first roll because the first 30 frames are a bit dicey with the comfort level of the client – and my comfort level, too. And I didn’t have the money to be wasting on rolls of film.
Taylor: I find that the more I shoot the more I’ve been getting usable images from the first few minutes. I start off walking around, talking and stop them at about two locations which are usually the farthest locations I can stretch out – and that way they get a bit more in the mindset. Then I like to blast out a bunch of frames when they’re getting into the “photography pose” they think I want them to be in, and I’ll blast about three frames of that actual pose just in case they blink (these are usually the “parent” photos). Then I’ll take another 10 frames when they get out of that pose and start playing around again.
Dave: The other thing I love – for group shots – is to get everyone posed up, then I’ll shoot a couple of frames, tell them they look amazing and show them so they begin to relax. As soon as they’ve seen we’ve got the shot, I’ll shoot more for safety, and because they think these are only the back-up shots, they’re always better.
Taylor: I also like to make a personal connection with everyone during the “getting ready” stage – even if it’s just the bridesmaids since the groomsmen are usually pretty chilled out. Just some lines here and there, make some comments and make them feel at ease.
Dave: The more we let people know we’re easy going, relaxed and comfortable, the more they enjoy the day. And I tell them that. I tell them it’s just a wedding day, to have as much fun as you can, and that we’re just going to take some photos.
Taylor: And everyone that walks away from the day with that mindset will refer your name along – even if they haven’t seen your photos yet because they’re just going by the way you acted on the day. I find that a lot of my brides will refer me after I meet with them – even if we haven’t done the engagement shoot and the wedding because we’ve connected right away and they feel comfortable.
Dave: Our role really is to be friends – to calm anxieties, to keep the energy and to have fun. We’re kind of like the gel on the wedding day: bringing two families together who don’t really know each other, and because of that, it’s really important to be a people person.
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Thanks for another show.
My 2 cents ….
Adobe RGB has a broader spectrum than sRGB. But most places only print in sRGB so you need to match what you shoot (or save your files) in to what you are going to print in, otherwise the printer may convert and it may shift some of the colours in an undesired direction (change the hue). I shoot in Adobe RGB as the printer I use (GTA Photo) will print in Adobe RGB, so this way I get the maximum colour capabilities of my camera and printer. The high end Inkjets will print this colour space and even higher (ProPhoto). But the places that use the common mass-production Fuji printers for 8×10 and everything smaller, they are sRGB.
When I save my images for web (galleries, viewing on a monitor, etc), I save it as sRGB (so my workflow has 2 folders to save final work, one for master high rez images @ Adobe RGB, the other folder is for smaller resized for web posting and they are saved @ sRGB).
People will view on their monitor the same image @ sRGB and @ Adobe RGB and then say ‘I don’t see any difference’. Most times you won’t because unless you have a very expensive LCD, your monitor is displaying less colours than the lesser sRGB, thus you won’t see the additional colours. You’d have to print the same image in both colour spaces to a printer that can handle both, then compare the paper print. Now … if you have a very high end monitor that offers Adobe RGB colour space, than you will see the difference as you change the colour space. Note … when I say ‘high end’ monitor … I don’t simply mean you spent lots of money so it should do it. I mean it is a documented feature of the monitor (and thus will cost more). Some high end monitors don’t go the full Adobe RGB spectrum (as their high end features are put into something else).
Hope that helps!