SilverGlow
TPF Noob!
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- Oct 21, 2008
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- Orange County, Calif
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ISO's faster then 800 should never have a place in a wedding if one wants the freakin best image quality. In addition, if one performs proper camera workflow, one can expect the images to be no more soft or noisy then what can be provided in a conventionally lit wedding, so no reason to brief the bride and groom before hand...as far as their're concerned their candle lit wedding is no different then if you were shooting a conventionally lit wedding...and here is how it can be done:
Normally I shoot weddings with the body in manual, and flash in full auto so that it uses the maker/s TTL flash logic, which both Canon and Nikon provide and both result in very high quality pictures. And all the pictures are at ISO 400. Yes, ISO 400, and most of these shots are done at F5.6 through F11 too, with no issues on subject movement, nor handnheld movements. But I speak here of normally lit conventional weddings.
However when I shoot candle lit weddings, I make a few exceptions. First, I continue to use the usual ISO 400 but will reserve the right to go up to but not beyound ISO 800 if required by the circumstances, so I am way out of the noise zone.
Next I place the body in Av mode (the only type of wedding I use Av indoors for), and I keep the flash in full auto so it is controlled by the body's TTL logic. Why Av mode instead of manual mode? With Av mode, the flashing is fill, and not considered a primary light source for the subject, as would be the case when the body is in manual mode. Av means the flash is subtle, and again it is fill, and it does not over power the candle light. Next I make sure the body is set to raw and auto WB, because the available light temp and the flash temp are usually different. During the wedding I may well gel the flash to minimize white balance issues later, but shooting raw means I have more play.
In addition, I shoot in raw and with the help of the histogram, I intentionally over expose about 1/3 to 1/2 stop. This results in over exposed raws, flat, blah, looking, but this is what we want from the raw image. Later in post processing I "normalize" the shadows back down, and what benefits are there from this camera workflow? (1) Less noise in th shadoes, (2) wider Dynamic Range, (3) more subtle details and nuances in the shadows. Remember, raw shooting is never about getting the exposure "perfect"...raw is about capturing the most image information, and doing this means you start your post processing later with the most image information.
For these types of weddings one must be mindful that their kit will not provide the fat depth-of-field one normally has in "conventionally lit" weddings, so one is mindful of focus points, the eyes, who the subject is, more so then in weddings with brighter lighting.
Next, I use fast primes: 35mm F1.4, 50mm F1.2, 85mm F1.2 and I do this eventhough I don't necessarily need wide open shooting. These very fast primes mean better AF acquisition, and faster too. Also, these fast apertures mean a brighter view finder for our human eyes to compose with.
The set up I write of here can result in ISO 400/800 low noise images with F4 to F5.6 fat depth-of-field, and I've found this sufficient for most occassions in such candle lit weddings. And remember, even fill flash can mitigate handheld and subject movements in most cases.
Lastly, these type of weddings lend themselves to black & white shooting, since the low light means only a few colors are promanant anyways, so you might as well use black & white of sepia. Doing this provides the benefit of not having to worry about white balance so much.
Hope this helps,
Normally I shoot weddings with the body in manual, and flash in full auto so that it uses the maker/s TTL flash logic, which both Canon and Nikon provide and both result in very high quality pictures. And all the pictures are at ISO 400. Yes, ISO 400, and most of these shots are done at F5.6 through F11 too, with no issues on subject movement, nor handnheld movements. But I speak here of normally lit conventional weddings.
However when I shoot candle lit weddings, I make a few exceptions. First, I continue to use the usual ISO 400 but will reserve the right to go up to but not beyound ISO 800 if required by the circumstances, so I am way out of the noise zone.
Next I place the body in Av mode (the only type of wedding I use Av indoors for), and I keep the flash in full auto so it is controlled by the body's TTL logic. Why Av mode instead of manual mode? With Av mode, the flashing is fill, and not considered a primary light source for the subject, as would be the case when the body is in manual mode. Av means the flash is subtle, and again it is fill, and it does not over power the candle light. Next I make sure the body is set to raw and auto WB, because the available light temp and the flash temp are usually different. During the wedding I may well gel the flash to minimize white balance issues later, but shooting raw means I have more play.
In addition, I shoot in raw and with the help of the histogram, I intentionally over expose about 1/3 to 1/2 stop. This results in over exposed raws, flat, blah, looking, but this is what we want from the raw image. Later in post processing I "normalize" the shadows back down, and what benefits are there from this camera workflow? (1) Less noise in th shadoes, (2) wider Dynamic Range, (3) more subtle details and nuances in the shadows. Remember, raw shooting is never about getting the exposure "perfect"...raw is about capturing the most image information, and doing this means you start your post processing later with the most image information.
For these types of weddings one must be mindful that their kit will not provide the fat depth-of-field one normally has in "conventionally lit" weddings, so one is mindful of focus points, the eyes, who the subject is, more so then in weddings with brighter lighting.
Next, I use fast primes: 35mm F1.4, 50mm F1.2, 85mm F1.2 and I do this eventhough I don't necessarily need wide open shooting. These very fast primes mean better AF acquisition, and faster too. Also, these fast apertures mean a brighter view finder for our human eyes to compose with.
The set up I write of here can result in ISO 400/800 low noise images with F4 to F5.6 fat depth-of-field, and I've found this sufficient for most occassions in such candle lit weddings. And remember, even fill flash can mitigate handheld and subject movements in most cases.
Lastly, these type of weddings lend themselves to black & white shooting, since the low light means only a few colors are promanant anyways, so you might as well use black & white of sepia. Doing this provides the benefit of not having to worry about white balance so much.
Hope this helps,
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