Wedding photos out there?

[Lmphotos]

I am going to be second shooting a wedding in a couple months. My question is how many batteries do you guys usually have on you at all times and how many do you normally go through in the entire day. We will be doing 8 hours of coverage and also using our flashes.

 

[o hey tyler]

I am going to be second shooting a wedding in a couple months. My question is how many batteries do you guys usually have on you at all times and how many do you normally go through in the entire day. We will be doing 8 hours of coverage and also using our flashes.

I usually have 6 batteries for my gripped 5D1 and 5D2. Rarely do I need to swap out batteries in either camera. Flashes are a whole different story, but I USUALLY make it through on one set of rechargeables. But ALWAYS have backups. I cannot stress that enough.

 

[Lmphotos]

You make it through on one set of rechargeable a on your flash?? Mine only takes about 200 pictures before they are done!

 

[o hey tyler]

You make it through on one set of rechargeable a on your flash?? Mine only takes about 200 pictures before they are done!

I also shoot at ISO800 so the flash doesn't have to work as hard and can carry when it needs to. So that probably also is the reason why I don't plow through batteries. What aperture and ISO do you normally use flash with?

 

[Lmphotos]

With my 24-105 4.0 I am usually at 5.6 and ISO 100, with a quick prime usually 2.8 or 3.5 and ISO always stays low at 100. Awesome I will of course bring lots of back ups but here I was thinking I will be changing batteries every 30 minutes! In your opinion is the grip worth it? I've heard people say its not worth it as you can change batteries so fast and easy.

 

[o hey tyler]

With my 24-105 4.0 I am usually at 5.6 and ISO 100, with a quick prime usually 2.8 or 3.5 and ISO always stays low at 100. Awesome I will of course bring lots of back ups but here I was thinking I will be changing batteries every 30 minutes! In your opinion is the grip worth it? I've heard people say its not worth it as you can change batteries so fast and easy.

Do yourself a favor and shoot at iso400 at a minimum with flash. ISO 800 would be even better. You'll get more life out of it. By shooting at ISO 100 at f/5.6, your flash is really putting out. And you'll also see that if you increase your ISO and drag your shutter, you can expose for a bit more of the ambient light which is quite important for setting a mood and telling a story. Trust me on this one.

Yes, in my opinion a grip is very worth it. It allows you to shoot for twice as long, and gives you a vertical shutter release for portrait orientation. It also has added weight to the camera which increases stability. I never take the grips off my camera unless I need to.

 

[Lmphotos]

Yes when my ISO is that low I am usually doing newborns, kids or portraits and don't want the noise. I knew for weddings it would have to go up so that's why I went full frame just didn't realize going up would make sure a difference in battery life. I figured the bouncing off such high ceilings in the cathedral would cancel out the difference in my ISO comp and make my batteries last about the same.... This gives me hope!

 

[o hey tyler]

Yes when my ISO is that low I am usually doing newborns, kids or portraits and don't want the noise. I knew for weddings it would have to go up so that's why I went full frame just didn't realize going up would make sure a difference in battery life. I figured the bouncing off such high ceilings in the cathedral would cancel out the difference in my ISO comp and make my batteries last about the same.... This gives me hope!

You won't get a whole lot of noise at iso800 on a full frame body. You can even go up to 1600 and still be fine. Keep in mind that a properly exposed photo at a higher ISO will look better than an underexposed photo at a low ISO.

What do you have for lenses? I know you mentioned a 24-105/4.

 

[Lmphotos]

25-105 4L, 50 1.8, 35 1.8, 85 1.8 all canon. Then a promaster 75-300 f4 that never gets used I am not fond of this lens but nonetheless it's there if I need it. I really wanted the 2.8 but its just not in the budget this year.

 

[gsgary]

With my 24-105 4.0 I am usually at 5.6 and ISO 100, with a quick prime usually 2.8 or 3.5 and ISO always stays low at 100. Awesome I will of course bring lots of back ups but here I was thinking I will be changing batteries every 30 minutes! In your opinion is the grip worth it? I've heard people say its not worth it as you can change batteries so fast and easy.

Why are you always at iso100 leaves no room for creativity and you must get lots of shadows

 

[Lmphotos]

With my 24-105 4.0 I am usually at 5.6 and ISO 100, with a quick prime usually 2.8 or 3.5 and ISO always stays low at 100. Awesome I will of course bring lots of back ups but here I was thinking I will be changing batteries every 30 minutes! In your opinion is the grip worth it? I've heard people say its not worth it as you can change batteries so fast and easy.

Why are you always at iso100 leaves no room for creativity and you must get lots of shadows

Actually most people get on to me on here for not having shadows and saying my photos look flat lol. I despise noise and I guess I am really not comfortable pushing my full frame yet I had a crop before this and anything over 400 just made me cringe. So I always shot in very controlled situations with lots of light so I never really had to worry about it. Now that its a wedding I understand there are going to be situations where is it not my ideal shooting and I will have to change my settings to compensate that. But as a general rule I tend to keep it as low and I am now finally getting comfortable pushing it up

 

[gsgary]

Actually most people get on to me on here for not having shadows and saying my photos look flat lol. I despise noise and I guess I am really not comfortable pushing my full frame yet I had a crop before this and anything over 400 just made me cringe. So I always shot in very controlled situations with lots of light so I never really had to worry about it. Now that its a wedding I understand there are going to be situations where is it not my ideal shooting and I will have to change my settings to compensate that. But as a general rule I tend to keep it as low and I am now finally getting comfortable pushing it up

im talking about shadows on walls because the flash is having to work harder, a classic shot for high iso is bride in church doorway with bright light behind, crank up iso and pop a bit of flash

 

[gsgary]

Heres a little experiment for you to show what raising your iso can do
Place a subject about 3 feet from a window and take a shot with your normal settings and flash and ourside will be dark, now take a shot at iso200, 400,800,1600,3200 and sell the difference to outside, now think about what difference that can make to your wedding photos

 

[Awiserbud]

The last wedding i did i got through 3 camera batteries for the whole day, approximately 2000 shots, The D7K is suprisingly economical regarding battery life, Obviously i never used the screen, only the LCD display.
The SB700 flash however got through 5 sets of Eneloops.
I always take the chargers with me, at a wedding reception there is (usually) always somewhere to plug in and charge up, and if not, I have a power inverter (converts my cars 12v cigarette power socket up to 240V so i can always charge up there if i need to.
Power inverters (often used for caravans / campers etc) have become a lot more affordable recently, you can get a 300amp unit for less than £25 (approx $35) and is ideal if you travel a lot, 300amp is more than enough to power a couple of battery chargers and run a laptop at the same time.

 

[gsgary]

Last one i shot i went through no batteries all shot on film no batteries needed