weddings....

[Southerngal]

Oh, and for the outside shots will what I have do? I have used it outside and seems to do well. This is a pick I took of my daughter swinging...she was in motion. I dont see much blurr.

 

[Big Mike]

It's just a matter of how much light there is. If there is enough light, then your shutter speed will probably be fast enough to freeze motion or shake.

One thing to think about when shooting outdoors is fill light. In the lovely shot of your daughter, for example, the light is coming from above and so her face is somewhat dark and her eye look like black holes on her face. To avoid this, shoot in the shade when shooting in the middle of the day. Use flash or a reflector so shine some of the light back onto the face of your subject.

 

[Southerngal]

Ill definitely be using a reflector. The area will be partially shaded.

The pic of my daughter wasnt meant to be great work. It was just Mommy that day. I think my two year old was hanging from the monkey bars when I took that pic...lol:lmao:

 

[Big Mike]

It certainly is a good photo...it goes to show you that it's not all about the technical aspects and perfect lighting. A lot of the time, it's the moment that matters.

 

[EOS_JD]

This image was shot at
ISO320
135mm
f5.6
1/1250th

Here's a Lightroom very quick edit.

Yours looks a little dark to me (which suggests a slight under exposure) but its a nice image and easily recoverable.

To stop camera shake with your lens set at 135mm, a shutter speed of anything over 1/150th sec would have been fine and to freeze motion anything faster than around 1/250th would have been more than enough so you can see why there is no hint of motion in the image.

Outdoors during the day there's generally plenty of light. As Mike says, flash would have made this image look better lightening the shadow areas a bit.

However its when you go indoors that you may find more difficulty with the lens you have. I went to a local public house a couple of weeks ago where I was asked to shoot a few images of a young man was celebrating making his first communion. Now it wasn't the darkest of places but at f4, ISO1600 my shutter speed was still only 1/50th sec. Now this is really pretty slow. If this was your camera, it would have been 1/25th at 135mm (ISO1600)!!! Things can get slow in the shutter speed dept indoors - all depending on the available light. You may think it looks bright but to your camera it will be dark!

 

[Southerngal]

The pic I posted hadn't been edited yet. Silly question....but, how did you know all the specifics of that pic?? I have Photoshop CS2, and either I don't know where or how to do that or it wont. Do you only use lightroom to edit? Is it alot better? Do you have Photoshop CS3??

 

[Mike_E]

OK, go to the store and get some of those windshield reflectors. The kind that fold up into themselves and are silverish on one side and black on the other. These will help a lot outdoors to reflect light back into your subject. (indoors too)

Now about the lens issue. You have a week and a bit, am I right? Can you afford a 17-50mm f2.8 lens? It doesn't have to be Nikon, Sigma and Tamron both make good ones for far less ~$450. If not then get a good monopod or a even better (though a bit harder to lug around) a tripod with a quick release head.

The mono/tripod will likely do you better than the glass if you remember to take a shot when they stop or at the bottom of their step. A very good photographer can get a steady shot at 1/15 maybe 2 out of 5 times. Most novices get the same number at 1/60th sec. So, if you shoot in JPG and in 3 shot bursts on your tripod (best bet really) you can reasonably expect to get an extra 2 stops down to 1/15 and get a good percentage of keepers (sharpness wise). For posed shots do shoot raw if you can process it.

This is also why the 50mm is so popular at f1.8 and $120!

read the wedding section and this...
http://groups.msn.com/Asktheoleproaboutphotography/joezeltsman.msnw?pgmarket=en-us

it will help you a great deal on posing people and lighting as well.

good luck!

mike

 

[Southerngal]

mono/tripod will likely do you better than the glass if you remember to take a shot when they stop or at the bottom of their step. A very good photographer can get a steady shot at 1/15 maybe 2 out of 5 times. Most novices get the same number at 1/60th sec. So, if you shoot in JPG and in 3 shot bursts on your tripod (best bet really) you can reasonably expect to get an extra 2 stops down to 1/15 and get a good percentage of keepers (sharpness wise). For posed shots do shoot raw if you can process it.

mike

So, Im trying to work this all out in my head and I definitely don't want to confuse myself (I have read so much lately it all seems to be running together). The slow speed mentioned above is due to the high ISO, right?

Oh, and thanks for the luck!!!!

 

[Mike_E]

No, -if it seems that I'm talking down to you let me apologize in advance, I just want to be clear- Digital cameras are patterned after film cameras because that was how the photographers learned how to shoot and were unwilling to change. Exposure was all about causing a chemical reaction on the film. ISO was a number that described how fast the chemistry on the film would react, just like a fuse for TNT is rated by how fast it will burn. The aperture and shutter speed were two different ways to let in a set amount of light. There were two so that you could do different things to the film and photography wouldn't be boring.

So, now you have three things to consider about exposure, how combustible it is (ISO), how hot the fire is (aperture) and how much fire you are going to use to set the photo off (shutter speed). The reason a tripod would help is that the ISO can cause noise when it gets to the end of its range and the fire from a slower lens isn't hot enough to give you a bright enough photo so you you need to hold the camera still to get enough heat on the sensor to do you any good.

If you use a tripod then you remove the camera shake and if you pick the right time to shoot you remove the motion blur and wind up with sharp photos. And by keeping the shutter door open you let in more fire and get bright photos.

mike

 

[AdamZx3]

I'm in the same boat as you, I also have a friend with a 2nd wedding who was not going to hire a photographer at all. I also recently bought the D80 with the kit lens (7mo. ago) I purchased the book "Digital Wedding Photography" by Bambi Cantrell and Skip Cohen. This would be a great investment for you as it goes over all the digital equipment, but my favorite part is the wedding workflow, and the great photojournalistic style that it teaches. I looked at a handful of other wedding books they had, this one seemed the best they had at borders.

I just purchased the Nikon 50mm 1.8d for 108 bucks with us warranty, a great addition to my toolbag, and for example in a recent test with my 1.8 I can get a shutter speed of 1/200 at f1.8 instead of 1/30 at f4 (at 50mm) both at iso100.

mono/tripod will likely do you better than the glass if you remember to take a shot when they stop or at the bottom of their step. A very good photographer can get a steady shot at 1/15 maybe 2 out of 5 times. Most novices get the same number at 1/60th sec. So, if you shoot in JPG and in 3 shot bursts on your tripod (best bet really) you can reasonably expect to get an extra 2 stops down to 1/15 and get a good percentage of keepers (sharpness wise). For posed shots do shoot raw if you can process it.

So, Im trying to work this all out in my head and I definitely don't want to confuse myself (I have read so much lately it all seems to be running together). The slow speed mentioned above is due to the high ISO, right?

What mike means is that since you will have lower light, you will have lower shutter speeds, inducing camera shake blur, by shooting in burst mode you might have 2 sharp shots out of 5 or 6.

The higher the iso the higher the shutter speed, on the d80 I would top out at iso800 unless you really need the extra shutter speed. I can't think of a good way to explain Iso and how it work, I just remember the faster the ISO the faster the shutter, and the lower the quality.

I would try and stay above 1/60 (watch your viewfinder) Start practicing adjusting the iso while you have the camera in your face, its the 2nd button from the bottom, hold it and spin the wheel, notice your shutter speed changing. Speaking of that try a test at home inside the house using at 135mm(full zoom) iso 100, snap a pic, probably will be blurry, now try iso 400 snap a pic and compare it to the next one, less blury yet, now try iso 800, 1000, now there probably very usable but a little grainy...anyone would rather have a grainy photo than a dark blury one, and with a 4x6 you probably wont even notice it if its exposed properly.

If your still confused about shutter speeds and iso settings you might want to pick up another book on using a dslr or maybe an exposure book. If your like me a tutorial dvd is much faster and easier to learn. I cant vouch for this D80 dvd but it came up on amazon, reviews seem good.
[ame="http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Nikon-D80-Digital-SLR/dp/B000M9BPJO"]http://www.amazon.com/Introduction-Nikon-D80-Digital-SLR/dp/B000M9BPJO[/ame]

Silly question....but, how did you know all the specifics of that pic?? I have Photoshop CS2, and either I don't know where or how to do that or it wont. Do you only use lightroom to edit? Is it alot better? Do you have Photoshop CS3??

No silly questions ever, but the settings are stored in the jpeg, called metadata. I haven't figured out how to view it in PS, but it shows up in aperture (the software aperture!) under the info panel. As for the software...neither are better, they are meant to do different things. Lightroom and Aperture are designed for workflow and organization, great too dump off photos and do fairly basic edits (more power than you need if it was taken right) Photoshop on the other-hand lacks the speed and organization but your imagination is literally the limit, no restrictions. CS2 is fine indeed, I am using it and the only reason I will be upgrading to CS3 is for the speed jump for apple computers with intel processors. It does have some nice features but nothing you have to have.

If I could now make some opinion's , anyone correct me here if i'm wrong

The 18-135 lens is a very sharp zoom lens and would be great outdoors, especially when its bright outside. If you have plenty of light shooting the aperture at f8 will produce the sharpest results.

I would shoot with aperture priority mode, set to the min (3.5 for the kit lens) to ensure that your getting the fastest possible shutter speeds

I used the 18-135 in a wedding ( I was a spectator though!) and without the flash....waaay blurry, with the built in flash, everything was dark..it couldnt reach out), outside I was fine. Look into a sb-400 flash if its in the budget. and if there's massive ceilings where you cant bounce, a snap on diffuser would help soften the flash.

Practice, Practice, Practice,Practice, family make great Guinea pigs

Have fun with it, be confident in yourself and make sure you post your results, I can only see this as a positive experience for you and the bride as she would only have snapshots if you wouldn't do it!

Hope this helps ya some and i'm sorry for the long post, you may have to read it a couple times

 

[AdamZx3]

Hey you beet me to the post mike! ...your explanation of iso is better anyway...I always wondered what the iso stood for

Also I meant to type SB-600 for the recommend flash, however if money is an issue the sb400 would work, however I feel that the 600 is a better investment.

 

[Southerngal]

Thanks for all the replys. Im definitely a question person and I cant stand not knowing/understanding something. You all have absolutely given me a better understanding of overall exposure. Again, Thanks....and stay tuned, Im sure that I will have many more questions

 

[EOS_JD]

Thanks for all the replys. Im definitely a question person and I cant stand not knowing/understanding something. You all have absolutely given me a better understanding of overall exposure. Again, Thanks....and stay tuned, Im sure that I will have many more questions

Purchase "Understanding Exposure" by Bryan petersen...... this book explains all in plain english

 

[EOS_JD]

The pic I posted hadn't been edited yet.

My point was that you could have gotten closer to a correct exposure by letting in more light at the tikme of shooting

Silly question....but, how did you know all the specifics of that pic?? I have Photoshop CS2, and either I don't know where or how to do that or it wont. Do you only use lightroom to edit? Is it alot better? Do you have Photoshop CS3??

The EXIF info is embedded in the image and there's many exif readers available to allow you to read the exoidf info. With CS2, open the Adobe Bridge application and view the exif info (I'm sure it's there). In lightroom the preview provides all that info.

Lightroom is great and quick for editing your images to get a good exposure and consistent look to your images. You can do other edits but I prefer CS3 when converting to B&W and doing any sort of filter effects.

I'm using lightroom a lot just now as it's quick and easy.

 

[Thru_These_Eyes]

POPULAR PHOTOGRAPHY is a great mag. I definitely recommend it.