Wedding portraits outside

Does anyone have any advice for shooting portraits of the bride and

groom outside? I will be shooting at 4pm with a Canon Elan 7 and a

550 EX Speedlight and then again at around 5:30 or 6pm. I plan to

shoot in the shade but want to make sure that the people and the

background are accurately balanced. Don't want the background to be

too dark or have the subject too light!

I know nothing about flash exposure compensation to any advice would

be appreciated!

Any plans if the weather turns to rain? It's very tough to forecast the weather on any given day in the future (unless you are in Arizona....)

 

 

 

Suggestions: try shooting two people a week or two ahead of the wedding. Keep notes in a little notebook. Then get the film processed and see what gave you the better results. Hint--ISO 400 or ISO 800 film is not what you want to use if the sun is bright and overhead; and you may want to figure out ahead of the actual wedding what filter you need to cut the 'blues' in the open shade.

If at all possible -- find shade that is backlit.. Sun coming through the leaves is quite beautiful when shooting color. You can see some examples in my portfolio. If there is no sun filtering through trees..... look for lighter backgrounds in the shade.

I've gotten the best results when I drag the shutter a little. I'm assuming you are going to have a bride in white dress so, you will nedd to take an incident reading at her face. You will get to much light reflecting back off the dress to rely on TTL. Try this, place the bride and groom at the edge of the shade. Examine your background and try as Mary stated to get some light coming through the trees. If you cannot use a reflector and aim it at the background

approx 5-8 ft behind your subjects(I'm furthur assuming you will have someone to assist you). Meter at the bride and grooms face and set your exposure accordingly. (Set your shutter speed at 1/60th if you are hand holding the camera 1/30th if your on a tripod, I recommend the tripod). If you are using ISO 400 in combination with a slow shutter your backgrounds should be ok. As far as flash exposure compensation goes you should be able to go with TTL and not have to compensate if you will do the above. Shoot in manual, set your exposure with the meter, and when the camera's TTL system reads the reflection from the dress it wiil give you a nice looking fill. Remember do not meter the Bride and Groom with TTL, do that with an incident reading and then let the TTL fill. Hope this helps.

Any variable aperture lens when set in Av mode <i>becomes a fixed aperture lens</i>. But you all knew that. <br>Thus, shooting events in Av mode is the first consideration. When used with flash in Av mode, and using the 24-120 lens, you have the best of both worlds: wide to tele lens and fixed aperture.<p>I shoot Canon EOS and our flash system <i>always exposes for the ambient light, using automatic fill</i>, indoors or out. Probably the same with your Nikon. Dial-in minus 1 1/3rd stops on your flash initially and adjust from there.<br>*<i>Use the flash confirmation feature to check your settings and exposures</i>.

<i>My answer immediately above is not the right answer for your question but another, similar question</i>.<p>That said, your Elan 7 and 550EX (FEC is built-in!) will do it all for you <i>automatically</i>. Just be sure to dial in about minus 1 1/3rd stops fill on the 550EX to start.<br>Using either P, Tv or Av shooting modes (I would use Av mode outside (@ f/8 regardless) <i>and using the evaluative exposure metering mode in the Elan</i>, the EOS flash system <i>always makes and exposes for the ambient exposure reading</i>, automatically balancing the exposure, especially outdoors. Trust the 550EX and Elan and let them do the work.<p>Ishoot the 550EX and EOS 3 camera all the time in the manners I jsut suggested.<br>*In bright sun over bright overcast, you'll lose the detail in the Groom's attire but then, he is not that important anyway-believe me.<br>OK, he is "important" but no one there will even see him, just the Bride and it is she you have to please.<br>If you still have time, pop down to the public library (or Walmart) and look through every wedding magazine, paying particular attention to outdoor poses, to include body positioning.

With flash, you are essentially making a double exposure, one of the foreground (with flash) the other of the background (without). The camera meters the whole scene and then adds flash to the subject. You can control both exposures independently. Underexpose the scene and leave the flash alone, and you darken the background, for example.

 

I suggest you:

 

1) Turn off the auto fill flash function (via a custom function), so you can control the flash the way you want.

2) Leave the flash with no compensation, so the bride and groom stand out. Underexpose the background 1/2 a stop, to balance the exposure.

3) Use Av mode, and FP mode on the flash, but try to keep the shutter speed below 1/200 of a second. 1/200 @ f/8 should be fine if it is sunny outside.

 

This should work, but it's easier to test the effects with a digital camera. This works pretty well with my 10D, at ISO 100, 200 or 400. I adjust ISO sometimes if it is a little dark or light out.

It could be me, but I never use fill-in flash for outdoor portraits. I don't like the flash that is almost always too well visible.<br />

Just make sure you don't underexpose (so expose for the shadows), find some shadow and don't hesitate to shoot against the light.

<p>

<a href="http://www.fotografiewimvanvelzen.nl">Wim</a>

I would not use flash for such a portrait situation. Use a couple of light discs.

If you have a tripod and a long lens 135,180,200MM.Try getting close with it shooting their heads & shoulders only,this will throw most backgrounds out of focus,which gives a nice effect(try varying the brightenss of the background too).As for flash compensation you need to study the manual for the camera & flash!Most TTL dedicated flashes will let you lower the flash below the ambient levels,to produce fill.This done correctly in shade or back lit from a low sun works nice.The best place for daylight portraits is under a covered porch,or an overhang.There is usually full shade here,with diffused light coming in from mulit directions casuing natural portrait light.I would test shoot a roll or two prior under the same conditions.This way you wont be surpised at your results.

Melissa, while the suggestions are good, you should follow Ed's advice until you are more familiar with the subject. The only thing I

would add would be to run a test roll of film under similar conditions. Take some pictures of a person in the shade of a tree at varying flash compensation values. Keep notes. Do the same thing with the person standing with the sun to the side. You will then know how much compensation to figure. The Canon system works very well.

Melissa, Your Elan 7 in combination with the 550Ex will allow high speed sync up to the

top shutter speed of 1/4000th of a second. Refer to your manual to see how to engage

high speed sync flash (you may need to only push and hold the 2 buttons marked HHS on

the back of the flash).

 

This means you can set the camera on A Mode (meaning A for Aperture preferred where

you choose the aperture and the camera automatically sets the shutter speed.) So you can

then use a more open lens aperture to blur the background, while still applying fill flash to

the subjects. If you include an inexpensive bounce diffuser on the flash, the camera and

flash will do most or all of the work for you. HHS and a diffuser will make it seem you

didn't use flash at all... but the subjects won't be silhouetted against a light background.<div></div>

An excellent example of the capabilities of the (our) Canon EOS FEC automatic fill-flash system Marc!<br>Smashing shot!

Uh, aaah, sorry Ed not a Canon shot. Just one showing the use of controlled fill flash

against a bright background. I apologize if I mislead.

 

Actually it's a Contax 645 with 80/2 using a ND filter and slow film (Portra 160NC rated at

100ish). Contax TLA 360 flash with Lumiquest ProMax diffuser.

 

But it is actually easier to achieve this effect with the Canon HHS feature because you

needn't use slow film, nor have to put a ND filter on the lens to get the shutter down to

sync speed when using a more open lens aperture.

"Umm-ahh"... it's stil a great shot!

Thank you Ed.

Lens choice...

Use things to spice up your photos. 15mm shots are great fun if you can get them. with

standard lenses, ie 28 - 135 is usm and the like, make sure you use their lens hoods.

As for flash.. practise use a roll of film and two friends, one dressed in white, one in black.

 

Get a feel for it. I have seen great results in not so sunny conditions using superior 200

and 400. reala is great for the afternoon shots.

 

Also remember to try to use a longer lens, and stand away, getting in some more candid

shots

 

Study body positioning and practice getting the two into those positions, it is a damn sight

hard to tell people how to pose.