Shadows and blown highlights

[wyatt_redding]

I was working my first wedding and the church I was in was very contrasty in

regards to light I had to use my on camera flash alot just to prevent blur. I

got alot of shadows and highlight blowouts. I am on less than a shoe string

budget and was working by myself with no extra flash units. Is it hopeless or do

I need more equipment. I also did not have any rehesal time before the wedding.

here is an example.<div></div>

[v.anisimov]

"...I was working my first wedding..."

 

OBSERVATION: In the past week alone I read what seems like hundreds of posts about a FIRST wedding experience.

 

CONCLUSION: Wedding protography is a one-off thing. Nobody does it more than once.

[david_schilling___chicago_]

You might want to start with some professional photrography training before you start covering weddings or calling yourself a pro/semi-pro. Of course you need more equipment, better equipment, backup equipment....but the traing and know how even more so.

[jimstrutz]

There do not seem to be any blown highlight in this picture. I just loaded it into my image editor, checked the histogram, and sure enough, no blown highlights.

 

You have a nasty shadow on the wall behind her though. That's what happens when you swing your camera to portrait orientation without a flip type camera bracket. Although, I'm not sure the backet would be a great help with this image anyway. A good bracket would keep the flash directly above the lens, so shadows would fall directly behind and below the subject. But with this image the subject's face is leaning forward and that would probably put the shadow of her forehead right in front of her nose! Not cool.

 

Probably the best option would be to bounce most of the light from the ceiling, and direct only a portion straight on.

 

Vladimir is right, there are way too many people trying to do weddings without knowing what they are doing. And David Schilling is also right, the cure in your case, Wyatt, is to get an education if you want to try this again. Weddings don't require great equipment, just good equipment that is reliable, and backups for everything. But good equipment only helps if you know how to use it.

[wyatt_redding]

I shot the wedding for free and as a favor my client was very happy with the shots. I don't want to sound like I am puffing myself up as a pro wedding photographer. I am currently trying to work with a locate pro to gain more experience in the realm of wedding photography. I speacialize in student portriats photo restoration. Weddings are something I feel I would like to do as my skills mature but it was not my intendion to mislead the forum. I was asking for help. Not trying to pass myself off as something I'm not. I am getting more education. Interior photography is just a weak area fo me.

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

Using on camera flash you are pretty much doomed to this kind of result. One way to avoid it is to make sure the subject is farther away from the background. Judging by the noise it looks like you had the ISO cranked up pretty high, but with noise reduction software maybe you could have gone higher and avoided the flash (I've looked at most of the programs and finally decided on Noiseware which I thought was clearly the best and easiest compared to Noise Ninja and Neat Image). A faster lens would help too and allow for more available light photography. You didn't mention what camera you were using but for Nikon, the 50mm 1.8 can be had for around $100. You mentioned you were trying to prevent blur. This can be prevented with a tripod. Fortunately there isn't a lot of of fast action in a wedding so if you time your shot right, subject motion blur isn't an issue.

 

Hope that was helpful and I'm glad to hear your looking for an assistant job. That is the way to go.

 

Paul

[wyatt_redding]

I am just going to stick to portriats for now and wait until I am in a position to serious devote time and money to wedding and event photos.

I still enjoy still portriats. there is a photographers guild in my town and I believe that perfecting my portriat work first then move on to weddings when I feel 110% confident in my abilities. I'm only 27, prenty of years left for advanced work.

[picturesque]

For weddings, you need a good flash. Much of the photography done at weddings require flash, if just for fill and supplementing natural light. If you don't have the money, I'd recommend getting a used Vivitar 285 or Sunpak 383, which can be gotten for about $50. It won't be deidcated to your gear but if you learn to use auto thyristor (the flash method these units use), you can improve your wedding images immensely. As for blown highlights, that does not necessarily have anything to do with lack of flash. Shadows from the in-camera flash just look bad on verticals--nothing that an external flash and bracket or bouncing won't cure. If you do get a Vivitar, check the sync voltage (what camera do you have?).

[ellery_chua___singapore]

Nothing is totally hopeless. You need to understand flash work - why it does what it does, where the limits are and how to work around the limits. Do a search here. Practice with notes - LOOK closely at the results compare and contrast different setting.

 

It is rocket science but no elementary school maths either. Would suggest getting better prepare before the next time. The shadows could be clean up to a certain extent in PhotoShop but no one wants to do it that way.

[wyatt_redding]

I have a Vivitar 283 but the voltage is to high for my Maxxum 800si

I think I am going to get more education in regards to close in flash work I love working aviable light and my shot at the wedding using avaible light turn out great. It was my flash work that needs help. A couple of MAxxum 7D's wouldn't hurt in addition. Thanks for the helpful hints.

[ellery_chua___singapore]

You could check out the safe synch that wiener makes - it sit on top of your camera hot shoe and the flash mounts on it.