camera settings

[roman_thorn1]

Hi all! Quick question. I'm curious, how many of you wedding photographers shoot in full manual. Personaly, I find

this cumbersome. I would say my biggest weekness is to be able to evaluate a scene quickly and adjust my

settings in time to still capture the special moments. I now fnd it easier to just put my camera into aperature priority,

Set my auto ISO + min allowable shutter and just bracket. I find this realy just allows me to focus on other things

like composition and timing........Any thoughts?

[conraderb]

I'm full manualge 98% of the time. Tv for motion blur. P for 'panic' if I'm caught with my pants, so to speak.

 

getting a good exposure normally doesn't interfere with composition from what I can tell. I tend to shoot opposite from you - set the widest aperture possible, highest shutter speed. I'm a big bokeh fan.

 

of course, do what works for you. there are people who shoot in green rectangle mode all the time and do much better work than me, and there are people who whip out light meters and obsess who have bad work. whatever tickles your pickle.

[picturesque]

Manual most of the time for me. I like the control when I have the time. For those times I don't have the time, I use aperture or shutter priority, whichever makes sense. I use a hand held incident meter and meter only once before a sequence, and sometimes not at all if I am familiar with the lighting, such as bright sunlight or indoor shooting with flash. I don't find that it gets in the way of composition and timing. I find it more annoying to shoot and discover that my exposures are all over the place, and not where I want them to be either. I like consistency of exposure. If you get to know your camera's metering very well, I suppose you could shoot in an automated mode and get consistent exposures, but I continue to do it the way I am used to, which is manual mode. Dealing with increased frames from bracketing and excessive fiddling with exposure in post processing don't appeal to me.

[cjogo]

As NADINE suggested. >> Still all manual ---generally you shoot in less than 4 different situations.....just grab your hand meter and evaluate the outdoor sun area ---+ ----- shade ----+-----indoor , etc. Example ::: 250 f9.5 ISO 100 in full sun --set your flash accordingly and not much change. I still hand focus 80% of the time. If I could shoot the way you suggested ROMAN --and know the results would be quality >> I would charge half the prices we command now.

[jimstrutz]

Outdoors or well windowed indoor scenes I use mostly Av and fill flash. For medium and dark Indoor situations I shoot mostly manual, but with the flash in E-TTL, so that's kind of automatic anyway. I usually take a reading of the light levels in the room in different areas, and keep the camera set for 1.5-2 stops below that. I may have to adjust the exposure for lighter or darker areas, but since I already metered it, I know I will have to make a quick adjustment before pointing in that direction.

[William Michael]

I use M (Manual Mode) mostly, establishing the exposure using either the lightmeter in the camera or a Luna Six, and maybe a little brain fiddle. On occasions I use: Tv; Av; and sometimes even P, depending upon the situation.

 

Like Nadine, I am used to shooting in sets (sequences). I use Bracketing (Exposure and WB) usually only for quite specific purposes, and not for Wedding Work. I would not like the job of sorting through the brackets if shot at Wedding.

 

I suggest that your weakness might be, not understanding how your TTL Camera Meter is working, rather than your inability to evaluate the scene.

 

Maybe you just haven`t taken enough time to experiment and learn what your camera is saying to you?

 

WW

[steve_c.5]

Conrad cracked me up with that post! :-) LOL, and very true.

 

I shoot mostly in manual these days, or in aperture priority (I'm a bokeh fan too). I find that with manual, once I get it looking good, I don't have to mess with the controls as much. If I'm shooting a bunch of bridesmaids or groomsmen by a lake, I usually use high speed shutter, balance the fill flash, and expose for the sky, so my skies aren't nuked. Manual mode gives you consistency from shot to shot once you get it dialed in. You'll also find that managing your WB and ISO manually will give you greater control (just don't forget to switch them when you go inside/outside, because high ISO shots in bright daylight will ruin your day).

[josh_baker]

I am young, but I come from a medium format background, so shooting full manual is not that bad to me. I usually show up a few days before the wedding (the day of the rehersal) to the venue and if the forcast is the same for the wedding day I take some readings and test shots then (if I'm lucky the lighting will be the same on the big day) that gives me a head start.

With digital now I find that RAW processing lets me get away with missing exposure by a stop or a bit more if I need to, so I actually shoot much more freely than I used to. My suggestion is shoot manual for personal, not professional events a bit first (both indoors and out) that'll give you some good practice. Then you'll feel comfortable when the time comes that you want to. I don't think it's necessary, but I find I like to shoot manual instead of fiddle with exposure compensation.

 

If you do get it down be carful you'll find yourself going manual flash setting as well. Oh the horror, lol.

[katie_jullian]

My last wedding, I decided beforehand to try to shoot mainly in manual mode and if I got flustered I would switch back to aperture priority. Before this, I was mainly in aperture mode, for the same reason as you mentioned - I was afraid of missing the shot. I had pretty much reserved manual mode for non-event photography, thinking I wouldn't be able to act fast enough and inevitably forget something. I found it surprisingly easy though to think in manual mode and in my opinion, I think this last wedding was an all time best for me. My exposures were more consistent and the need to be constantly aware of my settings deterred me from slipping into "machine gun mode". Granted there were a few times, when I snapped a couple and then realized I wasn't paying attention (I'd get really excited about a composition and forget everything else), but practice makes perfect.

 

Completely, agree though that whatever works for you is the way to go.

[er1]

Manual 90% Aperture 9% Panic 1%

[roman_thorn1]

Thanks everyone! I think i will practice in manual untill I am comfortable but for now stick with what seems to work. By the way, when I said bracket I didn't mean under @ and above, I just meant choose + or - for a particular scene.... Thanks again.

[steve_c.5]

Roman, one thing that may help you is to think this way: when your shot is of people walking or moving, shutter priority with a high enough shutter speed to freeze motion (if that's the goal of the shot) will help you. When you want to control depth of field with static subjects, use aperture priority and wide aperture settings. When you want consistancy from shot to shot, like a series of formals or posed shots, get it dialed in and use manual settings.

[david_schilling___chicago_]

Most of the time in manual but there are some situations where I trust the "P" mode. Rarely ever in Aperture mode.