Virtual 2nd Assistant

[anthony_bridges]

<p>One of the kids (adult children) is getting married. They asked me to photograph their wedding. I shoot portraits and events as well as wedding so I'm fairly comfortable with the gig.</p>

<p>I read briefly about something called a virtual 2nd shooter. You setup a camera on a tripod. Set it in a corner. Choose a wide angle and a good, manual focal point and fire away with a remote trigger from time to time when you see something interesting come into focus. Has anyone tried this? Did it work out for you? Sounds like a fun way to get alternate angles on non- critical shots.</p>

[personalphotos]

<p>Yes and frankly I wouldn't bother again. I've tried it 4 times and using 2 different methods. Partly because I wanted to make stop action videos of the service and also because I was in churches that didn't allow shooting anywhere near the front of the church.</p>

<p>Method one, using the remote to fire the camera once in awhile and second, using an intervalometer to take a shot every x number of seconds. You get a couple usable shots and that's about it. Certainly no substitute for a human, who knows what they are doing, behind the camera and really when you think about it, people often get a camera and think 'because <em>the camera</em> takes nice pictures' they can start charging for events.</p>

[danzel_c]

<p>this comes in really handy with shots from the balcony. just set up the camera on a tripod and remote trigger (be sure you're not in the shot) to get nice wide angle shots of the ceremony from above. that's the only time i have used it. i can usually work all angles from the main floor pretty good its just that going up in the balcony and back down takes lots of time and you risk missing important shots from below. for example, i got caught up there once for the kiss. in the end it make a nice shot but that's not how i typically do it. and remember to retrieve your setup before you leave the church!</p>

[leslie_pattison]

Hi Anthony, for me this is very useful in one situation, Usually I am never parted from my camera because you can't trust

the people not to play silly-buggers, even family.

 

I use the tripod, cable timer set for 1fps - still shots. AF off, set to the bride & groom with lots of depth of field. With my

camera, I can pull the lever to black off the viewfinder so that when the camera is firing, nobody sees the light through the

lens.

 

This is with the official photo of everyone together on the steps or whatever. I then walk towards the people and get them

organised, bring kids down to the front and walk back & forth along the line in front of them with nice joking comments

that will make them smile.

 

Then afterwards you have a series of different people in different shots with nice happy faces. Great for replacing the

gloomy faces you may get with the final official pic. Also it does make for a nice short movie.

 

The only "stick in a corner" set-up I would do, is with a video camera for the reception speeches and if there is an on-

stage presentation. This would be with no extra lights to distract the people.

[Marcus Ian]

<p>I think it depends on the amount of ambient light, if you have a lot, you may get very nice results. the less the light, the harder it is to get anything usable at all. Overall though, your results will depend on much on luck as anything else.</p>

<p>The key w/ this setup is your DOF. stopping it down enough to get DOF of at least half to 2/3rds of the overall primary scene. Enough light is key, because that'll give you enough shutter speed to freeze (w/o flash - a flash on this setup is<em> hugely</em> annoying), while still stopping down to f8->f16 (depending on the FL). If you do, I'd setup the trigger so it fires every 1-2sec, preferrably w/ a remote overide also (in case you see something, you can trigger instantly remotely). There will be a lot of pics - enough to make a short video.</p>

[anthony_bridges]

<p>Thanks for the responses!</p>