martin-wilkinson

I'm having the opportunity to work with some seasoned pro's, David - its just that they don't seem to give much through to the lighting. The head photographer puts his on full-auto and leaves it there all day. Its not quite what I'm going for myself. I'll take a look in the lighting category as you suggest. It's not that I'm too lazy to look to see if something relevent is there, its just that most lighting is incompatible with running from scene to scene like you do at a wedding and wondered if anyone actually used light stands and set them up outside the church or what have you. Thank you both for your comments.

I've recently taken up wedding photography and have found that shooting in

natural light can give very harsh shadows and lots of expressions where people

are squinting in the most important pics they'll ever have taken, is it better

to turn them around and use a flash gun? I really want to know if any wedding

photographers take light stands to specific locations or if that's just not

mobile enough. I already have a flash gun for my canon bodies but tend not to

use it. If people just use reflectors that would be good to know, too. Thank

you.

Update and conclusion.

 

I was told by the head photographer who works for the bridal shop (seems to be part owner) itself as well as shooting for them and he said they would not be selling my work. I was still happy to hand over the CD for whatever they wanted since I was told I'd be able to use the work however I wanted.

 

Next time I go in, happily hand over the CD and I'm told they've changed their mind and we can't do anything with the pictures at all. A crushing blow to me since I planned to put them on my website which is short on client work at the moment. I have a few real paid weddings already but I'm going to do another test - this time they will be smaller files, watermarked with a surprising lack of subtlety. Many thanks to all of you for your advice and counsel.

I think Nadine is on the money - it comes down if I want to work for them, the fact is I know I'm being used and I don't like it but if I want regular work I might just have to bite the bullet - but I want the work in my own portfolio.

 

Conrad, thank you for your advice. I think I am good enough to work for a studio, or hell within a couple of years open my own but I've had a hard time selling my own portrait services over the last few months and the chance of getting lots of fresh work for my portfolio and regular paid jobs is very tempting. Many of the comments seem not to take in to account the position that I'm in. As if I'm dumb and thinking this is a good deal... if I thought everything was fine about it I dont think I'd have posted a question about 'getting screwed', would I?

 

I think I'll innocently ask how much I'll get paid if they decide to use my work and if that causes problems I'll be haggled down to rights to use the pics I've taken however the hell I want. That's worth more than the cash to me right now. If they won't even grant that I'll tell them where to go. Try and contact the bride and groom directly, and sell my services as an independent wedding photographer. This was my first big one - at a church! ..but the pictures I've taken can get me more I feel sure.

 

Maybe my next questions will be about independent wedding photographers starting up their own businesses. Thank you all for the advice, many seemed to understand my desire not to alienate a potential employer but I have lots to think about.

In response to the post about wedding photographers for Bella, I think they'd be entering in to a proper contract as reward for their work - for all intents and purposes I'd be self employed with nothing to stop them saying after a couple of weddings, thanks but we dont want to use you anymore.

 

To Jim - the assistant's rate you mention is perilously close to what they pay their regular photographers for a day's shooting!

 

I'm just trying to get peoples' opinions on whether its worth putting my foot down now and risk getting regular (though badly underpaid) work. If I work on my own I'll probably charge about 4 times as much but too likely I'd get less than a quarter of the work!

 

As for the comment that the photographers who work there might see this thread? I don't think they take their craft seriously and I doubt any of them would be spending time on a site like this trying to learn and improve. (meow!)

One additional complicating factor - the two wedding 'test' jobs - I could possibly say well its a test, and innocently ask how much they'd give me if they wanted to actually USE some of my photos - however, I did some of the formals so if this went badly the people would lose some of their formals (and this is hardly their fault) plus the minor factor I'd be back to square one (with a slightly more impressive portfolio) Help!

After unsuccessful attempts to promote my portraiture I recently managed to

wow the owners of a large bridal place in Hampshire who have a staff of

photographer who work with them on seemingly informal basis, the photographers

make themselves available and the bridal place provides regular though rather

poorly paid wedding jobs where you do the shooting then simply hand over a CD

of your work.

 

Though they liked my portfolio and said they wanted me on board there is

this 'trial' where you do two 'test' weddings. I did mine yesterday and it

basically seems like I've done much of the wedding shots, there was another

there who did some of the formals, and now I put all my best work and hand it

over on a CD and they give it to the customer, I lose all rights to the work

(might not even be able to use it to promote myself), get paid zero for my

time and effort and have to do it again on another unpaid wedding job before

they MAYBE start giving me my own paid weddings.

 

Has anyone else been asked to work for free as some try-out? At first I was

very happy that I'd be able to prove myself and start getting regular paid

jobs but my partner looking out for my best interests basically said I

shouldnt be letting this happen. I'm very uncertain if making a fuss now would

make me lose the opportunity to get the regular jobs - without anything in

writing are they allowed to sell my work and profit from it?

 

Very eager for the opinions of photographers who may have been in this kind of

situation.

 

Thanks

Oh and Tom I really like your portrait if it can be called that. Looks like theres quite a story behind it. Kudos.

Looking at sets previous to this I was thinking, more power is better so get something like 750watts each at least but now I'm realising that with a small studio or on location thats going to be excessive. I dont know if thin dof is in fashion right now but its what I like personally and it does have the advantage that it requires less light. As I said I might go with one light and a softbox, maybe a couple of reflectors to tide me over until I learn more about what I actually need - and although I've thought about going medium format as my aunt got by for several decades with her Hassy 6x6 but I feel its a bad time for that with the digital advances made constantly and anyway I dont think getting a camera system more suitable to powerful lights is the way to go - I'm happy with the digital workflow. Appreciate all your comments though we did get off track at times.

I now realise that since I intend to use such big apertures a professional lighting rig isnt quite as urgent as I thought. Perhaps I'll make do with a flash gun or start with one smallish low power light and a softbox just to start out with. Thanks again for your advice.

I know anyone who works with lighting will find this a stupid question but

I've looked for answers and cant find any - so be nice!

 

I'm going to be getting a studio set up soon, 3 lights probably 500 or 750

watt strobes. Now as they're not continuous does that mean you have to connect

the camera so that they work like a built in flash unit?

 

I heard people talking here about using apertures like f11 and shutter speeds

of 1/60th but I love thin dof and will rarely want a portrait shot with a

smaller aperture of 2.8 (if not 1.4)

 

So whats the 'normal' set-up for using these things?

Thank you all for your helpful comments. I've got a better idea now. Starting a career as a photographer has made me realise why so few people choose to become self-employed! Regards

I'm fairly new to portrait photography and I'm realising that as much as I

like natural light it doesnt give professional results all the time and I'm

investing in an expensive (arent they all) lighting kit - what I dont know is

where to find backdrops, like brown cloth, black, neutral grays and something

to hang them on - can any English portrait photographers (thats where I am)

recommend places to find them and maybe give me a few tips about what kinds

are good for high and low key effects?

 

Grateful for any guidance - I'm drowning here!

I dont know about 2 jpegs but I've had problems getting RAW images off my canon. I find that the canon software is pretty useless and windows standard picture viewer - just stick in your usb and it starts up automatically - is ok but not for raw. Once you've got your flash card attached go to windows explorer and look for cr2 files. You'll find they'll be about 50% bigger than the jpegs from my experience in file size. You might have to download them through this procedure, manually selecting and copying to another folder. I find another problem with raw is that after you've saved it as a jpeg or tiff you dont quite know what to do with the old RAW file and they sure do eat up disk space. Good luck.

The 1450 will do you just fine, and might have room for another couple of lenses. I'd advise getting one with padded dividers. Get a padlock to go with it, if you're going to travel with it. Robert White has a list with the dimensions of each one listed but as I say - the 1450 should suit you.

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Quite welcome, I just remembered, here is a site you might find useful:

 

http://photonotes.org/articles/beginner-faq/lenses.html#multiplier

No!

 

Or maybe, depends on how you feel - basically I feel you should just go for it. I originally got in to portrait photography the same way you got in to wedding photography - people asked me to do it and I thought 'ok!'

 

I dont know how well you know the people but I'd give some thought over how much you charge, wedding photography is usually quite expensive but often there are reasons - you may find you need several days to work through the photos and put together proofs etc - are you being fairly compensated for all that work?

 

Believe in yourself - they already like your work so there's nothing to fear. Go for a good mix from the formals - plan in advance which ones you'll need - bride's family, groom's family, bride's maids etc and then shoot some reportage casually at the reception. Might be an idea to take a look at the church in the meantime. If its dim inside there's always boosting the iso.

 

Good luck.

Hi, nobody seems to have posted anything so I'll take a stab at it. Put simply - the f4 24-105mm L IS lens came out at about the same time as the 5D and is the closest thing there is to a kit lens for it. With 12.8 megapixels of resolution you're going to want to go for L series lenses because otherwise the sensor might be looking for more information than your lens can resolve. With this in mind, the f2.8 16-35mm L is a great wideangle though there is one thats f4 and 17-40mm which is a cheaper option.

 

The telephoto is a no-brainer, you've simply got to go for the f4.0-5.6 100-400mm L IS - its a wonderful lens, crystal sharp and will probably be the only telephoto you ever need. If you're pricing these pieces of glass and worrying about the cost, the 70-200mm might be enough for your needs.

 

You haven't said what type of photography you want to do and obviously thats going to dictate what kind of lenses you need. The ones I've given are kind of fairly general purpose but if you're going to do portrait photography you'll want at least one prime (fixed length) lens which will tend to have a larger maximum aperture, you'll be looking for 2.8 at the least, ideally 2 or even better. The new f1.2 85mm L is a wonder though I hear its less than perfect at maximum aperture.

 

I hope this is helpful to you. Good luck with your photography.

BUY NOW! Well not right now, Nikon are bringing out the D80 which is gonna be great value for a 10 megapixel camera and canon may well be whipping out some competition for it in the new couple of months - theres a big tradeshow coming up in September.

 

To be honest thought the best thing is to get an SLR and start shooting. If you are wanting more control, focus, shutter speed, handsome background blurs you have to migrate away from the compacts and embrace something a bit more complicated with a few nice lenses. I know because thats what I did less than a year ago. I haven't looked back. Most models on the market will serve you well for at least a couple of years while you enhance your techniques and maybe look at upgrading again. Best of luck to you.