gregstuckeyaus

How's it goin' Rokkor Fan! A good read, good advice and some nice pickies too. You planning to do any more educational products for your up an coming competition ;-) Na well done Antony, it's good to give something back.

 

Regards

Greg

Hey Bob Thanks for that. I've been toying with the idea of backing up on the day for a while now but haven't found the right solution. How long does your 2 Gb card take to down load to the device?

I'm not sure whether any photogs who charge up to 20K per wedding are going to hand over the secrets to success. Every B&G who uses me needs to be getting get great value in terms of my talent, my products, what I offer to them as someone who will spend more time with them on their wedding day than anyone else.

 

You say that you get most of your bookings through your site and you need more bells and whistles, why not build from your strengths and improve your site if you think it needs improving. We all need to communicate to our prospective clients the kind of value that we can offer to them. Who knows, people who want to spend more may be landing on your site and moving on because they don't get the impression of a premium product.

When I think of well known Aussie photogs like Yervant, David Williams, Jerry Ghionis, & Marcus Bell, they have all have won awards for their photography. The last two quiet early on in their careers. Their studios have also advertised heavily in bridal publications and provide high quality products and services to their clients. In other words they have developed their product, market visibility, percieved and real prestige value and therefore demand. Paying off a few bell hops may get you there but not because of your photography or through developing a strong business.

There are no guarantees and no shortcuts IMHO. Charge what you think your products and services are worth and communicate that to your clients.

 

I hope this helps

 

Regards

Greg

Hi Mike, Buying a lens that is more in line with your current kit's focal range seems logical. I purchased a tamron 17-50mm f2.8 prior to the purchase of my 17-55mm f2.8 IS lens. When using the tamron I found I didn't take it off the camera (still used primes and a wide zoom on the other though). The Tamron is not an L quality lens in terms of the build or sharpness however some acceptable results can be obtained.

 

For example here is a shot taken with a 400D (my other 30D was sent off for the second time to have the PC socket repaired but that's another story!). It was shot at 2.8 @ 200 ISO with fill flash (580 EX) and I think with either a foam better bounce card or a 5X5 plastic fill card I use some times.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/6270526

 

Another shot taken with a 400D no fill was used

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/5982355

 

Concerning the flash 580 EX, it can wireless master control other 580s or a 430 but a 430 can't (not sure whether the Metz can?). The button arrangement on the back of the 430 EX is a little fiddly and that's a significant problem IMHO when you are under pressure and you what to change settings etc. The dial on the 580 EX is much better and the 580 EX has the built in bounce card (I never use it)

 

The 50mm 1.4 is a great prime to consider as a dedicated portrait lens for your 400D or a normal lens for your future 5D.

 

I hope this helps, good luck and all the best on your solo gig.

Greg

Fortune favours the brave hey William. The confirmation email to the buyer sounds fine but I would think about the cc to the B&G. I would like my large contribution handled discreetly. Maybe an updated balance to the B&G and then a list of those who purchased a gift vouchers after the wedding? Just an idea

 

Regards

Greg

That Yervant, I think he's possibly an even better marketer than photographer. I would be very much surprised if those vouchers weren't used in relation to a registry of some sort. Gift registers are quite common place in Australia. We haven't gaoled anyone for a severe breech of etiquette for years now ;-). If the B&G are having a Bridal Registry you could add your gift voucher to that (if possible some department stores won't let you do that). I would avoid any literature that would be viewed as marketing going out with their invitations. You could suggest they include the following in their invitation 'Please consider a gift voucher from our photographer XYZ when purchasing gifts' I don't offer gift vouchers so you can take my thoughts with a grain of salt.

Often techniques like gift vouchers and payment plans can be used to close the sale where clients are buying outside of their budget. So you're closing a sale with a client that might have walked away by giving them an option to share the costs with the guests. Alternatively, it can be used to provide further sales or upgrades to packages, any excess in vouchers can be used to get a bigger Album or 2 canvas presentation prints etc. Think carefuly about the benefits and costs to your business, and the benefits for your clients.

 

I hope this helps

Regards

Greg

Marc did you do any editing of that image in terms of the subject background balance? I can never get the balance that good in camera perhaps I should give that histogram thing a go!

 

Delanza, the following example uses a spot metering technique in an extreme backlit situation. That day had been so bright I tried to shoot the wedding with my ray bans on. I metered using spot at a mid point in the sky to obtain my base exposure, I didn't want to meter for the whole scene as the setting sun would have meant that the subjects would have been entirely lit by the flash and I wanted to keep the backlit feel.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/6256885

 

This next technique is using the evaluative metering mode with the fill flash and no compensation as I wanted to balance the front lighting with the side lighting and create as much as I could a 1:1 ratio. The Evaluative metering and the ETTL doesn't do a bad job. Note the catchlights in the girls eyes something you may be looking for in taking shots in the shade.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/6256899

 

Both examples are out of the camera.

 

I hope this helps

Regards

Greg

From what you describe, at step two you are measuring the incident light falling on your subject (assuming incident reading), 3. setting the camera to match that incident light reading. At 4 you determining the manual flash output to match the incident reading and then in step 5 set the compensation. What does this mean? If you have taken your reading from the key light source or where it is brightest you have first matched your camera and flash to equal that exposure. Dialing the flash down then reduces the flash output or if you like it reduces the amount of light the flash is listening for. When taking the photo and enough light comes back to the flash the output is cut. In other words you will be sending out light from the flash 1 or 2 stops less than your key light.

Using the camera metering pretty much does the same thing, you take an exposure reading of the subject or the whole picture or the background, using evaluative or partial or average weight etc. Rather than you using the manual mode the camera sets the output for the camera based on what it thinks is the subject distance, you can have compensation set just like you did at step 5. Knowning that the light from your fash going to the subject will be 1 or 2 stops less than the exposure that the camera measured. Undertanding how your camera's different metering modes handles different lighting situations tells you what the camera is treating as the important part of the image. Just like when you take a meter reading you can meter the highlight side of your subject on the shadow side or half way between the keylight and the camera or just the light falling on the front of the subject. Generally the evaluative metering system does an excellent job in standard lighting situations.

There are also some excellent threads on the some of the more technical aspects of the use of flash I would encourgage to look for them if you haven't already ;-)

 

Regards

Greg

PS I meant to say - Blur due to subject movement or camera shake if bad enough is almost impossible to correct after you've taken the image. You can improve the image via sharpening etc but lens softness can be easier to improve.

Hi Jamie,

 

First things first, have you determined the cause of the images being underexposed? If you are able to view your capture data associated with the images you can also get an idea of the reason your images are not 'focused' ie camera shake, subject movement due to shutter speed being too slow to freeze the movement or focusing error. The f2.8 lens will give you a stop to play with ie. if your shooting without a flash at 1/80 ISO 1600 @ f4 it will mean that you can shoot at 1/160 @ ISO1600 or 1/80 @ ISO 800 etc. As the lenses your refering to have a long end of 50 - 55 mm you will have less problems if you keep your shutter speed around 1/80 (assuming a 1.6 crop body) This may or may not help you over come your quality issues. I?m assuming you aren?t using a tripod. The lenses you speak of will be softer at f2.8 which is a compromise yet camera shake or subject movement is a problem which unless you are intending to use it as a creative technique is almost impossible to correct. Concerning the lenses Nadine's analysis is on the money. I have both the tamron 17-55 f2.8 and the Canon 17-55mm f2.8. The tamron is an excellent lens for the money and depending on the output of my images (size of prints etc)indistinguishable from the canon at 2.8 (but I'm not a measurebater). The tamron is smaller than the canon, faster focusing than the Sigma, yet is can be a little noisy (sound not image). If you keep your 28-135 f4 you will retain your longer focal length for candid type portraits but be aware that the longer focal length will require faster shutter speeds to avoid camera shake if flash is not used. You will also have the wider end at 17mm which will allow slower handheld shutter speeds and more creative options (but this will be the same for both. The canon is a good lens the IS is useful in some situations but doesen't reduce the chance of blur due to subject movement at slow shutter speeds. IS doesn?t do everything I hope this helps what ever you do.

 

Regards Greg

Colin, not wanting to go against any of the excellent advice provided maybe there are some alternatives. Your man seems to be a bit of a bloke's bloke why not use that to try and play with it/investigate it.

Have him be the strong, silent steely man and her the one who's loves and adores him, probably a little because he's the strong silent type anyway. Maybe what you could look for with this type of subject is not the big cheesy grin but a softening of his expression as he glances at his partner. Although they are quiet close physically from an emotive point of view quite distant.

Many of your camera positions are from above - good for double chins not so good for receding hair lines and can tend to make the subject appear small, little, inferior. Some of the shots where your man is at the back of the pose makes him look small etc (the wide shot in front of the tree). I think the shots that work best make him look larger, strong and manly (maybe his personality? I don't know but certainly consistent with his expression etc.)

 

In terms of your posing I think there are some really good poses and you're obviously thinking about their body position, hand placement etc.

 

Watch the dappled light on the subjects faces fill flash won't eliminate that. Anyhow keep up the good work

 

Regards Greg

Hi Rick,

 

Generally the important pleople are wearing or holding flowers (a good tip in my opinion). I don't always take shots of the bride with each bride's maid or the B&G with individual bridal party members etc but I always ask them on the day (in addition to the agreed shot list). If they decline OK, if not it will take another 10 mins. I will ask them whether they want any other group shots even if I have shot all of the required shot list. In my opinion it is my job to find out what the brief is from the client just like any other photographic shoot. Often my clients will want to give individual shots to their close friends etc. I understand the difficult position you are in, how were you supposed to know if you didn't know? I shot a wedding and did the formals but didn't ask if there were anymore on the day. The bride's other son wasn't in any of the shots, he was latter in a car accident that left him with an acquired brain injury. She alway regretted that he wasn't in the formals on her wedding day. Experience is the best teacher but it demands the highest price. I hope you can come to an aggreable outcome.

 

Regards Greg

That's a tough one Kevin! I generally try a get a sense of my clients' image of themselves, some don't like their teeth or size of their whatever. I find Wedding images are often about an ideal - how people want to see themselves or their relationships or events of their day. I remember covering a rather relaxed wedding of an attractive young couple. On occasions I show the B or G one or two early shots to help them relax and feel more comfortable about being photographed all day long. I did this and the bride to be exclaimed I look fat! A little shocked but not down for the count, I asked as sensitively as I could, what about the image made her think that? She told me that her arm looked fat and her chest looked flat. I reassured her that I had plenty of ways to capture images just the way she wanted. I took another shot, gave her a peep and we were back in business.

I generally like to try and uncover those issues a little earlier but it was better than when she was opening the album cover.

About being old fashioned I'm not sure, maybe yes, maybe no, maybe it doesn't matter.

PS Concerning that young bride I did liquify a couple of shots - just to be on the safe side ;-)

 

I hope this helps

I've just picked up my 17-55 F2.8 IS (2x30D & 400D back up). Though I have only done test shots the 17-55 is just about perfect for the way I like to work. Why limit your self to 38mm and f4. I got a tamron 17-50 f2.8 some time ago so I could cover the standard zoom range. I found that I wasn't taking it off the camera and would use my primes on the second body. Questions like, how long your may 30D be your backup if you go for a ff camera as your main body may be important considerations. My 100mm f2 generally lets me work at longer focal lengths if I need it. Good luck

Hi Leon,

 

I have a range of pelican and generic brand hard cases. I won't check in my camera cases so they need to be able to be small enough to take on as carry on luggage. I figure I can do the shoot if my general luggage doesn't show but my cameras are going to arrive with me. I find hard cases to be good security for local shoots as well as they can store my back up equipment and be locked in and to my car. Regards Greg

You know I'd like to be able to tell you but I just can remember! I should keep notes. It may well have been, judging from the foliage and the B&G's faces. I do know this, I used a plug in B&W converter, it has some nice fog and mist diffusion filters and a reasonably good Infra Red film setting. Regards Greg

Hi David,

 

Here is one of the photos I like from Dec last year. http://www.photo.net/photo/5982430 . It is a little different than your standard headshot despite some of the compositional weaknesses. Regards Greg

Hi Elizabeth,

 

Depending on what type of camera and equipment you use there can be some efficient methods of converting images in bulk. For exmaple I use Canon's DPP raw editor to do my white balancing and gobal exposure adjustments. I then convert one of my images to black and white and save the recipe. You can then apply this recipe to any or all of the images and then save the images as new files. I generally don't convert all images to black and white. Issues such as whether the image will be stronger B&W or whether white balancing is tricky due to mixed light sources will be some of the main factors. For presentation image editing I use 3rd party plugins as they give me more creative control in terms of tonal balance, split toning and other colour effects such as sepia toning etc. I hope this helps

Regards

Greg

Hi Gregg

 

I work on a your wish is my comand basis, the first wedding this year I had a couple who got me to photograph them with all the guests at the wedding it was only small about 70-80 guests. It worked out that I shot about 30 groups, I organised an asistant that day lined up the guests and did the thankyou next please. We planned for this time and then headed off for a 1 1/2 hour Bridal Party location shoot in the local botanical gardens it was a great day. I did hear of on photog who shot a wedding that had two ceremonies, a traditional Thai ceremony and a Catholic one then shot a formal portrait with every guest who arrived to the reception with the B&G. Not bad I hear you say - there were 600 guests thats 300+ groups. Not bad for a day that started about 9 am in the morning. That's not the best bit, the B&G weren't happy when all of the prints were delivered there was a green plastic chair in the corner of all of the formals. They got the photog to reprint the whole lot. Some days are diamonds!

 

Regards

Greg

Lesley,

 

Although the insurance thing may be a load of old tripe, there could be an obligation to edit all material that is provided to clients to ensure that the video footage does not infringe copyright or trade mark protected property and therefore limit the videographer and insurance company's expose to risk. You could ask to have them edit all the footage end to end and provide that to you. It is possible that you raw footage no longer exists. Goodluck.

 

Regards Greg

Hi David,

 

See for your self 30D 1/200 f2.8 ISO 1600 no noise reduction applied, some mild sharpening and vignette added otherwise out of the camera. I Didn't mind grain with film, don't mind it with Digital.

 

http://www.photo.net/photo/5986229

 

Regards

Greg

Steve, just wondering, does being able to 'see' grain make ISO 800 make it unacceptble to you?

 

Regards Greg

Gidday Amy,

 

I think reviewing previous work is an excellent way of developing one's skill in taking a great image of a great moment. Learning to see the compositional elements of an image is a skill that can be learnt. Looking at accomplished photographers is only part of the solution. Being able to identify what makes the composition of the visual elements work will help you see these elements when you have to react to that decisive moment that unfolds unfront of you. Line, shape, balance, proportion, repetition, focal point, depth, negative space etc are all elements you have at your disposal. However, after the fact you have the ability to edit for impact. Cropping your images is also another way to strengthen the composition of your images and it is also an excellent way of teaching yourself to use these elements to develop well composed images. Have a go at cropping this image to remove some of the distracting elements such as the little girl's face in the bottom right cnr and the diagonal line on the left. Cloning the person out from behnd will isolate the subject better from the background. Think about what techniques could have achieved that at the time - such as dropping your point of view. This may have moved the person out of the camera's line of sight . I have learnt just as much from my images that I'm not happy with as the ones I really like.

 

Regards Greg

Hi Taylor,

 

In terms of your website - your images are great but there aren't enoughof them, as most of the gallery is in the slideshow at the beginning. I'm not sure about the clip art stuff, not that I don't like it, but I don't think it is in line with the type of images you have on your site. Images say cool and a little edgy but your site says I knit my own jumpers (US translation - sweaters).

 

I would think about your payment terms, if you want to get paid before the wedding say it. Having 'pay before or on the wedding day' will lead to ambiguity and likely trouble. You could state that your standard terms are 50% to secure the booking and the balance 4 weeks prior to the wedding or by arrangement, so that any variation is agreed by you and the client.

Good luck!

I like your detail shots and the Bride and father with the guest looking on adds a great story telling element. I'm looking forward to seeing some examples of your next gig in August (unless you get booked before hand! :-) Regards Greg