chad_hoelzel1

<p>I have a quick question. This is going to be my 6th paid wedding. All my other weddings have been outdoors. They have been for family and friends mainly. Since they were outdoors I've always requested permission to wear more comfortable clothing and footwear. Example of this would be semiformal pants (loose enough to move around in) and a short sleeved front button shirt. Footwear wise I would wear all leather (single color) trail walking shoes for the grip. Again with permission of the bride and groom I also wore the Lowpro Street and Field padded belt (with the loops on it) and various lens cases etc. attached to it. A lot of these weddings were of friends that were climbing/hiking buddies so it wasn't a big deal in regards to looks.</p>

<p>This being my first indoor wedding I've made the appropriate upgrades to faster lenses and more Canon Speedlite flashes. My next question is in regards to acceptable attire. The couple is more mature for this wedding but seem really relaxed (again family friends). My challenge is that the church is very small with tight quarters so there is no where to put my gear in such a way to make changing lenses/bodies easy. I'm sort of reluctant in wearing my lowpro street and field belt and lens cases. My second photographer (my wife) isn't going to move around a lot and will be more stationary. What is your suggestion for gear handling? I haven't asked them (about the belt) yet because I want to sort of weigh my options first. <br>

Thanks for your suggestions</p>

<p>"The only problem I've got is that almost all reviews of the "cheap" Canon lenses are not that good which makes me think again if I even want to continue using Canon as a prosumer. It looks like Canon favors the professionals. don't know, maybe I am wrong."<br>

Not sure if this is a fair statement? I've seen lenses from various other brand names and you get what you pay for qaulity wise. Canon's 50mm f1.8 $100 lens is probably one of the cheapest yet sharpest lenses out there. I purchased the ef 17-40 f4 L lens (under $1000) a few years ago and have gotten many sharp, good quality pictures from it. I consider any lens under $1000 in the prosumer range. This leaves you a few zooms to choose from and a lot of prime lenses.<br>

Also from the reviews you read, how many of them were made a week or two after purchase? I find that there are a lot of reviews made by people that don't even take the time to figure out how to make their equipment work to the best it can for image quality.</p>

<p>I have the 100-400 and have gotten many great wildlife photos with it. Seeing as you have the 70-200 f2.8 with IS there isn't really any need to get the 100-400 due to the overlap. Just use your tele converter to get that range. I personally wouldn't mind getting a sharper fixed 400mm lens. It will be a lot sharper. Also if you are wanting to get sharper landscape pictures start getting wide angle prime lenses. I have the 17-40 L also but at wide angle it distorts badly. My next consideration is the new 24mm L lens. I know currently it won't be very wide on my 40d but always plan ahead when purchasing a lens. In the near future full frame camera bodies will come down in price a bit and then you'll have a good lens choice. I would stay away from APS-C specific lenses. They will be to limiting in the future.</p>

<p> As a photographer that has owned at some point in time around 8 different canon EF lenses and a sigma lens I've learned to start investing more carefully. Zoom lenses are practicle but have image quality limitations. Getting a few light primes can sometimes be lighter then buying one large L series zoom. As suggested definately look at getting an inexpensive 50/1.8. Very light and very sharp for the price. </p>

<p>I guess there are a few details you have to consider. How much close up you want and how far from the subject you want to be to get that. I have a 15 month old. The only good way of getting close ups of her is when I'm not in her face so she looks more natural. I use the EF 100mm f2.8 macro for that. Gives me good working distance with my 40d and awesome background bokeh (blur). With that focal length you can easily be about 10 feet away to get a tightly cropped head shot. I also have the 50mm f1.8 and 85mm f1.8. Again good portrait lenses but it sort of depends on the working distance you have or want.</p>

<p>Remember that if you go to wide angle ie. wider then 24mm with a fixed or zoom lens you will start getting edge distortion. I found this often for group shots with my EF 17-40mm f4L @17mm up to 20mm. The people that were to close to the edge looked like they were stretched out tall and skinny. My next wide angle lense will probably be the new 24mm f1.4L II. Not only will it give you somewhat more limited depth of field when you want it (not easy to accomplish at wide angle) but it has very little distortion from the reviews I read. Also will work good for shooting in low light.</p>

<p>You could make the C1 2 3 setting different ISO setting so you can change it at the flip of a dial. Would be handy for changing light conditions. You might also want to choose different focusing modes for those also.</p>

<p>I don't remember the original ever having a serial number. From what I recall it almost seemed like a DPP installation and any of their other utilities that you can download for free from the Canon website.</p>

<p>This probably dates me but I have misplaced my ES-E1 link software and when I download the newer update from Canon it asks for the CD and won't install. Does anyone know of a place other then having to deal with Canon directly where I can download the software and burn it to CD so I can install the newer update. Thanks for your help.</p>

<p>The Canon Digital Professional Software that comes with the camera is top notch when it comes to work flow. I had the 20D for the longest time and just used CS2 for everything. Then I someone told me how good the free software that came with he camera was. It will not do touch ups but is great for batch processing. Shoot in RAW and then convert to JPG using the provided software. This will give you the best of both worlds. I shoot RAW plus Small JPG so that I can preview the shots quickly and sort them. I then do the editing (White Ballance, color adjustment, etc.) with THE Canon software. I end by saving it in the format or formats I want(batch processing). I save my high res stuff in TIFF format and email quality in JPG under 1mb. Canon's web site even has a tutorial on how to use it. Plus you get free upgrades. </p>

<p>I had one more question that I haven't had any luck finding info on. Is the 20mm f2.8 any good for wedding work? Looked on photonet for an hour last night in the wedding section and couldn't find anything. I'm not really liking my 17-40L on the 17 side. It really distorts the people on the edges of the picture for group shots besides being soft even between f5.6 and f8 (at the edges).</p>

<p>Unfortunately I won't be seeing the church before the wedding due to its distant location. I'm only basing my decision on the pictures I've been provide and the details from the bride and groom. When it comes right down to it I'll have to just make the best lens choices and go for it. I'll shoot some with the flash using a bracket and pocket softbox and some using no flash. Fortunately I'll have an hour or so before the wedding to figure things out and do some test shots to veiw on a laptop. On a side note I was just using this wedding as an excuse to buy the 100mm macro for taking head shots of my daughter and using it for some portaits at the wedding.</p>

<p>Thanks for all the input so far. To answer some of the questions I didn't clarify... I am allowed to use a flash inside but am very afraid of ghosting on the walls (even with softbox and flash bracket)... secondly I am allowed to roam around to get better shots. I'm going to do very few pictures of the whole wedding party because I really like capturing the expressions of the bride and groom during the ceremony so concentrate more on them. </p>

 

<p> Just to give a quick background. This will be my 6th paid wedding. All other ceremonies were outdoors. This wedding will ONLY have ceremony pictures taken inside the church and the formals will be outside (thank goodness). The church is very small with only two windows in it (not facing favourable directions). There are two angled walls behind the small platform. Wedding party is 6 people plus bride and groom. Front pews are close to the platform.<br>

My current gear is... Canon 20D, 40D w/grip (might rent a second 40D for higher ISO performance), 2x 550 speedlite EX flashes with pocket softbox diffusers, Stroboframe Press-T flash bracket, Canon flash battery packs for each, Metz 45 with a optical flash trigger, 2 tripods, 1 monopod, EF 17-40 f4.0L, EF 100-400 f4-5.6L IS, EF 50mm f1.8 lens. <br>

I'm going to experiment a bit but am thinking the flashes might be totally out of the question (shadow wise) even with the diffusers on and using a bracket. I want to get some lenses that will allow me to shoot mainly without using a flash.<br>

I'm currently looking at getting the EF 20mm f2.8 USM, EF 85mm f1.8 USM, and EF 100mm f2.8 macro. My other option is not get the 85mm and 100mm lens and get a better low light zoom such as the 70-200mm f2.8L IS.<br>

Would you go for a better zoom covering the 70mm plus range or should I get the 85mm and 100mm prime lenses and try and use my 100-400 f4-5.6L IS with a monopod/tripod instead? I'm looking at overall improvement to my camera setup but also to ensure that I take the best pictures I can at this one. <br>

Thanks for your help.</p>

I didn't feel suckered in regards to ripped off more like the pictures turned out so well that I'd want to have similar ones taken a few times a year while my daughter grows up, which would in turn cost a lot more then buying some lights. Your right in suggesting still staying with my small portable flash for one or two people head and shoulder photos. I do have a flash diffuser that works good.

So the long and short of the question that I still need answered from a practical field experienced photographer's point of view is what power rating (w/s) or strobes (I'm getting two) have you used indoors for single person or small group photos but also used for small wedding groups outdoors? I just need to know if I need to get two White Lightning X800, X1600, or X3200 to accomplish most of these tasks? I understand that I might need to play around with the lights to accomplish this range of tasks but just need guidance as to which model to buy.

For outdoors I like working in the shade so I have more control of light and shade. The outdoor photographs would not be high volume just mainly photos for our family. I'd probably just do the deep cycle battery and clean sign wave inverter thing seeing as it wouldn't be used very often. It's more about the diversity than being good at one thing. Whatever isn't caught by the camera just the way I want it can be played with in Adobe. I'm just tired of harsh lighting from my small flashes.

I'm the proud father of a 6 week old baby girl. After having a photographer

come by and do his promotional photo shoot and being suckered into spending $100

on some really cute photos I decided it's time to get some lights so I don't

need to pay someone else to take family photos every half a year.

 

I've done a few weddings and family photo shoots in the past and half gotten

away with two canon 550ex flashes. After seeing these photos and the nice soft

lighting I decided it's time to step it up a notch. I also like doing portraits

out in the park with trees, flowers, stone work....

 

So my scope of need is everything from photographing my little daughter indoors

to small wedding groups outdoors. My choice of flash is White Lightning and I'm

just wondering what power (w/s) would be able to cover most of that range? What

I liked with the White Lightning was the dual power modes and the brighter

modeling light. This would allow me to shoot over a 7 f-stop range. I'd be

planning on getting softboxes or shoot through umbrellas. Could I get away with

the X1600 or would I need to go up to the X3200 to allow me to do wedding groups

outdoors?

 

Thanks for your help and I'm open to any tips and suggestions.