My friend Mike’s sister asked me to shoot her wedding. Mike is one of my oldest friends. We go way back to grade 7, which is much longer ago than I care to calculate at this moment. There was no question that I should agree to do it. Shooting weddings really isn’t my thing, but I suppose a wedding once every few years won’t kill me. It turned out to be a pretty nice affair. It all went down yesterday and last night. The reception after the simple City Hall ceremony was a traditional Chinese banquet, replete with twelve mouth-watering courses. I took about 500 photos, trying mostly for a reportage style. I’ve pared them down to my favorite 26.
If anyone in particular (ahem Diny) is wondering why anyone would bother to get a separate flash instead of using the one built into his DSLR, check out the photos from the reception. For the most part, they were taken with my ancient Vivitar 283, which I bounced off the ceiling to create a fairly natural-looking light. I manually adjusted the power of the flash so I could shoot at ISO 400, 1/125 (flash sync) and more often than not, f2.0. Whenever I switched to the longer lens, I had to shoot at f2.8. The room got quite dark at night, with the overhead lights dimmed down to candlelight levels, so I wanted to shoot as wide open as possible, maintaining the intimacy of the mood, while not being disruptive to the people I was shooting. Nothing kills a mood like a full-blast direct flash. I’m sure that with the flash pointing at the ceiling about 18 feet up, hardly anyone noticed when I took their picture. That was important to me. Weddings are about emotion and critical moments. Shooting inconspicuously is a key part of the recipe for capturing moments as they are. You can’t do that with a built-in flash 🙂
By the way, I just installed some scripts that change the way the photos are presented in my blog. I’m up to something with this little experiment… I’ll fill you in on it later.
I think I can tell which ones were taken with the flash. Last 3, for example?
That being the case, it’s pretty cool. And the whole people not being aware of pictures being taken is a good philosophy, and not just for weddings. I get the best pictures of everyone when they’re not looking. What lens/es did you use?
wow. i’m shooting a wedding next weekend, that’ll be interesting. i hope i get half as good of results! hehe
and wow, the bride isn’t wearing white!
yeah bro….the same with wedding vids I shoot from time to time, unobtrusive you have to be…nice piks… a good wedding photog can get 2000 to 15,000 bucks for a wedding…hmmm? heheheh
the shots look very natural…
I like the results that the peter fong (60 bucks) diffuser does attached to external flash creates. better than a macro ring light.(500 bucks and up)
diny, i used flash on almost all of these except the most obvious natural light ones (outdoors, wedding chapel, etc.). the two lenses i used most were the 50mm f1.4 and the 70-200mm f2.8L IS USM.
bro, i have a diffuser but don’t use it because i’m bouncing light, not using the flash directly. a ring flash would be totally weird and wrong in this situation, so i’m not surprised that anything other than a ring flash would give better results 😛
oh yeah… olya, white means death in chinese culture, so chinese brides tend to avoid it 😛
ooh that’s right!
50 f1.4? maybe i should rent that for the wedding. i’ll be shooting with an assistant (thank goodness), so i can count on someone to take the “safe” shots from one angle at least. i was thinking of renting 2 bright zooms, like
Nikon AF-s 28-70/2.8 (for both of us). i rented Nikon AF-s 17-55/2.8 DX G IF-ED Lens before, and that was nice, but not long enough.
she has a 70-200, but f4 at the long end.
aah confusion!
i would go with the 50mm f1.4 because 50mm really puts you in the midst of the action. also, your camera will focus better in dark situations with a fast lens like this. 70-200 is good, but try to get one at f2.8.
what about the 50mm f1.8? i own it, and wouldn’t need to rent 🙂
Thanks for not putting in the pics of me going all psycho on the food!! Although, that tongue action pic may come back to haunt me one of these days!
Think you could forward me those two pics of me? I am such a narcissist!
Are you taking good care of my big bro? he’s in your town now!