fuji s3 and weddings

Hi,

I am a fine art portrait and wedding photographer, working my weddings in a "photojouranlistic" style, and shooting half color, half black and white.
I shoot outdoor and indoor weddings, mostly with film, until this season.

My new digital cameras are d70 (back-up) and fuji s3 (main) with sb800 flash. I generally prefer to not use any extra lighting besides on camera flash.

Just wondering if anyone has some helpful suggestions for camera settings or suggestions, especially for the fuji s3 and sb800, that would be approriate for someone who is not interested in endless post-production work.

I am especially interested in suggestions regarding colorbalance, white balance, raw vs. jpeg capture (speed), and using the sb800 flash with the fuji s3 (tests have produced serious variations).
Thanks for your time!!
-cori

Hi,

I use the mighty S3 for weddings too. I find that the SB800 is inconsistent on the S3 compared to any ittl Nikon camera. I often have to pull back a 1/3 a stop or more on the flash. I'm not sure if there is much you can do about it. Welcome to the S3+SB800 combo.

as far as WB, RAW and JPG argument. I shoot in RAW F1 mode for a few reasons. 14bit vs 8bit JPG's being the first. Secondly, i find the AWB poor and the RAW allows me to tweak it to my liking. As you can imagine, white wedding dresses need to stay white all day in all light conditions.

Re B&W, we shot about 40-50% B&W depending on the client and the day.



--
andrew
http://www.catoandpade.com.au

• In general I tend to shoot JPEG with the S3, especially for weddings, birthdays, events etc., where time is money. There's less time spent/wasted in post production and frankly its JPEG quality was why I bought the S3 in the first place. I can use many other cameras with less technical compromises if I had to shoot raw all the time. The key to S3's jpeg quality is exposure. In camera metering is good but a hanheld meter is best if you have the time to use it. Also custom WB setting will save a lot of time in pp. I don't see the neccessity to use Raw when Fuji jpegs are so wonderful. I use F, 12M, STD, AUTO, STD, STD, STD.

• I find TTL metering too inconsistent with any flash, you're better off with manual or automatic mode. The best range to shoot in automatic seems to be from about 7'-15', SB flash is pretty accurate in this range. Step in or mover back if you're within this range. I prefer Metz flashes over Nikons, I get very consistent results most of the time (set to automatic of course).

ddk

Hi Correne,

Both of the above posts are correct. Padey is a wonderful technician and does a wonderful job at weddings.

If you must shoot RAW, I would suggest sending in the S3 and have the buffer updated. this will allow you to show RAW at a reasonalbe rate. The standard S3 has too small of a buffer to shoot a whole wedding. The wedding will be over before all the RAW files write to the card.

Personally I believe the S3 was designed to shoot Jpeg. you can get wonderful wedding pictures in Jpeg, something you must fight to acquire if you were using Nikon or Canon. I would suggest that if you want to shoot Jpeg to go to the http://www.Garyfong.com web site. Gary Fong did more to promote the S1,S2, and S3 than probably any other photographer.

You might also want to research this forum and look up some of Greg Beasley's posts, he is another excellent wedding photographer. I believe he is now shooting the S3 in RAW.

The AWB of the S3 can really be funky, especially in shade on a bright day. The wedding dresses really go blue. For the most part the S3 AWB is good. Also SB800 is accurate within a certain range as stated above. For isle shoots others I am constantly biasing the flash to get good exposure.

Good luck with your weddings
David Miller