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Wedding photography is tough! (a bunch of 5700 pics)

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GaryW said:
Craig mentions the darkness, but one of my biggest problems was
that they kept turning down the lights as the event went on, and so
my shots became more blurred! The flash does no good at most of
the distances I was trying to make use of, and the zoom just makes
that worse.
Click to expand...
The darkness Craig was referring to is related to my photo-finishing choices (gamma adjustments), not the low light focusing problem that is often attributed unfairly to the 5700. If that had been a problem, I wouldn't have been able to achieve focus prior to lighting the subjects with my external flash. As you can see, the shots I've uploaded are reasonably crisp.

As far as flash is concerned, the internal flash on your 885, and all Coolpix cameras for that fact, are only useful in emergencies, like one of those half sized spare tires they bundle with cars these days. As far as I'm concerned, an external flash is essential for low light situations, and I don't find the alternative of pumping up ISO and introducing noise to be acceptable. If you're going to do events, you just have to have the right equipment.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
Uncle Frank

Your photographs are great. I like the casual overall look , and at the same time sophitiscated. They show warmth and a feeling of friendliness, as opposed to studied photos, with no feelling whatsoever. Thanks. Nice to see the other side of you, would love to see more of that.
--
Louise Parrish
CP5000
PBase Supporter
 
Uncle Frank said:
In the process, I gained new respect for the
5700 as a general purpose tool, particularly when used in
conjunction with a good external flash or a tripod. Despite rumors
to the contrary, I'd rate the autofocus as excellent. Many of the
shots were taken in low light, but I was able to get focus lock in
every case, and only one required a work-around to do so.
Click to expand...
Frank, very impressive, you got some great shots.

--
Ron T
5 7 0 0
 
First of all, I concur with other posters - these are absolutely fabulous. I truly was touched by the images captured - they're perfect. Again, as I've said before regarding your hummer pics, I've seen worse images taken with DSLRs. I saw some wedding images taken with a 10D just a couple of days ago, and all I can say is, your images trounce those without a doubt. Even the skin tones in your pics came out perfectly, to my eye.

Could you please share your camera settings?
  • JPG / RAW?
  • Sharpening?
  • Contrast / Tone level?
  • Saturation?
  • White balance?
  • Metering mode?
I took some wedding snapshots a couple of weeks ago, and I can attest to this fact. an using an external flash makes a world of difference (I used the internal one only)

Thanks in advance.

--
Rgds,
David, C P 4 5 0 0 (see profile for more info)
 
Uncle Frank,

Those are great pictures given the conditions. Indoor shots are always so tough. Great work.

Regards,
-Vinod
Uncle Frank said:
This will be the last time I volunteer to do a wedding for free, as
I've gained a better appreciation of why wedding photographers
charge so much -lol.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
Click to expand...
--
Vinod Menon
FCAS Member
http://home.comcast.net/~v.menon
 
Uncle Frank said:
I did my first wedding yesterday. Boy, it sure is a lot of work,
and a lot of pressure. The couple are friends of mine, and I was
deathly afraid of screwing up, and losing their precious memories.
I shot pictures from noon until 8PM, and ended up with about 300
images to sort and edit. It'll take a week or so to do the job
right, but I worked last night and this morning, so I could upload
a partial gallery for them to share with friends and relatives who
couldn't make the event. Here's a few samples.

The bride
The ceremony
The kiss
After glow
First dance
Bouquet toss
Garter searching
Cake ceremony
The couple and the DJ, after a happy ending
Click to expand...
Uncle Frank said:
This will be the last time I volunteer to do a wedding for free, as
I've gained a better appreciation of why wedding photographers
charge so much -lol.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
Click to expand...
... to express congrats to the photographer!

Your performance was real PRO level. From the samples, I can say you didn't miss any must-shoot moment.

I understand you don't want to repeat the stressing experience, but you can be really proud of the results! Did you work alone, or were you backed-up by other photographers, as explained in a previous post?

My warm greetings to the happy newlyweds. They look like going very well with each other.
--
Rapick
PBase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/rapick
 
These are great pictures, Frank. You should be proud of yourself. I can imagine how pressured you felt, I've only done fill-in shots (ie second photographer) at a wedding and even felt some pressure there! These are great, and esp the ones using flash. I've never mastered flash before - always been a 'natural light' girl but I'm going to look at the SB22 for my 5700 this week after seeing your success with it. Thanks for posting these and I'm going to have a look at the rest of the album. Cheers, Sandi
--
Sandi http://www.pbase.com/sjackson
FCAS March Winner
We don't see things as they are, we see them as WE are.
 
I love the "afterglow" and the "bouquet toss", but all of them capture a mood beautifully and that is much more important than highlights, shadows, DOF, sharpness and all the other technical difficulties. Very very nice.

You are a brave man indeed to volenteer for such an undertaking :-)

--
Best regards
Jørgen
 
louise parrish said:
Your photographs are great. I like the casual overall look , and
at the same time sophitiscated. They show warmth and a feeling of
friendliness, as opposed to studied photos, with no feelling
whatsoever.
Click to expand...
Music to my ears, Louise :-). Florals & Hummers have been wonderful studies in perspective, natural light, and flash photography, but they're mostly technical exercises, since the subjects are incapable of showing emotion. People pics have been my goal from the start, but I needed the technical background before I could concentrate on expressions instead of the aperture settings.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
PowerPet said:
Frank, this is a real keeper... what a great capture!
Click to expand...
It won't win any contests, because of the blur and the bright stripe of sunshine on the floor that draws the eye, but it's my fave, too. It's a key wedding shot, and you only get one chance at it. I give most of the credit to the DJ, who counted off one-two-THREE for the toss, so I was able to prefocus, and time the shutter to the count. Not only did I catch the bouquet flying out of her hand, I also grabbed some great expressions on the faces of the hopefuls :-).

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
David Chin said:
Could you please share your camera settings?
Click to expand...
David Chin said:
  • JPG / RAW? - fine (lowest compression jpg)
  • Sharpening? - normal
  • Contrast / Tone level? - normal
  • Saturation? - normal
  • White balance? - automatic
  • Metering mode? - mostly spot, though I did use matrix in some of the wide angle shots
Click to expand...
and ISO 100.
David Chin said:
I took some wedding snapshots a couple of weeks ago, and I can
attest to this fact. an using an external flash makes a world of
difference (I used the internal one only)
Click to expand...
I was lucky that the reception hall had a low ceilling, with white acoustic tiles... perfect for bounce flash.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
I think the bride and groom will be happy. Particularly if they didn't have to pay you anything!!! Lord knows these shots are better than the shots from my wedding (too bad I couldn't get married and photograph it at the same time).

How did you like the 5700 for this assignment? Are you still a fellow believer in the power of consumer digicams, or were there a few moments that you wished you had a DSLR during the wedding?

Be honest. ;)
Uncle Frank said:
I did my first wedding yesterday. Boy, it sure is a lot of work,
and a lot of pressure. The couple are friends of mine, and I was
deathly afraid of screwing up, and losing their precious memories.
I shot pictures from noon until 8PM, and ended up with about 300
images to sort and edit. It'll take a week or so to do the job
right, but I worked last night and this morning, so I could upload
a partial gallery for them to share with friends and relatives who
couldn't make the event. Here's a few samples.
Click to expand...
Uncle Frank said:
This will be the last time I volunteer to do a wedding for free, as
I've gained a better appreciation of why wedding photographers
charge so much -lol.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
Click to expand...
 
Rapick said:
Did you work alone, or were you backed-up by other photographers,
as explained in a previous post?
Click to expand...
Four other digital photogs (cp995, oly3030, and 2 sony consumer models) were snapping away enthusiastically from different vantage points. It took a lot of pressure off me. I haven't received their CDs yet, so the gallery is incomplete. I just dread the editing job, though, as I'll bet there's about 1,000 more snaps to go through.
rapick said:
My warm greetings to the happy newlyweds. They look like going very
well with each other.
Click to expand...
It's a great match. At the ceremony, after the pastor had the groom recite the vows, the bride look out at the audience, clapped her hands, and said in a loud and astonished voice, "he said Yes!!!". It had us all ROFL, including the pastor.


rapick said:
--
Rapick
PBase supporter
http://www.pbase.com/rapick
Click to expand...
--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
rustedborg said:
How did you like the 5700 for this assignment? Are you still a
fellow believer in the power of consumer digicams, or were there a
few moments that you wished you had a DSLR during the wedding?
Click to expand...
As far as I'm concerned, the 5700 was perfect for the job. I had the camera around my neck from noon until 8PM. If it had been a dslr, I'd have been looking for a chiropractor on Sunday. And the zoom range allowed me to go from tight shots to a reasonable wide angle in seconds, without lens changes. I took almost all of the pictures in landscape format (due to the need to bounce flash), but 5MP resolution allowed me to crop in portrait format and still have plenty of pixels to print 4x6s, which is standard wedding album size, without upsizing.



My only concern was the flash. I was afraid I might get the dreaded flashing SB indicator failure mode during the shoot. That would have been a disaster.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
Good job, Frank. I used to shoot weddings for the income, but found less anxiety-provoking ways to earn a living. I've thought several times that a wedding, along with a sports event, are two things for which the 5700 is not well suited, so you get extra points in my book.

--
David in Arkansas
(Why do I love photography? I could tell you, but then I'd have to shoot you.)
 
...is particularly pleasing, David. You guys have an appreciation for the chaos of a wedding shoot. I must have had 4 self appointed "art directors" trying to tell me what and how to shoot -lol. All of them meant well, but if I had succumbed to their pressure, it would have been a disaster. As far as equipment is concerned, I was too green to realize the 5700 was unsuitable, so I just made the best I could of it :-).

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
I didn't read this completely but I hope you had a backup gear near by just in case your main camera failed...

I do weddings and take on average 700-1000 images on FILM ... yes on film :)

You can imagine the work involved in editing a wedding book and choosing the right images....

Keep up the good work and if you want grey hair fast ... take up wedding photography :) .... actually it's a very rewarding field of photography... you have no ideas how happy the couples are when they see their photos from that day.

I will be switching to digital but not soon... I hear too many horror stories from the LABS that keep us informed about "digital-photographers" shooting weddings... the colour control is something of great concern and also the speed at which I shoot at.... D2H has been the closest thing that I'll buy unless D2X is announced by the end of the year...

Regards,

Arjh
Uncle Frank said:
...is particularly pleasing, David. You guys have an appreciation
for the chaos of a wedding shoot. I must have had 4 self appointed
"art directors" trying to tell me what and how to shoot -lol. All
of them meant well, but if I had succumbed to their pressure, it
would have been a disaster. As far as equipment is concerned, I
was too green to realize the 5700 was unsuitable, so I just made
the best I could of it :-).

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
Click to expand...
 
...These are outstanding. I congratulate you, both for the results and the courage to accept such a "0 error margin" task.

For the bride and groom, it was clearly a won bet. But how could you accept such responsibility? You must have nerves of steel, lol!

PK

--
“Loose praise may feed my ego but constructive criticism advances my skills”
*************************************************************
-------------------------------------------------
http://www.pbase.com/photokhan
(Pbase Supporter)
 
adanac said:
I didn't read this completely but I hope you had a backup gear near
by just in case your main camera failed...
Click to expand...
I pulled together a team of 4 other photographers to shoot with me. Not only did they provide backup, but we were able to get different perspectives on each of the key events. But your point is well made. It would have been comforting to have a second 5700 in my bag, just in case.
adanac said:
I do weddings and take on average 700-1000 images on FILM ... yes
on film :)
You can imagine the work involved in editing a wedding book and
choosing the right images....
Click to expand...
All together, I'd image we took over 2,000 shots. Even with digital, I'm facing an editing nightmare.
adanac said:
. D2H has been the closest thing that I'll buy unless D2X is
announced by the end of the year...
Click to expand...
If it's delayed, I'd think the d1x might be a better choice than the d2x. Its got 6MP resolution and the capability for 3 fps, with a 9 image buffer. The d2h is configured specifically for the photojournalists and sports photogs.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
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