The Best of Wedding Photography.pdf - Free

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Long lenses stack the perspective, making near and far objects seem closer together because of the narrower angle of view. Here Mercury Megaloudis photographed bride and groom strolling through a vineyard in winter. The effect is a dreary scene made joyful by the couple’s presence. lens keeps people in the back of the group the same relative size as those in the front of the group. When space doesn’t permit the use of a longer lens, short lenses must be used, but you should be aware that the subjects in the front row of a large group will appear larger than those in the back—especially if you get too close. Extreme wide-angle lenses will distort the subjects’ appearance, particularly those closest to the frame edges. Raising the camera height, thus placing all subjects at the same relative distance from the lens, can minimize some of this effect. Also, the closer to the center of the frame the people are, the less distorted they will appear. Conversely, you can use a much longer lens if you have the working room. A 200mm lens, for instance, is a beautiful portrait lens for the 35mm format because it provides very shallow depth of field and throws the background completely out of focus, providing a backdrop that won’t distract viewers from the subjects. When used at wider apertures, this focal length provides a very shallow band of focus that can be used to accentuate just the eyes, for instance, or just the frontal planes of the faces. Very long lenses (300mm and longer for 35mm) can sometimes distort perspective. With them, the subject’s features appear compressed. Depending on the working distance, the nose may appear pasted onto the subject’s face, and the ears may appear parallel to the eyes. While lenses this long normally prohibit communication in a posed portrait, they are ideal for working unobserved as a wedding photojournalist often does. You can make headand-shoulders images from a long distance away. When making three-quarter- or full-length group portraits, it is best to use the normal focal length lens for your camera. This lens will provide normal perspective because you will be at a greater working distance from your subjects than you would be when making a close-up portrait. It is tricky sometimes to blur the background with a normal focal length lens, since the background is in close proximity to the subjects. If forced to use a normal or short lens, you can always blur the background elements later in Photoshop using selective blurring. With longer lenses you can isolate your subjects from the background because of the working distance and image size. When making group portraits, you are often forced to use a wide-angle lens. In this case, the background problems noted above can be even more pronounced. Still, a wide angle is often the only way you can fit the group into the shot and maintain a decent working distance. For this reason, many group photographers carry a stepladder or scope out the location in advance to find a high vantage point, if called for. CAMERA TECHNIQUE 39
TOP—J.B. Sallee used a 70mm lens to provide a good working distance and make all the verticals straight. ABOVE—When using a wide-angle lens you must center the subjects or they will distort, the closer they are positioned to the frame edges. A relatively slow shutter speed like 1/30 second sharply captures the couple inside the car but blurs the scene outside the moving car. Photograph by Marcus Bell. RIGHT—Short, fast telephotos produce “strands” of focus when used wide open. Here, Joe Buissink wanted only the bride’s eyes and some of the veil to be sharp. DEPTH OF FIELD The closer you are to your subjects with any lens, the less depth of field you will have at any given aperture. When you are shooting a tight image of faces, be sure that you have enough depth of field at your working lens aperture to hold the focus on all the faces. Learn the characteristics of your lenses. You should know what to expect in the way of depth of field, at your most frequently used lens apertures, which for most group shots will be f/5.6, f/8, and f/11. Some photographers tend to use only one or two favorite apertures when they shoot. Norman Phillips, for instance, prefers f/8 over f/11 40 THE BEST OF WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY (for shooting group portraits), even though f/11 affords substantially more depth of field than f/8. He prefers the relationship between the sharply focused subject and the background at f/8, saying that the subjects at f/11 look “chiseled out of stone.”
Page 1: WEDDING The Best of PHOTOGRAPHY Amh
Page 4 and 5: INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 6 and 7: T his is the third edition of The B
Page 8 and 9: 1. THE EVOLUTION OF WEDDING PHOTOGR
Page 11 and 12: WEDDING PHOTOJOURNALISM: A MODIFIED
Page 13 and 14: things happen spontaneously and use
Page 15: 2. THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER’S MIN
Page 19 and 20: Joe Buissink has been known to work
Page 21 and 22: ABOVE—The photographer must be al
Page 23 and 24: LEFT—Greg Gibson has a finely hon
Page 25 and 26: Michael Schuhmann created this wond
Page 27 and 28: The slower the film speed or digita
Page 29 and 30: of four or five areas of the viewfi
Page 31 and 32: 30 THE BEST OF WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
Page 33 and 34: ity or file size, it does affect le
Page 35 and 36: From outside the reception, Jerry D
Page 37 and 38: flash. Falloff is less than with ot
Page 39: 4. CAMERA TECHNIQUE Whether you’v
Page 43 and 44: TOP—With a 17mm lens on his D1X,
Page 45 and 46: LEFT—A tricky exposure situation
Page 47 and 48: Since most wedding photographers op
Page 49 and 50: This is a beautiful pose created by
Page 51 and 52: LEFT—Marcus Bell created this han
Page 53 and 54: Tom Muñoz has a great deal of resp
Page 55 and 56: LEFT—There is something special a
Page 57 and 58: form the pattern. They are used to
Page 59 and 60: Marcus Bell is brilliant at posing
Page 61 and 62: On location, sometimes you can find
Page 63: LEFT—The natural lighting pattern
Page 66 and 67: from the camera lens. It is a drama
Page 68 and 69: ecommended unless your only concern
Page 70: Backlighting with direct sunlight c
Page 73 and 74: TOP—David Worthington created thi
Page 75: ABOVE—Melanie Nashan captured the
Page 79 and 80: Metering and Exposure. Here is how
Page 81 and 82: Al Gordon is a virtuoso of flash fi
Page 83 and 84: the light, you’ll find that it is
Page 85 and 86: BUILD A GOOD RELATIONSHIP Alisha an
Page 87: his best man. Bridesmaids will arri
Page 90 and 91:
As part of the wedding photography,
Page 93 and 94:
LEFT—Working as a pair or trio of
Page 95 and 96:
What couple would not be thrilled w
Page 97 and 98:
LEFT—Joe Photo always makes it a
Page 99 and 100:
10. HELPFUL TIPS The following is a
Page 102 and 103:
THE BOUQUET Make sure a large bouqu
Page 105 and 106:
REMEMBERING NAMES Photographer Fran
Page 107 and 108:
11. PROOFING AND PRINTING T here ar
Page 109 and 110:
ABOVE—Very few truly romantic ima
Page 111 and 112:
Learning to recognize shapes as pag
Page 113 and 114:
Three very simple images and a bold
Page 115 and 116:
album-page layouts in Photoshop. Th
Page 117 and 118:
Dream a Little. With digital, we ha
Page 119 and 120:
David Williams brings sophisticatio
Page 121 and 122:
THE PHOTOGRAPHERS T o illustrate th
Page 123 and 124:
Charles and Jennifer Maring—Charl
Page 125 and 126:
INDEX A Albums, 109-18 design princ
Page 127 and 128:
Also by Bill Hurter . . . OTHER BOO
Page 129:
Joe Buissink Ron Capobianco Anthony
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