The Best of Wedding Photography.pdf - Free

TOP—With a 17mm lens on his D1X, Michael Schuhmann created this
wonderful image of wedding guests dancing by using a 1/10 second shutter
speed at f/3.5. This was the exposure of the ambient light. Using the
strobe at that shutter speed/aperture allowed the two exposures to
match. The reason the faces are red is because the flash exposure is mixing
with the ambient light exposure, which is a much warmer color
temperature due to the tungsten room lights. ABOVE—One of the benefits
of the newer DSLRs is the higher flash-sync speeds—up to 1/500 second.
Scott Eklund created this wonderful wide-angle shot of the bride
and groom with the bride’s veil blowing in the breeze and in front of
the lens. Scott simply matched his flash output to his daylight exposure
to record both exposures simultaneously.
subjects up in a straight line and back up so that you are
far away from the group, all subjects will be rendered
sharply at almost any aperture. At a distance, however, the
subjects are small in the frame. For a better image, you
must move closer to the group, making those at the ends
of the group proportionately farther away from the lens
than those in the middle of the lineup. Those farthest from
the lens will be difficult to keep in focus. The solution is to
bend the group, making the middle of the group step back
and the ends of the group step forward so that all of the
42 THE BEST OF WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
people in the group are the same relative distance from the
camera. To the camera, the group looks like a straight line,
but you have actually distorted the plane of sharpness to
accommodate the group.
THE RIGHT SHUTTER SPEED
You must choose a shutter speed that stills both camera
and subject movement. If using a tripod, a shutter speed
of 1/15 to 1/60 second should be adequate to stop average
subject movement. If you are using electronic flash, you
are locked into the flash-sync speed your camera calls for—
unless you are “dragging” the shutter. Dragging the shutter
means working at a slower-than-flash-sync speed to
bring up the level of the ambient light. This effectively creates
a balanced flash exposure with the ambient exposure.
35mm SLRs and DSLRs use a focal-plane shutter,
which produces an X-sync speed for electronic flash use of
1/60 to 1/500 second. Using the technique of “dragging the
shutter” you can shoot at any shutter speed slower than
the X-sync speed and still maintain flash synchronization.
If you shoot at a shutter speed faster than the X-sync
speed, the flash will only partially expose the film frame.
Outdoors, you should normally choose a shutter speed
faster than 1/60 second, because even a slight breeze will
cause the subjects’ hair to flutter, producing motion during
the moment of exposure.
When handholding the camera, you should use the reciprocal
of the focal length of the lens you are using for a
shutter speed. For example, if using a 100mm lens, use 1/100
second (or the next highest equivalent shutter speed, like
1/125 second) under average conditions. If you are very close
to the subjects, as you might be when making a portrait of
a couple, you will need to use an even faster shutter speed
because of the increased image magnification. When working
farther from the subject, you can revert to the shutter
speed that is the reciprocal of your lens’s focal length.
A great technical improvement is the development of
image stabilization lenses, which correct for camera movement
and allow you to shoot handheld with long lenses
and slower shutter speeds. Canon and Nikon, two companies
that currently offer this feature in some of their lenses,
manufacture a wide variety of zooms and long focal length
lenses with image stabilization. If using a zoom, for instance,
which has a maximum aperture of f/4, you can still
shoot handheld wide open in subdued light at 1/10 or 1/15
second and get dramatically sharp results. The benefit is