wedding shoot

wedding, originally uploaded by Maung Maung aka Mexx.

Me and my wife went to shoot this wedding last weekend..
Lots of work.. but its generally very rewarding to see the photos afterwards..
I used 3 cameras.. and learned a few lessons from this shoot..
I bought a new EOS 5D (Full Frame) a few days before this shoot. Usually I shoot RAW exclusively.. but the higher resolution of 5D makes 2 of my 2GB CF holds only 100+ frames each.. and during the event, I switched to JPEG on my 5D. Even though I was shooting JPEG , the picture quality and noise level from 5D is amazingly good.

The other 2 camera were on JPEG and on slightly different color stlye setting as well as in camera clock. The result is it takes more time for me to do the grading to match the colors.. and I cant really sort the pictures by date/time anymore. Next time, I will sync all the camera clocks at one-go commando style. :)

And I didnt know the wedding venue has indoor restaurant. As I already sold my strobes and didnt rent one, I had to shoot a lot of pics with ISO1600 and sometime 3200. As the restaurants has very harsh spotlights, I had to boosted the fill light in Lightroom afterwards.. making the noise very visible and ugly.. then.. Noise Ninja came to save the day..

Thanks to my lovely wife and all the people who helped me out and esp Thi Ha and Ma Wai for trusting me to do the photoshoot on their special day.

Paulina's Wedding

My first wedding shoot.. I knew the bride's friend so I decided to help .. for free .. :)
Another guy, Nay Lin is also assisting me on the shoot.

I brought all the lens but mostly used Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 EX lens and Canon EF 100mm f/2 lens. I also have 580ex II on my camera but I barely use it as I cant bounce of the ceiling and I hate direct flash shots.

I learn a few things on the shoot.. Shooting with assistant is very handy. especially if you don't have multiple camera body. I can switch to prime lens for nice portraits and he can still shoot normal group shots ..also without missing the important events.

I chose to shoot some shots with RAW and some in jpegs as I am afraid I will run out of memory card. I ran into trouble when I grade the photos as color profile and dynamic range are so different between RAW and Jpegs.. so most of my grading presets wont work and I had to create a few from scratch again. So.. I wont shoot another wedding with jpeg.

Also, vertical grip could be handy too.. I realized that after I mounted my 580ex II flash on my EOS 30D, it's difficult to shoot in portrait mode..

And shooting wide open for portrait is beautiful but it's pretty hard to get both bride and groom in focus around 100mm f/2 or 50mm f/1.8 .. Also the chance to get OOF ( out-of-focus ) shot are higher at wide open.

Bike Rider Magazine Shoot

My colleage Jeremy is writing an article for "Bike Riders Magazine" and he need some help taking photos for his article. He's a passionate bike rider and he's writing it for free.. so naturally, the shoot is free. But its an exciting opportunity for me cause I never shot Bikes before and It'll be published in a magazine.

After waiting two weekends for a good weather , we took our chance yesterday under cloudy sky. The shot went pretty well except two things.

First, my cheap Tamron 70-300mm Di LD Macro 's slow focusing challenged me. I used manual exposure mode and servo focus mode to achieve the fast moving looking pics like these.



After that, when I was about to shoot portraits, my optical slave on my SB-24 fails to fire. I was really disappointed. I am actually hoping to get good strobist shots on that shoot.. but well.. I gotta get Cactus V2 radio triggers.. or should I get a 580ex?

With 580Ex and my ST-E2, i can get full wireless E-TTL strobe setup with lighting ratios directly controlable from my camera.. no need to run around and set flash power. Downside? it's infrared based system.. so it need line of sight to work. And of course, its expensive. Even a 2nd hand 580ex mark I will cost $500+.
Cactus V2 seems a decent solution but it'll render my ST-E2 useless and as I said, I have to adjust flash power manually. I don't mind doing that but its a hassle going back and forth between strobes and camera. But I think its the price to pay for being a strobist on the cheap. :)

As you can see.. it'll be nice to have second strobe to use as Fill or back light..

This shot looks okay without the strobes but it'd be better with strobes in my opinion.
Anyway.. more photos in my picassa album.. check it out.. and feel free to leave a comment here or in my shout box of the left.

Photoshoot

Last nite, Theo and Jude came over to take some photos for their parents.
Even though I've been playing around with strobes lately, its a really good experience for me. Working with people is something I have to work on. I realized I am not really ready for a real shoot. They are fun and friendly to shoot but the problem is I was hesitant to direct them as they are friends. Another this is I should take more time in setting up strobes and angle but I was somehow rushing the shoot. I should do so for upcoming shoots.

Another problem is the limited working space. We wanted to try getting some low key moody portraits but
1. the room is too small and have light colored walls / ceiling so they are all acting like reflectors.
2. I cant move my strobes closer to them to overcome that problem because I don't have a soft box or umbrella to diffuse the light when I place it close.

Anyway.. here are some of them. I am not totally satisfied but there's lesson to be learn and I will improve on it next time. Cheers.