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Very impressive series of shots and quite the good read.
Those last cloudly sky shots are definatly breathtaking!
Glad to see that you used a variety of equipment and methods as well. Bouncing on camera flash can work wonders and your shots cleary showcase this.
sometimes too many people on this site lock themselves into methods that dont work in some situations because they have such a "on camera bad, off camera good" mantra. Or belive that manual flash with PW's is the only acceptable method etc.
Both are well and good, but a good photographer will make use of any and all tools at his/her disposal and adapt whatever means best suit the shots needs. Things can always go wrong and if your PW stops working etc, you need to know how to throw the flash on the hotshoe and finish the wedding.
Posted 67 months ago.
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wow, really beautifull pictures,
"sometimes too many people on this site lock themselves into methods that dont work in some situations because they have such a "on camera bad, off camera good" mantra. Or belive that manual flash with PW's is the only acceptable method etc. "
i totally agree with that
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really impressive! wow. last two are my faves.
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I shot my first wedding and seemed that I did everything wrong. The B&G loved the photos, but i was still frustrated with my performance. Your recollection brings back the memories. Your shots are 100x better than mine. I'm absolutely in love with those shots in the field!
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Awesome. I especially love the last two, but the others are very nice.
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The first of the two bridal party shots is my favourite. I really like the arrangement of people, and the backdrop is gorgeous. Looks like a beautiful place to have a wedding.
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Fantastic shots!
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Kenneth Armstrong [deleted] says:
What I love is you tried so many different styles of wedding photography. Most photographers stick with what they know and don't veer into the unknown. You took some big risks and it seems to have paid off. You should be very proud to add those shots to your portfolio.
Posted 67 months ago.
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Another comment on the last two shots, while amazing, you really dont need an umbrella outdoors. Its not really doing anything to change the quality of light or soften it since its just acting as a fill.
you could of just set your 420ex to 24mm and gotten the same results with your flash working a bit less hard.
really the only reason I bring it up is working with umbrellas outdoors, especially with an approaching storm is never fun. I've had those things go flying before.
Posted 67 months ago.
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Great shots, and an impressive variety too. I bet your friends were delighted.
Posted 67 months ago.
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Absolutely great work.
You are right about choosing the right techniques for the given circumstances. Bouncing an on camera flash certainly isn't a bad thing but it takes a while untill you become good at it.
I think all the shots you showed us are great but the first bridal party is just STUNNING.
Posted 67 months ago.
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inspirational stuff. I was lucky enough to hit strobist before I did my first civil partnership. it made a major difference to the way I approached the whole shoot but this?... this is absolutely amazing.
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Inspirational work!
I love the ones of the groomsmen on the wagon.
Fantastic!
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Wow - your first time!
What an eye - you're an inspiration to us newbies!
The images shot in the field are exquisite - love how you adapted to the conditions and took advantage of the bold clouds!
A testimony to planning, preparation, and practice.
Your shots are stunning - WOW
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Absolutely fabulous shots...
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Curious, what lens did you use on the wide angle group shot? I love the aspect ratio of the image.
What kills me about the composition is how the darker clouds frame the bride's head in this particular shot.
Nice, nice work.
Eric
Originally posted 67 months ago.
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ericrudd edited this topic 67 months ago.
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ericrudd: Just look at the EXIF details provided by flickr, it appears to have been a 17mm on a Canon 5d (full-frame body)
I agree absolutely on the comments I've seen so far -- stunning pictures, and I guess I know what I'll see on POTW this Friday ;)
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Bravo!
Did you take any of the outdoor shots without flash so you'd be able to show a comparison?
Were I them, I'd be delighted with these results.
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Eric.. it looks like a 17-40mm wide angle... but you have to understand he was using a 5D camera which has a full frame sensor and not an APC-S Crop Sensor... so his wide angles will be a little wider...well maybe alot wider
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Good stuff!
If i had to make one criticism, it would be that in the wide angle group shots with the dramatic clouds, I'm not sure of I like the halo around the people where the cloud detail is not burned in . . . but I suspect that the result posted is very likely the most tasteful way of putting these images together, with the burned in clouds.
Originally posted 67 months ago.
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NikonErik edited this topic 67 months ago.
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The photos are fantastic, whatever they paid you probably wasn't enough!
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Those black and white shots are delicate and beautiful, too.
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The dry field shots are quite special ... y'know, in America you'd get about 7 minutes to take those bridal party portraits ... and forget about going to unique location. I really wish our couples could get more Down Under with the photo time & locations.
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Good job! You should be proud.
on a side note: Oi! They look like kids!!!! Great googly moogly, I'm getting old.......
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I hope I do half as well at my niece's wedding in January...
Posted 67 months ago.
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Thanks everyone for the very kind comments... and also thanks to those who posted individual comments on the photos.
As I said, I'm really pleased with how these came out. I've been checking the strobist site daily, and reading this forum. I've really learnt a lot from you guys in the past few months.
Most weddings in Australia have a good gap between the ceremony and reception. In my case, the ceremony was at 4:30pm and the reception was at 6:30pm. That gives us plenty of time for family group shots and then we head somewhere nice for the bridal party shots. The location on this farming property was just gorgeous.
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MillsArt Photography said:
Another comment on the last two shots, while amazing, you really dont need an umbrella outdoors. Its not really doing anything to change the quality of light or soften it since its just acting as a fill.
you could of just set your 420ex to 24mm and gotten the same results with your flash working a bit less hard.
really the only reason I bring it up is working with umbrellas outdoors, especially with an approaching storm is never fun. I've had those things go flying before.
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Thanks for this tip. The umbrella fell over at least 6 times during the shoot. Luckily no damage. I will have to do some testing to see what difference modifiers make to fill light. I might post the results in a separate thread. For the wedding party shots, the flash was actually a major light source so I was glad to have the umbrella to soften things a bit (the subjects were backlit).
Certainly for sunlit faces a bare speedlight will fill quite nicely. Do you think it makes a difference to have the fill light off camera in bright sun?
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ericrudd said:
Curious, what lens did you use on the wide angle group shot? I love the aspect ratio of the image.
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The lens was a Tamron 17-35. I shot wide to get as much of the sky in as possible. Then I cropped to get a 3:1 or 2:1 ratio. The wide lens allowed me to stay fairly close to the group so that my ST-E2 would still fire the flash. Also gives an amazing perpective.
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carlos.benjamin said:
Did you take any of the outdoor shots without flash so you'd be able to show a comparison?
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One of my mates in the briday party had a Canon 400D with kit lens. He only just got the camera and is just starting out with digital photography. Here are some links to his photos of the same scene. Good comparison to see what difference the light makes. Also I shot in RAW and did more post processing.
www.flickr.com/photos/chrisandaggie/291448991/
www.flickr.com/photos/chrisandaggie/291448989/
www.flickr.com/photos/chrisandaggie/291438705/
www.flickr.com/photos/chrisandaggie/291449001/
This one is with pop up flash for fill.
www.flickr.com/photos/chrisandaggie/291434039/
I'll see if I can dig up some of my non flashed shots.
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NikonErik says:
If i had to make one criticism, it would be that in the wide angle group shots with the dramatic clouds, I'm not sure of I like the halo around the people where the cloud detail is not burned in . . . but I suspect that the result posted is very likely the most tasteful way of putting these images together, with the burned in clouds.
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Thanks for the honest opinion. I will add that the light you see was not achieved entirely by stobe and ambient alone. They got me close and I wouldn't have been able to duplicate the photos without my strobist knowledge. I did burn the sky a little and needed to lighten the foreground using layers in Photoshop.
The haloing was intentional in a way. I am not very good at masking and to do it right takes ages. Not good when you are doing 500 photos. When I try to mask on the edges of a subject I always either get a thin bright rim around the subject or a thin dark rim on the subject. To get around this I use a large soft brush to lighten the foreground and a fair area around it too. It can give a pleasing effect, especially here where the bride contrasts against a white background.
Thanks again for all the comments. Much appreciated.
Originally posted 67 months ago.
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..Kev.. edited this topic 67 months ago.
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on a side note on masking, there is a great tutorial about doing it here: Russel Brown tutorial on masking.
Posted 67 months ago.
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Very nice!!
Man... I need to get a 5D :)
Posted 67 months ago.
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Kev ... Really great work on those outdoor shots (as so many have said). I'm curious about the spacing of the people on this one (http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevyong/309177187/) -- the wide angle. How far about were they? I guess I'm a bit surprised the strobe into the umbrella could cover all 6 people in the image. That's impressive.
Tim
Posted 67 months ago.
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Yeah, I'd like to see flashless shots taken with the same camera. Maybe you could also post some without all the post processing. It would be nice to see an as-shot with and without flash for comparison. That way we're getting to see specifically what difference the lighting makes. I think that would be most helpful to all strobists, but especially the beginners.
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what an awesome sharing... love it!!
great photos tooo..
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Great shots! My only nit would be the ceremony shots where you were shooting with a very high ISO(the exif says 1250). I can clearly see quite a bit of noise in the grooms suit. I've never used it, but I hear noise ninja(or some such name) works wonders removing it.
Oh, and BTW, the middle B&W portrait you have listed until number 2 above is a fabulous shot. Wonderful sharpness and details while at the same time soft and dreamy. Any bride would be lucky to get such a portrait!
Originally posted 67 months ago.
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AlwaysJanuary (Randy) edited this topic 67 months ago.
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Kev these are stunning, truly inspiring photos! Thanks for sharing!
Posted 67 months ago.
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Thanks again for all the kind comments...
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oaxoax said:
I guess I'm a bit surprised the strobe into the umbrella could cover all 6 people in the image. That's impressive.
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The strobe only really covered the bride. I did some photoshop painting with light to bring up the other people. On closer inspection, it looks that the umbrella was pointing down a little too far. The grass is quite lit, and the light is starting to fall off on the brides face.
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WriterOfLight said:
My only nit would be the ceremony shots where you were shooting with a very high ISO(the exif says 1250). I can clearly see quite a bit of noise in the grooms suit. I've never used it, but I hear noise ninja(or some such name) works wonders removing it.
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I agree. It was really quite dark and I was using a 28-135IS lens at f/5.6. Had to crank up the ISO to avoid movement blur. I would have been better off using my 35L or 50 or 85 but I wanted the zoom to capture all the action. I think I would have been more pleased with image quality using primes, but the couple don't seem to see the issue as much but are glad to have the variety of shots.
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carlos.benjamin says:
Yeah, I'd like to see flashless shots taken with the same camera. Maybe you could also post some without all the post processing. It would be nice to see an as-shot with and without flash for comparison.
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Did you see the links I posted above.
I've also gone back to the original RAW files and uploaded some samples.....
Here are some No Flash/Flash comparisons. Straight from raw processor. I dialed in some exposure compensation so that the exposures were similar...
 
 
-- More photos from the wedding at my Pbase gallery... www.pbase.com/kevyong/davepipwedding&page=all --
Originally posted 67 months ago.
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..Kev.. edited this topic 67 months ago.
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Monkey pushover tree: that masking tutorial is fantastic... Thankyou!
Posted 67 months ago.
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Dude, that borders on fine art!
Nice stuff.
Posted 67 months ago.
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What a difference the light makes between the last 2. Wow...
Posted 67 months ago.
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I'm glad this thread led me to making a comparison. Good learning exercise to go back and dissect the images. I had pretty much culled most of my shots that the flash misfired on.
chadworthman says:
What a difference the light makes between the last 2.
Chad, I think I had increased the flash EC and dialed down the ambient a touch for the last photo in the examples above.
The first 2 pairs don't show as much difference as the ambiet and flash exposure were quite similar. The slight adjustment for the latter image really brought in some drama with the increased contrast.
Dave...your compliment has made my day... Thanks!
I still wonder about the comments by MillsArt above about the need for an umbrella. Does it make a difference in this scenario or could I have used a bare flash? Any comments from other strobists on this? I will do my own testing when I get a chance...
Originally posted 67 months ago.
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..Kev.. edited this topic 67 months ago.
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I understood that, all things equal, the further away the light from the subject, the harder the light will be. So if the flash is 20+ feet away from the average person, there won't be much difference between a light softened in an umbrella and a bare flash.
The sun is immense, but here on earth it casts a very hard light. I think there's a page in David's lighting 101 on this topic.
Posted 67 months ago.
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Kev-
If that's the case, you might want to check out the main site's front page tonight...
Posted 67 months ago.
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Dude, that's what I'm talking about......
It's great to see the difference. The bride's dress just absolutely pops with flash and the bridesmaids' dresses literally shimmer.
Hey, you're semi-famous now!
Posted 67 months ago.
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Those last two outdoor shots in your first post are stunning. I absolutely love them. Well done.
You've set a high bar for whenever I do my first wedding. :)
Posted 67 months ago.
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Actually, just looking at more in your photo stream and yeah, you got a lot of great shots in that lovely field. Excellent.
Posted 67 months ago.
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Wow. Can't believe this made it to the strobist blog. What an honour. Thank you. I really appreciate all the effort that goes into the strobist blog.
I was just re-reading my thread back at the start of September when I started preparing for the wedding. Very cool to remind myself of the questions I had back then, and realise how much I have learnt leading up to the wedding. Thanks again to Carlos and others for the advice.
www.flickr.com/groups/strobist/discuss/72157594274537437/
Posted 67 months ago.
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Kev: mucho conga-rats.. I think that your luck with that riveting sky is huge.. the sky has an emotional element that would be lacking on a clear day.. its part of the wedding party if you will. To put it another way, you took a wagon full of lemons and made some wicked lemondrop cocktails.
I dont know if you have done so but you should share in the wedding photography group ( www.flickr.com/groups/weddingphoto/ )
Originally posted 67 months ago.
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nikaboyce edited this topic 67 months ago.
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wow man, your work is ace.
really amazing every time I look closer at it.
congrats
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Posted 67 months ago.
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Kev, what is the distance between the umbrella and the group?
Posted 67 months ago.
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amazing work... kudos!
Posted 67 months ago.
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Kev,
these are brilliant. Seen them yesterday while at work and I'm glad that you have now made the official storbist page as well, the ultimate badge of honour :)
I have one question regarding the lighting, how did you balance/meter the sky against the wedding party? i have been trying for ages to get this right and it is a case of hit and miss (more miss than hit). is there a certain ratio to be observed? I've trawled to the strobist archives, but I can't find what i'm looking for.
Posted 67 months ago.
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billrogers945 [deleted] says:
Wonderful photos. I am jealous.
You were missing one very important piece of equipment, however - a backup camera & lens. Perhaps someone else made this point - I did not read every comment.
Here in the USA, we have an imaginary character, Edsel Murphy, the author of Murphy's Law - "If anything can possibly go wrong, it will, and always at the worst possible time." I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Mr. Murphy has a cousin in Oz.
Oh, and your rule #5 - "It's all about the couple - especially the bride." In my experience, the mix is 99% bride, 1% groom.
Originally posted 67 months ago.
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billrogers945 edited this topic 67 months ago.
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Bill
Excellent point, well made....
A back up camera and a good insurance policy, always a neccesity when venturing into wedding photography...especially paid work.
Paul
www.paulsaxby.co.uk
Posted 67 months ago.
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Cheers Guys...
Yes I had a backup camera. My trusty 10D was in the bag loaded with batteries and CF card ready to leap into action. Luckily was not needed. I did shoot in the rain and my camera and flash got quite wet but kept working without dramas.
Ed - the stand was about 4 meters from the group - just out of frame.
Ishootblue - I had the camera in M mode for most of the day if not all day. When setting up a shot like that group shot, I meter the sky with the flash off - spot meter. I set for a mid tone exposure then chimp a shot. I'll tweak the exposure until the sky looks right on the screen. Usually takes 2-3 shots. - real quick. I did this as we were walking across the field - see the 3rd image in the group above. Then I turn on the flash. It's easy with ETTL. Take a test shot - chimp - then dial in FEC to taste. Then start telling the group to smile :) ... I would have a lot of trouble doing this confidently on film. Hope this makes sense.
Posted 67 months ago.
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thanks for the info Kev, I will need to see if I can make some time this weekend and try it out.
Posted 67 months ago.
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Kevin,
Those images are breathtaking. I saw them while at work yesterday and spent a lot of time admiring. Not much I can say that hasn't been said :)
Great job! I am glad your first wedding shoot turned out a success!!
Posted 67 months ago.
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Here's a masking tutorial I wrote and posted. It's very good for when your boundary is irregular and complex . . .
www.photochimper.com/forum/showthread.php?p=6378&post...
Posted 67 months ago.
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Definitely amazing!
Posted 67 months ago.
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Here I want to note that more than the lighting setup and the fill-in exposure balancing, Kev has done a great job on composition, usage of tone and color contrast, original point-of-view, just to name a few.
This isn't a technique you (Kev) learnt at Strobist, it is something that is at the heart of the photographic language and it is what makes difference between yours and "ordinary" wedding pics, and that attracted so much appreciations here.
So I can guess you already know how to use the camera at best to make very nice pics.
Flash usage tecniques completed your knowledge, resulting in the really great job you show here, one I'd like to be the subject of.
Sincere envy for your work !!!
;-)
Donato
Posted 67 months ago.
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I'll add my voice to the chorus of praise for the second shot of the bridal party. Stunning.
This one made me chuckle:
Might not be perfectly composed, but it's great observation to pick up on the cross-braces and then imagination to use it as the idea for a pose.
Respect :-)
Posted 67 months ago.
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Awesome! Thanks for sharing this with the group!!!
Posted 67 months ago.
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Fantastic, Very useful tips!
Posted 65 months ago.
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these photos are wonderful, especiall the three in the field. i really enjoyed the way you walked us though the shoot and your mental process of dealing with the unexpected.
Posted 65 months ago.
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Man, I love those last couple shots! :)
Posted 61 months ago.
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