Wedding Photography

[Carbon_D]

Hello everyone.
I have a few questions about Wedding Photography. I'm going to be an assistant at a few wedding shoots, which is great, i'm excited. I understand I should have a lens with the widest aperture, i.e 2.8 or lower. My lowest is 3.5 @ 18 and 75mm. I'm wanting to buy a 2.8 zoom, but I cant afford the auto focus lens, so I would buy Manual. I know manual is best for getting the DOF you want. But is manual quick enough for a wedding?

Any input on this would be greatly appreciated. =]

 

[KmH]

Hello everyone.
I have a few questions about Wedding Photography. I'm going to be an assistant at a few wedding shoots, which is great, i'm excited. I understand I should have a lens with the widest aperture, i.e 2.8 or lower. My lowest is 3.5 @ 18 and 75mm. I'm wanting to buy a 2.8 zoom, but I cant afford the auto focus lens, so I would buy Manual. I know manual is best for getting the DOF you want. But is manual quick enough for a wedding?

Any input on this would be greatly appreciated. =]

It could be if your camera has the right kind of focusing screen.

Because of auto focus cameras no longer have split focusing screens that greatly aided manual focusing. They can be changed though.

The other issue with manual focus is that it takes practice to get wedding quality good at it.

The other part of the fast glass needed to shooting weddings equation is a camera body that has good high ISO performance.

Here is where to find the right kind of focusing screen to aid manual focusing: KatzEye™ Optics - Custom Focusing Screens

 

[Carbon_D]

Thats great advice, only problem with the site is they don't support Sony/Minolta. I'll try to look else where.

Bottom line is its alright to use Manual focus, you just need to be good at it?

 

[IgsEMT]

Just wondering, if you will be an assistant, why do you need a camera? I started out as an assistant and haven't touched a camera for about 3 yrs until I was ready to shoot. My assistants don't bring their cameras to the job either. So are you a shooting assistant or an assistant. B/c as a shooting assistant you should know the answer to your question.

 

[Carbon_D]

Shooting assistant. The Photographer knows I am an amateur and that this is my first event. She only wants me for the extra pictures. As for knowing the answer, i'm pretty sure about it, I just wanted some confirmation as I only have AF/MF lenses. I use the MF all the time, i'm just leary about a MF only lens

 

[KmH]

Thats great advice, only problem with the site is they don't support Sony/Minolta. I'll try to look else where.

Bottom line is its alright to use Manual focus, you just need to be good at it?

Unfortunately, there is no elsewhere that I know of.

You'll find most 3rd party companies don't offer much in the way of products for Sony cameras.

Sony just doesn't sell enough cameras to justify the time, effort, and expense of developing products for them.

The photographer you will be shooting for is who you should be asking about using manual focus lenses. It doesn't matter to us.

 

[SCraig]

Thats great advice, only problem with the site is they don't support Sony/Minolta. I'll try to look else where.

Bottom line is its alright to use Manual focus, you just need to be good at it?

Autofocus has been around for 10 years or so. Wedding photographers used manual focus for about a hundred years before that. I would have to say that, yes, it is most assuredly OK to use manual focus at a wedding.

 

[ClickAddict]

This was from 2 years ago. I think the wedding has already happened by now.

 

[2WheelPhoto]

This was from 2 years ago. I think the wedding has already happened by now.

+1

If I was a betting man, I'd put money on "divorce has already been finalized"

 

[cgipson1]

I am assuming that someone reported that spammer that opened this old thread?

 

[SCraig]

I am assuming that someone reported that spammer that opened this old thread?

I suspect you're right. Sorry guys, it showed up as a new post and I responded. Guess I'll have to pay more attention to the dates

 

[Mike_E]

For anyone else who's thinking about something like this.. NEVER take a new piece of equipment to a Job especially weddings!

Unless it's a direct replacement for a piece you are already familiar with that is.

Weddings are no place for on the job training on the equipment.

 

[TCampbell]

I should caution you on the whole "manual" thing. I would not spend money on an old manual focus lens when what you need is an auto-focus lens ... hoping to get by until you can afford the right lens. That just means you're going to buy two lenses... the lens you really don't want, eventually followed by the lens you really wanted to buy in the first place.

It isn't necessarily that you wont have time to focus manually (it's not like wedding photography is a sport), it's more that the you find it surprisingly difficult to do so accurately.

A modern DSLR commonly has an APS-C size sensor. That means the viewfinder is also sized proportionately. If you could compare the viewfinder on a modern DSLR to an older 35mm film camera you'd find the modern camera's viewfinder is noticeably smaller and dimmer (unless the DSLR is a "full frame" camera.)

When I did weddings, we used a medium format film camera and of course there's no automatic anything on those cameras -- including focus. So we did manually focus every shot, but it's a lot easier to manually focus when you've got a giant focusing screen on a medium format camera.

Also... to say we "focused" is a bit mis-leading. What we _really_ did was set up for the shot.

Since _everything_ is manual, that means the flashes are also manual. There were two of them... when you use a manual flash, the light output is consistent. Since light naturally spreads out as distance from the flash increases, that means more distant subjects don't get as much light as nearby subjects. You compensate by using the camera's f-stop. That means that for any given distance, there's a specific f-stop we always use. This is SO consistent, btw, that we put small stickers around the focus ring showing the f-stop that corresponds to that shooting distance.

Now suppose I'm going to shoot each member of the wedding party dancing. Here's how that works: I'm going to stand about 6' away and take "half-shots" of each couple (waist-up) dancing together. So I set up the shot by turning the focus ring to 6', where my sticker shows that I need to use f/16. I turn the aperture ring to f/16. I walk out and tap the couple, ask them to turn, face the camera, and PAUSE (I don't want them swaying in and out while I'm trying to shoot a manually focused shot.) I don't touch the focusing ring. Instead I'll move forward or backward by perhaps a few inches to frame in and focus. At f/16 I've got a lot of depth of field to work with and on a medium format camera there wont be any hint of the image being diffraction limited. It will be nicely focused.

Assuming an indoor reception, there will be dinner, they'll dim the lights, and then the dancing begins. When the lights are dim it will be PARTICULARLY difficult to focus -- especially with an APS-C camera. We had modeling lights built into the flashes (Norman makes a manual flash which is portable (the giant battery is about the size of a lunch-box and you wear it on a shoulder-strap) and it has a modeling light. But it's a fairly expensive flash.)

Today I shoot with a Canon DSLR and I have a dedicated external flash. The FLASH (not the camera) has a "focus assist beam" built-in. That means when I can't see to focus and the camera can't see to focus, the flash will emit it's red focus-assist beam and the camera will be able to lock focus. That minor (but _extremely_ useful feature for a wedding photographer) is one of the many reasons why the brand-name flash costs a little more than the 3rd party flash.

Don't forget... you can rent gear.

 

[pixmedic]

I should caution you on the whole "manual" thing. I would not spend money on an old manual focus lens when what you need is an auto-focus lens ... hoping to get by until you can afford the right lens. That just means you're going to buy two lenses... the lens you really don't want, eventually followed by the lens you really wanted to buy in the first place.

It isn't necessarily that you wont have time to focus manually (it's not like wedding photography is a sport), it's more that the you find it surprisingly difficult to do so accurately.

A modern DSLR commonly has an APS-C size sensor. That means the viewfinder is also sized proportionately. If you could compare the viewfinder on a modern DSLR to an older 35mm film camera you'd find the modern camera's viewfinder is noticeably smaller and dimmer (unless the DSLR is a "full frame" camera.)

When I did weddings, we used a medium format film camera and of course there's no automatic anything on those cameras -- including focus. So we did manually focus every shot, but it's a lot easier to manually focus when you've got a giant focusing screen on a medium format camera.

Also... to say we "focused" is a bit mis-leading. What we _really_ did was set up for the shot.

Since _everything_ is manual, that means the flashes are also manual. There were two of them... when you use a manual flash, the light output is consistent. Since light naturally spreads out as distance from the flash increases, that means more distant subjects don't get as much light as nearby subjects. You compensate by using the camera's f-stop. That means that for any given distance, there's a specific f-stop we always use. This is SO consistent, btw, that we put small stickers around the focus ring showing the f-stop that corresponds to that shooting distance.

Now suppose I'm going to shoot each member of the wedding party dancing. Here's how that works: I'm going to stand about 6' away and take "half-shots" of each couple (waist-up) dancing together. So I set up the shot by turning the focus ring to 6', where my sticker shows that I need to use f/16. I turn the aperture ring to f/16. I walk out and tap the couple, ask them to turn, face the camera, and PAUSE (I don't want them swaying in and out while I'm trying to shoot a manually focused shot.) I don't touch the focusing ring. Instead I'll move forward or backward by perhaps a few inches to frame in and focus. At f/16 I've got a lot of depth of field to work with and on a medium format camera there wont be any hint of the image being diffraction limited. It will be nicely focused.

Assuming an indoor reception, there will be dinner, they'll dim the lights, and then the dancing begins. When the lights are dim it will be PARTICULARLY difficult to focus -- especially with an APS-C camera. We had modeling lights built into the flashes (Norman makes a manual flash which is portable (the giant battery is about the size of a lunch-box and you wear it on a shoulder-strap) and it has a modeling light. But it's a fairly expensive flash.)

Today I shoot with a Canon DSLR and I have a dedicated external flash. The FLASH (not the camera) has a "focus assist beam" built-in. That means when I can't see to focus and the camera can't see to focus, the flash will emit it's red focus-assist beam and the camera will be able to lock focus. That minor (but _extremely_ useful feature for a wedding photographer) is one of the many reasons why the brand-name flash costs a little more than the 3rd party flash.

Don't forget... you can rent gear.

guess someone else missed the 2010 date on this thread
i would guess his decision has been made and wedding done.

 

[KmH]

Note: Auto focus has been around for 25 years or so.

Canon and other gear makers introduced new lens mounts in and about 1986, specifically for auto focus.

Nikon and Pentax are the only 2 gear makers I know of that were able to offer auto focus at the same time without having to redesign their lens mount.