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Nice day for a, wet wedding
Posted on August 31, 2010
wedding photographers Canterbury www.timstubbings.co.uk
I wanted to take a bit more time than usual to write some training notes from a wedding I shot before I went on holiday, simply because it’s a useful illustration of what has to be overcome and responded to at a wedding where you can’t be in control of everything. Before I talk about specific pictures (they’re later on in the post), here is some background.
The weather forecast was truly awful. I had been tracking it for 48 hours on Accuweather so I knew within a margin of 2 hour when the downpours would come.
I had attended the rehearsal at the church a few days before and although churches tends to have low lighting anyway, this one was particularly dark and would require shooting on ISO 1600 or higher in order to use a 70-200mm lens with a working aperture of F4 and an acceptable shutter speed with or without image stabilisation. Why F4 rather than F2.8? When shooting a couple at and angle with a zoom you’re more likely to get both eyes in focus at f4 even though over a distance depth of field becomes less of an issue.
I didn’t want everything at 1600 ISO + so I installed an old 550EX at the back of the church (where you’d expect light to come from) on full power, and an 580EX at the top of the church pointing towards the back wall, again at full power. The flash gun at the back would have a long way to travel down the full length of the church so the fall off would mean that the value would balance ok with the flash gun at the top of the church (which would lose power from bouncing off the wall). Both lights were connected to Pocketwziards and I had another 580EX on the camera hot shoe just in case.
In case the full guests shot had to be inside because of the weather, I also tested 2 x 400W heads bounced off the top wall of the church and fill flashes from 3 speedlights. The speedlights were connected to Pocketwizards and the monoblocks on slaves. The speedlights were positioned at intervals so that the burst from the last one was enough to set off the monoblock slave. No brollies or modifiers – just bounce because it’s quick and flexible when wedding guests just want to get on with it.
I’m skipping the bridal prep except to say that in a typical domestic interior in low light (it was raining outside and dark grey skies) it’s going to ISO 800 F4 @ 1/60 for quite a lot with a speedlight or two place on top of wardrobes, fireplaces or shelves to balance out the shadows. I had just enough time to get to the church to set up the lights (a lot of churches are locked until a hour before a wedding) and get cracking – it’s still pouring with rain. Guests start to arrive and I decide to shoot the groom and best man both outside and inside. When the bride arrives I stick to 1600 ISO for most of the shots but then switch to the flash guns off- camera for parts of the vows.
At the reception – after a drive through torrential rain – I know that I have an interesting challenge and driving time is thinking time! Because of the weather we’ve had to drop the bride and groom portraits down at the beach. At the reception venue – the Three Tuns at Staple, Canterbury – all of the guests will now be crammed inside because of the weather. Upon arrival Steve the venue owner is already offering to have the food and speeches brought forward as I know from my Accuweather forecast that from 4pm things will start to clear up (and some late afternoon sunshine could be fun to play with). There’s no room to swing a camera in the main venue room so with a break in rain I take the bride and groom out for 5 minutes in a country lane near by. Check out the grey skies!
During the reception I make a conscious decision to dump the 70-200 and use a 50mm 1.8. It’s a small venue so range is not an issue and I don’t want the pictures to all look the same from using the zoom. Although the available light is ok by the windows, for the speeches I place two flashguns on the bar – one towards the speakers in the dark corner and the other towards the background guests.
I knew that the session in the country lane with the bride and groom was not enough – so after the meal and speeches we make use of a pergola outside the guest accommodation block of the country pub. It’s 7pm in the middle of summer and I’m at between ISO 1600 / 800 ISO f2.5 1/80 / 1/60 outside! I decide to stick with the 50mm to keep me close to the couple. I normally shoot with the zoom so the 50mm will keep me fresh. With no sunshine at this point I’m burning out the background light with some overexposure but that can reduce contrast. Then, at last there’s a break in the clouds, so we turn the camera into the sun so that the couple are backlit by the low sunshine and we use flash x 2 as fill : one pressed into some foliage camera left and other held by a willing best man! ISO 400 / f6.3 at 1/60; f5 @ 1/50, the camera in the shade so we can use the Canon ST-E2 commander, camera set to manual. We now have directional light at three points – the sun and the two flash guns – and the contrast is much higher. The ST-E2 held up outside (normally I find the infra-red not very consistent outdoors)
As weddings go, it contained the usual challenges of lighting due to weather, venue, changing circumstances etc. It’s for that reason that professional wedding photographers will include in their pricing the time it takes to properly research a venue and also the extra equipment and expertise that is required when things change on the day. For me, the greatest surprise was to be shooting outside on such high ISO settings in the middle of August – but then again, this is England!
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Classic Car Show – Motor cars photography at Tankerton, Kent
Posted on August 7, 2010
Classic car show at Tankerton, Kent. I don’t normally do motor photography – but I had 20 minutes prior to the start of the rally to get some arrival shots and became smitten by a 1970s Sunbeam Rapier (my dad owned one when I was growing up – a rich orangery-red version with a red overdrive button that I decided was for an ejector seat a-la the Aston DB5 in Goldfinger). That’s why there are more shots of the Rapier than anything else. Most of the shots were metered in manual because it was horribly overcast and I knew that a reflected meter reading would get confused by a blown-out sky. Post production – yes. Shadows, saturation and curves.
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Camera Cafe London – Strobist / off camera flash photography workshop
Posted on July 20, 2010
I worked and socialised for nearly 10 years around the London Bridge / Borough Market part of SE1 so it was great to be photographing there and seeing how things had changed a bit. Our brief was to work with a couple of Canon EX580II flash guns, mix gels and white balance, compare TTL with manual, overcome the ambient and play with flare. Thanks to our model Chloe and great hair and styling from MUA Nikki Milina (nikkimilina:gmail.com). If you’d like more information on digital photography training – fashion, studio, portrait or wedding – in Kent, London or the South East do get in touch or also go to www.timstubbings.co.uk, TRAINING.
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Strobist wedding photographers – Whitstable weddings Part 2
Posted on July 14, 2010
Calum & Carien were married at the petite Seasalter old church and then had a drinks reception on the beach. There was no cover on the beach so I used some off-camera flash. I also used flash guns on light stands to illuminate the group picture. This was so that the guests didn’t have to look into the sun (which became the backlight). This is the first time I have photographed in a shirt, cotton trousers and sandals rather than a suit. It was just too hot…
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Strobist wedding photographers – Whitstable weddings Part 1
Posted on July 14, 2010
Well, we had a bit of heatwave last weekend and I had two weddings with no cover / natural shade to run to so I resorted to off camera flash for both. The first one, Nat & Dan, the sun was unbearably hot in the open, so we used a shelter end effectively making softboxes out of the windows! If you would like more information about my work as a wedding photographer in Kent please see www.timstubbings.co.uk
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Camera Skills Course Canterbury – location portraits – a great success!
Posted on July 6, 2010
Budding photographers spent a fun and sun-filled day at Tim Stubbings’ recent camera skills workshop at Iffin House.
Eight amateur photographers from East Kent joined Tim for a day of hands-on tuition. “It’s been a great workshop” said Elaine Hopkins from Broadstairs “I had a number of penny dropping moments and learnt loads. I’m on the mailing list for future events!”. “I learnt a hell of a lot in one day” said Mark Downing from Herne Bay “and it’s always good to meet people with the same interest.”
Tim was delighted with the day. “The venue, the group and the model – it all came together perfectly. These workshops are a great way to spend a bit more time learning at a slower pace than the Camera Cafes but still making it a sociable and relaxing way to learn. Offering choice, flexibility and use of social media, it’s a real alternative to the idea of a traditional camera club”.
To learn more about Camera Cafe and Tim’s training courses go to www.thecameracafe.co.uk
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Another reason for using flash in bright sunlight!
Posted on May 28, 2010
Emma Slade is a yoga instructor in Whitstable and we had half an hour to get some shots near to Whitstable Castle. In was nearly midday with the sun overhead and harsh or it was dodging behind the clouds. I’ve left in the gallery below what tends to happen with this – a blown out sky. By using two off camera flashes to add definition to Emma, we took control underexposing the background and then deciding where we wanted to pump in the light!
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Corporate headshots at Canon UK’s headquarters
Posted on May 28, 2010
Canon are based down in Reigate and I’ve been one of their preferred suppliers since 2003 covering a variety of corporate work including campaigns, events and some brochure illustrations. The images I took yesterday were some headshots. The weather kept changing from rain, overcast and then bright sunshine. Although I had a meeting room with studio lights set up just in case, I shot outside and in the reception area. The sun was harsh and pointing straight at the building – but placing the subject in a shade and controlling the light with off-camera flash created the look I was after.
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Last ever RAF Nimrod flight – crews say emotional farewell to the “Mighty Hunter”
Posted on May 26, 2010
Ok, an odd one today but I was asked to photograph the last ever flight of an RAF Nimrod. The final flight today (Wednesday 26th May 2010) was from the base at RAF Kinloss in Scotland before landing at Manston, Kent’s international airport. At the controls were Squadron Leader Stuart “Roxy” Roxburgh aided by his crew. There was restricted access on proximity to the aircraft and even though I would have wanted to put speedlights all over the place, I could not do that today!
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Off-camera flash – why use it in sunlight?
Posted on May 26, 2010
I’ve added a couple of pictures below all taken in the last few days with off-camera flash. I was asked by is flash used on a sunny day? Well, with the group shots and the shots of the guy with the football, flash allows us to use the sun to back-light, control the lighting levels and keep contrast. When the sun is where we don’t want it, we either have to over power it with flash or move our subject somewhere else. I had to get the group away from the sun hitting their faces – so it became a powerful backlight with flash filling at the front. I could have relied on reflected light – but it can wash out the colours a bit. Off-camera flash on a sunny day can also add a bit of drama. If you’d like to learn more about lighting techniques why not come on one of my photography and camera skills training courses?
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