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Just got round to start processing a wedding I photographed about 2 weeks ago, which I knew at the time was going to be a nightmare processing wise!
How wrong was I!!!
It isn't a nightmare, its an absolute processing job from hell!
To start with, the registrar was one of the strictest I've encountered. She explained that the floorboards are over 100 years old and are extremely squeaky (she wasn't wrong!!) so I wouldn't be able to move during the ceremony because of this. Also she wanted me to her left, which was the opposite of what I had in mind - as there was a huge bay window to her right - which I ideally wanted behind me... yet now I was shooting with that on my right - lighting one side of their faces up, and the other side of their face (my side) was in complete shadow.
And to top things of... you guessed it.... no flash during ceremony.
The moment she finished telling me this, the bride arrived... leaving me about 5 seconds to decide on a lens choice, fit said lens, get outside to get brides arrival.
I opted for a 16-35 f2.8 II and 85mm 1.8 on my other camera (2 x 5DIII bodies), with a 35mm 1.4 to my right on a chair - so I could swap if I needed to.
I then ran back inside to try and determine my settings as I wanted to shoot in manual because of the very strong side lighting situation... here came the next shock... the room was horrifically dark - MUCH darker than it looked to my eyes. I was needing ISO 8000 to get my metering how I wanted it, that with a 1/60th shutter speed and f2.8 aperture.
Here's a shot to show what I was dealing with lighting wise:
5D3_9730 by futureal333, on Flickr
Then the next problem. Suddenly the sun came out outside! All my settings were now massively overkill. Back down to ISO 2000, then back upto 8000 when it went back in... repeat over and over... all the way through the service.
Also, framing wise (because I was static and couldn't move without the floorboards sounding like they would going to crack, and disrupting an otherwise silent room) I was limited to about 20-28mm where I could get them both in shot, and still give some context (ie, not just a headshot). The 85mm was useful for individual headshots only. Everything else was shot around 24mm f2.8 on my 16-35. The 35mm 1.4 would have been too narrow to get the framing right, although the f1.4 would have saved me a lot.
Using any of the automatic modes such as AV resulted in erratic metering because the back of the room was darker than the front - resulting in over exposing. Dialing in negative EV didnt ALWAYS work, some shots would still be over or now, massively under! So I stuck to M and pretty much ignored my light meter.
Anyway, rambling on a bit here.
Just come to process them and the final nail in the coffin is that the room is awfully yellow, resulting in yellow skin tones throughout. Correcting the WB doesnt get rid of the yellow-ness. The ceiling (although it looks white on the above photo) is actually an yellowy white colour - which was clearly causing a lot of yellow reflection, add to that that the walls are light wood, which was also reflecting orange/yellow back off them... and finally the floor... that 100 year old squeaky oak... you guessed it... yellow reflections there too.
I have had to bring my yellow channel saturation right down -60 on most photos to get it looking half normal. Here is one with the correct WB but untouched yellows:
Correct WB - no yellow reduction:
5D3_9734 by futureal333, on Flickr
I see a lot of grainy ISO 8000 B&Ws coming on!
Here's one!
5D3_9741 by futureal333, on Flickr
Just wondering how others would have dealt with this situation?
How wrong was I!!!
It isn't a nightmare, its an absolute processing job from hell!
To start with, the registrar was one of the strictest I've encountered. She explained that the floorboards are over 100 years old and are extremely squeaky (she wasn't wrong!!) so I wouldn't be able to move during the ceremony because of this. Also she wanted me to her left, which was the opposite of what I had in mind - as there was a huge bay window to her right - which I ideally wanted behind me... yet now I was shooting with that on my right - lighting one side of their faces up, and the other side of their face (my side) was in complete shadow.
And to top things of... you guessed it.... no flash during ceremony.
The moment she finished telling me this, the bride arrived... leaving me about 5 seconds to decide on a lens choice, fit said lens, get outside to get brides arrival.
I opted for a 16-35 f2.8 II and 85mm 1.8 on my other camera (2 x 5DIII bodies), with a 35mm 1.4 to my right on a chair - so I could swap if I needed to.
I then ran back inside to try and determine my settings as I wanted to shoot in manual because of the very strong side lighting situation... here came the next shock... the room was horrifically dark - MUCH darker than it looked to my eyes. I was needing ISO 8000 to get my metering how I wanted it, that with a 1/60th shutter speed and f2.8 aperture.
Here's a shot to show what I was dealing with lighting wise:
5D3_9730 by futureal333, on Flickr
Then the next problem. Suddenly the sun came out outside! All my settings were now massively overkill. Back down to ISO 2000, then back upto 8000 when it went back in... repeat over and over... all the way through the service.
Also, framing wise (because I was static and couldn't move without the floorboards sounding like they would going to crack, and disrupting an otherwise silent room) I was limited to about 20-28mm where I could get them both in shot, and still give some context (ie, not just a headshot). The 85mm was useful for individual headshots only. Everything else was shot around 24mm f2.8 on my 16-35. The 35mm 1.4 would have been too narrow to get the framing right, although the f1.4 would have saved me a lot.
Using any of the automatic modes such as AV resulted in erratic metering because the back of the room was darker than the front - resulting in over exposing. Dialing in negative EV didnt ALWAYS work, some shots would still be over or now, massively under! So I stuck to M and pretty much ignored my light meter.
Anyway, rambling on a bit here.
Just come to process them and the final nail in the coffin is that the room is awfully yellow, resulting in yellow skin tones throughout. Correcting the WB doesnt get rid of the yellow-ness. The ceiling (although it looks white on the above photo) is actually an yellowy white colour - which was clearly causing a lot of yellow reflection, add to that that the walls are light wood, which was also reflecting orange/yellow back off them... and finally the floor... that 100 year old squeaky oak... you guessed it... yellow reflections there too.
I have had to bring my yellow channel saturation right down -60 on most photos to get it looking half normal. Here is one with the correct WB but untouched yellows:
Correct WB - no yellow reduction:
5D3_9734 by futureal333, on Flickr
I see a lot of grainy ISO 8000 B&Ws coming on!
Here's one!
5D3_9741 by futureal333, on Flickr
Just wondering how others would have dealt with this situation?
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