Using exposure compensation effectively during a wedding

[rampanthamster]

Hi all, got my first wedding coming up on saturday. Needless to say, the 'bricking it' stage has set in. I think i'm taking some reasonable gear along which hopefully won't limit me too much:

Nikon d700 and D90
24-70 2.8
50 1.4
85 1.8
11-16 2.8
sb 700 flash with stand/umbrella

any way, i've been thinking about exposure compensation and how important it could be for weddings. Ie if i'm taking a photo of a guy or group of guys in dark suits, i need to dial in negative exposure comp and for the bride in white, it tends to be positive exposure comp. Is this right? Obviously i realise that each scene will differ dramatically, and that i need to keep an eye on the histogram but is that the general gist of it.

Can anyone add much to this?

Also, i'm guessing it's kind of ok to blow of the windows (so to speak) etc as long as you're exposing the couple or guests correctly?

Flash wise, for the reception, i was hoping to be ok with doing a lot of bounce work. Unfortunately i don't have any remote triggers as yet, aside from the on board flashes of my cameras, which tend to need a direct line of sight as they're infra red

 

[joescrivens]

depends if you are using evaluative or spot metering. If it's evaluative then what you write above is correct about under and over compensation.

As for the blown windows - personal taste. I prefer to blow a window and get the subject exposed correctly and I am a big fan of Alexandras babi who does this too

http://www.meninenuotrauka.lt/en/wedding/2011/lina_chris/

but others will say it is a big no no and you should use fill flash to stop that happening.

 

[rampanthamster]

depends if you are using evaluative or spot metering. If it's evaluative then what you write above is correct about under and over compensation.

As for the blown windows - personal taste. I prefer to blow a window and get the subject exposed correctly and I am a big fan of Alexandras babi who does this too

http://www.meninenuotrauka.lt/en/wedding/2011/lina_chris/

but others will say it is a big no no and you should use fill flash to stop that happening.

those are pretty much exactly the kind of natural looking shots that i aspire to take. thanks. Would spot metering be better? I always tend to use evaluate, but i have my func button set to spot to make it easy to flip between the two. What's the best way to meter for the bride / groom?

 

[joescrivens]

I can't tell you if spot metering would be better or not, i don't use centre focus point much so for me spot metering can be very hard work as I have to lock exposure all the time.

someone with more experience of shooting weddings will have to answer that question

 

[Phil V]

I find that a 'general scene' including a B&G will meter about right (I appreciate that metering is a personal preference thing) I use evaluative metering and generally have +1/3 set.

However for bridal or groom closer shots I tend to meter from a neutral subject close by and use exp lock (I have this set on the shutter half press). I find this method relatively quick and quite consistent, others will espouse M only or spot metering with exp comp, but all of my cameras will use this method uniformly - whereas all the spot metering isn't a uniform size.

I also shoot RAW for latitude for when the above needs a tweak.

I also happily blow windows, because a bride lit naturally with a blown window in the background is much nicer to look at than a fill flash lit one. And I know that OCF and softer lighting could produce great lighting, it doesn't really work too well when following rather than directing the procedings. Again horses for courses.

 

[rampanthamster]

thanks guys - phil, i also like to lock exposure with the half press (bbf all the way!) but i'm sometimes unsure of what the best 'neutral' to meter from is. In your experience, what's a good, typical neutral subject to meter from and lock exposure before shooting closer shots?

 

[Phil V]

thanks guys - phil, i also like to lock exposure with the half press (bbf all the way!) but i'm sometimes unsure of what the best 'neutral' to meter from is. In your experience, what's a good, typical neutral subject to meter from and lock exposure before shooting closer shots?

It totally depends on 'where' you are, outside grass is good (ensure it's in the same light conditions as the subject), indoors I'm looking for carpet colours, walls, suits, anything that'll get me close. I suppose after 20 odd years of shooting I know what 'average' looks like with 1 stop.

Rule 1 - always have your histogram on view.

Rule 2 - understand that not all histograms should be perfect.

 

[rampanthamster]

thanks phil!

 

[HoppyUK]

Hi all, got my first wedding coming up on saturday. Needless to say, the 'bricking it' stage has set in. I think i'm taking some reasonable gear along which hopefully won't limit me too much:

Nikon d700 and D90
24-70 2.8
50 1.4
85 1.8
11-16 2.8
sb 700 flash with stand/umbrella

any way, i've been thinking about exposure compensation and how important it could be for weddings. Ie if i'm taking a photo of a guy or group of guys in dark suits, i need to dial in negative exposure comp and for the bride in white, it tends to be positive exposure comp. Is this right? Obviously i realise that each scene will differ dramatically, and that i need to keep an eye on the histogram but is that the general gist of it.

Can anyone add much to this?

Also, i'm guessing it's kind of ok to blow of the windows (so to speak) etc as long as you're exposing the couple or guests correctly?

Flash wise, for the reception, i was hoping to be ok with doing a lot of bounce work. Unfortunately i don't have any remote triggers as yet, aside from the on board flashes of my cameras, which tend to need a direct line of sight as they're infra red

It's the other way round.

What are you going to do with both bride and groom in the same shot? You need to nail this basic stuff bud, pronto!

A 70-200 2.8 for candids would round out your lenses nicely.

 

[joescrivens]

if i'm taking a photo of a guy or group of guys in dark suits, i need to dial in negative exposure comp and for the bride in white, it tends to be positive exposure comp.

It's the other way round.

it is?

i thought it was this way round

brides dress is very white so camera thinks scene is lighter than it is so you +1 2/3rds to compensate

dark tuxedo camera thinks it s darker than it is and so you have to dial -1 2/3rds to compensate

What are you going to do with both bride and groom in the same shot? You need to nail this basic stuff bud, pronto!

black plus white = gray so you don't have to use any exposure comp when they are both in the same shot

 

[HoppyUK]

it is?

i thought it was this way round

brides dress is very white so camera thinks scene is lighter than it is so you +1 2/3rds to compensate

dark tuxedo camera thinks it s darker than it is and so you have to dial -1 2/3rds to compensate

Haha! I guess it depends where you're starting from! But you have a point, if your starting position is a general reading of an exclusively dark or a light scene.

I was looking at it differently, in that it's quite hard to over expose a dark suit and if you take anything away you'll be trying to drag it out of the shadows. And with the bride, the danger (to be avoided at all costs!) is blowing the dress with plus compensation.

And with the bride and groom together, I would absolutely chimp that and push the exposure until I got blinkies on the dress so I know exactly where I am, then knock it back a stop or two and watch the histogram and blinkies on bright highlights. Expose for that and make sure the dress and faces are okay, and sod the groom. That would deliver a solid ETTR file to optimise in post.

Sorry for the confusion

 

[rampanthamster]

It's the other way round.

What are you going to do with both bride and groom in the same shot? You need to nail this basic stuff bud, pronto!

A 70-200 2.8 for candids would round out your lenses nicely.

Hmmn, not sure what you mean. Surely if i point the camera to meter of a totally white area, it's going to underexpose to make said area grey. So i need to dial in more exposure to make the dress white, no? (but obviously not blow it out!). And conversely, if i point it at a dark suit and meter off that it would want the suit to be grey, so i need to underexpose to make it black again.

I know there's obviously a hell of a lot more to it than that, and various methods and tricks to employ, but i thought that was the kind of basic principle? Obviously i'll be chimping a fair bit at the start of each location to make sure i'm not blowing important areas, and i'll be looking at the histogram all the time...

i was seriously considering going further into my credit card limit and getting a 70-200, but i can't quite justify it at the moment. I think, when it's fairly light at least, i'll stick the 85mm on the d90 to get the added reach.

 

[Tobers]

Yes, white subject equals positive exposure comp, dark subject equals negative comp. All due to the camera trying to make the subject greyish.

I find the easiest way to handle this is to set the exposure manually and ignore the exposure comp stuff. Generally you only need two settings in a room - the shaded side and the lit side. Figure those out and ou are sorted.

When taking a backlit shot, use your shaded setting, blow the windows to smithereens, and you will have a lovely picture.

For simplicity, try and just alter one value between the lit and shaded settings. For me it will either be shutter speed or ISO as the aperture is my most important setting to leave fixed to define the nature of the shot.

Example:

ISO2000 50mm f/2 1/125th

 

[rampanthamster]

thanks tobers, that's a great example of a lovely photograph with a blown background. The blown background doesn't matter one bit because the bride is so nicely exposed.

Would you recommend using auto iso at all? Or should i only use that when the light isn't too great and i don't want to worry about constantly upping my iso..

I guess in manual, auto iso doesn't matter/do anything! I must confess, whilst i've dabbled with manual mode before, i tend to use aperture priority all the time. Would it be a big mistake for me to try manual mode on the day?

The good thing is, i'm arriving early tomorrow, the day before the wedding, so i can have a fair few hours of 'practice' and getting to know the locations etc, which can only help.

 

[Richard King]

make sure the dress and faces are okay, and sod the groom. That would deliver a solid ETTR file to optimise in post.

Solid advice, that's exactly the best approach

TBH, you wont have time to faff about, and if you dial in stupid amounts of compensation, I guarantee you will forget it and screw the next batch of shots

I use the next step larger than spot metering

 

[rampanthamster]

TBH, you wont have time to faff about, and if you dial in stupid amounts of compensation, I guarantee you will forget it and screw the next batch of shots
g

yeah, i suspect you're right. It happened today when i was taking some shots for a friend. Totally forgot i'd dialled the ex comp in, and took a few shots that were then over done. I think it's something i'll have to get used to, but experimenting with it at someone's wedding is clearly not the way to go. I'll just try to meter off neutrals or use spot/centre weighted for certain shots

 

[Phil V]

yeah, i suspect you're right. It happened today when i was taking some shots for a friend. Totally forgot i'd dialled the ex comp in, and took a few shots that were then over done. I think it's something i'll have to get used to, but experimenting with it at someone's wedding is clearly not the way to go. I'll just try to meter off neutrals or use spot/centre weighted for certain shots

Is why I use exp locking rather than M or exp comp

 

[rampanthamster]

Is why I use exp locking rather than M or exp comp

so do you say meter off something neutral, take a couple of test shots and check it, then lock that exposure (i've just assigned my second func button as an ae lock), then keep that until changing scenes?

 

[Tobers]

Using auto ISO removes another element of control from you, so I prefer to manually set ISO.

 

[Phil V]

so do you say meter off something neutral, take a couple of test shots and check it, then lock that exposure (i've just assigned my second func button as an ae lock), then keep that until changing scenes?

The whole point of locking a reading is that its fast. So it's lock shoot check. But the check is only a safety net, a wedding is no place for me to be experimenting.