Intro:
Digital photography provides many benefits when shooting a wedding. You know immediately what you've shot and that your equipment is functioning the way you want it to. You use less equipment, since there's no need for bags of film, heavy strobes, heavy camera equipment, or even light meters. You only print the images you rally like, so editing is quicker. Tasks that one required hours of darkroom work can now be completed in front of a computer in a matter of minutes. Your creativity in producing the final image is limited only by the special-effects tools to which you have access when editing, and retouching is easy--just a matter of using software.
For all these benefits, though, digital photography provides no magic wand for creating a beautiful image. You still have to understand the basic rules of photography to create good images! If you don't understand the basic principles of photography before you start shooting digital you're in for a rude awakening. As with film, the challenge of digital photography is discipline. If you are sloppy in creating images on film and leave exposure problems to your lab to fix, don't expect digital to be the panacea for all that ails you. Once you master those basics, though, digital gives you the ability to enhance your creativity perhaps in more ways than you ever thought were possible. The truth is, digital technology puts more tools at our disposal than we have had at any other time in the history of photography.
In these next few hubs, I will explore the elements that make the digital medium so different from film and those that make it the same. We're going to talk about creating the images, getting them out of the camera, enhancing them with filters and other software, working with the lab, and, finally, selling them. I'll do my best to over the are of digital wedding photography from soup to nuts and to address the issues that confront any wedding photographer who makes the switch from film to digital. You'll need to stay on top of digital media, though: In just the time it will take you to read my hubs, something in photography will have changed. This truth leaves us with one basic assumption that the best photographers in the world have always known: You can never stop learning, because the best image you'll ever take hasn't been taken yet.
Digital Basics
To photograph digitally, you need to grasp a few basics. Here are eight controls and features you'll want to master early on in your digial image-making. Take the time to become comfortable using them, and you'll soon be able to create the best possible images with consistency.
Exposure:
Unlike film, digital imaging doesn't allow you to compensate for underexposure or overexposure in the processing stage. Too much light, overexposure, will result in pale, washed-out images; too little light, underexposure, will result in dark, muddy images. Your digital camera's light meter will help you automatically achieve the right exposure. Plus, when you shoot in Raw mode, the exposure compensation feature allows you to override autommatic settings and counteract lighting conditions that the light meter might otherwise not adjust for--yo usually have a four-stop range in exposure compensation, two stops over and two under.
Aperture:
By setting your camera to aperture priority mode, you can choose the aperture, or f-stop (in automatic and other modes, the camera will determine the aperture setting). My preference is to use a large aperture to achieve a nice, shallow depth of field, which helps blur out distracting backgrounds. Typically I shoot at f 1.2 to f2.8.
Buffer memory and card writing speed:
These terms refer to how many images you can shoot consecutively. With cameras like the Canon EOS-1D Mark II you can shoot up to 20 Raw files in a row at speeds up to 8.5 frames per second. That's a lot of data! With a fast card-writing speed like 5 megabytes per second or higher, you'ree not going to wait as long for your camera to clear its buffer memory as you would with a system that only writes at 2 megabytes per second or slower. You don't want to miss the best moments of the weddin because you are waiting for your camera to finish writing to the card.
Focusing speed:
It's imperative to have a camera that's fast to focus in the autofocus mode. You don't have time to wait for your equipment to eact to different subjects as you move around a wedding.
Resolution:
Shoot everything at the very highest resolution your camera will allow--that is, witht he most pixels, so the image is as detailed as possible. This way, you'll have more flexibility when it comes to cropping an image and more options when printing.
Downloading programs:
You want easy-to-use programs for downloading and managing your files. Phase One's Capture One makes it easy to rename and batch files and do color correction an dmake other adjustments. Also Adobe Photoshop and Adobe lightroom are great downloading programs as well.
The LED Viewfinder:
THis feature is an asset when experimenting with a new technique, since it allows you to get an idea of how the image will turn out before you snap the shutter. However, don't get into a habit of viewing every image in the LED display, because you don't have time and you should learn to follow your instincts. And never get into the habit of "chimping"--making a sound like a chimp when you see the image you just captured in the viewfinder, as in "oooh, oooh, oooh!"
Diopter Adjustment:
This is really basic, but there will be moments when you may need to focus manually. Make sure you know where the diopter adjustment, which lets you manually focus on objects, is located on your camera and periodically check to see that the viewfinder is set for your eyes.
Angelica R. Whisenant is a professional photographer based out of Virginia Beach, Virginia. I have been serving high-profile clients since 2006. To check out more of my Virginia Beach photography visit http://www.leftfieldphotographyworks.com/?load=html
No comments:
Post a Comment