Turn the flash off

Recently I went to shoot 2 wedding dinners and I repeated a mistake twice!! ARghh!! During march in, a lot of time there will be spot light (not all the ball room have this though) pointing towards the couple. I did not pay much attention to the spot light and continue shooting the couples with flash on. As a result, I got the faces over-exposed! And those photos were totally beyond repair~

Hmm... I don't have the habit to check every shots I took on the camera LCD and ended up, i did not correct my mistake on the spot.


Looking back to the wedding dinner photos I took last year, I am writing this post to remind myself, to turn off the flash when there is spot light shinning at the couple. The photo above was shot without flash (luckily I did not have an external flash that time...)

I do not want to repeat the mistake again... Next time, I must turn off the flash, and maybe try stopping down the EV and see if it gave a proper exposed photo.

Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/WeddingShots21Feb2009

Built in flash

I am always reluctant to use the built in flash on the camera. The reason I hate using that flash is because it always gives a very harsh image. The objects just got lightened up unevenly. And one thing I cannot understand, since the camera manufacturers are making DSLR to have pop up flash, why can't they just make it pointing upward, instead of pointing directly to the objects...

Anyway, this photo was taken with the built in flash. Wedding dinner will always have low lighting and I have no choice to use the flash. At that time, I did not have an external flash and I was using kit lens to shoot. I boosted the ISO to 1600, f stop to 3.5 (biggest aperture that kit lens is capable of), and managed to get 1/50 sec shutter speed. To make the photo less harsh (or so I think), I stepped backward and tried to keep as far away as I could from the objects.


The harsh effect on this photo was not that bad (I guess keeping a certain distance from the object does help). I have to use 18mm focal length to achieve f3.5 (kit lens). Therefore, the photo I took actually covered much bigger space than this photo. I cropped the photo to remove the unwanted space.

Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/WeddingShots21Feb2009

Hug

Coming to the end of the morning session, the couple was hugging each other tightly while I was preparing to keep my camera. One of the sisters 'scolded' me, 'This is the best moment and why are you keeping your camera!'. Actually I already taken the shot, haha... Hmm, no harm taking again upon request from pretty girl, haha...

I carried on the shooting, and the sister standing next to me was whispering and mimicking what the couple said to each other while hugging, 'I love you, I will take care of you...' and stuff like that.

'Wah! How do you know what they were saying to each other?' I could not even hear what they said. I was stunt with the lovely words from the sister, and just speechless, haha... She sure has lots of just married friends I suppose, hmm...

I gave a vintage look to the photo. Does it have that feeling like couple grows old together, and looking back to their lovely moment on wedding day?

'One Love One Life! One Life One Love!'

Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/WeddingShots10July2010

Love Shape Hand Gesture

Time for a group photo with all the 'sisters'. After some standard group photos shooting, I told them it's time for a funny shot. Someone suggested to do a love shape hand gesture and there you go, everyone made a love shape with big smile on the face! Lovely!


Looking at this photo again, it was interesting to note that everyone made the same gesture (with index fingers on top, and thums at the bottom), except the guy. Hmm... I wonder if all these girls think alike when it comes to love~

Well I am not into studying behaviour or reading gesture... I just know that the guy is a LUCKY B*ST*RD, who get to take photos with a bunch of pretty girls, haha!!

Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/WeddingShots10July2010

Light from the window

It was a fine day with a lot of sunlight shining through the windows. The groom was removing the veil while the bride was sitting anxiously on the bed (posing for camera), haha...

The light from the right of the couples projected shadow on the wall. The directional light worked pretty well on the couple and brought out the figure of the face. The shadow was not too obvious, probably due to the fact that I had my on-camera flash turned on as well. To make the shadow to be seen clearer, I decided to convert the photo into black and white.

Hopefully, the black and white contrast, as well as the gradient (color trasition from black to gray to white and vice versa) could give a better feel of the photo.

Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/WeddingShots10July2010

Isolation

When the groom reached the bride's house, I could not remember what the 'sisters' said to the 'brothers', ended up everyone of them stepped backward, isolating the groom.

"Bro, you are on your own man!"

I thought it would be a nice composition just to focus on the groom, so I fired up my flash and push the shutter.


Aperture: f/4.5
Shutter: 1/50 sec
ISO: 1600
Focal length: 18mm

I checked on the photo later on and realized that I did not manage to capture what I visualized... First, the aperture I selected was not wide enough (should have used f2.8). This may help to create a stand out groom since f2.8 will help to blur everything behind the groom.

Second, I noticed that the groom are little bit too 'bright', especially the white coat that he was wearing reflected the flash. I figured that the focal length I used was 18mm, which meant I was standing too near to the groom. I should have stepped back further and use perhaps 30mm or 50mm to take the shot.

Hmm... Wonder how it would turn out with f2.8 and 50mm setting...

I still like the way the groom was being isolated. So I tried using photoshop to blur out the background (change the colors, filter it, blur it etc), just to make the groom stands out.


Well, it is just one of the many ways to isolate the object.

Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/WeddingShots10July2010

I take care (of) you, you take care (of) me

'I take care you, you take care me'... That was what the groom said through the gap of the bride's room door, before entering the room to meet the girl of his life.

I was up early to shoot the morning session of the wedding. To my surprise, I saw Edmund Tham, the famous photographer in the house too!

I had this feeling that I was 'showing a fish how to swim'. With all the high end, expensive equipment he and his team brought along, shooting in front of an expert was a lot of stress! Hmm well, I just had to carry on the task and shoot the normal way I shoot, haha... Luckily his assignment of the day was videography, so there was not a crash between amateur and expert, phew...

I have selected some shots and put into slide show for this couple. After going through my music database, I decided to use this 'Wedding Bell' by Depapepe as the background music. Hope the couple likes it.

By the way, the video taken by the expert was shown during the dinner, really impressive! I have a long way to learn...

Album: http://picasaweb.google.com/kcshashin/WeddingShots10July2010