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Wedding ceremony at the Conway River Walk

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I’m going to try something a little different with my blog posts.  Instead of just posting the same pictures I post in my galleries and Facebook, I’m going to post a lot more here, although many of them won’t have any Photoshop work or touchups like pictures in my main gallery.

I had a really busy couple of weeks with 5 weddings, the beginning of May seems to be everyone’s favorite time to get married.  I wanted to highlight this wedding at the Conway River Walk because it’s a location I haven’t done a wedding before.  I’ve been to this area a number of times for various things, but never for a full wedding ceremony.  It really is a beautiful location if you want to get away from the beach.  I would have to say I wouldn’t recommend a reception at the peanut warehouse unless it’s a really cool time of the year.  They really need to get some air circulation and some large fans through the building and it would be fine.  But I’m always hot so you can’t really take my opinion on it too much.  This couple was a lot of fun and we got some really good shots.  I hope you enjoy some of the pictures below.

Working hard on the bride's makeup - Conway River Walk

Working hard on the bride's makeup - Conway River Walk

Bride getting on makeup in the window light - Conway River Walk

Bride getting on makeup in the window light - Conway River Walk

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Some random things from April and how to shoot backlit subjects.

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I always have trouble making blog posts when things start to get busier.  So I just wanted to post a few random pictures from this month. I decided to talk mostly about the first picture I highlighted below.  This was a very difficult situation, as soon as I saw where they were having the ceremony I knew it was going to be a problem.  The sun was very bright outside, almost fully up in the sky.  The ceremony was held under a beach shelter right on the edge of the bright sunlight.  If you have ever tried to photograph something like this before, you might know what would happen.  If you let the camera make the decisions, the couple would be almost completely dark because it’s trying to adjust for the bright background light.

I long ago started shooting on manual, so I would expose for the couple and not the background.  This way the camera’s own adjustments would not cause the subject to come out really dark.  However, there is still a problem.  If you just expose the couple properly, the background would then be completely blown out, it would just be a very bright glow behind the couple.  The couple would have kind of a flat, lifeless light on them with an annoyingly glowing background.

So how do you fix this? Well it really comes down to having the proper equipment.  I have these things called Pocket Wizards, they allow me to have a flash on the camera and also another flash off of the camera that is controlled by radio.  You can control another flash through  the built in infrared in the Nikon flashes, but it never works very well.  The Pocket Wizards work the same way, but they are much more reliable especially in sunlight.  Although you can let the flashes decide how much power they need to put out on their own, under this difficult lighting, I thought manual would be better.  I set my on camera flash (that had a tiny Lumiquest softbox on it) and my external flash both to 1/2 power, that seem to be a pretty good compensation for the outside ambient light without overdoing it.  If you notice in this picture, there is a nice light coming from the side of the couple that makes them look more three dimensional.  You can see some shadows from his hand and her arm, these are not from the sun but are from my external flash.

If this sounds too complicated, to make it more simple.  If you are trying to photograph a backlit subject in the shade, use whatever flash you have available, even just the little one on the camera.  Set your camera to manual and keep taking shots until you see the couple is as bright as they need to be.  I hope you enjoy some of the pictures below.

First kiss - Myrtle Beach State Park

First kiss - Myrtle Beach State Park

That's a lot of groomsmen -

That's a lot of groomsmen

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My first two weddings of 2012 in Myrtle Beach

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I made it through my first two weddings of the year.  It’s always hard to get back into the swing of things after the few slow winter months.  It’s hard to believe it’s almost April again and it will soon be the summer. My first wedding it rained the entire time, but we were still able to work with it and they had a nice indoor backup location.  The second wedding was also inside because they were afraid of the weather, but it turned out to be beautiful and we got some great pictures after the ceremony.

I think I’ve really stepped up my game this year by starting to use prime lenses more (prime lenses are fixed and don’t zoom but offer other advantages).  For a long time now I’ve used very expensive top of the line Nikon zoom lenses, but even though I had a 50mm prime I didn’t use it often enough.  Now with my new Nikon 85mm f1.4 lens I’m doing probably 90% of my wedding shooting with prime lenses.  The look is just so wonderful even compared to the very best possible zoom lenses.

There are a lot of tricks I’m getting better at when using a super shallow depth of field (really blurry background) like you see in most of the pictures below.  If you notice the point of actual focus is very small.  The problem with shooting like this, as you see for an example in the first image, if I was to accidentally focus on the tip of the bride’s nose, the eye would be out of focus.  There is such a small focus area to work with that if I mess up, the picture is ruined.  Now with a subject that doesn’t move it’s pretty easy to do this.  But the big trick I’ve been learning is to rely much more on the camera’s continuous focus mode.  Nikon’s high end cameras have excellent predictive focus, if a subject is moving towards or away from you they will actually predict where the subject will be for the next shot.  I’ve found that, for example during dancing, using continuous focus is the only possible way to do this.  I could spend a while explaining why, but I really don’t think the shots I’m doing would be possible with a camera from just a few years ago. At least not with the overall consistency across large numbers of images I’m getting.

I hope that didn’t get too geeky.  Just looking at the pictures below you can see how cool using a prime lens can make a picture look especially when there are small lights hanging in the background.  It turns them into beautiful rounded discs of light.  Also, with even a boring hotel background, it turns it into soft blurs of color that look almost like a painting.  I think as I get better at using prime lenses my photography will really improve this year and hopefully I can keep making images that clients really love.

Bride closeup getting makeup put on - Watchesaw Plantation

Bride closeup getting makeup put on - Watchesaw Plantation

Making the most of the rainy day - Watchesaw Plantation

Making the most of the rainy day - Watchesaw Plantation

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Quick review of the Sigma 85mm f1.4 lens with Bridal and Engagement pictures

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As I mentioned in my last blog post, I purchased a new lens, the Sigma 85mm EX DG HSM f1.4.  This quick review is from using a full frame Nikon D700 camera with this lens. I typically only buy Nikon lenses, so I have some top of the line lenses to compare the Sigma too, such as the latest Nikon 24-70 f2.8.  Nikon’s high end lenses have incredible optics and lens coatings that really control typical problems like chromatic aberration and lens flare.  My main concern is taking the highest quality pictures possible, currently Nikon’s 85mm f1.4 lens is $1700 vs $1000 for the Sigma which is a nice difference, but the big problem is you just can’t buy Nikon’s version.  I checked all of Nikon’s authorized dealers and I just can’t find it in stock.  I had read really good reviews of the Sigma lens from photographers such as Ryan Brenizer that I really respect, so I decided I would give it a try.

First of all, the lens has beautiful Bokeh, or the nice smooth out of focus areas in the background and foreground.  At f1.4, you are going to get a very shallow depth of field, a very small area of the picture that is in focus.  However, different lenses even at the same aperture, can vary a lot in the quality of the out of focus area or Bokeh. The out of focus areas of a picture can be as important as the in focus areas. I included the first shot below, not as an example of a really good picture, but because I wanted to show the quality of the Bokeh.  If you notice there is very little flare from the sun, even in the harsh lighting conditions.  The spots of light coming through the trees have turned into beautiful rounded discs, this means there is a high quality rounded aperture.  Of course I knew the Bokeh would be nice from the reviews I had read.

Focus and handling of the lens is really something you need hands on time with to know if it works for you.  My Nikon lenses such as the 24-70 and 70-200 focus extremely fast on the Nikon D700 body.  I knew the Sigma would not be that fast, but I’m pleasantly surprised with how quickly and spot on it locks the focus.  I occasionally miss focus on a shot, but it always seems to be my fault. When you are shooting wide open at f1.4 you have to be really careful to keep your subject in focus, it’s almost impossible if they are moving.  I actually was more afraid of shooting at f1.4 than I should have been, almost all my shots had almost perfect focus, or at least close enough it looked good.

To sum up my quick review, so far I’ve found the Sigma to have excellent focus, beautiful Bokeh, and fast performance.  I haven’t tried it in low light yet such as at a wedding reception, so I will see how it goes.  But so far I’m more than happy with the results I’ve been getting.  I hope you enjoy some of the shots below, they were all shot with the Sigma 85mm wide open at f1.4.  I’ll update this after using the lens more this summer, so far it seems like an excellent addition to my always growing bag of gear.

Note: If the things I talked about in the post sound confusing, there are lots of links that explain everything.  You will learn a lot if you check them out.

Update to this article: A few days after I wrote this I actually found the Nikon version of this lens in stock at the Nikon store for $1699.  I ordered this and will likely be returning the Sigma.  Everything I said about the Sigma is true, it’s a fantastic lens.  So why did I get the Nikon?  It’s all about build quality.  I was getting frustrated at my recent wedding because it was raining and I knew the Sigma is not weather sealed.  While the picture quality is fantastic, I use my lenses so much and in such harsh conditions I decided I should go with the Nikon.  Nikon builds their high end lenses like a tank, and while the build quality of the Sigma is fine, I decided I would prefer the weather sealing of the Nikon.  But if you aren’t a pro, get the Sigma.  It’s great for normal use.

Example of Bokeh from Tamron Lens

This image is just here to show the quality of the Bokeh

Sunlight hitting the veil - Bridal Portrait - Myrtle Beach

Sunlight hitting the veil - Bridal Portrait - Myrtle Beach

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