For this workshop, we were fortunate in having the run of a large studio, courteously allowed us by Zack Arias of the One Light Work Workshop fame. The workshop was the regular combination of lecture, demonstration, and hands-on practice for the attendees.
Here I am (in crumpled shirt), explaining the histogram display to Stacey …
Someone asked me about the lighting I used at the reception of a wedding I recently photographed.
Here are two of the images I blogged there ..
I often vary how I set up additional lighting at reception venues. In this instance, I had a 580EX flashgun that I held up high in my left hand, that was triggered by an on-camera ST-E2 transmitter. I also had a second 580EX that was wirelessly slaved via the ST-E2. I would therefore try and control my viewpoint and perspective, to have the second 580EX light up the backgound and give some sense of depth. This would also avoid that dreaded black-hole background.
I haven’t really been happy with using the 580 as the on-camera master, since the results aren’t predictable. I’m getting more consistent results using an ST-E2 transmitter. The second 580EX was fastened on top of a CP-E3 battery pack that I placed on top of one of the DJ’s speakers.
In these images there was no wall behind me that I bounced off. Just the rest of the reception room.
The strobe on the DJ’s speakers was angled up, and not direct.
Because the ceiling is low, the light isn’t as spread out as I would’ve liked.
The way the light in the background is concentrated, is a result of the flash being bounced off a low-ish ceiling, and not because it was direct flash.
The flash in my hand - I don’t use it directly.
In this instance I had a Stofen on top of it, with the top cut off.
This way I can still direct my light to a large extent, instead of turning it into a barebulb type omni-directional light source.
With my hand I can also cover part of the front of the omni-bounce and have less direct light if I want.
I adapt my technique from wedding to wedding, dependent on the venue, the ambient light sources, and the results I want.
In this instance, the light levels were very dim, and I had to use flash.
But the ceilings were too low to use my Q-flashes that I most often use as additional light sources,
eg here: http://www.planetneil.com/faq/finding-the-light.html
Techie info for the first image:
Canon 1D mk2N / Canon 24-70mm f2.8 / 1/125th @ f2.8 @ 1600 iso
Techie info for the second image:
Canon 1D mk2N / Canon 16-35 mm f2.8 mk2 / 1/20th @ 4 @ 800 iso
I can say proudly that the first of my two mk3 bodies that I tried out at a wedding two weeks ago, does not suffer from the soft LCD images that some have reported on the various forums. The display was quite sharp. I know because I had lots of opportunity to study it closely during the wedding reception …
Yup. Within about 200 frames into that first shoot with this fresh-out-of-the-box camera, it died on me with chronic error 99 lock-ups. The camera would lock up on every alternate time the shutter was tripped.
To Canon USA’s credit, they repaired the camera in a super-fast turn-around time of 24 hours.
Other than that, I absolutely love this camera. No, seriously. It is a fantastic machine.
I frequently receive emails with questions which seem to vary in content, but essentially come back to the same point. For example:
- how do the automatic exposure modes work on a specific camera, especially when flash is used ?
- do I agree that a certain camera model tends to under-expose in matrix metering / evaluative metering when used in Aperture Priority ?
- can I explain certain inconsistencies when using an auto mode such as Program / Aperture Priority?
Although the questions seemingly vary, my reply is usually the same - that I don’t know the specific answer. And the reason is that, for the most part, any “answer” here is ultimately not of any consequence to me because … I shoot (nearly) exclusively in manual exposure mode.
I had an email enquiry asking how easy it is to fix a hotshoe that is loose on a Canon 1D series camera.
Somehow the 4 little screws that hold the hotshoe to the camera body can wriggle loose over time, causing the flashgun to wobble. This can even lead to poor contact between the flashgun and the camera.
Fortunately, it’s a very easy fix. All you need is a set of jeweller’s screwdrivers.
This image should explain it all …
