Photography Equipment
Author: Tom Jackson

In any discussion of IDEAL equipment, one of the most
important points to consider, particularly for wedding
photography, is weather or not the system you choose has a
Focal Plane or Between the Lens shutter.

The most versatile is the Between the Lens shutter, as
this system allows flash synchronization at ALL shutter
speeds. Consider when you are taking photos outside in the
gardens, or after the ceremony in front of the church. To
ensure good photographs, virtually every shot you take
should be with the flash as a fill light. This will help to
eliminate shadows, overcome bright backgrounds (where the
subject is normally underexposed, and therefore the brides
face cannot be seen clearly), and ensures good tonal range
throughout the image. Most digital and 35mm SLR cameras
today are all Focal Plane shutters, some travelling
vertically, most travelling horizontally. However, many of
the more expensive models now have a higher flash
synchronization speed up to 250th of a second. Olympus is
unique in that its OM4 will sync at ALL shutter speeds,
providing their specially developed flash is used.

Ideally, you should meter for the background light, and
then balance the light on your subject with the flash. In
other words, if the background light indicates an exposure
of 1⁄250 th at ƒ8, you wold set the flash to expose
the subject at about ƒ4-ƒ5.6 It is usually better to have
the flash illumination at about one or two ƒ stops less
than the available light, for the most pleasing results.
This prevents the flash from putting too much light on the
subject, making it look unnatural, or from burning out any
detail in the brides face or dress.

An interesting effect can be to deliberately underexpose
the background. Lets say for the same lighting as above,
you set the camera to ƒ11 or ƒ16, underexposing the
background by one or two ƒ stops, and set the flash to
provide enough light to correctly expose the subject.
Experimenting in this way, can provide you with some
interesting, saleable effects.

Try these variations to see the different effects. Assume a
background exposure of ƒ8, shutter speed remains constant
at the metered value i.e. ƒ8 @ 1⁄60 for example.

So in effect what we are doing is under or over exposing
the background by varying the aperture, and compensating
the amount of light reaching the subject, by varying the
amount of light from the flash.

The advantages of the 'between the lens' shutter, makes
wedding photography quite straight forward. You meter for
the available light, and set the flash to expose the
subject about one or two stops less. If you are outside and
moving around, and don't have time to set the camera on a
tripod, you can use the higher shutter speeds, and larger
apertures. Remember, the larger the aperture, the smaller
the number. If you have ever been confused by this, just
remember that all values are given as a fraction, however,
there is not enough room to print this on the camera or
lens. So, an aperture of ƒ2.8, a small number, but a large
aperture, is really ƒ1⁄2.8 . Conversely, a shutter
speed of '500' is really '1⁄500'. By convention, the
'1/' gets left off.

At the church, reception or hall, where there is little or
no available light, you can also use the higher shutter
speeds to eliminate any camera shake, while maintaining the
correct aperture for the flash. The background, of course,
will be underexposed (black), but in these situations, it
is usually not of any concern. With a typical cameras
however, you will be limited to 1⁄60 th of a second.
This means you will need to take extra care when hand
holding the camera to minimize camera shake.

The second situation to consider, is when using medium
speed ISOs in the 200-400 range in bright daylight. You may
be forced into exposures of 1⁄250 to 1⁄500 at
ƒ8-ƒ16. If we take the high side as an example, 1⁄500
at ƒ16, and our flash sync is only 1⁄60, we need to
adjust the exposure by three stops, (500th-125th-60th), to
maintain flash sync. This means that we need to compensate
by three stops with our aperture, from ƒ16-ƒ22-ƒ32. This is
not possible on most cameras today. Further, we need more
light from our flash.


About the Author:

Tom Jackson has been photographing brides around the world
for more than 30 years. If you are interested in making
money with photography, then the course Tom has created can
get you off to a great start. Please visit
http://www.howtoshootweddings.net to learn all about
starting your own studio.