Styles of Wedding Photographers

I was reading an on line forum today where a number of photographers were complaining about other wedding photographers. The respondents each had an opinion of the right way to photograph a wedding. The arguments stemmed from the judgmental attitude that each one’s way was the only correct way. As this went on the camps that were formed seemed to be: natural light only, automatic flash on camera, and manual flash off camera.

The natural light only camp felt that using any kind flash or strobes at a wedding was wrong because then the photographer was changing the scene and interjecting himself into the wedding. This falls some what in line with the photojournalistic idea of wedding coverage where the photographer should be neither seen or heard. He or she seeks to document what happened that day with out alteration. This is often done in black and white only and the photographer often refuses to take posed formals. I guess I understand where these people are coming from, but I have always felt it leads to some obvious flaws. First is this what the couple and or family wants? If so great. However I have had a chance to meet many "I only shoot natural light" photographers. Some were truly gifted at what they do. The others (who were in the majority) simply did not have the skill to control or modify the light and so were incapable of taking a well lit formal photo.

The auto flash on camera group clearly saw the need to improve the lighting in dark churches and reception venues. They felt that auto flash was the fastest way to cover the wedding and get a high percentage of useable photos. Here again I should point out that I have met some photographers wh could do this well. The problem here is that on camera flash while effective is not the most flattering way to light a person or a group. Often the pitfall here is that the photographer has bought a fairly low end camera with a lens that came in a kit. As such, it has what are referred to in this industry as "slow glass." (This refers to the lens’ ability to function in low light.) Often the camera bodies are similarly bad performers in low light. Such gear leads to grainy, artifact ridden images when using available light so the photographer depends on the on-camera flash as a crutch. As an aside to this approach, if a hired photographer intends to photograph your wedding using the small built in flash on his camera, you will want to find some one else.

The off camera flash only group is maybe the most dangerous. These photographers are artists, experimenters and gear heads. If this is done right, the light becomes an extension of the photographers will. He or she will have anything in their bag from the latest wireless ETTL Radio controllers to modifiers made of cardboard drinking straws and gaffers tape. This group is a toss up, as you may get brilliant dramatic photos that you love or brilliant dramatic photos that you hate. Good luck.

For me, to go to a wedding and say "I will only use ETTL" would be as unlikely as saying "I will only use off camera manual flash". Both work for me and I use both. I also use available light, which is why I have a Canon EOS 5Dmk2 and very good lenses. My one gear rule is that I don’t let my equipment define or limit what I do.


My goal at a wedding is to serve my client and to provide the best photos that I can. If that means I need to be subtle and shoot available light, then I will. If I have a moment to set up a stand and an umbrella, then I will do that. I am not going to limit myself to one way of working. After all I could probably shoot a whole wedding with my G9, but why would I want to?

In general a day goes like this:

Prep shots- for makeup hair and prep I use a mix of gear depending on available time and room. During the time before the ceremony there is usually time to setup somewhat posed lit photographs. Think of these as semiformals. Best to do as much as possible while the hair and makeup are still fresh

Ceremony- natural light. I carry my camera and try to stay out of view of the video people. I also set up remote cameras before the ceremony to get angles that would be to obtrusive or disruptive.
Formals- manual strobes, as many as needed to make the backgrounds pop and provide depth of field sufficient to have every one in focus

Reception- light the dance floor with manual strobes and add fill and key from an ETTL strobe often positioned by an assistant. I usually light the cake with manual strobes on a stand for better control.

The beauty of this plan is that I can switch to other options as I need to. As I said my clients needs are the first concern.

PocketWizard mini TT1 and flex TT5

For the last month I have been trying out a new flash control system. I have been using radio triggers to sync my flashes for quite a few years and for most of the that time I have used PocketWizard plus II’s with perfect results. They have always worked flawlessly which allowed me to put flashes where I need them to add to, enhance, or replace any lighting I find. To say that these are a staple of my work, wether it is a portrait or a wedding or commercial shoot, would be like saying I should carry a camera. I love having the ability to pull small flashes out of my bag and shape the light any way I want. The only draw back was that with the PW plus II flash exposure was manual. Not so bad, but when a flash or strobe is fifteen feet in the air or hidden behind something it would be nice to be able to change settings from a distance.
Enter the PocketWizard control tl system. This system uses the new PocketWizard mini tt1 and the new PocketWizard flex tt5. It enables full automatic control and full manual control from the camera at a distance up to 800ft. Or so the advertisements say. My results out of the box were about nine feet. Needless to say I was not happy. For a few weeks I read everything I could and went back and forth with LPA who designed the new units. In the end I was dealing with Patrick Clow. I cant say enough nice things about Patrick. He has been a great help and he seems truly concerned that photographers are able to use these new tools to their full ability. He arranged to exchange my mini tt1 and my flex tt5 and suggested that I use Canon’s 430 ex2 line of flashes rather than the 580 ex II that I was using. As it turns out the whole problem comes down to radio noise (RFI) that is being emitted by some Canon flashes especaly the 580 ex II. The 580 ex II is so noisy that the receiver (PW flex tt5) cant "hear" the signal sent from (in my case) the mini tt1. Pocketwizard has announced a RFI shielding device called the AC-7. As of my writing no price or street date has been announced. Too little too late for me I have already gotten rid of my 580 ex II in favor of the smaller and apparently less noisy 430 ex II. Did pocket wizard drop the ball on this? Absolutely! It is un thinkable that a company with such a reputation for perfect reliability would rush products to market that are incompatible with canons flagship professional flash. Further more to use that flash in all of their print and web adds is inappropriate at best and seems far closer to blatant false advertizing.
In fairness I should say that the new control system works very well with the canon 430 ex II s I am now using, though I should never have had to go through a month of troubleshooting to find out. At least one person at LPA is trying to smooth this over. Thanks Patrick.

Remote birds: take 2

After my previous post and photos of the birds on our porch I wanted to try to do a bit better. First I wanted to see into the nest but the ceiling prevented that so I thought a mirror might help. The photo at left shows the back of the mirror with 3m adhesive Velcro strips. Thees allow me to attach and remove the mirror when necessary.

Once installed, photographing the birds was simple. point, shoot, and later in Lightroom rotate and flip.

Turned out that not every one was happy with the mirror. The father arrived to get rid of the other birds and began attacking the mirror. Fortunately things calmed after I took the mirror down.

Remote Camera

Recently we have visited by a harbinger of spring. A small bird has built a nest on a light fixture on our porch. The light fixture is a left over from Halloween that I managed to put off taking down. Now that it has been adopted as a home I have a perfect excuse to leave it there. The problem I ran into is that I couldn’t get a look at the bird as every time I open the door it flew away which also complicated getting a photograph.

The first problem to solve in this nature photo is that birds are very paranoid and are notoriously hard to get near. This is partially solved by having the bird's nest literately right out of my front door. But as it wont be there if it can see me I need to not be visible. The best answer is to set the camera up out side very near the nest and trigger it from inside the house. In my case I use Canon DSLRs and have always been happy with them. Canon makes wired and a wireless remote. The wireless remote uses infrared light to trigger the camera just like a tv remote. As you no doubt know this wont work through a wall and may not work outside in daylight. So to get through the walls we need radio. There are some cheep radio triggers available but I cant say if they work well or not.

On the high end of price there are PocketWizards. These are pricey but they work every time and at a great range (up to 1600ft). PocketWizards are usually used to trigger flashes of camera (see http://www.strobist.com/) but with a pre-trigger cable they can also be used to trigger the camera.

So the basic setup works this way: nest on top of the light, camera with a telephoto lens on a tripod aimed and focused on the nest (No auto focus. Set the focus then switch AF off), PocketWizard connected to the camera by pre-trigger cord, second PocketWizard with me inside the house. When I hit the test button on the PocketWizard the camera fires.

This system works fine. I am in the house comfortable and warm and since the bird doesn’t see me she returns to the nest and poses for her portraits. This is where the second challenge comes in. I knew going in to this that it was much to dark to get sharp photographs using only natural light so we add flashes.

In this case I used 2 Nikon sb-26s one on a stand and the other clamped to the front porch light. Both flashes are set to 1/4 power and are approximately at 45 degrees to either side of the nest. The flashes don’t really seem to bother our bird but they give me the light I need. In fact at this range 1/4 power is a ton of light and I end up with f32 at ISO 100. Shutter speed on the camera is up at 1/250 to get rid of any ambient blur if the bird moves. I could lower the power but when the camera is so close to the subject depth of field is typically very shallow so f32 really helps to get the whole bird and nest in focus.

To get the strobes to fire in sync with the camera you have to use what PocketWizard calls relay mode. This is easy enough, the PocketWizard connected to the camera with the pre-trigger cord is placed in the hot shoe. Then the PocketWizards connected to the flashes are set one channel higher then the one on the camera and in the house. For example the PocketWizard in the house with me is on channel 3 the PocketWizard on the camera is on channel 3 the ones on the flashes are on channel 4.

I set this up for fun and as good practice as I am using remote cameras at weddings now. This allows me to get a second angle that I would otherwise not be able to get or that would be to disruptive. The bird photos are not by any means art but they serve the purpose of identifying the bird with out any undue stress to her and it will be a good setup for humming birds later in the season.