[bigkahoona]

Hi

I would take a look at your lens to make sure its clean and mounted properly. I knew of a wedding photog (not me!) who did not have her lens mounted properly on her medium format camera, and took half the wedding out of focus. I would have rotated the whole crew a few degrees to their left, so the sun is more in their faces, would have helped with the underexposed people in the back. I would use a higher aperture (f/8 or f/11) to try to keep depth of field without blowing highlights.

I also would suggest trying to take a spot meter of someone in the front, with as close to 18% grey as possible. I carry an 18% grey card with me, and will meter and test shoot on the card first to check exposure. This also helps with post processing color balance. There are a couple of guys in the front with grey-ish shirts on, so I would try to expose them properly, and would likely come close to proper exposure for everyone else.

If your camera has a histogram, you can look at that, and if the curve is too far to the right, your highlights will be blown. With a group shot it's better to play with shutter speed rather than aperture, so you don't lose depth of field, and get the curve more towards the mid-range.

As others have said, a neutral density filter or polarizing filter would go a long way, too.

Hope this helps.

Jeff