Shooting a wedding - indoors - no flash

[scootermcq]

Originally Posted by gturner

, then surely the flash must be allowed.

No flash allowed & quit calling me Shirley

[capturedbybrooke]

I appreciate the detailed explanation of the Zone System, Ken! But I still don't completely understand it. I might need to get a book on it.

Anyway, the wedding went GREAT! The lighting situation wasn't too bad at the church- I was at ISO1600 or 3200 most of the time at 2.8 and shutter speed 100. The bride had a veil on from the whole ceremony, so I didn't have to worry so much about having her in focus, just the groom. One problem I had during the formal shots was that the highlights were blown out on the dress in some of the photos when I focused on her face. I posted a couple sneak peeks here: { pauline + john = married! } sneak peek! - Captured by Brooke Photography - Brooke Reynolds. I don't have any of the ceremony or reception up yet though. Will be posting more soon!

[candleman]

Originally Posted by capturedbybrooke

One problem I had during the formal shots was that the highlights were blown out on the dress in some of the photos when I focused on her face.

Congrats, those look nice. : )good looking couple too
crudely speaking thats basically trying to expose for a highlight and a shadow at the same time... you just need to find the middle ground between between the dress and the skin tones, and a touch of PP on the faces later will have them looking just peachy. But it looks like you got some nice shots there.

Looking forward to seeing the ceremony shots

Originally Posted by kencaleno

When both candleman and yourself have finished laughing your asinine arses off,try to gain experience,you may even become photographers one day!

"Give instruction to a wise man and he will be yet wiser",-what a shame! When you know it all,,(and don't have a clue), Instructing you is a waste of time.

Nobody is arguing with the zone system.. its really basic stuff actually.
all it really is just basic metering & and switching between stops..

What I (we?) are arguing with, is your attitude towards it.

To properly expose for darker skin you need more light than people with a fair complexion.. and thats why i said its hard. Because you need more light in an already difficult situation. AND, as the OP has just pointed out (and you did in your post) if you expose for a certain Zone, you are likely to blow out others.. namely the dress.

SO!
You say here Caucasian skin is around zone V .....I would put a dark skinned person roughly in zone III

Originally Posted by kencaleno

There are11 zones black to white-each zone represent 1 EV (exposure value) stop:

0 Total black

I Almost black-no detail

II Dark grey-black -very dark detail in shadows

III Very dark grey-shadow detail-dark animal fur

IV Medium dark grey-dark green foliage, shadow side of Caucasian face
Dark stone-landscape shadow-dark skin-details plainly visible

V Medium grey-green grass-grey stone-dry tarmac-excellent detail

VI Rich mid-tone grey-Caucasian skin in sunlight-light stone and sand

VII Bright light grey-white with texture-silver hair

VIII Almost white-Delicate texture-no detail-reflected highlights on Caucasian skin

IX Nearly pure white

X Absolute white

Where is that extra 2 stops going to come from ?????
If the camera can’t get an ISO higher, the shutterspeed is so slow you’re getting motion blur, and aperture cant open up any more. .....there is NOTHING more you can do other than add more light to the scene to be able to properly expose.
If you cant understand that, should i refer you to this helpful guide?

Originally Posted by kencaleno

Usually Caucasian skin registers at Zone VI or Zone VII, (Even though we are looking at a color scene, the camera only sees light and dark.) When we spot meter for model’s face, this will register on camera as Zone V.We have decided to rate the model’s skin at Zone VII, and this means we must open up 2 EV stops to achieve this:

If we are in manual shooting mode, this will require us to either a) Decrease the shutter speed from, say 1/250th sec to 1/60th sec, or b) 0pen up aperture from, say F8 to F4.

thats all very interesting (exposure 101)....

I’ve never been in an indoor wedding ceremony where I have had the luxury of 1/250th and f/8 in ambient light. I wish i could find a venue like that.
I would suggest that you don’t insult people if you can’t back up your statements. I asked you how is it possible to get light in when there isn’t enough in the room.

Either answer the question.. or quit deriding other forum members & pretending to always have the answer.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by capturedbybrooke

I appreciate the detailed explanation of the Zone System, Ken! But I still don't completely understand it. I might need to get a book on it.

That would be Ansel Adams's The Negative.

Today, with digital, we do something much simpler--we just look at the histogram.

[Saralonde]

Keep to the original poster's topic, please.

[terri33inne]

Gorgeous shots... I'm sure the bride & groom were pleased... she is beautiful.

[capturedbybrooke]

Thanks! I have more photos posted here: { pauline + john = married! } slideshow pics - Captured by Brooke Photography - Brooke Reynolds

And here is the event page: capturedbybrooke - Agbor Wedding

Let me know what you think! I'm glad I shot in RAW since many of the photos were too dark (the indoor ones) and I was able to brighten then up and remove some of the noise in Camera Raw. I need to work on group shots for sure. Although this was a very casual wedding as far as the wedding party went (nothing matching), it made it harder to get the groups together and make it look nice. Also, many of the people in the group shots were talking on their cell phone while I was taking photos! I had to tell them to please put the phones away! I just can't believe how people cannot stay off their phones for 2 minutes! Even the bride was on her phone half the night! Lol!

[candleman]

love the dress hanging up.. thats my Fav probably.