How to get details without blowout??

[ChowChi-Ching]

I am doing a wedding for a friend of the family in April. (My first wedding Ever) I am very nervous and I really want the pictures to turn out nice, they just want casual pictures, nothing formal but for some reason, I am having trouble with capturing the details of a wedding dress, without blowing it out......what am I doing wrong? I need to get this figured out before then. THANK YOU!!!!!

[another view]

Is that a Samoyed? Looks like the perfect subject to practice on - at least if you can keep him still long enough (unlike mine...). Actually that's good training for wedding shots too! ;)

Are you shooting film or digital, and can you list your equipment? Film has more latitude which results in a little more margin of error - but if you're careful with digital you should be fine too.

[ChowChi-Ching]

Actually, he is a Chow named Chi-Ching(hence my screen name)
I do practice with him alot....I will try to put him more to use...LOL he actually loves the camera.....

I have a Nikon D70s and I am going to be getting a flash bracket for my camera....don't know which one yet, I am going to a shop to look at different ones. I do have an external flash that I use periodically now...Pheonix ZBIS-92C

Thanks for the help. I guess I am off to "shoot" my dog! ;)

[Franglais]

I am doing a wedding for a friend of the family in April. (My first wedding Ever) I am very nervous and I really want the pictures to turn out nice, they just want casual pictures, nothing formal but for some reason, I am having trouble with capturing the details of a wedding dress, without blowing it out......what am I doing wrong? I need to get this figured out before then. THANK YOU!!!!!

The white dress is blowing out because of the contrast in the image. There are two ways you can get this under control:

1. Shoot with fill-in flash. I mustly use the Nikon i-TTL BBL system which means that the flash will balance the available light and reduce the contrast. This only works properly with the Nikon SB600 and SB800 flashes

2. Shoot RAW and use an editor to get back detail that was lost in the highlights. I use Nikon Capture and it's remarkable how far you can go to save an image.

These solutions don't work in all cases but they're much better than just shooting JPG.

Charles

[ChowChi-Ching]

Thanks. I will play around with RAW. I still haven't taken the time to get the Nikon software to beable to open my RAW images but I will get it soon. Thanks, I will see what I can do.

[another view]

Actually, he is a Chow named Chi-Ching(hence my screen name)

Well, I guess I could have eventually figured that out... Great looking dog, a little lighter than most Chows I've seen. My Samoyed is a ham, but very energetic (even at almost 12 years old).

Nikon's iTTL flash is going to be a big help - never used it, but my SB28 on Fuji S2 using regular Auto mode just isn't that accurate. All the variations of white are so close that you probably will have a little bit blown out on some shots, even if you get really good with it. I'd go for an SB800 (and lots of practice with it) if your budget allows.

RAW files are great, but there is more time involved in working with them. Dealing with a few hundred of them would be a real hassle - maybe just for the formals as an idea. Be careful with underexposing and then bringing it back in Photoshop - it's not quite the same end result (really, try it and see) and it will also bring up the noise level. If you're close (say 1/2 stop under) you should be fine in both regards but again there's the time involved with doing this.

[ChowChi-Ching]

Well, I guess I could have eventually figured that out... Great looking dog, a little lighter than most Chows I've seen. My Samoyed is a ham, but very energetic (even at almost 12 years old).

Everyone thinks he is a Sammy. He is a very light chow. We actually had to search for that color as red is the most common, that and black, but we liked the light cream. (Got a picture of your Sammy?)

I have been told multiple times to get the SB800, so I think I am just going to get it. I like the idea of using both the RAW and jpeg......that is probably going to be what I do. I know that they will not have any blown up beyond a max of 8x10.

Thanks for all the tips!!

Here is a video of Chingers........(don't watch this through a photographers eye )
http://www.zippyvideos.com/873051832...hi-ching_0001/

[another view]

Cute video, never seen a Chow that light colored. He's really handsome! Sleeping on the couch looks familiar too, but more for our Malamute... And OK, since you asked ;) here's a picture of our Samoyed.

[ChowChi-Ching]

What a beautiful dog!! We had a Samoyed for about 3 months(foster dog for humane society) She was wonderful.

[Ronnoco]

When I shot my first wedding in digital, the other photographer was using film. He blew out the details in the wedding dress, I didn't.

Spot metering the dress from the camera, reducing contrast level a notch in camera, and underexposing by 1/3 of a stop, reducing the flash level, all worked in various shooting situations.

Ronnoco

[Sebastian]

Spot meter off of a bright part of the dress, overexpose by 1.5 stops. You'll retain detail while keeping it true white.

[Ronnoco]

Spot meter off of a bright part of the dress, overexpose by 1.5 stops. You'll retain detail while keeping it true white.

That would not work at all for most digital cameras, definitely including mine. Detail is lost forever once it is blown out and 1.5 stops would certainly blow it out. A slightly less than true white in some low light situations can easily be postprocessed, but flash tends to keep it pure white in most situations anyway.

Ronnoco

[Sebastian]

60,000 exposures between both of my D100s and my 10D, and it's worked every single time.

Spot metering off the dress and keeping it at the camera recommended exposure makes the dress 18% grey, requiring adjustment in post, and worse, underexposing the groom's tux. By spot metering and going +1.5, you're making it white WHILE RETAINING ALL DETAIL.

Read up on the zone system.

[another view]

I have to agree here assuming that you're not using flash (available light only). You might have a little bit of blowout in highlights, but trying to keep as much detail as possible in the white dress while not losing all the shadow detail in a black tux is a lot for a digital sensor to handle. +2 would blow out the highlights and +1 would start losing shadows so I'd say the +1.5 is the right way to go.

The spot meter is assuming that the target you're pointing it at is 18% grey, that's why you want to overexpose the white by +1.5 stops - you're telling the meter that it's supposed to be white. If you used the reading that the spot meter told you, then that part of the white dress would be 18% grey and the black tux would have no detail.

Flash is a whole different situation entirely. With the speed you have to work at so that you don't lose people's attention, an accurate automatic flash system is what you'll need. The SB800 on iTTL is probably the best answer for this.

[OldSchool]

I am doing a wedding for a friend of the family in April. (My first wedding Ever) I am very nervous and I really want the pictures to turn out nice, they just want casual pictures, nothing formal but for some reason, I am having trouble with capturing the details of a wedding dress, without blowing it out......what am I doing wrong? I need to get this figured out before then. THANK YOU!!!!!

This may be an advanced topic for you, but it is a solution that many have used for this situation. In fact one of the curves used to be called "White Wedding".

Also, you need to have NikonCapture/Control because you need to upload the custom curve into your camera.

Basically, the custom curve allows one to customize the tonal response of the camera (akin to curves in photoshop). For example, overexpose midrange and at the same time under expose highlights (that's actually what the white wedding curve did.)

A good discussion about custom curves can be found here:

http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com/c...ne_curves.html
and
http://www.digitalkb.com/nikon/d70/t...info/index.htm

They are a lot of reading, but you should do it if you are really interested.

Fotogenetic's curves can be downloaded here:

http://fotogenetic.dearingfilm.com/downloads.html

Currently, I have Oldschool's sRealav2 curve loaded in my camera. And, I like it. These can be found here:

http://www.digitalkb.com/nikon/d70/t...wnload_libary/



If you are not ready to take on custom curves. No problem. The best thing you can do is practice. Where is the event going to be? Go there with a friend or manikin in white cloths and take shots playing with the camera controls until you are comfortable shooting in that situation.

Good luck,
Tim

[greghalliday]

I agree that definitely overexposing by 1-1.5 stops is the way to go. I have done this for years shooting skiing using slide film. Correct me if I am wrong, but my 20D seems to have a middling latitude. Somewhere about 2/3 of the way between slide film and print film. Of course shooting in RAW rather than JPEG helps. I have always liked the way image editing software allows you to adjust the levels of darks, midtones, and highlights.

Anyway, I ramble. The 1-1.5 stop thing will work. If you want no surprises, the best way IMO to meter is with Ye Olde Grey Card. (or an incident meter. better still but more expensive yet more portable.)

[ChowChi-Ching]

Thank you all for your help, I am just going to have to play around......