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Author: Tom Jackson

Photography Equipment

Copyright © 2009 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.

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