Rings and Bouquets

I love detail shots at weddings, and here are a couple from the last shoot a week ago.

It's a must to get a lovely colourful shot of the bouquet. The best type of light for this setup happens to be even, bright, fairly flat lighting. You're aiming for consistent light across the entire bouquet and flat light really works here. A simple tight crop on the bride is all that's needed, drawing the viewers eye towards the bouquet which is exactly what you're aiming for.

Nikon D3s with Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8 - ISO 1600, 1/1250 sec @ F4.0, E.V. + 0.7 

I also try to take a shot of the rings which requires a little bit more thought and effort than the more traditional  and simple holding them in the hands type of shot. To do this I look for something that will have meaning to the couple, something that may have been made by them or that they have had some kind of input in. Table decorations or flowers are always a good choice as they can inject colour and interest in to the finished photograph. Placing the rings carefully in position and choosing a nice clean, uncluttered composition is all that is needed to produce a beautiful image.

Nikon D3s with Nikkor 24-70mm F2.8 - ISO 2500, 1/125 sec @ F4.0, E.V. + 0.7

  

Natural light portraits with a simple reflector.

One of the things I really enjoy when shooting at a wedding is the opportunity to take lovely natural light portraits. I will always try to capture one of the bride, but it's also a great opportunity to capture some lovely images of the kids who may be present on the day. Kids tend to pose quite naturally and they also love to be in front of the camera. I tend to focus on head and shoulder shots and use the trusty Nikon D200 and Sigma 50mm F1.4. I normally select an aperture of around F2.0 and with an equivalent 75mm focal length it produces lovely sharp images where the closest eye is in sharp focus and the background is a lovely blur of light and colour. The Sigma produces lovely Bokeh and stopped down just slightly, the lens is razor sharp. I use a reflector in most cases to punch some light back towards the subject and this also provides lovely catch lights in their eyes.

Nikon D200 with Sigma 50mm F1.4 ISO 200, F2.8 @ 1/350 sec

Simple reflector setup for the image above. The little girl was under
 a tree canopy and the reflector was positioned in such
 a way that it would help direct sunlight back towards her.  

For the image above, a gold reflector was used to add some warmth. It was a very bright day so I decided to move the subject/s into the shade for the shoot. This by itself would have resulted in a cool feel to the photographs so using the gold side of the reflector seemed the natural choice.

I also like to get the subject looking up towards me slightly so try where possible to get them sitting on a bench or chair. I find that by doing this it adds a bit more definition and stronger outline to the face. 

Nikon D200 with Sigma 50mm F1.4 ISO 250, F2.0 @ 1/160 sec

A silver reflector was used on the third photograph. The slightly cooler feel worked really well with the surrounds of the room. Natural light from a large window to the left of shot was used and the reflector was held to the right pointing back towards the window, kicking light onto the subjects left side and helping lift heavy shadow. 

Fuji X100 firmware version 2.00

A quick post tonight. I have just read that Fuji have released a firmware update for their now discontinued X100 camera. This is really exciting because it addresses a few of the weaknesses that this model had exhibited, and now with the updated firmware installed allows performance much closer to it's younger brother, the X100s

Some of the improvements will include
- Focus peaking
- 20% faster autofocus
- Quicker start up time

What's particularly welcome is that a company is still willing to support a discontinued camera instead of pushing people into upgrading to newer gear, which is pretty much unheard of in the photography industry. So nice one Fuji. I will install the new firmware to my X100 in the upcoming days and post my verdict on the enhancements. For now though, here is the link to the update.

http://www.fujifilm.com/support/digital_cameras/software/firmware/x/finepix_x100/