One of a photographer’s least favorite types of pictures to take at a wedding is the table shot, the pictures of the guests at each table at a wedding reception. This is because it is hard to get everyone from a table organized, and it does not have the artistry of other photos at a wedding. But this does not mean they aren’t important or you don’t have to put much effort into them. On the contrary, these table shots are popular with wedding couples because they are a testament of who attended their special day. Moreover, for many guests who are on the fringe, that is who are not family or close friends of the wedding couple; this may be the only shot of them from the entire wedding.
Photo captured by Tatiana Garanina (Click Image to See More From Tatiana Garanina)
As I said above, chances are these are not going to be your most artistic shots of the night. The important thing in these pictures is that everyone is present, visible, in focus, and looks all right. In this article I am going to give you a few tips on how to make these shots turn out as nice as possible. One of the most important things to taking table shots is having a strategy. Normally you will not be able to just go around the reception hall and get every table in order and at the same time. People will be walking around, or there will be servers coming by, so you will need to find a time to shoot each table.
"bride" captured by Yıldırım Danışman (Click Image to See More From Yıldırım Danışman)
I was shooting an ‘out of area’ wedding last week (to me that is a wedding more than 20 miles from my home), went to pick up my camera bag and nearly had a hernia. It weighed so much that it reminded me of being back in the Army with your life on your back. And that is just what my camera bag is – everything I need to shoot a wedding, or portrait or just people when I am away. A portable studio in fact ready for every eventuality.
As a wedding photographer, make sure you have the equipment required in your bag, or in the car, to cope for any shot you may want!
Typical Wedding Photographer’s Kit (Canon User):
Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 24-70mm L f2.8 (with UV filter)
Canon EOS 5D Mark II with 70-200mm L f2.8 IS (with UV filter)
Two Canon 580EXII speedlights, with Stofen diffusers and mounts
Two spare 5D Mark II batteries
Four sets of rechargeable batteries for the speedlights
One set of graduated filters for those (less and less used) creative moments
4 large waterproof plastic see though bags – just in case it rains
Gary Fong light sphere attached to the outside of the bag
Strobies flash diffuser in a case attached to the outside of the bag
Manfrotto monopod strapped to the outside of the bag
One small bag containing ‘hair scrunch’ with sparkly bits and champagne cork for adding to the ring shots. (Makes them a bit more interesting!)
Manuals for both camera and flash units – well you never know!
Leatherman tool in a case on the shoulder strap
Several climbing karabiners on the bag – come in handy when you need to secure stuff to tables / chairs
One blower
Two cleaning cloths
Bottle of cleaning fluid 3 sensor swabs
100Gb of memory cards
320Gb external HD
100-business cards
25 marketing brochures (for those guerrilla marketing moments!)
5 x 1Gb USB memory sticks
2 x 5Gb DVD-RW
DVD marker pen
Hi-Vis vest
Roll of gaffer tape on the outside
Lightweight tripod strapped to outside of the bag
Manfrotto tripod and joystick ball head on the outside of the bag
Samsung has sure rattled the cages of companies like Apple in its chase for market share in the smart phone market. The winner? Who knows.
But one thing is certain: if there had not been an iPhone to bump against in the first place, Samsung would still be happily making other assorted bits of technology. It’s called market opportunity.
And, sure as eggs, IMHO if there had not been a brigade of interchangeable lens mirrorless cameras out there for Samsung to harass, they would most likely have not moved into that territory either.
I looked at this camera’s predecessor, the NX11, about six months ago and recall coming away highly impressed. After all, it’s no mean feat to introduce a new camera, complete with an entirely new lens system.
I went to visit an old friend yesterday who was my main inspiration to get into photography. It seems that he has been taking beautiful photos forever forever and went on to show me his newest gift – a brand new Canon lens – Ultra-Wide 16-35mm f/2.8.
"Nikkor Lens 50mm f/1.8D AF" captured by Romeo E. Catapang Jr. (Click Image to See More From Romeo E. Catapang Jr.)
I went on to try it and realize how good the lens was. But WHY was the lens so good? After all – what makes a good lens good? People spend thousands of dollars on a good lens. Here are a few reasons why it’s so important.
1) Distortion
All lenses have some kind of distortion. This tends to be manifested most in ultra wide angle lenses, particularly at very wides angles. A good example of this is one picture that I took in Venice. I had walked back as far as possible to fit the entire frame into the photograph and had to use the widest lens angle possible (14mm). You can see the tower on the left hand side appears to be leaning. Clearly, it is not like this (and you’re going to have to believe me that it’s straight), but illustrates the lens distortion that exists. Better quality lenses have less distortion through the use of a greater number of lens elements. Nikon has just released an excellent 14-24mm ultra wide angle lens with very little distortion. The lens has 11 lens elements and weighs a full 1kg. Clearly not a lens to take lightly. While photo manipulation software exists today that can correct lens distortion, it is always better to capture the image as it is.
I’m not a professional photographer. But I do take a lot of photographs and if I’ve learned anything in my time behind a camera it helps to learn from the pros.
Two months ago, I had 6,500+ photographs in my hard drive. I had no idea which ones I liked best, when they were taken or whether they were worth keeping. More worryingly, I had no back up copies of any of them in case of a disaster. In short, my photo organization was a mess (for those of you reading this by email you can see the video here).
My photography workflow:
Download images to ‘Raw files’ folder on desktop
Create new Lightroom catalogue (or use existing)
Import photos with generic keywords (rendering 1:1 previews)
