Wedding Photography Equipment ~ UR BEST CAMERA

Posted: 17 Mar 2012 12:11 AM PDT

equipment carried by wedding photographers

"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

Small vanity case – I always carry hairspray, hair grips, brush, comb etc. It is much easier to make sure the bride looks perfect before the photograph is taken than in Photoshop afterwards.

Laptop Case – Sounds obvious but it makes good sense to back up the photographs as and when I can during the day. I also carry a portable 320Gb Hard Drive giving me three sets of the wedding photographs. Set 1 is on the memory cards. Set 2 is on the portable HD and set 3 is on the laptop. Needless to say all three are usually in different place with the memory cards kept in my pockets all day. I also use the laptop to show off a selection of quickly edited photographs to the happy couple and their guests.
Data Projector – if there is space at the venue then this is a great tool. Connected to the laptop I can show off the wedding photographs, usually during the evening, to guests ad evening guests.
It may seem a lot but as a professional it makes sense to ensure you have all the kit you will need rather than saying “Sorry – I need xxxx for that shot and it is in the studio.”
About the Author:
Newport Wedding Photography Packages in South Wales and the UK. Mid week photography packages from £399 with Wedding Photography and Album packages starting at £800. Andrew has been taking photographs for many years and shooting weddings and taking wedding photographs for nearly 15 years – he can be found at http://www.andrew-miller.co.uk. He is a preferred supplier to the Cwrt Bleddyn in Usk so if you are thinking about getting married there he can offer you some great money saving deals.

For Further Training on Wedding Photography, PictureCorrect Suggests:

Check out Digital Wedding Secrets;a very popular and comprehensive instructional eBook package for aspiring wedding photographers and has guidance on virtually everything needed to start a professional wedding photography business. With 189 pages of information and many other materials such as shot lists and sample contract templates, there is immense value here for any level of photographer interested in wedding photography.
A word of guidance…Their website is a little obnoxious to navigate – you’ll see what I mean. But I have found them to have the best wedding photography training package. Their free eBook that comes with the newsletter is a little helpful, but the primary ebook package and all it’s extras are a lot more useful and actionable.
The Digital Wedding Secrets package is currently available at half price here: Digital Wedding Secrets eBook

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Article from: PictureCorrect Photography Tips

Creative Portrait Photography Tips

Posted: 16 Mar 2012 02:44 PM PDT

Canadian photographer, Ryan Doco Connors, shows the versatility of a one light setup in a short video he made documenting a photo-shoot in which four models represented the four elements. To photograph wind, fire, water, and earth Connors employed his Nikon D300 with Nikkor 85mm f/1.8, a 50′ Wescot Apollo softbox, and a single Nikon SB-600 flash. Take a look at the video and let’s discuss the setup (for those of you reading this by email you can see the video here):

After scouting location, sketching out the shots, and getting talent and make-up artists on the same page, Connors delves in the how and why of his one light setup. Now, some may argue that, after taking the sun into consideration, this is actually a two light setup. Technically speaking, they’re correct. The flash acts as a supplement to the ambient light, in this case, the sun. But for the sake of this article we’re going to focus on the light produced by the Nikon SB-600.

Creative Portrait Photography Lighting

The wide, flat light the Wescot Apollo produces assures that the entire frame will be well lit
To freeze the frame while photographing wind, Connors boosted the SB600 up to 1/4 power. This delivers a bright enough light to allow for a faster shutter speed.
To enhance the natural beauty of the earth tones present in the earth segment of the shoot, the SB600 was pushed back down to 1/16 power, which ensured that the light could be evenly distributed through the Wescot Apollo

Last Day of Sale on 10 Steps to Better Portraits:

Earlier in the week we covered the release of this new eBook. For today only, if you use the promotional code MUGSHOTS4 when you checkout, you can have Forget Mugshots: 10 Steps to Better Portraits for only $4 OR use the code MUGSHOTS20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more eBooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm (PST) March 17, 2012.
It can be found here: Forget Mugshots – 10 Steps to Better Portraits

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Article from: PictureCorrect Photography Tips

Time-lapse Photography and Video Processing Techniques

Posted: 16 Mar 2012 11:53 AM PDT

In this amazing production, Mark Bramley uses his Canon 5D Mark II to capture life around Tokyo over a two day time span. “Lost in Tokyo” combines DSLR video footage and over 10,000 time-lapse still photos to depict many different social settings around town, including shots taken in the subway and some visually stimulating imagery of the airport. Sort of a new way to document culture utilizing modern techniques and technology. Enjoy the short film here (for those of you reading this by email you can see the video here):

When gathering the footage Bramley used a combination of a tripod, hand-held shots, and some where the camera was sat on his camera bag and even a moving subway car. “It’s a driver-less train so I just sat the camera on the window ledge, no mounts or tripods needed. The lens has an image stabilizer and there was some additional stabilizing enabled in post.” Bramley further added, “ The timelapse images were shot with a tripod but the the video scenes (non-timelapse) were just handheld. Some of the video scenes were done by resting the camera on my camera bag.”