Tuesday, February 07, 2006
About me?
Canon 20D w. BG-ED2, 70-200 4L, 17-40 4L, 1.4 extender, 50mm 1.4, 580 EX, RS-80 N3, Manfrotto 190 PRO DB, Bubble Jet i950, CanoScan 8000F, Wacom Intuos 3 A6, LowePro Stealth Reporter 650AW, EPSON P-2000, Minolta Auto Meter IVf
Tuesday, January 31, 2006
sRGB vs AdobeRGB
What is it?
This can't be explained easily. It's a setting in your camera among other things. AdobeRGB allows for a wider colorspace than sRGB, and therefore allows richer colors. The sRGB colorspace was designed for low quality monitors that are virtually extinct. Basically this means you're stupid if you're using sRGB and many sources will tell you so...
Why use sRGB anyway?
- Most printing labs, even the professional printing labs (which often use the high quality Fuji Frontier printers), currently only support the sRGB color space. This means when they receive an AdobeRGB image they will convert it to sRGB for you. This is why you may be able to achieve a higher quality when you print the image yourself on an inktjet printer.
- Almost everyone that views your images on a PC will have a viewer that only supports sRGB. The colors of your images will look dull when they have the AdobeRGB colorspace and are viewed with such a viewer.
- I find that the difference in quality between sRGB and AdobeRGB is really smaller than some people suggest and most people will never notice or even care.
When things go wrong
The images below do NOT compare the difference in quality between sRGB and AdobeRGB. It merely demonstrates what happens when an AdobeRGB image is viewed in a browser or other application that cannot handle color management. You will see the colors are much less rich.
Tagged with sRGB profile
Tagged with AdobeRGB profile (thus displayed incorrectly now)
Canon and AdobeRGB
Canon DSLR cameras allows you to choose between the two in the menu, as do all DSLRs. The default is always set to sRGB. Strangely, if you're in the icons mode on a Canon camera you can only "choose" sRGB. I guess Canon assumes that advanced photographers that want to use AdobeRGB never use these icon-programs anyway, which is probably true.
Image viewers
Viewers that support Color Management (and therefore AdobeRGB):
- Photoshop (duh...)
- Photo Mechanic
- the new ACDSee Pro (although I think the colors are slightly off). Other versions of this application suggest that they support Color Management which is not correct.
- Adobe Reader. Color Management is fully integrated in this application, which is why it has now become the defacto standard for image distribution in the graphical industry.
RAW and AdobeRGB
If you're shooting RAW you don't have to choose up-front between the colorspaces. When you're processing RAW you can save as sRGB or AdobeRGB afterwards. Isn't that great.
The future
The new version of Windows (Vista) has a new color management panel (it can already be downloaded now for XP). This will probably mean that Windows will now be able to display AdobeRGB correctly. Apple has always had this btw.
More
In my links article I've listed several links that explain color management.
This can't be explained easily. It's a setting in your camera among other things. AdobeRGB allows for a wider colorspace than sRGB, and therefore allows richer colors. The sRGB colorspace was designed for low quality monitors that are virtually extinct. Basically this means you're stupid if you're using sRGB and many sources will tell you so...
Why use sRGB anyway?
- Most printing labs, even the professional printing labs (which often use the high quality Fuji Frontier printers), currently only support the sRGB color space. This means when they receive an AdobeRGB image they will convert it to sRGB for you. This is why you may be able to achieve a higher quality when you print the image yourself on an inktjet printer.
- Almost everyone that views your images on a PC will have a viewer that only supports sRGB. The colors of your images will look dull when they have the AdobeRGB colorspace and are viewed with such a viewer.
- I find that the difference in quality between sRGB and AdobeRGB is really smaller than some people suggest and most people will never notice or even care.
When things go wrong
The images below do NOT compare the difference in quality between sRGB and AdobeRGB. It merely demonstrates what happens when an AdobeRGB image is viewed in a browser or other application that cannot handle color management. You will see the colors are much less rich.
Tagged with sRGB profile
Tagged with AdobeRGB profile (thus displayed incorrectly now)The bottom image is the original and the top image was created by converting it to sRGB using Photoshop CS2.
I cannot demonstrate the true difference between AdobeRGB and sRGB visually, because your browser cannot display AdobeRGB. This excellent PDF document by Canon demonstrates the differences and explains it in further detail.
I cannot demonstrate the true difference between AdobeRGB and sRGB visually, because your browser cannot display AdobeRGB. This excellent PDF document by Canon demonstrates the differences and explains it in further detail.
Canon and AdobeRGB
Canon DSLR cameras allows you to choose between the two in the menu, as do all DSLRs. The default is always set to sRGB. Strangely, if you're in the icons mode on a Canon camera you can only "choose" sRGB. I guess Canon assumes that advanced photographers that want to use AdobeRGB never use these icon-programs anyway, which is probably true.
Image viewers
Viewers that support Color Management (and therefore AdobeRGB):
- Photoshop (duh...)
- Photo Mechanic
- the new ACDSee Pro (although I think the colors are slightly off). Other versions of this application suggest that they support Color Management which is not correct.
- Adobe Reader. Color Management is fully integrated in this application, which is why it has now become the defacto standard for image distribution in the graphical industry.
RAW and AdobeRGB
If you're shooting RAW you don't have to choose up-front between the colorspaces. When you're processing RAW you can save as sRGB or AdobeRGB afterwards. Isn't that great.
The future
The new version of Windows (Vista) has a new color management panel (it can already be downloaded now for XP). This will probably mean that Windows will now be able to display AdobeRGB correctly. Apple has always had this btw.
More
In my links article I've listed several links that explain color management.
Monday, January 23, 2006
Favourite links
Please let me know if any of these are no longer valid or if you have additions. thanks!Photography
News and equipment reviews: DP Review
News and equipment reviews: Steve's digicam
News and equipment reviews: dcviews.com
Canon equipment reviews: the-digital-picture.com
Lens reviews: Photodo.com
Articles and reviews: Bob Atkins
Articles and reviews: photo.net
News: Rob Galbraith
Review and forums: fredmiranda.com
Photography tips: photographytips.com
Magazine: popphoto.com
Articles and tutorials: The Luminous Landscape
Articles and tutorials: irphotoschool.com
Articles and tutorials: betterphoto.com
Photography Workflow: outbackphoto.com
Articles by a professional photographer: dg28.com
Articles by a professional photographer: dan heller
Blog: Photography Blog
Good article: RAW vs. JPEG
Tutorial: Sensor cleaning
Child portrait photography: ilovephotography
Professional equipment: Calumet
Canon
TIP: Everything on Canon photography: photonotes.org
Canon Photography forum: photography-on-the.net
Canon Professional Services: CPS
Canon EOS Magazine: Canon EOS Magazine
All about Canon 20D: Ultimate SLR
All about Canon 10D: Ultimate SLR
Focus testing 10D: tutorial
Cleaning the (10D) sensor: tutorial
Canon camera history: Photozone.de
Software
Camera RAW tools comparison: sphoto.com
The pro RAW conversion tool: Phase One C1Pro
The pro RAW and JPEG viewer: Photo Mechanic
The photo editor: Adobe Photoshop CS2
Best Noise Reduction tool: Noise Ninja
Great PS plug-in (for BW conversion etc.): Nik Color
Cool image flash viewer: SimpleViewer
Online galleries
International: PBASE
NL: Zoom Gallery
NL: DPZ
Selling photo's online
UK: Photobox
NL: Fotoverkoop
International: Thirdlight
Largest stock images site: Getty Images
Printing photo's
NL, UK, DE: Pixagogo
Amsterdam high quality: key-color
Photoshop
TIP: Photoshop tips, techniques and tutorials: Russel Brown
Technique: Creating drop shadow
Excellent book on CS2 for DP: The Photoshop CS Book for DP
Colour Management
Colour Management and Printer settings
Canon ICC Profiles Guide
The Need for Profiling
Monitor Calibration
Dutch
Links collection: Fotografie jumpage
Photography course: Fotogram
Good off-/online shop: Konijnenberg
Ned. Instituut Digitale Fotografie: NIDF
Canon second hand: fotoapparatuur
Printing an album: Album Printer
Comparing online print services: online foto services
Other
Supersaas: Excellent reservation system for professional photographers to manage their personal agenda and allow clients to book them without their involvement.
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Safari photography
As part of our honeymoon in September 2004 my wife and I went on a safari in Tanzania for a week. It's an amazing experience watching the animals so close by. However, to be honest, if you have a short attention span like me you need photography to keep it exciting...Picture details: 1/1000s @ f5.6, ISO 200, 280mm
I felt the urge to jot down my experiences because others have helped me much with theirs. Hope it's of use to you. Note: some of the information below may only be relevant to Canon DSLR (10D, 20D, 300D, etc.) owners.Picture details: 1/500s @ f5.6, ISO 200, 280mm
Camera
Having a digital SLR on safari is the way to go. Because you'll need the tele-range and sometimes the fast response, a compact camera just won't do. I'm the proud owner of a Canon 10D and have never loved a piece of hardware more than this camera...
Lenses - size matters
After reading many reviews I ended up buying the Canon 70-200 4L along with a 1.4 extender as my principal weapon of choice.
The two never left each other's side. It’s a great lens; small, light and lets in much less dust because it's more or less closed off. A bargain considering the "L" quality of the lens. The extender however, is a very expensive little piece of glass...
Multiplying 200 by 1.4 by 1.6 (the multiplication factor due to the size of the CMOS) gets you to 448mm. I found this to be enough most of the time. In Tanzania the cars cannot leave the road (which I think is a good thing) and this means the shy and rare animals such as the leopard and the rhino will probably be too far away for a good picture. For those you would need at least a 400mm lens.Picture details: 1/350s, f5.6, ISO 200
Being a self admitted hardware freak I spent part of the time checking out other people's equipment instead of the animals... You see many people with big lenses (even 400mm white ones) shooting by hand. That can't be good.Picture details: 1/1000s, f9.5, ISO 400, 280mm
The EXIF information will display 280mm if the focal length is 200mm plus the 1.4 extender (200 x 1.4). It ignores the 1.6 multiplier.Picture details: 1/350s, f6.7, ISO 200, 280mm
I also took along two other popular lenses, the Canon 28-135 3.5-5.6 IS and the 50mm 1.8 MK I for portraits, but they haven’t seen a single animal.
Dust
During the day I tried not to change lenses because the amount of dust in the car is incredible and, as you'll probably know a CMOS feels very attractive to dust and the dusty particles share that feeling. This resulted in the "big L" hardly ever leaving the camera and therefore no CMOS cleaning was required. Ideally, you'd have an extra camera for each lens.
ISO dilemma
The lens with the extender on it results in a maximum aperture of 5.6 over the entire range. Setting ISO at 100 usually meant a shutter speed around 1/180. Unless the camera is completely stable this is to slow when the focal distance is 448 (using the rule of thumb that the shutter speed should be higher than 1/focal distance).
By looking at the LCD at the back of the camera you can’t really tell if the pictures were sharp even when zoomed in. So I ended up setting the camera to ISO 200 most of the time and sometimes treated the camera even to ISO 400.Picture details: 1/180s @ f5.6, ISO 400, 196mm, cropped
The dilemma is whether to choose additional noise caused by the higher ISO over the potential blur caused by too low a shutter speed. I chose a higher ISO. If you own a faster lens or a lens with an image stabilizer (or a combination of those) you may not have this problem. You will have the problem of 2.3 extra kilos in your bag and a negative bank account...
Because this lens/extender has a maximum aperture of 5.6 I set the camera to Av and left it at 5.6 to get the highest possible shutter speed. This also means minimal depth of field, but that's usually what you want anyway to get the background blurry.Picture details: 1/1000s @ f5.6, ISO 400, 280mm
Did you know the remaining number of pictures magically changes on the 10D when the ISO changes? I guess it makes sense that compression is harder when noise is added to a picture.
TIP: before going on safari determine what the effect of each ISO setting is. Also, try taking a picture with maximum focal distance without a tripod to see what shutter speed still gives you an acceptably sharp picture. Alternatively, this well-known site compares noise levels for each camera in great detail.
Beanbag
Despite all the preparation by reading the excellent sites about this topic there was one thing I didn't have cause I couldn't find it. It's really quite essential for safari: a beanbag. Instead I had a little tripod, which is utterly useless with such a big lens. So I ended up using the lodge's laundry bag with clothes in it, which is a lousy alternative for a beanbag. The camera will not be stable and pointing at the wrong animal. Take my word for it: bring a proper one if you can find it. A lot of airport stores sell those beanbags to put on your neck during the flight.
By the way, the wind can sometimes shake the car substantially and no beanbag will help you there.
Focussing
In order to get the focus right you'll need to focus on the animal's eyes and then recompose the shot. This is quite tricky especially when you have a laundry style beanbag. This led to actually using the camera's multiple focal points (other than the center one) for the first time ever.
Laptop?
Not being able to see your pictures on full size and color is frustrating especially if you're not sure of the effects of camera movement and ISO setting. I did not bring one (because its to damn heavy). My pocket pc (used to type in this text) reads CF cards but has insufficient resolution to be useful for checking pictures. Maybe the new VGA pocket pc's will be the answer.
Action shots
Confession: I used one of the dummy icons. I found the Running Man icon useful for quickly switching to both the ISO 400 setting and the AI Servo without touching the other settings. Handy for fast-moving animals…
Picture details: 1/2000s @ f6.7, ISO 400, 252mm. AI Servo kicks in automatically
Picture details: 1/1500s @ f5.6, ISO 400, 280mm. So that's when you need the buffer in the camera...
Remote Switch (shutter-release extension)
Buy one. They're ridiculously expensive but you will need it for the longer exposures. A cool trick for getting rid of all the cord is tying it in a knot around the lens. The 10D uses the RS-80N3.
Time of day
Basic knowledge is that during early morning and late afternoon the light is at it's best for photography. Safari starts early so that's good but most parks close at 18:30 meaning the best light is unfortunately lost driving back to the lodge.
1/350s @ f6.7, ISO 100, 203mmTime is 11:30, harsh shadows
1/500s @ f6.7, ISO 100, 280mm Time is 16:30, softer light
1/20s @ f5.6, ISO 200, 280mmTime is 17:00
Storage and back up
Having forgotten 1 gig in the card reader at home (doh!) I had to buy some extra at the airport back home and ended up with 2. You can't buy extra storage in most of Tanzania. You can find it in Arusha, which is the basis for most safaris, but it's easier to bring enough. Kenya is a more developed country than Tanzania is.
I set the file size on the camera to "Large" with the medium compression (the staircase icon). These files are about 1.2 MB, so with 2 GB that provides plenty of opportunity for random fire without having to delete the crap ones immediately.Picture details: 1/350s @ f6.7, ISO 100, 280mm
If you haven't been on safari before you may have an incorrect assumption of how many animals you'll see in a day. On top of that you spend a lot of time traveling to the next park. In one week of safari I took home approximately 550 pictures excluding the pictures I shot during the rest of my holiday. Much less than I expected.
In retrospect, I could have used low compression and still have enough space. RAW definitely wouldn't have worked and the time spent on those afterwards is just a bit too professional for me. I did use RAW a couple of times when I suspected the white balance would be difficult and that turned out well. The 10D also stores the lens type in the EXIF-data when you use RAW, which is nice. For some reason this doesn't happen otherwise.
1/250s @ f8, ISO 200, 60mm, RAWRAW gave a slightly better result
1/250s @ f8, ISO 200, 60mmAuto Whitebalance
It's a bit scary not to have a back up of your pictures during travel. I looked at the Belkin card reader for the iPod but found in a review that the transfer speed between the reader and the iPod is a joke. Too bad... I decided to live life dangerously - without a back up. You may want to consider buying one of the many image tanks available.
Camera bags
Choosing the right bag is normally not a man's concern. However, choosing the right camera bag when you own a couple of lenses is more difficult than choosing the right wedding dress.
Here's what worked for me. When you own a couple of lenses and a flash, you've probably looked at the backpacks that have nice compartments for each lens. You don't want those, especially not for safari! You need a top loader to be able to reach your things easily while in the car, with the bag on the floor. Besides, you'll want to carry more than just camera stuff. In order to store a camera and one or more big lenses you're automatically looking at the expensive semi-pro camera bags. Thieves love those bags. Even more so when they have "Lowepro" written on it. What I did instead was put my small camera bag and my tele-lens in a normal bag. The tele-lens has it's own soft case. This also left some space for binoculars and other gadgets. The bag I found at a mountaineer shop and was made by Timbuk2. It's perfect.
Flash
In Tanzania there's not too much opportunity for night-drives. Even if you do plan one, you'll probably scare the animals to death with your flash. I hardly used my flash at all.. If you do plan a night-drive you'll need an external flash to be able to focus accurately. The Canon 420EX is the logical choice for 10D or 300D owners (430EX now...).
Wide angle
If you like shooting landscapes you'll need a wider lens than a 28 if you have a digital SLR. A popular top lens is the Canon 17-40 L. Due to the lack of one I used the Photostitch feature on a digital IXUS to be able to take a picture of the beautiful view of the Ngorongoro crater in the morning.
Photostitch with the IXUS s410Exposure I have only one gripe about the 10D and that's the lack of spot metering. Somebody at Canon please tell us why it's missing, the public deserves to know!
On safari you need it more than ever because animals often have a clear blue sky behind them. For example the giraffe's face up in the sky is easily under-exposed. You'll need to over-expose up to 2 stops to get it right. Fortunately you can see the result immediately and you'll quickly develop a sense for the correct setting. I felt sorry for all the people with film cameras that undoubtedly returned back home with many silhouettes of the leopard in the tree. Having said that, you can always try to Photoshop your way to a good picture (use Shadow/Highlights in Adobe Photoshop CS).
1/125s @ f5.6, ISO 100, 280m, RAWOver-exposed 2 stops and used Shadow/Highlights in Photoshop CS because it was still underexposed. Photoshopped a new sky in there too...
1/180s @ f5.6, ISO 200, 280m, RAWUsing a Photo filter in Photoshop CS: Cooling (80) and lowering contrast
Batteries
The 10D and 300D have excellent battery life using the BP-511/BP-512 (the 20D has even better). I brought 3 but 2 is already enough (especially with the extended version). Most lodges and tented camps have 220V electricity so you can charge at night. You get best value from your batteries if you drain them entirely (even Li-ion ones) because the number of re-charges is limited. One battery lasts about 2 days if you switch the camera off consistently after taking a picture.
Private safari
Sharing the car with 6 other people? Personally, I couldn’t imagine a more frustrating experience. To take a good picture you need to be able to maneuver through the car. Also, if the animal is not on your side of the car you cannot rest your camera on the roof if the car is full and you'll have to shoot by hand. It's obviously more expensive but I think it's worth it. A holiday like this just is something most people only do once in a lifetime. Another choice is that between 4WD and a minivan. A 4WD is more comfortable (and thus more expensive) because the roads are quite rough in Tanzania. We saw mostly 4WDs.
Other stuff
The mountaineer shops have little bags they call stuff-bags. Handy for keeping all your wires and adapters together in your luggage.
Kenya or Tanzania?
Choose Tanzania. Or Botswana if you can afford it (I've heard it's great). Read other sites about where to go and when (because it depends on time of year).
Parks visited
Lake Manyara, Serengetti, Ngorongoro crater, Tarangire.
Links (to some stunning pictures)
http://www.wildlifephotography.nl/
http://www.andybiggs.com/
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/locations/tanzania.shtml
http://www.vothphoto.com/recent/africa2003/ africa2003_wildlife_main.htm
Have fun!
1/1500s @ f5.6, ISO 200, 280mm
1/250s @ f5.6, ISO 100, 280mm
1/1500s @ f5.6, ISO 400, 280mm
1/1500s @ f5.6, ISO 400, 280mm Wednesday, January 18, 2006
Wedding photography
Thanks to a friend I shot my first wedding about a year ago. I've done about 10 now but with a regular job and a newborn baby I'm probably not going to do many more any time soon... I'm not a pro, but I hope you'll find the info below useful if you're considering shooting you first wedding. It is a very rewarding but exhausting and stressful experience. Good luck!
All pictures are shot with a Canon 300D, 10D or 20D and a 420EX flash unit.
My lessons learned
Think again
You should only shoot a wedding if you're convinced your skills are good enough and if you have the equipment listed below. If you're (like me) not a professional photographer you should make it very clear to the couple that you're not. If they've seen some of your photo's and are comfortable (i.e. impressed) than it's ok. On the plus side most couples are far less of a perfectionist than you may be. I've never had a complaint, quite the opposite in fact) and I must say I loved doing it.
Picture details: 1/90s @ f5.6, ISO 400, 28mm, flash fired
Don't shoot a friend's wedding
Apart from the fact that you have a huge problem if you screw up, it's impossible to be focused when you know a lot of people at the wedding.
Clearly define what you will and will not shoot
A full day of shooting is exhausting and stressful. You must be fully concentrated almost the entire day. You may also be asked to stay and shoot the party all the way to the end. Be clear about this up-front.
Shoot the important people
Try to find out who the important people are. This is perhaps the most difficult part of shooting a wedding and at the same time one of the most important things for the couple. If you're lucky the family and best friends wear some sort of flower to set them apart from the rest. Usually the morning gathering is your best chance at shooting the important people, however they will looked stressed then. But at least at that time you can try to remember who's important (and who's not). Getting this right is what separates an amateur from a professional.
Be prepared, be early
Most of the items below come down to being prepared during the day and even prior to that to minimize your stress level. Arrive at the locations as early as possible. Get the time schedule, addresses and the mobile phone numbers of the masters of ceremony. Get a navigational system. You should appear to be relaxed otherwise you'll freak out the bride.
Picture details: 1/200 @ f/4, ISO 200, 50mm
Equipment - Two camera's
Most important of all. Consider what would happen if your single camera failed just prior to "the kiss"? Additionally, it means you don't have to switch lenses all the time. Obviously, you need a DSLR and not a fixed lens alternative. Personally, I've been faced with the dreaded Err 99 error twice, which freezes the camera completely and can only be resolved by removing lens and batteries. Perhaps you can start by borrowing a second camera, preferably a similar camera that you're familiar with.
Equipment - plenty of memory cards
Similarly, consider what would happen if you ran out of memory space? You can also get a Photowallet of some sort. Carry the memory card with you instead of in the bag. The bag is sometimes at a different location than you are and the cards are small enough to keep with you. I have about 4GB in total, but that's only enough for high quality JPEG shooting and not RAW.
Equipment - external flash and omni bounce or reflector for the flash
The flash on your semi-professional camera body sucks big time. Buy a proper external flash that allows you to bounce the light off the ceiling. When the ceiling is too high or just not there an omni bounce or flash-mounted reflector will produce nicer shots than a direct flash. Here's a great article about flash photography using weddingshots as examples.
Shoot details
Much time has been spent on making getting all the details of the wedding right. Flowers and other decoration, the wedding cake, table settings. Capture those details by making close-ups.
Picture details: 1/200s @ f1.8, ISO 800, 50mm
Equipment - enough batteries for your camera and a battery pack
Again, consider what would happen if you ran out of juice on an important moment. 4 batteries (two per camera) is enough if the batteries aren't too old. A battery pack is not only convenient because you don't have to switch batteries, it also serves as a proper handgrip and will provide a better balance. Additionally, it makes people think you're professional and know what you're doing ;-)
Equipment - enough batteries for your flash, use 2300 mAh and up
Same thing. Two sets of batteries is good. The problem with batteries that are less than 2300 mAh is that the refresh time is too slow. You'll be waiting for it to recharge. This can be especially problematic during "the kiss". Never bring non-rechargeable batteries as backup. You may not know this, but they have much less power than rechargeable batteries (around 1400 mAh).
Equipment - wide angle lens
As you'll know most digital SLRs have a crop factor of 1.6 turning your 28mm into a 35mm lens. This is not so much a problem for group pictures but it is when you're on a crammed reception or a dance floor that's really too small. You need something like 17mm or you can only shoot one person at a time...
Equipment - a fast portrait lens
Couples expect portraits. The secret to making beautiful professional looking portraits is a good lens. Pretty much the only way to get a nice blurry background is with a really fast lens. With fast I mean f1.8 or faster. Canon has a cheap (approx 120 euro) but great 50mm 1.8 lens. You'll notice most of the pictures in this article are shot with this lens.
Picture details: 1/800s @ f1.8, ISO 100, 50mm
A lens with such a large aperture also allows for available light shooting in a church or other places where there's limited ligth, but it has to be noted that the DOF (Depth of Field) at f1.8 is so small that if you don't focus exactly on the eyes your pictures will be out of focus. Also, these lenses provide a sharper result when "stopped down" to a value between f2 and f2.8, however this cannot be accomplished when there is little light available, unless using a tripod.
btw The reason that it's more difficult to get a blurry background with a digital camera is that the CCD or the CMOS of a digital SLR 1.6 times smaller than a 35mm analogue film (without getting into the technical details). Currently, only two professional digital Canon SLR camera's don't have this issue (5D and the 1Ds). This is also why it's nearly impossible to make a nice portrait with a compact camera, that has an even smaller CCD (causing the lens to be put closer to the CCD).
Equipment - a telelens
For a wedding, I consider a telelens not really that important as the other lenses described. It can be useful at the reception to make pictures without disturbing anyone. Again, to get a nice blurry background you'll need a fast lens. For a telelens, 2.8 is great but very expensive. They do tend to look a bit intimidating for the quests...
Picture details: 1/4000s @ f1.8, ISO 400, 50mm, no flash, +1,5 steps exposure compensation. Technically, ISO should have been set to 100. One of the very few things I dislike about the Canon 20D is the lack of ISO information in the viewfinder.
Equipment - camera bag
Wedding photography requires a different type of bag than you may have for traveling. It's important that things can easily be reached. It also helps if you always store your things in the same place inside the bag so you don't have to look for it.
Equipment - tripod?
Not the most important thing. It's a pain to carry around with you. You may consider using it when shooting with long exposures in the church.
Shoot lots a pictures?
It's better to take one good shot than many bad ones. True. But with digital photography you do have the luxury of being close to unlimited to the number of shots you can take. Changes are a couple of them will be good. Taking a lot of shots may be considered compensating for a lack of proper skills. I often joke during the wedding that I take so many pictures because I'm a lousy photographer... However, the couple is generally quite pleased to have so many shots to choose from. They will, however, also expect at least a number of great shots that they can use to send to their friends after the wedding.
Eat and drink you must
Take Yoda's advice. It's very easy to forget this and you'll end up with a headache. The stress will make you sweat and burn more energy more than usual.
Difficult hats
You may not notice it initially, but the large hats that women often wear create a shade in the eyes that's difficult to retrieve even with Photoshop. Flashing may also not work if your flash is positioned too high (above the hat). You're best bet then is to take the shot from as low as possible.
Picture details: notice that the eyes on the left are a too dark. 1/125s @ f7.1, ISO 100, 40mm, no flash fired
Anticipate events
Below are listed some of the events that a typical wedding will include. If you're out chatting to grandma or reviewing your shots on the LCD you may miss an important shot so it's important to be at the right place at the right time. When in doubt about what's next ask the best man or the masters of ceremony.
The bride coming down the stairs
Often there's a strong backlight behind the bride confusing your light meter. Don't even consider taking these shots without a flash. Use your flash power wisely. Photoshop is your friend if you screw this up.
Picture details: 1/60s @ f4, ISO 400, 28mm, flash used
Taking group pictures
Ask the couple to determine up-front which combinations to make. Start with the largest group and then remove people. Don't take responsibility for gathering people, ask the masters of ceremony to do that. Try to elevate yourself, this will somewhat reduce the distance between the people in the front and the back. The group should ideally be in the shade. In case of backlighting you'll definitely need to fill the eyes by using the flash.
Only in this case the flash can be direct instead of bounced otherwise the effect will be minimal.
Picture details: 1/200s @ f10, ISO 100, 17-40 4L @ 17mm
Because of the difference between people standing in front and in the back it's beneficial/important to use a smaller aperture (such as f8) if the lighting conditions allow for it. Boosting the ISO to 400 (but no further) may help here, even though this will reduce the color somewhat. Alternatively, a tripod will also help off course. Especially a group of people on a stairs implies a very large distance between the couple in the front and the people in the back. I would suggest to focus on the couple rather than somewhere in between. The further away you are from the group, the less of an issue this will be.
Flashing inside the church
If the schedule includes a church than you have some different challenges. Churches are usually quite dark and some churches apparently don't allow you to flash although I've not come across this. However, even if you can flash it's still much nicer not to. The light is often very soft and warm.
Here's where you need a fast lens more than ever. I usually set my camera too 400 or 800 ISO which is acceptable when you filter out the noise afterwards. Combined with aperture f1.8 this usually just enough for a shutter speed of 1/45 or 1/60 on my 50mm lens. It's nice to make portraits of the people on the front row and the couple. However, for the action shot (the kiss) I use a flash to be safe.
Picture details: 1/45s @ f1.8, ISO 800, no flash, 50mm
Your lens should be silent
Especially in the church a noisy lens is not really appreciated. Canon's USM lenses are all silent. The 1.8 50mm is not USM unfortunately but doesn't have to move it's glass very far so it's not too much of an issue in my opinion. I've recently purchased the Canon 50mm 1.4 USM which is silent, but it's approximately 4 times the price. Another thing to note, unrelated to lenses, is that the Canon 20D has a noisier shutter than the 10D.
Shooting the couple from the side with large aperture
When the couple is sitting or standing it's a good time to get a shot of both of them from the side. However, when there's not too much light, the aperture will be large and the depth-of-field will be limited (for example with the f1.8 lens). The person in the back will be out of focus. Unless this is intentional you may need to try and get more in front of the couple.
The kiss
By many considered to be the crucial moment for the photographer. Sometimes (with a shy couple) the kiss is brief but mostly it's quite long. The mistake I made on my first shoot is to assume that you can start shooting just before the kiss and then keep shooting. Normally this would be true. Not with a flash... Unless you have fully charged batteries and/or a very good flashgun it's likely that your flash stops flashing after the first or second flash. You may end up missing the crucial moment. So be patient and confident and wait until they properly kiss...
Picture details: 1/500s @ f1.8, ISO 800, 50mm
Signatures moment
Ask all people that have to sign to look into the lens and check that the picture is correct on your LCD. Don't be ashamed to ask again. Always position yourself correctly facing the person signing. Shooting them from the back is obviously useless. Kneel on the ground and shoot from below.
Moving targets, after the ceremony
After the ceremony usually the couple leaves the building and moves quickly towards you going through the crowd.
This is usually the shot the couples end up sending to their friends to thank them. Unfortunately, this is also a very tricky shot to get right because the couple is moving and your focus may quickly be off. To overcome this I always ask the couple (before the wedding) to pause a moment and wave at the crowd. A similar moment is when the father a bride enter the room together. In this case you cannot ask them to pause. I did not find the AI Focus or AI Servo setting on the camera useful to anticipate movement, but perhaps I need more practice. I also never use the automatic focus point selection; I keep it set to the middle focus point.
Picture details: lost..., I think this was caused by the "Save for Web" feature in Photoshop. I applied some pretty intense sharpening to save this picture.
Dragging the shutter at the party
How to create pictures at the party without blowing away the nice colors from the party lights with your flash? You set the camera to shutter speed priority at 1/30, the ISO to 800 and the flash on and perhaps slightly reduced in strength. The flash will freeze the motion while keeping a lot of the natural light and the background will be far less dark. This will create beautiful results. To deliberately add motion during dancing you can even experiment with 1/15. There's an excellent article about this.
Picture details: 1/30 @ f/4, ISO 800, 17-40 4L @ 40mm. Deliberately darkened the background to make the bride jump out.
Shade is your friend
All photography principals apply to wedding photography. If at all possible avoid taking pictures in the sun even when the family thinks it's a great idea for the group pictures to be shot in the sun. A CCD or CMOS deals with extreme contrasts worse than film and your pictures will look amateur like. The only exception is a backlight subject combined with fill flash or exposure compensation.
Convert to black and white afterwards not during
There's really no point using the black and white feature inside the camera. It's far better to do this afterwards using a tool like Photoshop of Nik Color Efex Pro. This way you still have the choice.
Delete the bad pictures, not during the day
Don't spend time or battery deleting pictures during the day. You can hardly judge your pictures on the little LCD and even a bad picture may turn out to be useful when your editing. Remove images that are really not good (closed eyes, out of focus) or duplicate.
Photoshop is your friend
Thank God for Photoshop. I always have a lot of respect for photographers that still use film and have limited editing possibilities. My personal opinion is that any type of editing is justified as long as the couple likes it (or doesn't notice it...). You do have to ask yourself if you're still earning money when you're spending so much time behind the computer. A lot of photographers don't like it. I enjoy using Photoshop almost as much as the photography itself so no problem there. My edits often even include making the teeth whiter and removing the dark area below the eyes.
Picture details: 1/2000s @ f1.8, ISO 100, 50mm. Shot with RAW. Masking done in Photoshop.
Blend in with the crowd and about the video man
Most couples don't like it when a photographer is very "present". I would suggest to wear at least a shirt and tie. A suit can be too warm at times. If there's a video man you'll need to share the space with him. You can also check with the couple beforehand who takes priority. I once shared the space with a very friendly video man and it turned out fine. It's all about mutual respect.
Delivery afterwards in sRGB
AdobeRGB is of higher quality then sRGB. I shoot in AdobeRGB and then convert to sRGB at the very end of the workflow (see my article on this). At first I delivered both. Now I only deliver sRGB. When an AdobeRGB image is viewed with a viewer that's not equipped for that, the color of the image will look washed out. Most viewers (such as the standard XP image viewer, IE and Firefox) expect sRGB. I really wish had known this earlier.
Commercial considerations
My guess is that most non-pro's ask between 600-1200 euro for a full day (including part of the party) in the Netherlands, also depending on whether hardcopy prints are included or not. I choose not to deliver hard copy prints but only a DVD or CD's.
You must realize editing and delivering after the actual wedding day can take 1 to 2 (or even 3!) full days. For analogue shoots this is obviously not the case. But it's fair to assume your pictures will improve because of this editing. On the other hand, the better your pictures are when you shoot them the less editing is required afterwards...
Other
There are books available and articles online. I found that most books focus on the formal (dare I say American?) style of shooting weddings with studio flashes and well defined checklists of the shots to be taken. Some literature will tell you to go to the locations up-front. That's a little too much for me, because it will just take too much time. The modern way of shooting weddings is called "photojournalist style", meaning you capture the spirit and the events of the day as well as possible without making it seem unnatural. A book I liked is called "The Best of Digital Wedding Photography". Actually mine is the non-digital version by the same author.
Picture details: 1/20s @ f/4, ISO 800, 28-135 IS @ 44mm
Links
Digital Wedding Forum
Photographing a Friend's or Relative's Wedding
Wedding Photography Part 1 technique
All pictures are shot with a Canon 300D, 10D or 20D and a 420EX flash unit.
My lessons learned
Think again
You should only shoot a wedding if you're convinced your skills are good enough and if you have the equipment listed below. If you're (like me) not a professional photographer you should make it very clear to the couple that you're not. If they've seen some of your photo's and are comfortable (i.e. impressed) than it's ok. On the plus side most couples are far less of a perfectionist than you may be. I've never had a complaint, quite the opposite in fact) and I must say I loved doing it.
Picture details: 1/90s @ f5.6, ISO 400, 28mm, flash fired
Don't shoot a friend's wedding
Apart from the fact that you have a huge problem if you screw up, it's impossible to be focused when you know a lot of people at the wedding.
Clearly define what you will and will not shoot
A full day of shooting is exhausting and stressful. You must be fully concentrated almost the entire day. You may also be asked to stay and shoot the party all the way to the end. Be clear about this up-front.
Shoot the important people
Try to find out who the important people are. This is perhaps the most difficult part of shooting a wedding and at the same time one of the most important things for the couple. If you're lucky the family and best friends wear some sort of flower to set them apart from the rest. Usually the morning gathering is your best chance at shooting the important people, however they will looked stressed then. But at least at that time you can try to remember who's important (and who's not). Getting this right is what separates an amateur from a professional.
Be prepared, be earlyMost of the items below come down to being prepared during the day and even prior to that to minimize your stress level. Arrive at the locations as early as possible. Get the time schedule, addresses and the mobile phone numbers of the masters of ceremony. Get a navigational system. You should appear to be relaxed otherwise you'll freak out the bride.
Picture details: 1/200 @ f/4, ISO 200, 50mm
Equipment - Two camera's
Most important of all. Consider what would happen if your single camera failed just prior to "the kiss"? Additionally, it means you don't have to switch lenses all the time. Obviously, you need a DSLR and not a fixed lens alternative. Personally, I've been faced with the dreaded Err 99 error twice, which freezes the camera completely and can only be resolved by removing lens and batteries. Perhaps you can start by borrowing a second camera, preferably a similar camera that you're familiar with.
Equipment - plenty of memory cards
Similarly, consider what would happen if you ran out of memory space? You can also get a Photowallet of some sort. Carry the memory card with you instead of in the bag. The bag is sometimes at a different location than you are and the cards are small enough to keep with you. I have about 4GB in total, but that's only enough for high quality JPEG shooting and not RAW.
Equipment - external flash and omni bounce or reflector for the flash
The flash on your semi-professional camera body sucks big time. Buy a proper external flash that allows you to bounce the light off the ceiling. When the ceiling is too high or just not there an omni bounce or flash-mounted reflector will produce nicer shots than a direct flash. Here's a great article about flash photography using weddingshots as examples.
Shoot detailsMuch time has been spent on making getting all the details of the wedding right. Flowers and other decoration, the wedding cake, table settings. Capture those details by making close-ups.
Picture details: 1/200s @ f1.8, ISO 800, 50mm
Equipment - enough batteries for your camera and a battery pack
Again, consider what would happen if you ran out of juice on an important moment. 4 batteries (two per camera) is enough if the batteries aren't too old. A battery pack is not only convenient because you don't have to switch batteries, it also serves as a proper handgrip and will provide a better balance. Additionally, it makes people think you're professional and know what you're doing ;-)
Equipment - enough batteries for your flash, use 2300 mAh and up
Same thing. Two sets of batteries is good. The problem with batteries that are less than 2300 mAh is that the refresh time is too slow. You'll be waiting for it to recharge. This can be especially problematic during "the kiss". Never bring non-rechargeable batteries as backup. You may not know this, but they have much less power than rechargeable batteries (around 1400 mAh).
Equipment - wide angle lens
As you'll know most digital SLRs have a crop factor of 1.6 turning your 28mm into a 35mm lens. This is not so much a problem for group pictures but it is when you're on a crammed reception or a dance floor that's really too small. You need something like 17mm or you can only shoot one person at a time...
Equipment - a fast portrait lensCouples expect portraits. The secret to making beautiful professional looking portraits is a good lens. Pretty much the only way to get a nice blurry background is with a really fast lens. With fast I mean f1.8 or faster. Canon has a cheap (approx 120 euro) but great 50mm 1.8 lens. You'll notice most of the pictures in this article are shot with this lens.
Picture details: 1/800s @ f1.8, ISO 100, 50mm
A lens with such a large aperture also allows for available light shooting in a church or other places where there's limited ligth, but it has to be noted that the DOF (Depth of Field) at f1.8 is so small that if you don't focus exactly on the eyes your pictures will be out of focus. Also, these lenses provide a sharper result when "stopped down" to a value between f2 and f2.8, however this cannot be accomplished when there is little light available, unless using a tripod.
btw The reason that it's more difficult to get a blurry background with a digital camera is that the CCD or the CMOS of a digital SLR 1.6 times smaller than a 35mm analogue film (without getting into the technical details). Currently, only two professional digital Canon SLR camera's don't have this issue (5D and the 1Ds). This is also why it's nearly impossible to make a nice portrait with a compact camera, that has an even smaller CCD (causing the lens to be put closer to the CCD).
Equipment - a telelensFor a wedding, I consider a telelens not really that important as the other lenses described. It can be useful at the reception to make pictures without disturbing anyone. Again, to get a nice blurry background you'll need a fast lens. For a telelens, 2.8 is great but very expensive. They do tend to look a bit intimidating for the quests...
Picture details: 1/4000s @ f1.8, ISO 400, 50mm, no flash, +1,5 steps exposure compensation. Technically, ISO should have been set to 100. One of the very few things I dislike about the Canon 20D is the lack of ISO information in the viewfinder.
Equipment - camera bag
Wedding photography requires a different type of bag than you may have for traveling. It's important that things can easily be reached. It also helps if you always store your things in the same place inside the bag so you don't have to look for it.
Equipment - tripod?
Not the most important thing. It's a pain to carry around with you. You may consider using it when shooting with long exposures in the church.
Shoot lots a pictures?
It's better to take one good shot than many bad ones. True. But with digital photography you do have the luxury of being close to unlimited to the number of shots you can take. Changes are a couple of them will be good. Taking a lot of shots may be considered compensating for a lack of proper skills. I often joke during the wedding that I take so many pictures because I'm a lousy photographer... However, the couple is generally quite pleased to have so many shots to choose from. They will, however, also expect at least a number of great shots that they can use to send to their friends after the wedding.
Eat and drink you must
Take Yoda's advice. It's very easy to forget this and you'll end up with a headache. The stress will make you sweat and burn more energy more than usual.
Difficult hatsYou may not notice it initially, but the large hats that women often wear create a shade in the eyes that's difficult to retrieve even with Photoshop. Flashing may also not work if your flash is positioned too high (above the hat). You're best bet then is to take the shot from as low as possible.
Picture details: notice that the eyes on the left are a too dark. 1/125s @ f7.1, ISO 100, 40mm, no flash fired
Anticipate events
Below are listed some of the events that a typical wedding will include. If you're out chatting to grandma or reviewing your shots on the LCD you may miss an important shot so it's important to be at the right place at the right time. When in doubt about what's next ask the best man or the masters of ceremony.
The bride coming down the stairsOften there's a strong backlight behind the bride confusing your light meter. Don't even consider taking these shots without a flash. Use your flash power wisely. Photoshop is your friend if you screw this up.
Picture details: 1/60s @ f4, ISO 400, 28mm, flash used
Taking group pictures
Ask the couple to determine up-front which combinations to make. Start with the largest group and then remove people. Don't take responsibility for gathering people, ask the masters of ceremony to do that. Try to elevate yourself, this will somewhat reduce the distance between the people in the front and the back. The group should ideally be in the shade. In case of backlighting you'll definitely need to fill the eyes by using the flash.
Only in this case the flash can be direct instead of bounced otherwise the effect will be minimal.Picture details: 1/200s @ f10, ISO 100, 17-40 4L @ 17mm
Because of the difference between people standing in front and in the back it's beneficial/important to use a smaller aperture (such as f8) if the lighting conditions allow for it. Boosting the ISO to 400 (but no further) may help here, even though this will reduce the color somewhat. Alternatively, a tripod will also help off course. Especially a group of people on a stairs implies a very large distance between the couple in the front and the people in the back. I would suggest to focus on the couple rather than somewhere in between. The further away you are from the group, the less of an issue this will be.
Flashing inside the churchIf the schedule includes a church than you have some different challenges. Churches are usually quite dark and some churches apparently don't allow you to flash although I've not come across this. However, even if you can flash it's still much nicer not to. The light is often very soft and warm.
Here's where you need a fast lens more than ever. I usually set my camera too 400 or 800 ISO which is acceptable when you filter out the noise afterwards. Combined with aperture f1.8 this usually just enough for a shutter speed of 1/45 or 1/60 on my 50mm lens. It's nice to make portraits of the people on the front row and the couple. However, for the action shot (the kiss) I use a flash to be safe.Picture details: 1/45s @ f1.8, ISO 800, no flash, 50mm
Your lens should be silent
Especially in the church a noisy lens is not really appreciated. Canon's USM lenses are all silent. The 1.8 50mm is not USM unfortunately but doesn't have to move it's glass very far so it's not too much of an issue in my opinion. I've recently purchased the Canon 50mm 1.4 USM which is silent, but it's approximately 4 times the price. Another thing to note, unrelated to lenses, is that the Canon 20D has a noisier shutter than the 10D.
Shooting the couple from the side with large aperture
When the couple is sitting or standing it's a good time to get a shot of both of them from the side. However, when there's not too much light, the aperture will be large and the depth-of-field will be limited (for example with the f1.8 lens). The person in the back will be out of focus. Unless this is intentional you may need to try and get more in front of the couple.
The kissBy many considered to be the crucial moment for the photographer. Sometimes (with a shy couple) the kiss is brief but mostly it's quite long. The mistake I made on my first shoot is to assume that you can start shooting just before the kiss and then keep shooting. Normally this would be true. Not with a flash... Unless you have fully charged batteries and/or a very good flashgun it's likely that your flash stops flashing after the first or second flash. You may end up missing the crucial moment. So be patient and confident and wait until they properly kiss...
Picture details: 1/500s @ f1.8, ISO 800, 50mm
Signatures momentAsk all people that have to sign to look into the lens and check that the picture is correct on your LCD. Don't be ashamed to ask again. Always position yourself correctly facing the person signing. Shooting them from the back is obviously useless. Kneel on the ground and shoot from below.
Moving targets, after the ceremony
After the ceremony usually the couple leaves the building and moves quickly towards you going through the crowd.
This is usually the shot the couples end up sending to their friends to thank them. Unfortunately, this is also a very tricky shot to get right because the couple is moving and your focus may quickly be off. To overcome this I always ask the couple (before the wedding) to pause a moment and wave at the crowd. A similar moment is when the father a bride enter the room together. In this case you cannot ask them to pause. I did not find the AI Focus or AI Servo setting on the camera useful to anticipate movement, but perhaps I need more practice. I also never use the automatic focus point selection; I keep it set to the middle focus point.Picture details: lost..., I think this was caused by the "Save for Web" feature in Photoshop. I applied some pretty intense sharpening to save this picture.
Dragging the shutter at the partyHow to create pictures at the party without blowing away the nice colors from the party lights with your flash? You set the camera to shutter speed priority at 1/30, the ISO to 800 and the flash on and perhaps slightly reduced in strength. The flash will freeze the motion while keeping a lot of the natural light and the background will be far less dark. This will create beautiful results. To deliberately add motion during dancing you can even experiment with 1/15. There's an excellent article about this.
Picture details: 1/30 @ f/4, ISO 800, 17-40 4L @ 40mm. Deliberately darkened the background to make the bride jump out.
Shade is your friend
All photography principals apply to wedding photography. If at all possible avoid taking pictures in the sun even when the family thinks it's a great idea for the group pictures to be shot in the sun. A CCD or CMOS deals with extreme contrasts worse than film and your pictures will look amateur like. The only exception is a backlight subject combined with fill flash or exposure compensation.
Convert to black and white afterwards not during
There's really no point using the black and white feature inside the camera. It's far better to do this afterwards using a tool like Photoshop of Nik Color Efex Pro. This way you still have the choice.
Delete the bad pictures, not during the day
Don't spend time or battery deleting pictures during the day. You can hardly judge your pictures on the little LCD and even a bad picture may turn out to be useful when your editing. Remove images that are really not good (closed eyes, out of focus) or duplicate.
Photoshop is your friendThank God for Photoshop. I always have a lot of respect for photographers that still use film and have limited editing possibilities. My personal opinion is that any type of editing is justified as long as the couple likes it (or doesn't notice it...). You do have to ask yourself if you're still earning money when you're spending so much time behind the computer. A lot of photographers don't like it. I enjoy using Photoshop almost as much as the photography itself so no problem there. My edits often even include making the teeth whiter and removing the dark area below the eyes.
Picture details: 1/2000s @ f1.8, ISO 100, 50mm. Shot with RAW. Masking done in Photoshop.
Blend in with the crowd and about the video man
Most couples don't like it when a photographer is very "present". I would suggest to wear at least a shirt and tie. A suit can be too warm at times. If there's a video man you'll need to share the space with him. You can also check with the couple beforehand who takes priority. I once shared the space with a very friendly video man and it turned out fine. It's all about mutual respect.
Delivery afterwards in sRGB
AdobeRGB is of higher quality then sRGB. I shoot in AdobeRGB and then convert to sRGB at the very end of the workflow (see my article on this). At first I delivered both. Now I only deliver sRGB. When an AdobeRGB image is viewed with a viewer that's not equipped for that, the color of the image will look washed out. Most viewers (such as the standard XP image viewer, IE and Firefox) expect sRGB. I really wish had known this earlier.
Commercial considerations
My guess is that most non-pro's ask between 600-1200 euro for a full day (including part of the party) in the Netherlands, also depending on whether hardcopy prints are included or not. I choose not to deliver hard copy prints but only a DVD or CD's.
You must realize editing and delivering after the actual wedding day can take 1 to 2 (or even 3!) full days. For analogue shoots this is obviously not the case. But it's fair to assume your pictures will improve because of this editing. On the other hand, the better your pictures are when you shoot them the less editing is required afterwards...
OtherThere are books available and articles online. I found that most books focus on the formal (dare I say American?) style of shooting weddings with studio flashes and well defined checklists of the shots to be taken. Some literature will tell you to go to the locations up-front. That's a little too much for me, because it will just take too much time. The modern way of shooting weddings is called "photojournalist style", meaning you capture the spirit and the events of the day as well as possible without making it seem unnatural. A book I liked is called "The Best of Digital Wedding Photography". Actually mine is the non-digital version by the same author.
Picture details: 1/20s @ f/4, ISO 800, 28-135 IS @ 44mm
Links
Digital Wedding Forum
Photographing a Friend's or Relative's Wedding
Wedding Photography Part 1 technique
My RAW workflow
Recently I've changed my workflow from shooting JPEG to only RAW. I find it saves me time because I can edit multiple files at once in C1Pro. The only downside is that only 108 RAW Canon 20D images fit on a 1GB card. You'll need extra cards or a Photowallet for shooting a full-day wedding or when you're on holiday...
As you're probably aware using RAW also makes it much easier to correct whitebalance and exposure and the quality is the highest possible.
My workflow varies slightly but this is mostly what I've done.
My "workflow"
1. Get images to computer: Acdsee PRO
The nice thing about Acdsee is that it can automatically rename images to the date of the original shot, using EXIF data. The Pro version now (finally) supports colour management (and thus Adobe RGB). This version can also display RAW files in a decent timeframe. However, I don't use it for that.
2. Back-up the un-edited images to external drive
If the images are important I use a Lacie drive for this purpose. At the end of the workflow I replace these with the edited version.
3. Delete below standard and duplicate images: Phase One C1 Pro
First I used Photo Mechanic however I find that I can sometimes only properly compare images after doing some editing first.
4. Edit image and export RAW to JPEG: Phase One C1 Pro
This is still the best tool out there by far. Once you know how to use it, it saves an enormous amount of time and the quality is the best. I use it for all the common stuff cropping to 2x3 and 3x2, improving exposure contrast, saturation, sharpness and some curve stuff. I export to AdobeRGB because this is the widest (i.e. best) color space.
5. Removing noise: Noise Ninja
This is the best tool out there but it takes forever. It automatically loads the profile for your camera and for ISO setting that was used. It can produce an entire directory at once. For a 1000 pictures it takes a couple of hours and it crashes sometimes. The computer also becomes unusable while it's working.
Before I used RAW this was one of the first steps I did because then this provides the best result (before any editing has been done). You do need to make sure you don't let Noise Ninja apply the sharpness again if this has already been done. Their sharpening is good though.
6. Review images: Camera Bits Photo Mechanic
Photo Mechanic is the fastest tool for viewing (RAW) images and all the pro's use it for that reason and for some of the other unique features. You can also use it to assign the AdobeRGB colorspace to you images if you have Canon 10D (which doesn't record this color space properly).
7. Editing phase 2: Adobe Photoshop CS2
For all edits that can't be done in C1Pro I use Photoshop. Obviously, this is the default application for this kind of thing. For me it's mostly retouching, advanced exposure corrections, lens blur. Before I used RAW I did everything in Photoshop.
8. Converting to Black and White: Nik Color Efex Pro 2.0
A batch process in Photoshop opens each photo and converts it to black and white. I currently mostly use the B&W Tonal Enhancer. The B&W conversion is very impressive. See my other article on Black and White conversion.
btw. Creating actions in Photoshop can be quite confusing. You need to tick the "Override Open" and the "Override Save As" boxes. Make sure you back-up your images before you use it.
9. Converting to sRGB: Adobe Photoshop CS2
It's safe to assume most people don't have a viewer that displays Adobe RGB correctly. Furthermore most (even professional) printing Labs can only print sRGB. At best, they will convert your image to sRGB if you provide them with an AdobeRGB image. I've created a batch process in Photoshop because I have not been able to find a tool that does this, which I find strange.
10. Burning on a DVD disc: Ahead Nero.
11. Creating a CD cover: Adobe Indesign or Ahead Cover Designer
12. Putting it online: Gallery
Gallery is a very powerful online Gallery that you'll need to host on webserver. It has its own user management. Gallery is not an easy thing to setup. It uses PHP and I would advise using something different if you're not a geek like me.
Alternatively, check-out Jalbum. Very easy to create sharp looking HTML galleries. It even includes an FTP publishing feature. If all else fails, you can always use Flickr, off course
For really showing-off your abilities you should consider using SimpleViewer. I created this gallery with it. To generate this I used Picasa because I couldn't get the PHP to work.
13. Backup again
The folder structure I use is on my drive and on the backup drive is D:\2006\2006-12-30 example title\
As you're probably aware using RAW also makes it much easier to correct whitebalance and exposure and the quality is the highest possible.
My workflow varies slightly but this is mostly what I've done.
My "workflow"
1. Get images to computer: Acdsee PRO
The nice thing about Acdsee is that it can automatically rename images to the date of the original shot, using EXIF data. The Pro version now (finally) supports colour management (and thus Adobe RGB). This version can also display RAW files in a decent timeframe. However, I don't use it for that.
2. Back-up the un-edited images to external drive
If the images are important I use a Lacie drive for this purpose. At the end of the workflow I replace these with the edited version.
3. Delete below standard and duplicate images: Phase One C1 Pro
First I used Photo Mechanic however I find that I can sometimes only properly compare images after doing some editing first.
4. Edit image and export RAW to JPEG: Phase One C1 Pro
This is still the best tool out there by far. Once you know how to use it, it saves an enormous amount of time and the quality is the best. I use it for all the common stuff cropping to 2x3 and 3x2, improving exposure contrast, saturation, sharpness and some curve stuff. I export to AdobeRGB because this is the widest (i.e. best) color space.
5. Removing noise: Noise Ninja
This is the best tool out there but it takes forever. It automatically loads the profile for your camera and for ISO setting that was used. It can produce an entire directory at once. For a 1000 pictures it takes a couple of hours and it crashes sometimes. The computer also becomes unusable while it's working.
Before I used RAW this was one of the first steps I did because then this provides the best result (before any editing has been done). You do need to make sure you don't let Noise Ninja apply the sharpness again if this has already been done. Their sharpening is good though.
6. Review images: Camera Bits Photo Mechanic
Photo Mechanic is the fastest tool for viewing (RAW) images and all the pro's use it for that reason and for some of the other unique features. You can also use it to assign the AdobeRGB colorspace to you images if you have Canon 10D (which doesn't record this color space properly).
7. Editing phase 2: Adobe Photoshop CS2
For all edits that can't be done in C1Pro I use Photoshop. Obviously, this is the default application for this kind of thing. For me it's mostly retouching, advanced exposure corrections, lens blur. Before I used RAW I did everything in Photoshop.
8. Converting to Black and White: Nik Color Efex Pro 2.0
A batch process in Photoshop opens each photo and converts it to black and white. I currently mostly use the B&W Tonal Enhancer. The B&W conversion is very impressive. See my other article on Black and White conversion.
btw. Creating actions in Photoshop can be quite confusing. You need to tick the "Override Open" and the "Override Save As" boxes. Make sure you back-up your images before you use it.
9. Converting to sRGB: Adobe Photoshop CS2
It's safe to assume most people don't have a viewer that displays Adobe RGB correctly. Furthermore most (even professional) printing Labs can only print sRGB. At best, they will convert your image to sRGB if you provide them with an AdobeRGB image. I've created a batch process in Photoshop because I have not been able to find a tool that does this, which I find strange.
10. Burning on a DVD disc: Ahead Nero.
11. Creating a CD cover: Adobe Indesign or Ahead Cover Designer
12. Putting it online: Gallery
Gallery is a very powerful online Gallery that you'll need to host on webserver. It has its own user management. Gallery is not an easy thing to setup. It uses PHP and I would advise using something different if you're not a geek like me.
Alternatively, check-out Jalbum. Very easy to create sharp looking HTML galleries. It even includes an FTP publishing feature. If all else fails, you can always use Flickr, off course
For really showing-off your abilities you should consider using SimpleViewer. I created this gallery with it. To generate this I used Picasa because I couldn't get the PHP to work.
13. Backup again
The folder structure I use is on my drive and on the backup drive is D:\2006\2006-12-30 example title\
My wish list
1. Canon 24-105 4L
2. Canon 580 EX
3. Canon 1D mark IIn
4. Bowens Gemini 500/500 kit
5. Gossen Variosix F2 Lightmeter
6. Apple Powerbook Pro 15"
7. Canon 85 1.2 L
8. All Canon L lenses...
2. Canon 580 EX
3. Canon 1D mark IIn
4. Bowens Gemini 500/500 kit
5. Gossen Variosix F2 Lightmeter
6. Apple Powerbook Pro 15"
7. Canon 85 1.2 L
8. All Canon L lenses...
Converting to Black and White
How to get those nice looking Black and White pictures that you remember from analogue film?
Using Photoshop to convert photo's to Black & White is certainly possible. If you're a dummy you just convert it to grayscale.
You can find more sophisticated ways on the net too, using the Channel Mixer for example.
Taking it even further, you can download some incredibly actions here.
However, my tip of the day is to download Nik Color Efex Pro 2. The results are quit amazing. It's a Photoshop plug-in so you can include it into you Photoshop batch scripts.
Check out an example with Nik Color (top) and with the Channel Mixer (60,40,0) in Photoshop. The channel mixer produces grayscales rather then black and white. It's not the same as making the contrast higher.
Using Photoshop to convert photo's to Black & White is certainly possible. If you're a dummy you just convert it to grayscale.
You can find more sophisticated ways on the net too, using the Channel Mixer for example.
Taking it even further, you can download some incredibly actions here.
However, my tip of the day is to download Nik Color Efex Pro 2. The results are quit amazing. It's a Photoshop plug-in so you can include it into you Photoshop batch scripts.
Check out an example with Nik Color (top) and with the Channel Mixer (60,40,0) in Photoshop. The channel mixer produces grayscales rather then black and white. It's not the same as making the contrast higher.
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