Wedding photography to me is about emotional moments

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, Nikon SB-900, ISO 400, ƒ/3.5, 1/6

I do not promote myself as a wedding photographer. I have shot many weddings in my career, but today I have been just doing weddings for close friends and family. There was a time I turned down any requests.

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, Alienbees B1600, ISO 100, ƒ/5.6, 1/60

The reason I am not as fond of shooting weddings is the amount of people posing. I can do an excellent job of getting great moments in posed shots, but my favorite thing to do in all of photography is capturing those moments that are not posed.

Nikon D750, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, Alienbees B1600, ISO 400, ƒ/5.6, 1/200

I love a moment like this where the mother of the groom is dancing with her son and the grooms friends and family are caught up in the moment as well.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 11400, ƒ/4, 1/200

I love the moments where the Bride and Groom are in a moment where you see the love they have for each other and you can see why they are getting married.

Nikon D4, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 12800, ƒ/4.5, 1/50

Sometimes the moments are subtle or they are bold as here.

Nikon D4, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, Nikon SB-900, ISO 400, ƒ/3.5, 1/6

I love capturing the expressions of people where you can see on their faces their emotions. The other thing I notice is at weddings the guests are just as happy for the couple.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 10000, ƒ/5.6, 1/8

The hard part about shooting weddings is you are doing so many styles of photography throughout the day. You are having to do studio lighting fashion shoots and then turn right around and just doing more of event photography as well as getting those moments.

Nikon D5, Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4 DG Art Lens, ISO 22800, ƒ/5.6, 1/100

Capturing the moments is what I work on the most in my photography. I believe it is the expressions that are the most powerful thing in a photograph. I spend a great deal of time trying to be sure the technical parts of photography: Lighting, Composition, Depth-of-field and more are all ready for when the moment will happen.

Nikon D5, Sigma 35mm ƒ/1.4 DG Art Lens, ISO 6400, ƒ/3.2, 1/100

Sometimes those moments are posed, but you just wait for the moment when they are into it rather than stiff and just posing.

Nikon D4, Nikon 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 2800, ƒ/1.8, 1/100

Why I prefer Nikon D5 over Fuji X-E2

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 25600, ƒ/4, 1/100

First of all before you jump to sure a $6,500 camera should be better than a $1,500 camera this is more about the features than the prices. 

I can tell you are not going to hear that I love it because it weighs so much. This is one of the reasons I own the Fuji X-E2 system. Spending a week in London walking everywhere would have been a real pain carrying my Nikon gear.

Now the bride and groom asked me to take a photo with the groom's grandmother. Now there wasn't a shot list so I had to be ready for every situation. This is why the Nikon D5 is the go to camera for most all my client jobs. I was able to quickly just get a custom white balance and then click the photo at ISO 25600. The lens was wide open and I was shooting at 1/100. The lens has image stabilization as well.

To do this with the Fuji with available light would have me shooting at ISO 6400 and 1/25. I am not a fan of slow shutter speeds with people when I prefer a sharp photo.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 22800, ƒ/4, 1/100

As a friend of the family I was also at the rehearsal and thank goodness. I was then completely aware of how dark the church was going to be for the wedding.

Now when they mentioned they wanted to have everyone in attendance in a group photo I wanted to be sure you could see everyone clearly, so I just used strobes for that photo.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 1000, ƒ/5.6, 1/200–[2] Alienbees B1600 triggered with the Posketwizard TT1, TT5 system.

Now another thing is the flash system of the Nikon is far superior to the Fuji. So I was able to use fill flash for some of the photos of the bride and groom outside due to the overcast.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 100, ƒ/5.6, 1/200–Nikon SB-900 TTL

Today I believe it is difficult to find the one camera system that does it all, but my Nikon D5 is that camera for me and if it was light as my Fuji X-E2 then I would only on it for all my work. However, for those times I need a camera but don't want to lug my Nikons I use the Fuji.

How to use flash and not get a black background

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 10000, ƒ/5.6, 1/10 – Nikon SB-900

One of the most difficult things to shoot for many beginners in photography involves shooting in a very dark location with a flash.

Cameras will pick the lowest ISO when you use a flash as their default. What happens is then the background is black and the subject is well exposed at best. However in the case of this wedding photo the couple is walking out into the dark being back lit.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 10000, ƒ/5.6, 1/8 – Nikon SB-900

The trick is to set the camera as if you were shooting without a flash which is to use a high ISO. Here I set the camera to ISO 10000. Then the flash was set to fire on TTL slow shutter sync. This means the flash fires immediately at a extremely fast duration and then the shutter stays open longer.

Nikon SB-900 Flash Duration

1/880 sec. at M 1/1 (full) output
1/1100 sec. at M 1/2 output
1/2550 sec. at M 1/4 output
1/5000 sec. at M 1/8 output
1/10000 sec. at M 1/16 output
1/20000 sec. at M 1/32 output
1/35700 sec. at M 1/64 output
1/38500 sec. at M 1/128 output 

With my choice of ISO 10000 the flash on TTL was probably firing at 1/16 power or less. So this is why in the photo above of the couple walking there is a blur around them due to the shutter being open for 1/8 sec yet the flash froze them at about 1/10000.

Nikon D5, Sigma 24-105mm f/4 DG OS HSM Art Lens, ISO 10000, ƒ/5.6, 1/5 – Nikon SB-900

 Now notice as they walk from the church where the lights in the background are still impacting the exposure to the car the scene is getting darker. We have moved from 1/10 to 1/8 and then finally shooting at 1/5 to get the background to show up.

If you want to be sure you show where your subject is for reference then use slow shutter speed sync with the ISO set to where you could make photos without the flash. 

Use Light to help in compositions with Deep Depth-of-Field

Nikon D3s, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 3200, ƒ/10, 1/250–off camera Nikon SB-900 fired with Pocketwizard TTL system

When photographing in this plant I needed to see the background to give context to where the employee is working. For this reason I am shooting with an aperture of ƒ/10. I also wanted your eye to go to the worker predominately and not just wonder therefore I used the off camera flash to just hit the worker. 

The flash is zoomed to 200mm to give me more of a spotlight on the worker.

Nikon D3s, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 5600, ƒ/5, 1/250

You might prefer the photo without the flash. But how would you know without a comparison. This is key to keeping and getting clients. Clients love options even if they don't need but one photo.

Nikon D3s, AF-S NIKKOR 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 3200, ƒ/8, 1/20–off camera Nikon SB-900 fired with Pocketwizard TTL system

Had I not used the flash in this situation your eye would have gone to the background more than to the worker. 

Tips

• Use Deep Depth-of-field to bring in the context around a subject
• Keep the subject close to the camera to help with composition and communication
• Use light to help direct the viewer, because the deep depth-of-field can compete with the subject
• Give client options – Shoot situations with and without lights for example

Nikon D3s, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, ISO 3200, ƒ/7.1, 1/80–off camera Nikon SB-900 fired with Pocketwizard TTL system

Photographing Hummingbirds with Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S & High Speed Sync Flash

Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, Nikon SB-900, Nikon SB-800, PocketWizard Transceiver TT5, PocketWizard Mini TT1, AC-3, ISO 6400, ƒ/10, 1/2000

The hummingbird bird feeder we have is close to the house. I have a door with a lot of window panes that I put the two hot shoe flashes using TTL to control their output.

I kept the camera on a tripod so when the hummingbirds came I had very little to do except shoot.

Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, Nikon SB-900, Nikon SB-800, PocketWizard Transceiver TT5, PocketWizard Mini TT1, AC-3, ISO 6400, ƒ/10, 1/2000

The color is so much better than with just available light.

Nikon D4, Sigma 120-300mm ƒ/2.8 DG OS HSM | S, Sigma TC-2001 2x, Nikon SB-900, Nikon SB-800, PocketWizard Transceiver TT5, PocketWizard Mini TT1, AC-3, ISO 6400, ƒ/10, 1/2000

For comparison this is the photo I posted yesterday shot with the Fuji X-E2 and the 55-200mm.

Fujifilm X-E2, FUJINON XF 55-200mm, ISO 5000, ƒ/6.4, 1/2000

You just can't shoot high speed sync flash with the Fuji system that I know how to do. Maybe later.

Mixed lighting assignment comparing TTL Hotshoe to Studio Strobes

Nikon D4, Nikkor 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 100, ƒ/1.8, 1/8000—Off camera fill-flash using the Nikon SB-900. The Flash is on the Pocketwizard TT5 and being triggered by the Mini TT1 on the Camera with the AC3 to control the output of the flash. 

Today I taught the students the difference between studio strobes using them outside for lighting and using a TTL Hotshoe flash.

I love the photo at the top with the ƒ/1.8 look.

Now all these are just the test shots to show the difference between the lights. Not so much about finding a great location–which now seeing these I should have spent more time scouting before the class to find a great background.

Click on diagram to see larger

Now before we added flash we took one photo as the light was on the subject.

Nikon D4, Nikkor 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 100, ƒ/2.8, 1/1000

So this is where we started with no light, just the available light.

Nikon D4, Nikkor 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 100, ƒ/11, 1/250–Off camera Alienbees B1600 powered by Vagabond.

Here for this photo we took the first photo and transferred the settings to using sync speed of 1/250. Then instead of same exposure we underexposed by -2EV.  I don't like the background as sharp as it is here.  I do like the shallow depth of field of the first photo.

Now you can see the advantages of TTL Hotshoe flashes and the advantage of the studio strobe is shooting faster [less recycle time]. 

The Big Reveal for Photographers

The Big Reveal

This is just another example of exposing for the sunset which creates a silhouette of a person and then using your flash to reveal the subject.

Most photo books call this Fill-Flash, but the silhouette reveal language that Dave Black coined I think does a better job of describing what is happening. That is because the flash here becomes the main light and not a fill light.

Here is the lighting diagram for the photo above. I also has a CTO +1 gel on the flashes. They were held in place with the MagMod system.

Here is the photo without the flashes. How I wish I had the outfit that is behind him in this photo also in the other photo.

Shooting Christmas ornaments with Nikon D750

A fun thing to shoot this time of year are ornaments on a Christmas tree. Our ornaments all have a story with each one and how it helps us spend the season of remembering.

Here is the basic setup I did for the photos in the slideshow here. Take a look at each photo and the settings. [Click on the arrows on the side of photos to move forward and backward. You need to put your cursor on photo to see them.]


I shot all these with the AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR. I recommend shooting with a tripod to get the sharpest photos.

I started the project thinking that maybe the Nikkor 85mm ƒ/1.8G would be the lens for the examples, but here is the result with that lens:

Nikon D750, Nikkor 85mm ƒ/1.8G, ISO 2200, ƒ/1.8, 1/200

As you can see getting as close as I could with the lens gave me this view.

Nikon D750, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/200

Comparing to the Nikkor 28-300mm I quickly saw that the zooming in the lens to 300mm and getting as close as I could gave me a much tighter shot.

Be sure you click through the slideshow and notice the depth-of-field changes in the first four images move you through ƒ/5.6, ƒ/8, ƒ/11 & ƒ/16. Basically I noticed that while the bokeh looks great at ƒ/5.6 the ornament was actually out of focus on the back part. I was very careful to focus on the soldiers in front. With the Snoopy ornament you will see the depth-of-field is so shallow you might think I shot is out of focus.

The tip is simple shoot a little higher aperture to be sure the ornaments are in focus. Shoot with a tripod and unlike what I did, go ahead and shoot with a lower ISO.

The last photo is shot with fill flash. I put the Nikon D750 pop-up flash in CMD mode. I made it not flash and then on Group A I used my Nikon SB900 set at -1EV.

Nikon D750, AF-S Nikkor 28-300mm f/3.5-5.6G ED VR, ISO 12800, ƒ/5.6, 1/60–off camera flash with SB900 triggered by CMD flash mode of the D750 -1EV

Tips Summary:

• Use Tripod
• Use your lens that will get you closest to the ornament and fill the frame
• Shoot test of different apertures
• Use aperture that works best so ornament looks in focus
• Use off camera flash as an option. Shoot with and without and use the one you prefer.

Getting the moment in a portrait with the Nikon D4

Nikon D4, Sigma 70-200mm ƒ/2.8, ISO 500, ƒ/5, 1/640—Off camera fill-flash using the Nikon SB-900 & SB800.  The Flash is on the Pocketwizard TT5 and being triggered by the Mini TT1 on the Camera with the AC3 to control the output of the flash. 

I was recently hired by my client to capture her grand daughter. She wanted the best expressions and said this was why she wanted me to do the photo shoot. I continue to help her with her commercial needs and she knew I concentrate on getting the "moment."

Nikon D4, Sigma 70-200mm ƒ/2.8, ISO 500, ƒ/5, 1/800—Off camera fill-flash using the Nikon SB-900 & SB800.  The Flash is on the Pocketwizard TT5 and being triggered by the Mini TT1 on the Camera with the AC3 to control the output of the flash.

I intentionally shot these on my Nikon D4 to use the off-camera TTL flash system I have come to love. I am using the off camera fill-flash using the Nikon SB-900 & SB800.  The Flash is on the Pocketwizard TT5 and being triggered by the Mini TT1 on the Camera with the AC3 to control the output of the flash.

We decided to shoot outside on their deck because the little girl was really not happy when I arrived inside. The mother said she loved the outside and sure enough just as soon as we went outside she became another person.

This is where you have to remain flexible. Now I wasn't thrilled with the railing, but I liked the plants on the deck.

Nikon D4, Sigma 70-200mm ƒ/2.8, ISO 500, ƒ/4, 1/1250—Off camera fill-flash using the Nikon SB-900 & SB800.  The Flash is on the Pocketwizard TT5 and being triggered by the Mini TT1 on the Camera with the AC3 to control the output of the flash.

While the little one loved the outside she was starting to get a little fussy, so mom gave her blueberries that she just loved, but also gave me many photos with drool.

During some of the time it was sprinkling and the other time it was overcast. So getting a consistent color was achieved by winking in the flash.

Nikon D4, Sigma 70-200mm ƒ/2.8, ISO 500, ƒ/4.5, 1/800—Off camera fill-flash using the Nikon SB-900 & SB800.  The Flash is on the Pocketwizard TT5 and being triggered by the Mini TT1 on the Camera with the AC3 to control the output of the flash.

While I liked the green in the background I found this oversized recliner that I used for a three generation photo of the Grandmother, mother and child. I prefer the cleaner background and had it not been raining I would have suggested getting off the deck so I could eliminate the railing. This would have lended to an even better background.

While I love the Fuji system, when it comes to nailing the focus and moment, I still prefer my Nikon D4.

When you travel with Super Stars you need off camera flash to make them look good

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/8, 1/250—Off camera fill-flash using the Nikon SB-900 & SB800.  The Flash is on the Pocketwizard TT5 and being triggered by the Mini TT1 on the Camera with the AC3 to control the output of the flash. 

I am traveling with the famous Chick-fil-A Cow Mascots this week. They are traveling around promoting Cow Appreciation Day this Friday.

Click here to learn more

Dress head to hoof as they like to say at Chick-fil-A and get a free meal. Wear some Cow Attire and get a free entree.

Now let me tell you how I made the top photo. I had two VALS holding the two hot shoe flashes on either side of me. [VALS stands for Voice Activated Light Stand]

Without the flashes the cows would have been somewhat silhouetted and by adding the off camera flash I was able to keep the color temperature on them daylight and then also keep them bright enough to keep the rich colors in the background.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/6.3, 1/4—Off camera fill-flash using the Nikon SB-900 & SB800.  The Flash is on the Pocketwizard TT5 and being triggered by the Mini TT1 on the Camera with the AC3 to control the output of the flash. 

Very similar lighting setup, just I am have a subject close to me blocking the light to the left. I dragged the shutter to 1/4 to be sure you saw the photo he was making on his phone.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/6.3, 1/4—Off camera fill-flash using the Nikon SB-900 & SB800.  The Flash is on the Pocketwizard TT5 and being triggered by the Mini TT1 on the Camera with the AC3 to control the output of the flash. 

Here you can see one of my VALS holding the hot shoe flash. The other VALS is behind me pointing at the cow. If you look at the Cows eyes you can see the reflections of the two flashes. Notice the shadows on the concrete. This tells you they were all backlighted and the flashes made a huge difference.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/6.3, 1/4—Off camera fill-flash using the Nikon SB-900 & SB800.  The Flash is on the Pocketwizard TT5 and being triggered by the Mini TT1 on the Camera with the AC3 to control the output of the flash. 

Here I am behind the flashes and you can see the other VALS here in the foreground. The other VALS is further to the left in the photo.

I don't generally use these last two photos where you can see the flashes, but kept them to show to you so you can see how simple this is to do.

Make your photos "DIFFERENT" at events or don't get hired

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/10, 1/100, off-camera flash using the Neewer TT850 flash & Neewer 433MHz Wireless 16 Channel Flash Remote Trigger

I get hired a great deal to cover events. Everyone with a camera could cover these events, but I make my photos look different every chance I get.

Here in these photos I am using off-camera flash to help improve the photos. This first photo the sun is behind the ladies on the left hitting the man's face. This puts them in a silhouette and the way I fixed this was to have my assistant hold the flash on a monopod up high pointing down at them.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 100, ƒ/7.1, 1/50, off-camera flash using the Neewer TT850 flash & Neewer 433MHz Wireless 16 Channel Flash Remote Trigger

Here the flash is off to my right pointing at the ladies on the left. Here you can see again that without this flash their faces would have been silhouetted. Had I used a flash on the camera I would have flattened the features. By having the assistant hold the light up high I still get some shape to the cheek bones of the ladies.

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 640, ƒ/5.6, 1/200, off-camera flash using the Neewer TT850 flash & Neewer 433MHz Wireless 16 Channel Flash Remote Trigger

Here the assistant is bouncing the flash off the ceiling inside the room. I am just raising the light level inside so that the outside is balanced and not washed out with no details.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 2000, ƒ/5.6, 1/40, off-camera flash using the Neewer TT850 flash on S2 [slave setting] with the Nikon SB900 and SB800 on Pocketwizard TT5 triggered by the TT1 and AC3 to control their output. 

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 1250, ƒ/5.6, 1/100, off-camera flash using the Neewer TT850 flash on S2 [slave setting] with the Nikon SB900 and SB800 on Pocketwizard TT5 triggered by the TT1 and AC3 to control their output. 

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 800, ƒ/5.6, 1/100, off-camera flash using the Neewer TT850 flash on S2 [slave setting] with the Nikon SB900 and SB800 on Pocketwizard TT5 triggered by the TT1 and AC3 to control their output. 

There are three flashes in the room all being controlled by the camera. I have the Nikon SB-900 and Nikon SB-800 working on TTL and triggered by the PocketWizard system. The Neewer TT850 has a 2nd flash setting to work with TTL flashes.  The light in the room was so mixed with different color temperatures that I wanted to clean this up with the flash.

Nikon D4, 28-300mm, ISO 10000, ƒ/7.1, 1/100, off-camera flash using the Neewer TT850 flash & Neewer 433MHz Wireless 16 Channel Flash Remote Trigger 

Nikon D4, 14-24mm, ISO 640, ƒ/2.8, 1/25, off-camera flash using the Neewer TT850 flash & Neewer 433MHz Wireless 16 Channel Flash Remote Trigger

With all these photos the camera was on Aperture priority and I am winking the flash just slightly brighter than the ambient light. Often same light value or +  1/2 stop greater to just clean up the color and give a little pop to the images.

I know that if anyone was shooting with the iPhone or point and shoot camera they would not be getting this quality of images. They are different. This is very important if you want to be hire to shoot, because if my images didn't look different than what they are able to make with their own cameras then why hire you?