The beautiful Sydney Harbour is always a great backdrop - at Athol Beach, Sydney

I usually don’t consider myself to be a wedding photographer as such however, I do shoot the odd wedding once and a while.

I recently found myself shooting at Athol Hall, one of Sydney’s premier venues overlooking the beautiful Sydney Harbour and thought I would go through my planning process to assist and help other (wedding) photographers in the lead up to the (big) day.

It goes without saying that not two venues are identical and all photographer have their own unique approach to their work.

The Recce

As with most larger productions I always start the reconnaissance as early as possible to work out potential set-ups, suited location and not least to familiarise myself with area before the day of the wedding. This part of my planning process is usually done  between the first and second meeting with the lucky couple.  A few things I always take notice off during this phase of the planning are  the tidal forecast (if shooting near water), moon phase and accessibility. Later on in the process I am keeping a very close eye on the weather forecast to be one step ahead from the very beginning.

The Packing

All photographers use different equipment for different situations – so take my equipment list below for what it is, and nothing more:

I usually shoot on two master bodies, one with a zoom lens attached which is usually the 24-70mm or 24-105mm and the second with a fixed prime such as a 14mm or an 85mm . For this particular shot my bag looked like this:

Wedding Kit 2013

The contents are:

• Canon 5d mk3 with 14mm f2.8 attached
• Canon OC-E3 flash cable and Stofen bouncers
• Canon Speedlite flash units x 2
• Canon 50mm f.1.4
• Canon 5d mk2 with 85mm f1.2 attached
• Canon 7d back-up body
• Canon 24-105mm f.4
• Canon 17-40mm f.4

Spare batteries, Sandisk Ultra Cards, UV filters, etc

I am not going into much detail about my reasoning behind the choice of lenses or bodies however, I always try to make it fit the location /occasion.

Another bag which, I usually leave in the car contains various gadgets which, may be handy should anything happen weather-wise: for this shoot it contained a handful of white brollies, single-use swim caps (bought bulk at pharmacy), soap bubbles, lens baby and a spare suit for me.

Nice and punchy autumn colours are always beautiful on photos - at Athol Beach, Sydney

The Execution

To shoot a wedding is not rocket science however, a general understanding for photography is essential and I personally find that

even after ten years and many many weddings I still learn something new every time. One of the most misunderstood, and probably also grey areas when it comes to wedding photography is pricing! Whether you are shooting for free (horror horror) or you are charging several thousand dollars for a full day’s shooting is not important: a wedding is not the place to ‘learn how to use your equipment’! If you are not confident (working) with your camera then you probably need some more time!

Weddings are one of the few things in life which you cannot re-shoot, everything needs to be nailed the first time! One of the most important things to remember on the day is to be organised (I  know what you are thinking now, but it’s not always

obvious) and always being at least one step ahead of everyone else: introduce yourself to the celebrant, the wedding planner (even if you’ve met them before it is always good courtesy) and confirm the running order with them (DON’T do this with the bride or groom) spend this time to shoot the static shots of the room, table decorations, flowers etc. so you dont have to worry about that later when the room is full of people.

As soon as the ceremony starts you need to be in control, do not feel too embarrassed to (politely) ask people not to stand in your way - the wedding couple will thank you for this later.

How you shoot the ceremony and the Brides arrival is also extremely individual so I will not dictate how to do this but instead point out some very important things to remember in the overall excecution of a wedding shoot:

• The Bride’s arrival
• The Ceremony including ‘The Kiss’
• Group shots (usually as per request of the couple)
• Creative photos with the bridal party only
• Dinner
• First dance
• The cutting of the cake
• The departure

For the majority of the above having an assistant or a 2nd shooter would be very beneficiary to keep track on time, people, guests and to work as your extended arm during the day (this is also a g r e a t way to learn how the bells and whistles work during a wedding day)

For me personally I am always looking forward to the bridal party photos as I see that as the (most) creative part of the entire shoot, the part of it where you can really shine as a photographer and show off your skills – I always prefer to have at least one to two hours for this part but often you are left with much less which is why a thorough ‘Recce’ is essential prior to the day .

The Post

When it comes to the turn-around time between having shot the photos and the handover process to the (hopefully) happily married couple this is very different from photographer to photographer however one rule of thumb is that it should be done as soon as possible, however with many couples going on Honeymoon shortly after the big day this can work in your favour. My process (or workflow if you like) includes importing all files into LR, culling, light editing and BW conversions and then exporting onto at least two different sources. When the files/photos/media has been handed over to the couple one of the most important things to remember is to follow-up and get some feedback, not so much regarding the  excecution itself but to ensure that the product you have delivered lives up to the brief and fulfils their expectations – Even great photographers can improve and the best way to improve is to learn from feedback and critique (positive as well as negative)

Do not be afraid to experiment with unusual angles and tones in post-production

Final Thoughts

As with all briefs, shooting a wedding is a very personal thing and should rightfully be so! The most important thing to me is not whether your equipment is made by Nikon, Canon or Leica but that you are confident using it and know how to trouble-shoot should anything unexpected happen on the day. Being organised and well prepared is essential so you can spend the time being creative and present and not having to worry about anything..

What is your best advice for shooting weddings? good/bad aspects/stories and tales are more than welcome

Thanks for reading

Morts

1/320 f.4.0 ISO 1000 Myanmar

One of the major advantages of shooting fully digital (as opposed to shooting slides as I did back in the past) is that you have full control in post production to edit and process the look of your images.

I took this image in Myanmar recently and have not done any other editing than converting it to BW as I find that many portraits could  benefit from this conversion.

It is shot on a Canon 5D MK2 with a 24-105mm (1/320sec f.4.0 ISO1000) converted from RAW to Jpeg

Which one do you like the best?

Thanks

Morts

Winners announced !

For several decades this competition has been one of the most prestigious competitions amongst wildlife-, nature and landscape-photographers from all over the world, and for a good reason: The consistent very high quality of the winning images. I have personally submitted photos for this competition several times and have twice been shortlisted just before the final selection. This year Canadian Environmental photographer Paul Nicklen not only won the Grand Price but also had a large selection of his images shortlisted across the various categories.  The list of previous winners of this competition includes Frans Lanting, Jim Brandenburg and  Hungarian Bence Maté from Hungary who won in 2010.

The winning images will be exhibited at the National History Museum and will later this year tour the globe stopping in most larger capitals both in Europe, US and Australia.

Take a look at the official page and enjoy some of the stunning images from this years competition here:

Thanks for reading

Morts

Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f.1.4 ZE

Edit: This blog was originally written in the beginning of September 2012, but I have been awaiting the recent Canon/Nikon/Sigma/CZ announcements from Photokina to roll in  to ensure I was fully up to date and accurate. ^M

With a selection of more than 100 different focal lengths on the market today it can sometimes be very difficult to decide which lens to purchase. Through the last ten years I have personally testes, purchased, owned, sold and swapped more than 50+ different lenses, but one lens will never leave me: my beloved 50mm lens.  I currently own three different 50mm lenses, which may seem a bit excessive (and probably is) but I simply love this fixed focal lens, almost as must as I hate the 18-55mm kit lens….

In my bag at the moment I have  three different 50mm lenses to chose from:

• Canon 50mm f.1.8 EF ‘Nifty Fifty’
• Canon 50mm f.1.4 EF Nifty-fifty-upgrade
• Carl Zeiss Planar T* 50mm f.1.4 MF

For most people one 50mm lens would suffice but for me it is an obsession – The Canon f1.8 is probably the best value-for-money lens ever made (yes I am a bit biased, but you know I am right!) and if you are an entry-level photographer this will probably be the best $130.00 you will ever spend. When I purchased this lens several years back, little did I now that this would become one of my all time favourites. Only downside is the plasticky-feel, which is why I a few years back upgraded to the f.1.4 which offers the same high optical quality but packed inside a more robust barrel. When it comes to the Carl Zeiss lens it was the full-filling of a lifelong dream. When I started selling cameras and photo equipment back in 2001 I was fascinated by this mythical brand and after a short love-affair with Hasselblad in the mid-00’s I decided to invest in a range of their ZE lenses which is probably the most expensive photo-related purchase I have ever done, but worth every penny: all the lenses I have worked with are extremely sharp and I absolutely love the vintage manual focus system which does remind me of the good ol’ days before megapixels and Sandisk.

On the market today the 24mm, 35mm,  50mm and 85mm seems to be the standard fixed lenses for most people, and it can sometimes be very difficult to decide on which one/s to go for. I personnaly went for the 50mm range as per the above story, but also because of these five reasons:

To me a 50mm is the ultimate lens for these four simple reasons:

• Great value for money. Whether you go for the nifty f1.8 or the more expensive f1.2  (or even the f1.0) you can be sure to get a lot of bang for your buck. With a recommended price of less than $150.00 (Canon/Nikon brands) it will not break the bank and for most people it will suffice to work at f1.8.
• It improves YOU: When shooting with a zoom lens you have the option of easily changing the focal length of the lens however, where with a fixed focal length you will have to spend more time composing your shot.
• 50mm is very close to what is considered to be standard perspective (43.6mm). This is one of the reasons why many street and reportage photographers chose this lens – with the right scene and technique you can make the scene look like the viewer ‘is part of it’
• Its ultra lightweight!  The f.1.8 weighs less than 140g! (or the same as two mars bars!)

So to me there are no doubt at all: Everyone should have at least one 50mm lens in their bag – there are absolutely no reason why you would not. And remember if you are using a cropped sensor body like 60d or 7d the focal length of this lens equals 80mm which makes it a perfect lens for portraits!

Thanks for reading

Morts

Indoor test with the Sigma macro 105mm f./2.8

Some time ago the lovely people from Sigma Photo Australia agreed to lend me this lens for an in-the-field test and I have thoroughly enjoyed using it during the last three weeks.

The tests were conducted using two Canon bodies: A  full-frame Canon EOS 1D MK IV and the smaller-sensor body EOS 7D.

Macro-photography is often referred to as the art of close-up photography and is perfectly suited for shooting (smaller) wildlife, bugs, flowers and basically everything else where the focus is on the little details.

My experience with dedicated macro-lenses is limited to a handful of different lenses ranging from the cheaper Canon EF-S 60mm f/2.8 up to the heavier and much more expensive 100mm f.2.0 from Carl Zeiss so my expectations were huge when I first heard about Sigma’s new 105mm macro lens: a nicely sized focal length for most uses without the heavy price tag of the Carl Zeiss or the 100mm L lens from Canon – But did it live up to the expectations?

Sigma 105mm f./7.1 1/500s ISO 400 handheld

Overall I am very pleased with the image quality and performance of this lens and I would not hesitate to recommend it to photographers starting out with macro photography.

The lens is constructed with 16 elements in 11 groups which makes it slightly heavier than most other similar lenses on the market but also superior in many ways: At f/2.8 the sharpness and colour -reproduction is absolutely outstanding – but stopped down to around f/8.0 is where this lens really shines! – a very equal result to the before mentioned Carl Zeiss Lens… However in the area from f./16-f./22 it starts to become a bit more soft and chromatic aberration (CA) becomes more and more visible the smaller the aperture gets.

One of the more interesting features of this lens is the build-in stabilisation system which gives you 3-4 stops extra to work with. The system works either fully activated or on the horizontal plan alone which is a great little feature when you are panning the camera.

Sigma 105mm f./3.2 1/1250s ISO 100

The lens focusses internally which obviously is a very important thing when working extremely close to your subject. The auto-focus is smooth and silent but the speed of the autofocus is the the only serious let-down of this great lens; generally AF would take between 1.6-2.1 seconds which is far longer than the computers from Canon, Tamron and Nikon. If you are happy shooting from a bit further away the 0.45m to ∞ switch speeds up this process significantly.

This lens is great and I personally like the professional look and feel of it, when you pop it on a 1D body you are suddenly left with an installation which weighs very close to 4.5lbs

My 5 main reasons to invest in this lens:

• It is build like a tank and is a solid performer
• You get a lot of lens for your money (literally)
• Very good (way above average) sharpness and colour reproduction
• Very little CA on large apertures (up to f./16)
• Versatility – this is not just a macro lens, its focal length is perfect for portraits as well

My main concern about this lens:

• A very slow Autofocus which could be a frustrating issue for the serious macro photographer.

Overall verdict:

As I said in my introduction; I have shot with a wide range of macro lenses during the last ten-or-so years, this lens is without doubt one of the better over-all performers. The handling, functions and the very superior build-in stabilisation system works really fine and even with the slow AF mentioned above, it is still focussed very precise without too many misses.

If I was to persuade a full-time career in macro photography I could easily see this lens becoming my lens of choice.

Highly Recommended

All the photos in this post is shot with a Canon EOS 7D or a EOS 1D MK4

Thanks for reading

Morts

Today I was actually supposed to finish off my review of a macro lens which Sigma Australia recently lent me but instead I feel like I have to share a few words about the RODE workshop I attended the other day.

RODE microphones had brought in one of the major players on the market for DSLR and Video; Mr Philip Bloom himself. If you don’t know who Philip Bloom is take a look at his webpage here.

During the full seven hours (10:00-17:00) we were taken on a journey where Bloom demonstrated the most crucial techniques when it comes to filmmaking. The pace, amount of information and not less the casual relaxed atmosphere in the auditorium made the day a fantastic experience for all of us.

On the large trestle table in front of Bloom he had put a lot of his tools and toys on display for us to touch, admire and play with. The selection included the new Canon C300, Philip Blooms own signature dolly, Sony F3 and not least a whole lot of  Zacuto equipment with a retail value higher than most people’s annual income.

The always entertaining Ric Creaser did a quick rundown of the variety of microphones on the market today and Philip finished of with a very interesting segment on time-lapse.

I thank RODE for giving me this opportunity and I am looking forward to the next workshop – If you want the full rundown of the day please check out this great review.

Kind Regards

Morts

I will not give a complete rundown of the full day as I know that a few of the other attendees have already posted these online

Link to the video: http://vimeo.com/22590645

Behind the scenes videos or simply BTS as they are also known have always been very popular online. I am personally a big fan of the technical ones where gear and technic are in focus. The little clip above is made by the creative souls from camp4collective who I have been a big fan of for quite some time.  This video takes you on a little trip to my favourite country Nepal and shows you some stunning footage shot with Canon DSLR’s using the magnificent Kessler Pocket Dolly. Sit back and enjoy.

Thanks for reading

Morts

Bernie Quinn, Jazz Singer

Making nice, natural an good-looking portraits does not need to be either expensive nor difficult. The photo above of the lovely Bernadette was taken with an absolute minimum of equipment: two heads with softboxes and a reflector.

The head on the right side was equipped with a standard 60×60 softbox and was shooting on 1/8 and the right head had a 60×80 softbox with grid installed and was set on 1/16.

The reflector is a standard model of ebay with a gold/silver side in the size 80cm.

No post-processing has been done to this image besides compressing it from the original RAW format…

So….. Why do I tell you all of this?
Some weeks back I asked you all what you would like to see on this blog and one of the things that kept popping up was BTS, setups and simple lighting solutions. Yes, I am using expensive lighting products from Profoto and Elinchrom but.. If you do not have a few K to spend then there are other solutions; standard 250w-1000w studio sets can be bought on Ebay for a few hundred dollars and the are the PERFECT introduction to portrait photography (and product photography)

To assist bit with the basics I have also included a L-diagram below with the basic set-up I used on this shot.

For in-depth information and great articles about Lighting 101 I recommend you to visit STOBIST where David Hobby can teach you everything you need to know and much much much more… -Always worth a visit!

Thanks for reading

Morts

PhaseOne studio, Sydney

It has been a long time since I did a shoot in a studio but yesterday I was back! the PhaseOne studio in Sydney is by far one of my favourite studios to work in; It is the good ‘ol warehouse style without any massive windows or natural light sources, which is perfect should you want to construct a good LX-setup.

I worked with one model yesterday; the very talented Miss Bernie Quinn, a young very talented Jazz singer who also happens to be a good friend of mine.

We had a good six hours of casual fun with various outfits, set-ups and creative brainstorming sessions and during the next week you will be able to see some of the shots on this blog with comments and information about the set-up and gear used.

Have a great Sunday

Morts