Lastolite Micro Apollo plus flash gel

I had a question today about how to use flash gels with a Lastolite Micro Apollo. As mentioned in the linked post, I replaced the strips of velcro supplied with the Apollo with smaller velcro dots, as can be seen in the image above. To attach a flash gel requires only one of these dots, leaving three to attach the Lastolite Micro Apollo. It works a treat.

More about flash gels in the next post.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer Kent

Lastolite Micro Apollo XL

I've had quite a lot of questions over the past couple of days so it may take me a little longer than usual to answer them. Please bear with me - I'll get there!

David, 

Your flash use is lovely and soft. Which size of the Lastolite Apollo do you use?

Your blog states the XL version, but at 16 x 10 inches I don't see how this would NOT block the Speedlite IR and metering sensors.  Am I missing something - do you tilt it up?

I want to get one but feel it must be the smaller 10 X 7 unit.

Thanks!

Tony B

As the cliche says, a picture is worth a thousand words!

Any light-modifying attachment for a flash that was not designed to work with autofocus assist, or an external metering sensor, would have a very limited appeal. You can rest assured that the Lastolite Micro Apollo XL is not one of these. I used it at about 30 weddings last year with no problems at all - in particular, no issues focusing in low light. In the image above you can see why - the majority of the unit sits above the flash head.

The bottom of the softbox is also slightly V-shaped to ensure it does not limit any functionality. In the shot above I set the 580EX II as a slave. In this mode the AF-assist light is used to indicate the flash is ready to fire and is clearly visible above.

A couple of useful tips.

The shot above is from the first wedding at which I used the softbox. From the reflection in the subject's glasses you can see that the light is not evenly distributed - there is a hot spot. To get around this, pull down the built-in wide panel of your Speedlite. This sets flash coverage for a focal length of 14mm and strongly diffuses the light. This does not cause any loss of light, as the inside of the unit is reflective, but does give even lighting.

The unit is attached to the Speedlite using velcro. After a few weddings I found the velcro starting to detach from the flash body when I removed the softbox. I therefore replaced the large rectangular strips of velcro with small black velcro dots. These are still firmly attached six months later.

Hope this reassures you about the XL version of the Lastolite micro Apollo. A bigger softbox equals softer light (and the closer you get to the subject the softer the light becomes).

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer Kent

Wedding Photographer Kent - NeatImage

I'm a huge fan of NeatImage and it forms a key part of my digital workflow. To get the most out of the software it's worth creating a custom profile for your camera. You need to download a calibration target, either print it out (which I do) or display it on your monitor, set your lens with focus at infinity and then photograph the target all the ISO settings that your camera has available (giving images as shown above). NeatImage will then construct a noise profile for each of these ISO settings which it can call upon automatically (using the shot's EXIF data) for batch processing. Very convenient.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer Kent

High ISO performance of Canon EOS 5D Mark II

1/60, f/2.8, ISO 6400, +1 EV, 200mm (70-200mm f/2.8 L IS)

I shot part of a wedding with my new Canon EOS 5D Mark II last week. I had the opportunity to check out its performance at high ISO when taking candids of the guests during the meal. Light levels were very low, with illumination provided primarily by candlelight. 

In my opinion, noise levels at ISO 6400 on the 5D Mark II, under these conditions, are equivalent to about ISO 1250 on the 5D, an improvement of over 2 stops. Zooming to 100%, the noise is visible, as shown on the left in the image above. The result of running the image through NeatImage, using the custom noise profile I created for my camera, followed by sharpening in Photoshop with an unsharp mask, and then a minor tweak to brightness, is shown on the right. A nice improvement in image quality.

The post-processed image is shown above. Noise levels increase considerably when moving to ISO 12,800 and 25,600. However, ISO 6400 in combination with a fast prime lens and a Speedlite will allow you to get great results in the darkest of venues.

It would be interesting to see what the images from this sensor looked like at very high ISO if it only had 12 megapixels, as in the 5D. I'm sure I'm not the only one to wonder this!

Check out more of my photography here: Kent photography

Microadjustment of Canon lenses

The Canon EOS 5D Mark II allows you to microadjust the autofocus system for each of your lenses. I followed the method described by Keith Cooper on his excellent website. It's based upon moire patterns produced by interference and is very straightforward to carry out.

These are the results I obtained for my lenses:

Canon EF fisheye 15mm f/2.8 -4

Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8 L      -2

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8 L     +10

Canon EF 35mm f/1.4 L          -2

Canon EF 85mm f/1.2 L           -4

Canon EF 170-200mm f/2.8 L 0

Canon EF 100mm f/2.8            0

All minor tweaks except for the 24-70mm zoom. I then shot a test image, with and without the microadjustment, for each of the lenses to see if there was any visible difference.

I used the above test card which came free with an issue of Digital Camera magazine. It was firmly clamped, to ensure no movement, and the camera was mounted on a tripod, triggered by remote shutter release, with mirror lock-up activated.

Above is an enlargement of the card from shots taken with the 24-70mm zoom lens, with no microadjustment on the left and with the +10 adjustment applied on the right. The image on the right is clearly the sharper of the two. It took about 90 minutes to adjust and test all my lenses and was well worth the effort.

Check out my photography here: Kent wedding photographer

Wedding Photographer Kent

Just had this question from a reader:

Hello David

Is there any chance you can tell me how you took and exposed the Deal Castle pics on the blog? They look superb!

Thanks

Matthew

 

First of all, thank you for the positive feedback Matthew - much appreciated.

These shots were taken at least 30 minutes after sunset when just the last vestiges of light were left in the sky. I put the camera in manual mode - 1/50s, f/2.8, ISO 1600, 22mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L) - which came out at around 2 stops underexposed for the ambient light, which I knew would bring out the colour in the sky.

Flash exposure compensation was dialled to +1 because of the reflectivity of the bride's dress. The flash was mounted on a Custom flash bracket with a Lastolite micro Apollo attached. This acts as a light softener since it hugely increases the size of the light source, as opposed to a Stofen omnibounce which acts as a light diffuser and serves no purpose outside.

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photography Kent

Wedding Photographer Kent - Flash Support

When using off-camera flash I often place my Speedlites on lightweight stands fitted with Novoflex Neiger 19 mini-balls (they're sold with flash shoes). This gives almost total freedom in directing the flash light and, in particular, allows you to use the flash in both portrait and landscape orientations. They're very well-made, extremely robust and available from the ever-reliable Speed Graphic for around £20.

Check out my photography here: Kent photographer

Wedding Photographer Kent - Lightroom Update

Adobe have just updated Lightroom to version 2.2.

Download Mac/Windows version.

This version now includes camera support for the Canon EOS 5D Mark II (for those of you lucky enough to have one!)

Check out my photography here: Wedding Photographer Kent

Kent Wedding Photographer - Light

It's great to read about the fun people are having with their new Canon EOS 5D Mark IIs (I've yet to receive mine, alas). The performance of the camera at high ISO is apparently stunning and, as a result, I've read quite a few comments suggesting that this will remove the need for flash.

I strongly disagree with this statement.

When thinking about light as photographers we have to consider both the quantity and quality. Cameras with great performance at high ISO are wonderful because they allow us to work with a smaller quantity of ambient light, but this has no correlation with quality of light however.

A lot of photographers seem to think that artificial lighting is purely a means of dealing with low light levels - an issue of quantity. I would argue that it's equally as important at providing a source of good quality light - once the photographer has taken the trouble of mastering the added technical complexities of using artifical light sources. It's liberating - you have a reliable source of good quality light with you at all times. You can shoot when and where you choose to. It is possible to shoot some weddings using only natural light - Jeff Ascough is renowned for this (although I notice that even he has a couple of Speedlites in his kit now) - though I would argue there are many weddings that you can't shoot using only natural light, particularly if your clients are anticipating the classical wedding photography repertoire.

Landscape photographers spend their time 'chasing the light'. Wedding photographers are better off focusing their efforts on 'chasing the moment'.

Check out my photography here: Kent Wedding Photographer

Kent Photographer - shooting tethered

I have a very simple and portable studio set-up (collapsible background, reflectors, stands, softboxes and brollies - as shown above) that allows me to produce studio-style portraits (as shown below). I use only Canon Speedlites as light sources, rather than continuous lights, and so it can take a bit of tweaking to get the lighting right. Yes, my 580EX IIs do have a 'modelling light' facility (do not use around those prone to epilepsy!) but it's not as useful as being able to immediately see an image produced with the lighting set-up.

Rather than removing the memory card from the camera to transfer the image to your computer it's possible to 'shoot tethered' - with your camera physically connected to the computer by a USB cable - so that images can be displayed on your monitor immediately. The following instructions are for Canon users (the Canon-suite of software should have accompanied your camera on CD, but make sure you have the right version of the EOS Capture Utility for your camera - it's available for download from Canon) who own Adobe Lightroom (though I'm sure most photo-editing software packages have this facility).

First of all you need to specify a folder which EOS Capture will deliver the files to and which Adobe Lightroom will watch for new files to import. I have one called 'Live' on my desktop.

In Lightroom, go to File-Auto Import and Enable Auto Import. Then in Auto Import Settings specify the Watched Folder - the folder Desktop-Live in my case. You can also specify a 'Destination Folder' for Lightroom to permanently move the files to.

The following sequence of events occurs when I connect my Canon EOS 5D to my MacPro computer - it may differ depending on both your camera model and computer. Connect your camera to your computer using a long USB cable (I bought a 10-metre cable on eBay). When you switch the camera on this should open up the 'Camera Window' utility, which on detecting that a camera is connected rather than a card reader, then opens up the 'Camera Window DSLR' utility. Click on 'Start Remote Shooting' and then choose your specified folder to deliver the images to. EOS Capture (I have version 1.5.0.8) then opens and should display the current settings of your camera.

Take a shot and about 10 seconds later you should see it appear in Lightroom. Much better than the LCD on the back of your camera for checking your lighting set-up.

NB You must have a memory card in your camera for this to work.

Check out more of my photography here: Kent portrait photographer

Kent Wedding Photographer - Personal Skills

I had another great question from George Bain this week (keep 'em coming George - you're a good source of inspiration for blog posts!):

David,

What are your tips for relaxing your subjects for a shoot? You are regularly praised for this ability - do you slip something in their drinks? :)

George

Hi George,

I'm incredibly charming, charismatic and witty (modest, also) which helps. ;-)

People skills are diffcult to teach but are absolutely essential to success as a wedding photographer. Reputations are readily tarnished.

Some thoughts connected to your question:

1. You really need to like being with people. If you're not naturally gregarious and prefer the solitude of landscape photography then shooting weddings may not be for you.

2. Although this sounds obvious, don't forget how important the day is to your clients. It's easy to become blase when you do a wedding every weekend.

3. Leave your ego and attitude behind. Don't be a prima donna.

4. You need to adapt your interactions to the client. Some are incredibly chummy, others more distant in their dealings with you. Establishing a good rapport and trust is crucial though.

5. People usually look terrific. Tell them! Also, show them how good they look in the photos. Let them see a few shots on your digital camera's LCD. People are generally surprised at how good they look when their picture is taken by a good photographer with top quality kit.

5. Make people laugh. A bit of witty banter generally helps but, again, you need to judge your clients carefully.

6. You should also be helpful and efficient in your pre- and post-wedding interactions.

Yours,

David

There's an old adage in business: if you do a good job your customers may tell 4 of their friends, if you do a bad job they'll tell 30 of their friends!

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photography in Kent

Time of sunset by UK postcode

I found this incredibly useful web-based sunset calculator the other day which allows you to determine the time of sunset based upon UK postcodes - much more convenient than other calculators which use latitude and longitude! This is very useful information for a wedding photographer and allows you to help the bride and groom plan their itinerary for the day, such as an appropriate time for group photos to take place.

Check out my photography here: Kent wedding photographer

Wedding Photographer Kent - High ISOs

I had some great questions from a reader yesterday:

Hi David,

I'm intrigued by your use of high ISOs in a lot of the photos on your weddings page. I have an intense dislike of flash (I don't actually own one, I much rather use primes with small apertures) , but am shooting several weddings for the first time this summer. Several of your shots are even 3200 ISO, which presumably means very high noise on prints. Do you use a noise reduction program when you post-process? And is there a particular reason you shoot up to 3200 ISO, as I have had several people claiming I shouldn't really shoot over 800 when I do the weddings in the summer?

Thanks for your great blog by the way.

Regards

Charlie

Hi Charlie,

Light levels tend to be very low at wedding receptions. I set the ISO at a level that will allow me to shoot at a range of apertures and keep the shutter speed at around 1/100s (people tend to be quite animated at weddings!) - this ISO level changes as I move from room to room. If I shoot extremely wide for a few shots (I use the 35mm f/1.4 L and 85mm f/1.2 L primes a lot) I could drop the ISO for these but I tend to keep it constant for the sake of speed.

I shoot RAW, process in Lightroom and use NeatImage (incredible program) to clean up digital noise. I can print these shots at A3 and above - they look great.

95% of my shots use flash - check out the catchlights in people's eyes. I absolutely LOVE flash (provided it's done well!). It adds another dimension to photography. It is difficult to master though - you need to juggle two exposures at the same time, get to grips with flash gels to alter the colour temperature of the light etc. But it's well worth it.

It's all about the quality of the light. You might be able to expose correctly for ambient light with wide apertures but if the quality of light is poor there's little point. Once you master flash you ALWAYS have good light with you - absolutely liberating.

Yours,

David

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Kent Wedding Photographer - Cloning in Photoshop

I'm just putting an album together for Kim and Chris whose wedding I shot recently - check out their gallery.

I let clients decide which photos should be included in their albums and Kim and Chris chose the above shot of one of their ushers at the Church gates - unfortunately, it also features a pair of traffic cones! I normally try and physically remove any distractions before taking a shot but it was raining hard and there was no dry spot to rest my camera. I decided to take the shot anyway and then clone out the offenders in Photoshop in post-production.

The clone stamp tool in Photoshop is incredibly powerful but very easy to use. Sample pixels by clicking on your image with the alt-key pressed and then click and paint these samples into a new spot on the image. If you tick 'aligned' in the toolbar it fixes the spatial relationship established between the sample point and first painting point for all future painting actions. If 'aligned' is not ticked the cursor returns to the original sample point for all future painting actions. If you put 'caps lock' on the cursor changes to a crosshair, which allows for more accurate painting. I tend to keep the brush very soft unless I have to clone up to an edge. The trick to good cloning is frequent sampling. If the image has very distinctive areas, try to avoid cloning them repeatedly as the resulting patterns tend to be easily noticed.

It would be great if Adobe Lightroom had this functionality - the current clone and heal tool is very limited.

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Kent Wedding Photographer - Exposure Compensation

1/400, f/2.8, ISO 1250, -1 EV, 200mm (70-200mm f/2.8 L IS)

1/80, f/2.8, ISO 3200, +1 EV, 16mm (16-35mm f/2.8 L)

Since including EXIF data with photos I've had a few questions about exposure compensation. Before reading the following I recommend you first check out the posts on metering and exposure, exposure values, and an earlier post on exposure compensation.

Cameras meter using reflected light and are programmed to assume that the average reflectance for a scene is 18% (equivalent to a middle grey tonality). The result of this is that all scenes will have middle grey tonality unless you compensate for, or bias, the exposure.

If a scene is darker in tone, you need to reduce the exposure so that the scene remains darker, and is not over-exposed as middle grey.

If a scene is lighter in tone, you need to increase the exposure so that the scene remains lighter, and is not under-exposed as middle grey.

Most scenes do have mid-grey tonality (which is why cameras are programmed this way) but the essential skill to develop is to recognise when they don't. A couple of examples for you.

In the top shot I felt that tones darker than middle grey predominated so I reduced the exposure by one stop (-1 EV) to avoid over-exposure. In the bottom shot lighter tones predominated, so I increased the exposure by one stop (+1 EV) to avoid under-exposure. It takes time to get a feel for how much to adjust exposure by - like many things in life, it's a question of practice.

An alternative method is to spot-meter a small area in the scene which has middle grey tonality. Whichever method you chose, however, requires you to develop your eye for tonality. This is an essential skill to develop as a photographer. It truly does lead to enlightenment!

Check out my photography here: Kent wedding photographer

Wedding Photographer in Kent - Focusing Tips

I've had a couple of readers ask me how I get sharp images in low-light conditions. The following are some points to consider when focusing:

1. Focus on points of good contrast - eyebrows and eyelids for a portrait shot, for example.

2. The central focus point is the most accurate and, with lenses of widest aperture f/2.8 or less, additional sensors come into play (see diagram above). In low-light conditions I use only the central focus point.

3. The outer focus points are fine with good lighting conditions but I find that they are not as reliable in low-light conditions.

4. I tend to avoid focusing and then recomposing at wide apertures. Depth of field (DOF) can be extremely small and recomposing can leave your subject out of focus (see diagram above). This is a judgement call though, since it depends upon the precise aperture, and very significantly, distance to the subject. You need to develop an instinct for judging DOF.

5. As a result, when I encounter tricky conditions, I often 'shoot and crop'. Use the central focus point and take the shot without recomposing. Crop during post-production to adjust composition. The greater resolution of the 5D Mark II will be invaluable for this method.

6. Light levels can drop so low that auto-focus is unable to work. In this case an AF assist beam from a Speedlite or the ST-E2 transmitter is necessary. If your eyesight is very good, you can try manual focus.

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photographer Kent

Kent Wedding Photography - EXIF data

I’ve received lots of requests to include EXIF (exchangeable image file format) data with the example shots from weddings that I feature on my blog, so will endeavour to do so from now on.

All shots are taken in aperture priority (Av) mode with evaluative metering, unless otherwise stated. A typical example:

1/125, f/4.0, ISO 3200, +1/3 EV, -1/3 FEC, 35mm (35mm f/1.4 L)

This tells you the shutter speed, aperture, ISO setting (light sensitivity of digital sensor corresponding to the International Organisation for Standardisation equivalent for film), exposure compensation, flash exposure compensation, focal length and lens used. The EXIF data recorded by the camera only states whether the flash fired, or did not fire, so the FEC data is from memory. If it is not present it means that flash was not used to take the shot.

If you’re not familiar with the above terms then please have a read through the technical posts on this blog for further information and also check out the post on metering and exposure.

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photographer Kent

Kent Wedding Photographer in Folkestone

I did a photoshoot at the Quality Burlington Hotel in Folkestone last Sunday and employed the high dynamic range (HDR) technique rather than lighting interiors. The tonal range was so extreme in some of the shots that I put the camera into manual mode and made 5 exposures at -4, -2, 0, +2, +4 stops of exposure, relative to the metered exposure, and then blended the shots using Photomatix Pro.

I used my 16-35mm f/2.8L lens and made some corrections for perspective distortion using the lens correction filter in Photoshop during post-production. I also did some selective levels and contrast adjustments to the shots.

The benefits of this process is beautifully illustrated by the shot of the room with a seaview where details from shadow regions in the room to the reflection of the sun on the sea are all captured.

Check out more of my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Lenses for Wedding Photography

I received a great question from a reader yesterday:

Hi there,

I've been reading your wedding blog with interest. I'm not a wedding pro, but aspire to that standard, and have just ordered a Canon EOS 5D MKII. I've read the post regarding the lenses you take to weddings but wondered which you recommend for bread-and-butter wedding use. Which 3 lenses would you say are must-haves in your experience?  
 
I was thinking of initially buying the 35mm f/1.4, 24-70mm f/2.8 and 135mm f/2. I'm also tempted by the 16-35 f/2.8 but have read some negative reviews.
 
Great blog by the way.

Thank you.

George Bain

Thanks for the question George and many thanks for the positive feedback on my blog. It gives me a lot of satisfaction to know that people enjoy reading it.

So which are the 3 must-have lenses for a wedding photographer? The lenses that I currently take with me to all weddings are the 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye, 16-35mm f/2.8 L II, 35mm f/1.4 L, 24-70mm f/2.8 L, 85mm f/1.2 L and 70-200 f/2.8 L IS. Bear in mind that I'm using a full-frame Canon EOS 5D with no crop factor. Rather than speculate as to which of these lenses I think are most important I've used Lightroom 2 to analyse the metadata from my last 10 weddings in order to see how frequently I actually use each of the lenses (I need to get out more!). Numbered weddings in the first column, percentage use of each lens in the following columns and average use in the bottom row.

A few observations:

1. Perhaps I should remove the 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye from my bag! I only used it at wedding 3 (for some shots on a beach).

2. The focal length range 16-70mm completely dominates every wedding I shoot. The 16-35mm f/2.8 L II is my most used lens. I think this reflects the compact nature of many wedding venues and my desire to shoot people with their environment. The 24-70 f/2.8 L is my next most frequently used lens.

3. The 35mm prime lens is used less frequently at weddings with shorter coverage time. I stick to the zooms to save time.

4. My 85mm f/1.2 L is primarily employed for the bride and groom portrait session and usage reflects the length of time that is allowed for this aspect of the wedding.

5. Weddings 2, 4, 5 and 7 were mainly shot indoors due to poor weather. The 70-200 f/2.8 L lens was then often unused.

6. The length of coverage, structure of the day, nature of venue and quality of weather all have an impact on lens usage.

So on the basis of this analyis my recommendations would have to be the 16-35mm f/2.8 L, the 24-70mm f/2.8 L and the 85mm f/1.2 L (or cheaper f/1.8 variant) for the portrait session - that dreamy bokeh is just irresistible for weddings. A pretty portable set of 3 lenses.

You will always be able to find a negative review of any piece of kit - people are much more likely to write one if they've had a bad experience. Lenses, in particular, show variability and it is possible to buy poor quality examples of them. If you're not happy with a lens then ask for it to be replaced - the more supporting evidence you can provide for this claim, the more willing the vendor will be to help you (theoretically).

Hope you enjoyed reading this. Please feel free to feedback your comments. I think I'll speculate further on lenses in future posts.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Wedding Photography in Kent

I'm slowly updating all of the slideshows on my wedding galleries page.

I'm now using Adobe's Lightroom 2 and would recommend updating to this version if you're using Lightroom 1.4.

The key benefits for me are:

1. Local adjustments - rather than making global adjustments to the whole image you can use a customisable brush to make only local adjustments to all key parameters (exposure, vibrancy, contrast etc). This saves a lot of trips into Photoshop CS3. These adjustments can also be applied using a highly customisable gradient tool - very useful.

2. Postcrop vignette - vignettes can now be applied to only the cropped part of an image. In the previous version the vignette would be applied to the whole image even if cropped - effectively an oversight by the programmers.

Apparently the performance has been improved but I can't notice any difference (maybe because I'm using a high-end MacPro with 9 GB of RAM).

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer Kent

Kent Wedding Photographer Galleries

I'm in the process of updating my wedding galleries in order to reduce the amount of space they occupy on my website - check out the gallery page. I was previously using the 'Paper White' option from the Flash Gallery in Adobe's Lightroom, which stored 3 separate JPEGs for each image and then automatically displayed the biggest image it could on the visitor's monitor. Great for showing work off but galleries were occasionally taking up 50Mb of space! I've now switched to the Airtight SimpleViewer, still based upon Adobe Flash technology, but which uses 1/3 of the space.

Check out my photography here: Kent Wedding Photographer

My digital wedding workflow

In response to a reader's question I present my digital wedding workflow. It's very efficient and allows me to finish processing a wedding by the next day.

1. RAW files loaded from memory cards to a folder labelled with couple's names.

2. Imported into Lightroom.

3. Quick eyeball of all photos in library module. If a shot is spoilt by blinking or grimacing, or if someone has walked into shot, use X key to mark image as reject.

4. Verify and then delete rejected shots.

5. Work through all the images in the develop module (I can do 200 shots an hour when I'm in 'the zone' - use the paste develop settings within Lightroom to save time).

6. Tonal adjustments are the major correction to make. Tone curve to strong contrast (I apply this to all the images in two steps by copying the develop settings from the first shot and then pasting to all the rest). Recovery and exposure sliders to adjust highlights. Fill light and brightness to adjust shadows (this can introduce considerable digitial noise if the image was shot at high ISO). Contrast and blacks to further tweak contrast.

7. Adjust white balance and vibrance. If interior shots are bathed in fluorescent light, adjustment to tint (green-magenta shift) is necessary.

8. I use the 'Previous' button at the bottom of the develop module extensively. It pastes the previous photo's develop settings. Notice that I am not making changes that are unique to a shot at this stage (such as crops and rotations) as I do not want to paste these between images.

9. I now export all the images as JPEG files (Quality 80%, resolution 240) and use the post-processing 'Export actions' facility within Lightroom. I've created a Photoshop droplet based on an action which removes digital noise using Neat Image and then sharpens the image (file size can expand to 6MB). You need the pro-version of Neat Image to do this. I've created a custom noise profile for my EOS 5D - Neat Image can read the ISO setting in the EXIF data and apply the right level of noise correction. I prefer Neat Image's noise removal and Photoshop's sharpening to the equivalents in Lightroom.

10. I have a top-of-the-range MacPro but it still takes 3-4 hours to complete the above step - I often run it overnight.

11. I import these files into Lightroom with the couple's names and the suffix 'tweaked jpegs'.

12. I now adjust cropping, straighten shots and make any other minor tweaks which are necessary.

13. I choose my picks from these to make up my web slideshow.

14. I export all the shots twice as high res (files now typically 2MB) and low res (resize 1000 x 1000, resolution 72, typically 300KB) images which are burnt to DVD.

15. If I want to do any really special treatments I can use the adjusted RAW files and export to Photoshop as 16-bit TIFFs.

Please feel free to post any comments.

Check out my photography here: Kent wedding photography

Sharpening in Photoshop

I recommend you read my previous two posts on sharpening for a deeper understanding of this process: Sharpening using unsharp masks, part 1 and part 2.

Sharpness depends upon the 'crispness' of edges (technically known as acutance) and the resolving power of your camera and lens combination. For an excellent overview with diagrams see Sean McHugh's excellent Cambridge in Colour website. Once you've taken the picture there is no way to alter the resolution of the image but the acutance can be improved using unsharp masking.

An unsharp mask identifies the edges in an image which is then used to mask a higher contrast version of the image overlayed with the original. This increases contrast only in the edges of the image - the dark side is darkened and the light side is lightened - increasing acutance and giving the appearance of increased sharpness (check out the concept of Mach bands to understand why this is so). If an image is over-sharpened, however, artefacts known as halos are observed (areas that are too bright or dark in the image).

In Photoshop, the degree of sharpening using an unsharp mask is controlled by amount, radius and threshold. Amount controls the increase in contrast at the edges, radius controls the scale of detail that is sharpened (the radius relates to the degree of blur added in the unsharp mask - the bigger this is the more detail that is lost) and threshold the existing level of edge contrast that is required before sharpening occurs (in a portrait, a higher threshold will sharpen eyelids and lashes without touching the skin).

An important point to consider is that the best combination of amount and radius to sharpen an image depends upon whether it is destined for screen or print. For screen it's better to have a high amount with a low radius to bring out fine detail, but for print a lower amount with a larger radius to reduce the spread of ink (larger amount means more ink).

Feel free to post comments with any questions you may have.

I'm off to photograph a wedding at St Augustine's Priory in Bilsington, near Ashford, this afternoon. After a very overcast start to the day, the weather is now looking promising - fingers crossed.

Check out my photography here: Kent wedding photographer

Sharpening using unsharp masks, part 2

To set the scene I recommend you read my earlier post - Sharpening using unsharp masks.

If you work through the procedure detailed above you will create an unsharp mask of your image which, when overlayed with the original image, gives the appearance of sharpening.

Why does this work?

Two desaturated (colour information removed) copies of the image are created, one is inverted (black to white, white to black) and the blending mode (a way of combining two layers in Photoshop) between the two is switched to colour dodge. In this particular blending mode blending with black has no effect on the image contained in the other layer and blending with white gives white. Since the images are the inverse of each other the blended image is white.

Here's the clever bit. The inverse image is now blurred slightly. The new non-white pixels added due to blurring will overlap with the non-white pixels in the original and an edge outline of the original image is observed. These layers are merged to leave the outline which is then combined with the original image using the multiply blending mode. This causes the overlapping areas to become darker (result colour = top colour x bottom colour/255) and hence the contrast in the edges of the image is increased.

This increase in contrast gives the appearance of sharpness.

If you're confused feel free to post a comment. There's more on sharpening to follow.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Sharpening using unsharp masks

I intend to post a few articles on sharpening images over the next week. This exercise should get you thinking about the subject.

One of the best methods in Photoshop is to use the unsharp mask filter. It initially seems a little peverse to have the term unsharp in a technique for sharpening, but if you work through the following procedure it should give you some insight into how an unsharp mask works.

1. Open your image in Photoshop and duplicate in a new layer.

2. Desaturate the new layer (Image - Adjustments - Desaturate).

3. Duplicate this desaturated layer, then invert the new layer (Image - Adjustments - Invert).

4. Change the blending mode to Colour Dodge.

5. In most cases the image will now appear completely white, but there may be some black areas if the original image had pure black in.

6. Slightly blur the image (Filter - Blur - Gaussian blur) by a few pixels radius.

7. Select the top two layers and merge them.

8. You should now see a soft ghost-like outline of the original image (as above) - this is your unsharp mask.

9. Change the blending mode of this layer to Multiply.

10. The image should appear sharper (since these images are reduced in size the effect here is not that overwhelming - on your full resolution image you should see a significant difference).

A full discussion will follow soon.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer in Kent

Autofocus assist beam

Autofocus relies upon the contrast between dark and light areas - this becomes more difficult to assess as light levels drop. My venerable Canon EOS 5 has a built-in AF-assist light which automatically switches on and beams a near infra-red light pattern from an LED to help the AF system. My Canon EOS 5D, however, must rely upon either a Speedlite or the ST-E2 Speedlite transmitter for AF-assist. I imagine the reason for this is that an in-built AF-assist light would struggle to cover the 9-point AF system 0f the 5D.

When I'm shooting a wedding it's generally around the first dance that I see the reassuring three vertical red lines of the AF-assist beam on my subjects. I can be shooting at f/2.8, or lower, and yet I rarely get a shot that is out of focus. Impressive stuff. Tips for focusing: I only use the more sensitive central focus point, to take advantage of both the f/5.6-sensitive cross-type sensors and f/2.8-sensitive vertical line sensors, and I look for areas of good contrast, such as the line between a white shirt and a dark jacket, to focus on. If you're going for a portrait shot, try and focus on eyelids or eyebrows.

In the 580EX II Speedlite manual it states that the AF-assist beam is compatible with lenses of focal length 28mm and longer, but it seems to work perfectly well at 24mm with my 24-70mm f/2.8 L zoom lens. The effective range of the light is 0.6 - 10 m at the central AF point, and 0.6 - 5 m at the outer points.

When shooting in low light the AF-assist beam fires twice - initially to calculate a focusing distance for the lens and then, secondly, to confirm that the subject is in focus before taking the shot. If the subject is moving too quickly, the focus distance will have altered between these two readings and focus lock cannot be achieved. For this reason the AF-assist beam is not compatible with AI servo - your camera must be in one-shot mode. For the tricky shot of the bride and groom walking down the aisle I have the camera in AI Servo mode only if the church is well-lit. In low-light I switch to one-shot mode to take advantage of the AF-assist beam and take plenty of shots to maximise my chances of getting one that is sharp (I always ask the couple to walk slowly beforehand).

As mentioned in an earlier post I use an Ee-S focusing screen to aid manual focus. This has no impact on the autofocus system but does affect the metering system (this is set with custom function 00). With lenses of aperture f/2.8, or lower, the viewfinder remains bright.

Check out my photography here: Kent wedding photography

E-TTL II

These are some brief notes on E-TTL II. For an in-depth read on Canon's flash systems read NK Guy's magnum opus at Photonotes.

Evaluative through-the-lens II (E-TTL II for short) is the latest incarnation of Canon's automatic flash exposure control system. I currently use a Canon EOS 5D with 580 EX II Speedlite which is based upon this system - it's a match made-in-heaven for flash photography. Previously I used a Canon EOS 5 with 540 EZ Speedlite (based upon A-TTL, where A = advanced) which was far less reliable and required me to constantly adjust flash exposure compensation (FEC).

The system is a 'black box' in that Canon publish only limited information about the algorithms that control flash exposure. Their attitude is switch it on and use it. I would urge you to do the same. Get an empirical feel for how the flash system works and then make adjustments as you wish. I did, however, find the following information on the Canon Professional Network website regarding fill-in flash (see my post regarding exposure values, EV).

"The output of the fill-in flash depends on the shooting conditions. With lower light levels (below about EV 10), you get a flash output just as if you were shooting a subject at the same distance indoors. Above EV 10, the flash output is gradually reduced, to a maximum of -1.5 stops (-2 stops with E-TTL autoflash) at EV 13 and above. This auto flash output reduction helps to create a better balance between the daylight and the flash illumination in bright sunlight."

When shooting indoors I still tend to use some flash exposure compensation (at least 2/3 stop) to keep the light contribution from the flash very subtle but the shot will still look good without. Check out my most recent gallery of wedding photography - most of the shots used flash, both indoors and outdoors (the Speedlite was set to high-speed sync outdoors).

With E-TTL II, the camera transmits the lens focal length, exposure control mode, aperture and image sensor size. With more recent lenses focusing distance data is also communicated - even if the Speedlite is attached via an off-camera shoe cord (although for this to work accurately your flash unit must be a similar distance from the subject as if it were mounted directly on the camera - a flash-bracket is fine). Distance data is not used if flash is bounced or used wirelessly.

Metering for flash uses the same system as for ambient light metering and is linked to the current auto-focus point. The camera fires a pre-flash which allows it to meter the scene for flash exposure. To see this, put the flash in second-curtain sync and then set a long exposure time.

Flash exposure locking is available for situations in which the camera is fooled and you're not confident using FEC. These are the same situations that can cause problems metering for exposure - when the overall tone of the shot is not medium-grey.

Check out more of my photography here: UK photographer

Exposure values (EV)

I need to introduce the concept of exposure values (EV) for some forthcoming posts. EV is an absolute measurement of the light quantity required to give a correct exposure at a specific ISO speed (it depends upon aperture and shutter speed) - though most charts only give these values at ISO 100 (these are then also known as light values). It's useful to be able to refer to the amount of light using just one variable rather than a combination of aperture and shutter speed. In the table above EVs run from 0 to 24 (they can be negative as well). The scale is based upon stops of light - ie doubling or halving of light. For a given EV there are many combinations of aperture and shutter speed which can be used to make a correct exposure.

Some examples of EVs to help you get a feel for the scale:

EV 17 white object in full sunlight

EV 15 noon daylight

EV 13 bright, cloudy days

EV7 indoors

EV -5 scene lit by the moon

Knowing the amount of light in a particular lighting scenario allows you to construct guidelines, such as the 'sunny 16 rule' - on a clear, sunny day set your camera at f/16 and the shutter speed to 1/ISO setting - this equates to a constant EV of 15.

You'll also see these values in the technical specifications in your camera manual. For example, my Canon EOS 5D autofocus system works in the EV range of -0.5 to 18 EV.

Check out my photography here: wedding photographer in UK