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This post has been edited by AlamakLor: Oct 29 2007, 12:17 PM

That's all for today, not sure if I wanna post anymore of them up without the couple's consent

A little about today's shoot.

first of all, what a lovely couple, they are seriously in love, and had all the blessings they could get for their wedding. I'm really happy for them. As for the day, rain was coming on and off from 12-1pm, we got most of the important shots done by 2pm though, so we didn't really miss much. It was raining for the rest of the day. I was pretty excited about the shoot but as soon as I got indoor, some stuff started to piss me off.

I sold my sb600 a few days ago, and now left with my vivitar 285hv. The flash doesn't rotate and I didn't put my flash bracket on, so I could only bounce the flash at fixed direction...which was horrible as not all the time there's stuff to bounce on. Next, the flash took ages to recycle to full, which SERIOUSLY pissed me off. Another thing is when I'm indoor, the 80-200 didn't cut it, wasn't reliable enough at extreme low light, not even at 2.8. Both the flash and lens caused me to miss many shots.

I can't wait to receive my sb80dx, the vivitar doesnt cut it as main flash for wedding photography. I'm contemplating selling my 17-50mm and get the 85mm 1.4 now, a small diversion from my upgrade path but what the heck..that'd leave me with 85mm 1.4 + 50mm 1.8 + 80-200mm 2.8 <- which I think will be used exclusively at outdoor and medium indoor lighting. If the flash doesnt cut it, I really gonna smack my head on the wall

btw, everything shot at f2.8-f4 with manual exposure, you obviously can see that from the exif.

This post has been edited by AlamakLor: Sep 16 2007, 10:49 AM

Shutter speed doesn't make a difference in flash lighting, it only affects the ambient to flash fill ratio/% and shooting at 1/250 ensures that there's no camera shake/motion blur coz I'm using an 80-200mm lens.

I always set it a little higher than my lens' maximum focal length so I don't have to worry about the shutter speed Technically, I can even get away with it at lower shutter speed since the flash will freeze the motion, but it's just one of those practice I try to adhere to.

one of the other photog dude I took from the mirror, there's a bit of a reflection of me in it

One thing I tend to always look out for is keeping horizontal/vertical planes straight. The other guy told me he usually just shoot loosely, then go back photoshop and rotate it I'm very used to keeping the lines straight, always do it unconsciously.

That's all I'm gonna post up from this gig, have another one next week. Gonna try to bring 2 flash next time. Finally, man this laptop monitor sux to the max....wtf? 4bit color kar...pictures look great on my 8bit benq fp241, quality drops 70% when I view the pix over here

This post has been edited by AlamakLor: Sep 16 2007, 06:35 PM

yup, these dudes are more of the happy go lucky ones, and the other photog was making them laugh all the time, which is good...you need to talk to them a lot to get them to relax and poses naturally. I was totally out-spoken..can you imagine how much that guy talk?

thanks for all of the comments, for some reasons I thought I posted all the pictures I uploaded to flickr but some didn't show...odd. anyway here are the remaining few:

It's difficult coz the speed has to do with camera shake I would be able to get a better blend of ambient + flash if I was using 70-200mm vr with vr enabled, but unfortunately, need to shoot at relatively high shutter speed on this lens. I'll try to find out what's the min shutter speed I can handle with this lens + flash.

Yeah, iso1600 is too high for this camera but it was alright on my older D50. You are right, I did shoot some high iso pictures intended to be converted to B&W and keep the noise as film grain, but somehow i just cannot take it I think I'll shoot at iso800 top for this camera.

I don't know why I was so fixated in taking full body shot of the last few pictures, should have zoomed in closer and get waist up shots, I've gotta try to keep that in mind for this coming sat's gig.

Yeah, a wide/superwide is quite important for a HUGE group shot I sold my 50mm when I sold my d50, but I just repurchased that lens and is on the way to me. Hopefully I can get it by end of the month. I'm also getting my ac adapter for my flash some time this week, which helps to recycle the flash to full in < 2s. I'll try to see if it is viable to setup a stationary flash at a strategic location during next wedding ceremony to help reduce my on-camera flash power usage until my sb80dx arrives.

I'll also try to use my 150mm prime for next session, it doesn't hunt as much as my 80-200 after setting the limit switch. Gonna just toss all the stuff in my waist pouch.

I think the 50mm vs 85mm is just a preference. Some people like to be closer to the subjects, some like to be farther away. But as far as bokeh is concerned, the 85mm 1.4 is one of the best.

Oh btw, I will have wedding gigs every saturday, maybe on sundays too so prepare for lovely couple pictures. I plan to shoot strictly b&w for next wedding preparation.

This post has been edited by AlamakLor: Sep 18 2007, 06:15 AM

There are lots of scenes in msia that I'd really like to shoot - sunset sampan, bridge, jetti, with silhouette, you know.

Anyway, I've been browsing some flickr wedding groups, and *cough* shutterspeak *cough* seems like it is natural to PP the pictures to spice things up...so here we go, a quick PP I did earlier:



done on my crappy laptop monitor, so might have too much Ajinomoto, but no sk2

This post has been edited by AlamakLor: Sep 18 2007, 09:09 AM

Pre-Halloween shot....too lazy to create another thread just for this 1 shot

-one flash with umbrella
-sigma 150 @ 2.8
-2 stop over flash meter reading
-indoor darkroom

September 29


CPL used


2 flash used, one wireless slave behind altar, sb80dx as on camera fill flash






I love to play with perception and alignment






this chick is hot, but she's pretty tall


I would have used a color gel and a slave for to isolate the background, but was too tired to bother about it


picture-in-picture

It was shot through an umbrella, so yes, it was diffused.

I'm located in Canada, so most of what I'd be shooting are mat salleh, indians, lebaneses, and some chinese

This job is very freaking prospective here, I'd imagine it brings in even more $$ @ larger cities. Clients are prebooked for 1-2 years ahead.

This time I only used my 17-50 and 150mm. I tried keeping the shutter speed @ 1/60 with the 150mm with flash but some shots were ruined because the flash wasn't fast enough to still the image. I think I will try to shoot @ iso320-400 next time with faster than 1/100 + fill flash. Luckily those are they blurred, are just slightly blurred and still very usable.

This post has been edited by AlamakLor: Oct 15 2007, 12:04 PM

so busy with gigs...don't even have time to process them

Taken with studio strobe





(son in law....oh yeah...it's the parents getting married )


This guy looks 85% like Michael Scofield in Prison Break





This post has been edited by AlamakLor: Oct 15 2007, 12:34 PM

ugh, one of my flashes exploded today when I was setting up the lights...gotta send it in for warranty. Haven't posted any pictures for awhile but here we go:

Soft light:


Slightly harder light:


This post has been edited by AlamakLor: Oct 29 2007, 12:16 PM

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the comments. I'm working on a beauty shoot portfolio this month, might begin shooting later this month or some time next month. Currently still working on ideas and searching for different people

Everything shot with AWB. If you are using sb800, there's nothing much to set...just i-ttl + compensation. If you have more than 1 flash or tired of i-ttl, the you can start using AA/A mode, and maybe compensate the exposure a little depending on how accurate the light sensor is.

Me only buy 2.8 or faster glasses must buy or not depends on what you are looking for an how you shoot mar. To me, the bokeh quality is very important...to some others, convenience comes first in the list. I have a 1.4 glass coming on the 6th can't wait to get me grubby hands on it