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Old 06-19-2007   #18 (permalink)
PavelOlavich
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Location: Orange County
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Default Re: The last 3 weddings...

The Tamron 28-75 IMHO is not a very good lens because it is too soft wide open. The 24-70L is a great lens wide open and the Tam does not offer the L's color rendition, nor contrast.

For B & W conversions, one of many ways is to use the Channel Mixure, turn off the blue channel, and set the red to 55 and green to 45. This is a starting point, so go from there. Then apply levels making sure the blacks are black, and the whites are white. Be mindful of skin tones, and for white skin adjust mid tones for a nice light gray tone.

As for the too wide Dynamic Range, on one hand you have the white white bride's dress. On the other you have the black black groom's tux. It is a challange to get image details in these two extremes. Flash can add "gas" to the fire. So to mitigate this, shoot raw, do use flash, but never straight on (bounce it), and create two images from the same raw file; one exposed for the white dress, to show detail and the other to expose for skin, then blend the two as required, so that you have the details of the black tux, the details of the white dress, and goo skin tones too.

Emulate others, more successful wedding photographers. Get the post processing details and nuances down cold. Forget about style at this point in your career.

Frank Sinatra, Ray Charles, and other masters first emulated other musicians much more successful and skilled in their day. Over time these two greats blazed their own sounds, and made their own way, finding and defining their unique styles.

You should consider the same too.

Practice, and more, and continue reading and studying. Keep up the good work!

Over time and experience, you will find that the day will come when you start to experiment, and define your own style.

For weddings, learning to flash is so important. Learn how to drag the shutter...search about this here on this site for lots of good information.

You have a great attitude, and that is reason alone to expect that you will go very far and be successful.
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Wedding Hack, 5D's, L primes 14mm through 200, L zooms 16mm through 400.
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