taking photo's on a cloudy day

mollybird

Im going to be taking photo's for my friends wedding on mon and it's looking like it's going to be cloudy. ill be shooting in raw but im still not sure would i be able to get some good photo's outside or should i keep things safe and do most of the pics inside? My friend is getting married in the building beside the National Gallery ( and have been told we can take pics inside the main gallery) but her reception venue isn't teh most prettiest. they are on a serious low budget.

Thanks

DaireQuinlan

Just think of a cloudy sky being like a gigantic diffuse softbox, you'll probably get nice even light outside for portraits and formals. Shooting in the gallery will be, I'm guessing, under exclusively artificial light, I would imagine you'd be better off outside.

sheesh

have a look around the Gallery and the park in Fitzwilliam square for locations.

magicbastarder

(dry) cloudy is better. far less contrasty, less issue with the subjects squinting into the camera, etc. etc.

kelly1

Unless you have very good indoor light, e.g. huge windows, I'd go with outdoors.

If it's very overcast, and there's no real direction to the light, be sure to use a "little" fill flash, e.g -2EV to lift shadows in the eye sockets. Nothing worse than black eyes, I've made this mistake before!

Mister Sifter

There are a few decent locations for pics nearby to the Gallery - Merrion Sq is the obvious one or even the grounds of Trinity.

almorris

Some of the places open to the public require prior permission to shoot wedding photos. Simple enough to get but you do need to ask first, winging it won't work.

Reoil

DaireQuinlan wrote: »

Just think of a cloudy sky being like a gigantic diffuse softbox, you'll probably get nice even light outside for portraits and formals. Shooting in the gallery will be, I'm guessing, under exclusively artificial light, I would imagine you'd be better off outside.

Totally agree. The last thing you want is a bride and groom squinting into the sun.

mollybird

Thanks a million everyone. had a walk through merrion park again on the way to the gallery (had to drop in photogrphy contract and a statement bout what equipment i would have ) and think i could get some nice shots there all right even though i am hoping ot take them to stephans green for one or two nice ones there with just hte two of them.

CabanSail

Just beware that you may get challenged taking photo's like that in St Stephen's Green as you need a permit for commercial photography. Wedding Photography would be seen as commercial. You may well get away with it but have an alternate plan.

njclicks

Hi - Will try and keep this constructive, but your post has me a little worried.
You say this is for a friend who has a low budget which is fine and it's normal to be polite and say yes to them asking. However you do stand a serious risk of putting your friendship at risk by taking this on board. If it doesn't work as well as they hope, they'll be looking at the photographer!

With regards 'remaining inside as the safe option'. Inside usually means a lot less light and less light means you need to manage it. Of course you can create beautiful images inside but you'll need to have a good understanding of ISO and exposing for the dress.
Wedding photography is the toughest of genre's, it is a combination of pretty much everything. The weather in Dublin looks overcast which is ideal. Sunshine is almost as bad as wet and wind for a wedding photographer.

The key things to have in mind are your backups. Try and use multiple cards because they can (and do) fail. I'd suggest replacing your card every hour. If one does fail, you've lost the images on it, but not everything.
Choice of lens is vital - it can be tempting to use a wide angle to make sure you capture everything, but a 50mm is a much better option. Use your feet, step back to get everything in. The 50mm won't distort as much as a wide angle which will help with your portraits.
If you'd like to chat through any worries send me a message. This is my first ever post on boards.ie but I'm assuming there is a DM facility!

Hope it all goes well. : )

Alanstrainor

For the love of all that is holy, please please please shoot RAW.

pixbyjohn

:rolleyes:

mollybird wrote: »

Im going to be taking photo's for my friends wedding on mon and it's looking like it's going to be cloudy. ill be shooting in raw but im still not sure would i be able to get some good photo's outside or should i keep things safe and do most of the pics inside? My friend is getting married in the building beside the National Gallery ( and have been told we can take pics inside the main gallery) but her reception venue isn't teh most prettiest. they are on a serious low budget.

Thanks

Alanstrainor wrote: »

For the love of all that is holy, please please please shoot RAW.

TomMurphy64

Watch for background objects when taking photos outside - you eye completely ignores common day objects which later stand out in a picture.

mollybird

https://www.flickr.com/photos/115735638@N03/shares/0R1w14

here is the link to 2 of the pics i took on the day. sorry with new flicker page don't know how to put images up on the page here.

i haven't touched them yet as haven't had time but i was very happy with the ones i took. Got over 700 of pics throughout the day.

kelly1

Hi mollybird, if you don't mind, I would make the comment on the first image (5250), that because the light appears to be coming from overhead, there is some shadow in the couple's eyes. The solution is to either use fill flash or move them near a window so the light is coming from the side instead of above.

The light is far better in the 2nd image, seems you've used flash there.

challengemaster

kelly1 wrote: »

The light is far better in the 2nd image, seems you've used flash there.

Somehow despite using flash and being outdoors with massive amount of light, there's motion blur in the image....

kelly1

challengemaster wrote: »

Somehow despite using flash and being outdoors with massive amount of light, there's motion blur in the image....

If there is, I don't see it. Looks quite sharp to my eye.

South Tipperary Arts Centre

theres background blur, but you want that right?

and the first one yes the eyes are a bit dark you could put catchlights in and slightly bring up the levels around the eyes.

kelly1

In short, it's a total disaster!!!

CabanSail

The shadow in the eyes could be fixed in PP with a digital reflector.

Shots seems sharp enough.

The problem I see is the crop. The bouquet is missing in one and the groom's hand in the other.