The Friday before I left for the WPPI tradeshow in Las Vegas, I photographed a wedding in what had to be the most dimly lit church I've ever had to work in. The Century Memorial Chapel in the Naper Settlement of Naperville, IL was built in 1864 and then the building was relocated to its current location in 1970. It's an old church.
I wondered how I was going to photograph this wedding since I was not allowed to use flash during the ceremony. But with my trusty Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens and my Fuji S5 Pro camera, I was able to do it. I set my camera to ISO 1600 and opened the Nikon lens to f2.8 and shot most of the wedding from the back of the church. The EXIF data on the top photo show that I shot the closeup image at f 3.2 at 1/18 second at ISO 1600 at 116mm (the equivalent of 174mm in 35mm film equivalent.)
I could see many guests looking at me wondering what I was doing way back at the doorway of the church and shooting without a flash! I'm sure they tried to shoot some images with their point and shoot cameras with flash and could only get a few feet of coverage. And here I was doing it way in the back of the room without a flash!
The two images I've posted here show you what I got. The closeup was shot from the doorway at the entrance to the sanctuary and the fisheye shot was done just a few feet from that point. I've purposely left the fisheye shot darker so you can see how dark the church was. In reality, it was even darker than this!
I often wonder how some amateur photographers work in places like this. While they may feel prepared to shoot a wedding, often they aren't because they could only be expecting good lighting conditions. But hire someone like this and then throw them into a challenging church like The Century Memorial Chapel and you'd better hope they have top of the line gear and the knowledge of how to get a good shot.
Just yesterday, I spoke with a bride on the phone who contacted me via my website. She asked what I charged and so I told her. It was way above her budget (even though in comparison to other photographers, I'm well within reason.) She told me that she was leaning towards hiring a photographer who quoted her $1300 for the wedding including an album. I was shocked, because some of my albums alone could cost that and it wouldn't even include my work of photographing the wedding (I only sell quality albums that are custom designed.)
I had to wonder what kind of photography she was going to get. When brides hire photographers strictly on price, they are asking for potential problems. Oh well... can't convince everyone I guess...
I wondered how I was going to photograph this wedding since I was not allowed to use flash during the ceremony. But with my trusty Nikon 70-200mm f2.8 VR lens and my Fuji S5 Pro camera, I was able to do it. I set my camera to ISO 1600 and opened the Nikon lens to f2.8 and shot most of the wedding from the back of the church. The EXIF data on the top photo show that I shot the closeup image at f 3.2 at 1/18 second at ISO 1600 at 116mm (the equivalent of 174mm in 35mm film equivalent.)
I could see many guests looking at me wondering what I was doing way back at the doorway of the church and shooting without a flash! I'm sure they tried to shoot some images with their point and shoot cameras with flash and could only get a few feet of coverage. And here I was doing it way in the back of the room without a flash!
The two images I've posted here show you what I got. The closeup was shot from the doorway at the entrance to the sanctuary and the fisheye shot was done just a few feet from that point. I've purposely left the fisheye shot darker so you can see how dark the church was. In reality, it was even darker than this!
I often wonder how some amateur photographers work in places like this. While they may feel prepared to shoot a wedding, often they aren't because they could only be expecting good lighting conditions. But hire someone like this and then throw them into a challenging church like The Century Memorial Chapel and you'd better hope they have top of the line gear and the knowledge of how to get a good shot.
Just yesterday, I spoke with a bride on the phone who contacted me via my website. She asked what I charged and so I told her. It was way above her budget (even though in comparison to other photographers, I'm well within reason.) She told me that she was leaning towards hiring a photographer who quoted her $1300 for the wedding including an album. I was shocked, because some of my albums alone could cost that and it wouldn't even include my work of photographing the wedding (I only sell quality albums that are custom designed.)
I had to wonder what kind of photography she was going to get. When brides hire photographers strictly on price, they are asking for potential problems. Oh well... can't convince everyone I guess...
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