I had a rough event shoot today

[RichNY]

One of my best friends was having his daughter's naming ceremony today in NYC and I was invited as a guest. I was originally going to bring my camera to take some pictures but then decided I'd much rather just sit back and relax and told my friend I wasn't planning on bringing my camera. His wife and father-in-law both have Canon DSLRs and someone was video taping the event for them so I just drove to the Temple. (For those who aren't familiar a Naming Ceremony is a relatively new tradition in the Jewish faith for girls since they don't have a Bris).

Upon arriving my friend asked if I would mind taking pictures with his wife's camera- a 20D w/o grip, no flash, and only a 16-35 lens with about 1GB left on the only CF card she brought.

The biggest problem I faced was lighting. The room was lit by a 2' wide window of natural light on two sides, diffused natural light from the rear, and a combination of a bunch of incandesant and flouresent lights in the ceiling.

Without thinking I ended up overexposing almost every shot by 1 1/2 stops due to the strong back lighting from the 2' heigh windows that ran around the room. When I took my test exposures I didn't have the light in the frame and so my histogram looked fine.

I also ran into a problem with focus. A great many of the pictures came out with the eyes and face out of focus. I haven't spent enough time looking into why this happened. I miss my Mark II's focus, and I miss my IS on the 17-55.

Shooting an entire event with a 16-35 really stinks. I thought I'd be standing in the back of the room taking a few photos but when your only glass is that wide, even on a crop, all of a sudden you become part of the ceremony. :eek:

I'll post some of the pictures tomorrow; right now I've emotionally drained and disappointed.

As for comparing glass, I really think the 17-55 IS is much better optically than the 16-35 f/2.8. I had wanted one of these for my Mark IIN, but I'm really questioning whether I'm just better off with the 17-55IS on the 30D.

On another note I stopped into B&H for 15 minutes to buy a new camera bag before the event but haven't even taken it out of the B&H bag yet. After today I'm thinking about finding a new hobby- perhaps basket weaving.

[DonSchap]

You know .... since this isn't a truly paying customer ... wouldn't you think you really need to weigh the necessary quality the customer is looking for?

Again, you were not offered optimal lighting considerations and as such, the camera and lens are still only capable of three f-stops of lighting compensation. Keeping that in mind, you tend to know when your shots are ... overtaxed.

Let's face it, the 16-35mm on a full-frame is quite a bit of a different animal on a 30D. That 1.6x crop really changes things. The 17-55mm isn't even a possibility on a full-frame camera, regardless, as EF-S won't mount.

I don't know ... I've debated going to the EOS 5D or the EOS 1 Ds and I'm still pretty happy with the 8.2MB of my 20D, despite the SONY efforts. It delivers a decent shot ... and of course, using the 70-200mm f/2.8L really gets in there, from a distance. I wound up taking an extended family portrait at my son's grad party, this weekend, at about 12 feet away.

Hey, it may near the end of the party and everyone is looking a little worse for wear ... so yeah, it's not perfect, but for an outdoor setup ... at dusk ... it had its moments.

Since it was a tripod situation, I kind of wish I had used the TAMRON SP AF28-75mm f/2.8 XR Di LD Aspherical (IF) instead, to allow a little more spread to the shot. I was back about as far as my power teathers would let me go.

[zmikers]

One of my best friends was having his daughter's naming ceremony today in NYC and I was invited as a guest. I was originally going to bring my camera to take some pictures but then decided I'd much rather just sit back and relax and told my friend I wasn't planning on bringing my camera. His wife and father-in-law both have Canon DSLRs and someone was video taping the event for them so I just drove to the Temple. (For those who aren't familiar a Naming Ceremony is a relatively new tradition in the Jewish faith for girls since they don't have a Bris).

Upon arriving my friend asked if I would mind taking pictures with his wife's camera- a 20D w/o grip, no flash, and only a 16-35 lens with about 1GB left on the only CF card she brought.

The biggest problem I faced was lighting. The room was lit by a 2' wide window of natural light on two sides, diffused natural light from the rear, and a combination of a bunch of incandesant and flouresent lights in the ceiling.

Without thinking I ended up overexposing almost every shot by 1 1/2 stops due to the strong back lighting from the 2' heigh windows that ran around the room. When I took my test exposures I didn't have the light in the frame and so my histogram looked fine.

I also ran into a problem with focus. A great many of the pictures came out with the eyes and face out of focus. I haven't spent enough time looking into why this happened. I miss my Mark II's focus, and I miss my IS on the 17-55.

Shooting an entire event with a 16-35 really stinks. I thought I'd be standing in the back of the room taking a few photos but when your only glass is that wide, even on a crop, all of a sudden you become part of the ceremony. :eek:

I'll post some of the pictures tomorrow; right now I've emotionally drained and disappointed.

As for comparing glass, I really think the 17-55 IS is much better optically than the 16-35 f/2.8. I had wanted one of these for my Mark IIN, but I'm really questioning whether I'm just better off with the 17-55IS on the 30D.

On another note I stopped into B&H for 15 minutes to buy a new camera bag before the event but haven't even taken it out of the B&H bag yet. After today I'm thinking about finding a new hobby- perhaps basket weaving.

I can understand your disappointment, but given the conditions of which you were asked to perform, I don't think anyone can blame you. Post some of your shots, I'm almost positive that they're not as bad as you think and I'm sure we will see that you did an amazing job considering what you had to work with.

[D Thompson]

After today I'm thinking about finding a new hobby- perhaps basket weaving.

LMAO - gee, haven't we all felt that way at one time or another. :eek:

[24Peter]

LMAO - gee, haven't we all felt that way at one time or another. :eek:

Yeah I can relate to that!

Rich - Don't let it get you down. You did the best you could. We all learn more from our mistakes than successes I think. And the good news is this was a freebie - nothing at stake since the event was already covered. I promise you'll get more from this experience than you know. As I'm fond of saying these days, the only way I can fail at anything is if I give up.

Get a good night's sleep and go take some pics tomorrow with your own camera. :)

[zmikers]

Yeah I can relate to that!

Rich - Don't let it get you down. You did the best you could. We all learn more from our mistakes than successes I think. And the good news is this was a freebie - nothing at stake since the event was already covered. I promise you'll get more from this experience than you know. As I'm fond of saying these days, the only way I can fail at anything is if I give up.

Get a good night's sleep and go take some pics tomorrow with your own camera. :)

Well said my friend!

[cwphoto]

Hey man, I wouldn't worry too much. You were using that was unfamiliar to you and unsuitable for the job.

That being said, I think its unfair to compare the 16-35/2.8 to the 17-55/2.8 IS. The latter doesn't have to cater for an ultra-wide image circle which robs the former of some of its IQ for croppers.

If you want 17-55/2.8 IS FoV on a 1D/1Ds, you'd get a 24-70/2.8 - which compares favourably with the 17-55/2.8 IS IMO. Similarly, the 16-35/2.8 compares well against the 10-22/3.5-4.5 from what I've seen.

[forno]

I'm thinking about finding a new hobby- perhaps basket weaving.


You should see all the broken wicker I have lying around:p

[RichNY]

It is now 5am. I've played around with some of the images in Aperture and things don't look so bad. I would have loved to have had the right tools for the job and not made such a simple oversite but I'm in a much better frame of mind now. The trick was not going to sleep without first playing around with the images a bit. What's most needed now is to run them thru noise removal software; sharpening would be nice but since I've yet to load Photoshop I've never sharpened any image.

With my regained confidence I decided to open the new Domke bag and see how it worked out. I posted a mini-review of it here. ( http://www.dcresource.com/forums/showpost.php?p=230554&postcount=1) Quick summary- it's awesome.

Time to get three hours of sleep before I have to go to my ten year old nephew's school and shoot him acting as Master of Ceremonies for a school performance. What I'm most looking forward to is coming home after that and getting some much needed sleep.

* Thanks for the words of support and encouragement. With a support system here I can apply what could have been a therapy budget towards a 300 f/2.8 :)

[adam75south]

i'd have to see the pictures before i will sympathize. i know i'm ALOT harder on myself than i would be on other people's pictures and if you're like me, they're not as bad as you think.

events aren't easy. you have uneven lighting most of the time, you constantly have to adjust your SS and/or aperture and pretty much guess quickly so you don't miss the shot. the pop up flash is better than nothing, but it still sucks ass.


i would imagine your problem with the overexposing would have alot to do with the lack of spot metering of the 20d. with all the backlight it'll mighta gave a false reading if on partial or evaluative.

[RichNY]

I'm not going to have time to post individual files today but here is a small version of the Slideshow (http://web.mac.com/rjverlaque/iWeb/Site%203/Movie.html)

Sorry I haven't figured out how to make it larger or load quicker using my .Mac account yet. This will take 2 minutes to load but has a nice Carol King soundtrack so it's worth the wait ;)

Would like to get C&C.

[sunnythepsychocat]

RichNY,
They don't look too bad considered what you had and the how the lighting it was. It might be a different experience for you to say the least.

I like the shot of the little kid in, I think, 6th slide or very early of the slide show. The expression on his(?) face was something.

Keep on shooting;)

[24Peter]

Would like to get C&C.
You made lemonade. I see you're an old softie. Good job! ;)

[griptape]

I think they look great. Especially considering it was a "hey, you take pictures, here's a camera you've never used before, go ahead and capture some great memories for us" kind of deal. Exactly the kind of shots I would want, and more than I would expect from a friend who wasn't prepared to be shooting the event.

[RichNY]

I appreciate the comments.

Any C&C on the way I captured the subject matter, what worked, what didn't?

[AdamW]

Rich--from your comments at the start of the thread, I was expecting something really bad. You need to give yourself more credit, man! With no notice and less-than-ideal equipment you got some really nice shots! I like quite a few of them. Of course there's room for improvement, but now that you've lost your event cherry, you can be confident that you can at the very least do a decent job under bad circumstances.

And also, while the slide show was a little small, the "Ken Burns effect" makes any photo look professional!