dancraw85

Hello my name is Dan. My question is how are the newer shooters shooting without tripods? To bring up the ambient light in a church i would have to shoot at 1/8 th of a second 5.6 aperature. I dont see tripods anymore! I used fugi nhg which i loved. How are these digital cowboys handholding everything? The images they take are tacksharp? Old Mamiya 645 guy needs to know.

thanks

Dan

PixelStan77 Loc: Vermont/Chicago

Dan

Welcome aboard. Today they crank up the ISO and some use a Monopod.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

I used to have a wedding camera - a Nikon D3S FX or full frame camera - which had no trouble with ISO up to 25,600 - so 1/50 at F8 was a walk in the park. Tripods and monopods stayed home.

SuperflyTNT Loc: Manassas VA

Besides the high ISO range available in newer cameras, many of the mirrorless have in body image stabilization. It’s amazing what they can do handheld.

Blair Shaw Jr Loc: Dunnellon,Florida

Welcome Dan . Stay tuned each day to this site and you'll catch-up in time. The newer gear has some very helpful innovations that enable them to get the shots they could not in an earlier time . The lenses are better, the camera sensors are amazing,the tripods are lighter & sturdier.......a lot going on.

I'm old school too and just joined a little more than a year ago myself and have learned so much form this forum. It's my go to solution for everything photographic now. Good luck sir.

joer Loc: Colorado/Illinois

What you want is a camera that handle low ISO well plus image stabilization in camera or lens or both.


A church begs for silent shooting, which the mirrorless cameras have that is actually silent unlike DSLRs.

dancraw85

Hello Blair, Thank you for the reply. New world out there.Just getting started in digital! This looks like a great resource.

dancraw85

Hey thanks Superfly!

JohnSwanda Loc: San Francisco

When you are shooting moving subjects (people) you need to use a shutter speed fast enough to stop subject movement, or use flash, which will freeze the motion. A tripod won't help with subject motion. So use flash or crank up the ISO, and use fast lenses, to get a high enough shutter speed.

MichaelMcGrath Loc: Ireland

OK, so how can I produce a photo as big as a door for exhibition purposes on one of your new high ISO diggie wonders?
With my Nikon D800 and VR I can't enlarge anywhere as much as I do with my Bronica SQA on tripod - the fast 36 megapixels simply won't stretch as much as slow film.

E.L.. Shapiro Loc: Ottawa, Ontario Canada

Hey, Dan! Welcome to the forum!

So...how "old school" are you anyway. I'm 75 years old and still shooting weddings. I have been on digital for years but still, use many of my old school methods in the new school of wedding photography.Commercial photography is my day job but I am still a “weekend warrior”! I started out in portraiture and wedding photogrhy over 50 year ago and old habits die hard!

Obviously, if you are shooting rapidly breaking action, handheld, you will need to depend on either flash or high IOS settings. I work with at least 2 assistants and use quite a bit of multiple flash so I can light large venues, do various dramatic lighting effects, capture dancefloor action and even certain segments of the ceremonies, when permissible, with flash which affords me lower ISO settings and action stopping enablement.

Having written that, my trusty tripod is always on hand. In situations where I am using very long lenses, workings in low light in dark churches with existing light, if logistics permit, I like the additional stability of a tripod-mounted camera. I might set it up in advance in an organ or choir loft, sacristy or anteroom in a church or at the back of an auditorium or sanctuary with a second camera so it is ready when I need it. I can use lower ISO, use slower shutter speed when possible and still get razor-sharp noiseless images of ceremonies and other situations where flash would no be appropriate, permitte, or migh kill the mood or ambience.

When I am shooting formals out-of-doors and using a wide aperture for better bokeh or selective focus, again the stability of a tripod is handy and I can mount and stabilize the camera leaving me free to observe expressions off the viewfinder and direct folks- hands-free.

Every wedding, of course, is different. Sometimes there is no time to set up a tripod and all I can do is gun a run. On some of my ethnic weddings such as Greek, Russian, Lebanese and Ukrainian Orthodox, Catholic Nuptial Masses and Orthodox Jewish Weddings, there are long ceremonies and plenty of time to set everything up, shoot and take everything down without even being noticed.

I use a Gitzo carbon fiber model for weddings with a Manfrotto ball head- it's sturdy, fast operating and not too heavy.

Also from the old school, I am still selling albums- large ones- 11x14 and thereabout and frequently make large wall portraits as well. My clients are no viewing all their images on a screen so I need sharp, noiseless images with good detail and color saturation to ensure good prints.

Sometime I gotta be an "old" cowboy and sometimes I can act my age and setup the old tripod. Of course, color negative film has quite a bit more latitude than you will have when working digital, although minor exposure errors can be corrected for in post-processing. Some trends wedding photography have changed radically, however, I find there is still a good and lucrative market for high-quality traditional wedding photography.

For many years I use a medium format Hasselblad system with great Zeiss glass for weddings. I used the Mamiya RZ67 system in the studio. My present Canon system produces image quality that rivals and surpasses the older film gear, as good as it was.

If you are going to reenter the wedding market, lots of what you did in the past will still hold up well while other procedures, methods, and aspects will have to be adapted and modified accordingly.

You can join some of us old wedding vets in the Wedding Photograhy section right here on this forum. It's a small group and we don't have too much traffic but we exchange ideas and discuss techniques, strategies, gear, and marketing in the wedding business. it's hard work- as you know and not too many folks, around here, are interested in it as much as othere fields of photography.

mizzee Loc: Boston,Ma

Image stabilization either in -camera or in the lens or both, higher ISOs in the newer cameras contribute to a greater ability to hand hold.

billnikon Loc: Pennsylvania/Ohio/Florida/Maui/Oregon/Vermont

My D5 can capture easily 12500 ISO with no noise, also at 25000 ISO with noise I can eliminate easily in post.
What do you think of 1/250 sec. at f5.6 in a dark church. And the result looks like it's daylight.
ISO has come a long way baby and it will not stop any time soon.
And Why are you shooting at f8? With today's wonderful 70-200 2.8 lenses you can easily shoot wide open with great results.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

The use of image stabilization has changed things around. The new mirrorless bodies and, I use Olympus with no experience with other mirrorless cameras, are very capable of 5 stops of stabilization. That combined with a high ISO works miracles.
The virtual absence of grain with digital is a godsend for enlargements and practically any modern camera will go to sizes like 20x30 inches without sweat. I bet you and your customers will be delighted with those enlargements.

Digital is a great media.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Back in the days of film I shot with ISO (same as ASA) 50, 100 and 200 slide film.... ISO 160 color print... and with ISO 400 black & white film. I'd push the latter to ISO 800 at times.

Today I work with DSLRs that can easily be used at ISO 3200 and 6400.... two to three stops higher than my fastest film. Seven to eight stops higher than my slowest film.

I also use a bunch of image stabilized lenses, which make it possible to get a high percentage of sharp shots at shutter speeds two to three stop slower than I'd normally need to use.

Between those two advancements, I'm able to shoot hand held in much lower light conditions than I ever could with film and need to resort to using flash far less often.

Good techniques... including using a tripod at times... are still important. But we can now take photos in conditions where it was impossible with film.