Digital Wedding Photography

[DavidWorley]

I would like to switch from film to Digital the Canon D-30. Is it up to the task or should I wait for the next generation of the Canon.

[Jason]

My D30 wedding opinion is pretty much neutral. I've been slowly bringing the D30 into my wedding work this year and I was surprised by a few things, both good and bad. I should be careful to say that this pertains to the way I shoot and to my comfort level with the results. My wedding work is heavy on candids and I'm fairly picky on image quality.

1. The D30 image is good enough for prints to 8"x10". I've not had to make a larger print yet, this may be true for larger ones.

2. You are essentially exposing to transparency film tolerences. Blown out wedding dresses are a real problem. Film holds an advantage here.

3. At the 800 ASA setting and the 70-200/2.8 lens, this camera is awesome in the church for available light 'candids' from the back. The quick access to multiple film speeds in one camera body is almost too good to be true.

4. People wanting to see what 'the camera mans little TV screen' looks like. Reviewing your shots at the wedding is a time killer and must be avoided.

5. I LOVE editing the wedding on the computer moniter before making the prints.

These are just the the first 5 that came to mind. What I've decided to do is a mix. I shoot all the 'important stuff' on film. Film is FAR more forgiving than the CMOS, when things happen fast - open up a stop and you're covered. For the candid shots - where no one really knows what pictures you've taken anyway, I shoot the D30. From the back of the church, all D30. I make a webpage consisting of about 20 images for each couple and I hate scanning. I have established a 'template' of images for this page, so I shoot especially for it.

I justify owning mine by the other stuff I do with it. Business portraits for newsletters, contest winners for the local paper, magazine work and all that day to day small print stuff is D30 heaven.

If I only shot weddings, I'd stick to film. There's no real digital advantage that I can see.

Jason

[Lorin Backe]

I agree with Jason, There are some great applications for the D30. A wedding workhorse is not one of them. I bought mine to jump on the bandwagon, and I have some real practical uses in mind. Weddings was one on the back burner, and now having shot one with it I'm in love with film again. Sure the instant feedback is great, but if you want to do other things with your time besides sitting at your computer editing a few hundred pictures every week stick to film. Having said that,some people enjoy doing just that, and they love using digital at weddings. Lorin

[James_Morrisey]

I have now done three weddings with the D30 as my primary camera tool, and I am happy with it for the most part. However, please note that I only purchased it as a temporary camera until a better Canon model comes out. There are some good and bad with it - as with every camera...I also would give it a "neutral" rating at this time...though perfect for my uses at this moment.

(1) I have had few problems with blow-outs as long as I use the FEL and meter on the bride's face or another object that is not white or black. I am very very happy in this area. There have been times when I have blown out the cake, but that is usually my own fault.

(2) For large groups, film is far superior in terms of image quality.
(a) If you have a medium format camera, stick to it for the formals and you the D30 for the candids. However, the D30 does do suprisingly well at the formals, considering its sensor size.

(3) AF is OK when supplemented with an ST-E2 or 550 EX flash. However, it is ONLY OK. If the D30 had switchable focus screens, it may be more suitable for manual focus. I find the tiny focus screen to be annoying and hard to see in low light...though I know that I am in the minority on this one. I just like a REAL manual focus screen - such as on a Leica. I would be even satisfied with one like my old Pentax K1000.
(a) There have been several times when I have not gotten "the shot" because the camera takes so long to focus in low light.

(4) When processing, learn and use action commands for most color correcting/sharpness, etc. I find that I can cut out 85% of my after-photo processing through using them. Going through the processing is by FAR the biggest problem with digital.

-JM

[Douglas_Fry]

I have just shot my first wedding on the D30, and there are a few tips I'd share

1. shoot with centre weighted metering rather than the others with the 550ex flash, the results are far more consistent I feel

2. The ability to review the group shots as you go is very reassuring, and if anything is required over 7x5 then using any one of the upsampling/sharpening/downsampling methods outlined in this forum, the results are excellent to A4 or above

3. I still preferred to use a Leica M6 for the b/w in the church , as I can focus far faster and itís less obtrusive

4. I use Fotostation (www.fotostation.com) to review and catalogue all my digital images, it produces albums (which it will post to a web site), and has a very good and fast slide show function allowing me to review 500 say images marking those I like by tapping the space bar and then dragging them to a new folder to upload/burn CD ROM/print etc

5. I do worry about the reliability of the IBM 1Gig Microdrive, so I took enough film to cover the day just in case, after Iíll copied all the images over to the computer and checked them in Fotostation, then do a full PC format on the card, before shooting again. I will be buying a decent laptop with firewire to transfer images over during quiet moments shortly.

6. Iíve set up a series of actions in PhotoShop to rotate/colour correct/sharpen etc and save as a tif in a new folder which saves loads of time