Metering at a wedding?

I have read a lot of different things. Is spot metering best at an indoor wedding? What do I meter on..the white dress?
will be using 580 and 1dmk II..thanks..t

[HGregoryPorter]

The important thing is to know what the camera is giving you. Metering on a white dress is OK as long as you compensate the appropriate amount.

Lighting typically does not change at a wedding. Why not do readings before hand and know your exposure at different locations where the bride and groom will be. You can shoot a grey card at each location and note the exposure. For most of my weddings, I memorize two or three exposures and adjust accordingly in manual exposure. Write them on a card if necessary.

[Bud_Kuenzli]

tim,

are you really about to do a wedding and require an answer to that question? I hope this isn't a troll because I don't have the time to waste, but I'll assume you are honestly asking the question.

To answer your question - There is no single right way to do it. People develop different methods and techniques to get to the same place. What and how you meter depends in part on what you are shooting and how you'll be shooting it. If you read a spot off the dress using manual, you 'll need to compensate about 1 1/3 stop or so for the bright white. You could meter a dark jacket and drop the exposure a stop or so. You could shoot the scene using averaging but to expose to the right you'll still probably find yourself bumping it up about 2/3. All of this kind of information should be a no brainer for somebody shooting weddings. It shouldn't even be something you have to think about when you are shooting. Sometimes I'm surprised at what method I used after I look at EXIF data. Often I use spot and don't even think about it. Which METHOD you use to read the light is really immaterial unless it is done for some particular reason. Any competent photographer can take a spot reading off a black tux or a white gown or a face and dial in the appropriate compensation. Spot is a great tool but you have to have some experience to know what compensation to dial in. You don't want to be chimping while the bride walks down the aisle. For that reason, if you have to ask the question, I'd advice using a simple average metering, blending the gown and the tux, and since the white will probably be somewhat dominant, plan on bumping the meter by +2/3 assuming there aren't any bright lights backlighting the scene. I can promise you, you'll at least be right in the ball park. You can shoot a test and chimp it even before the bride enters. Of course all this assumes you're talking about shooting ambient light. I'm old school and keep a sekonic in my jacket pocket. Either way, shoot RAW.

Hi, no am not a troll and yes I just DID the wedding Saturday nite.. [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img] it went ok, but I had researched and read about metering on this or that and no definitive answer. all in all it was a success but a failure..I was not pleased with the whole thing, but I did learn something...580ex in a large high roof auditorium is NOT good...chuckling...

But thanks for you guy's answers and advice, I have printed them and will use them in the future and also study them and learn them now.

I am not a competent nor pro yet. I have to start somewhere. So I can't just dial in the compensation tho I wish I could, thus I rely on you folks here and elsewhere to advise me so I can learn. I have only been shooting serious photography since the advent of the 10d. Now have the 1d Mk 2 and despite my hopes last year, it is not a automatically do it all..I still have to know what I am doing.
I did try spot, but it was horrible...I spotted on a light area and everything else was dark. I ended up using evaluative and shooting in Tv at 1/125 with the 580ex and not too far from the subjects. I still have a lot to learn. I have spent all my time since the 10d trying to learn to shoot waterfalls...what a chore that was..
but I will share these pics with you, but remember I know they are no where near you guys quality, but for a beginner,...they are what they are...I am glad they are friends and I told them no guarantees but if there were some they wanted I would charge them only for the materials used to print them...so here are the wedding(to confirm that i was not trolling)... http://www.tecphotos.com/gallery/album23 (shot by my partner) and http://www.tecphotos.com/gallery/album24 (shot by me)

the rehearsal http://www.tecphotos.com/gallery/album22
fall colors http://www.tecphotos.com/gallery/album12
and some falls http://www.tecphotos.com/gallery/album05 and http://www.tecphotos.com/gallery/album07

All of them are better than they were 2 years ago, thanks to the help and advice from all of you over that time...t

[David_Buzzard]

Maybe it's just me, but I find even the most sophisticated meters to be hobbled by how much light is being reflected back by the subject. I always shoot manually. If it's a scene with a dark background with a light fore ground subject, like a wedding dress, I'll back it off a half stop or so. If it's a back lit scene, I'll open it up a half stop or more. I'll do 400 to 800 pics at a wedding, and hardly ever have the exposure so far off that I can't use it. I have the monitor set to "blinkies", and if I'm getting a blinking signal on the dress, then I know I'm too hot.

With the D1X, using flash with it is a total nightmare. If I'm using the flash as a main light, I'll turn off the matrix metering and dial in -1 exposure comp. If it's fill flash, I'll leave the matrix on, and leave the exposure comp at neutral. If there's one single reason to upgrade to the D2X, it's the improved flash performance.

David Buzzard

[Jamie_Roberts]

Tim--a book is always a good place to augment the forum. Might I suggest "The Best of Wedding Photography" by Bill Hurter (he's also released a digital version, too).

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg...ce&s=books

I'm not affiliated in any way--so forgive the plug. But this book (and others like it) will at least introduce you to the basics of posing, metering (especially on why you have to compensate with an in-camera meter), color, etc... You don't have to follow any of the advice there, but it's nice to get a handle on some of the rules before you start breaking them [img]/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

BTW--the Sekonic tip from Bud is a great one I know folks have moved completely to their in-camera meter, or have their own shorthand ways of compensating for reflected light, but for a lot of weddings (again in ambient light) I'll just take an incident reading where I know the action is going to be (and where the light isn't changing quickly) and shoot away.