Wedding Photographers And Photography BLOG

Wedding Photography with Charlotte and Daryl at Hempstead House, Kent.

2011-05-04T22:28:00.000+01:00

Charlotte and Daryl had a specefic brief for their photography to be relaxed and personal. However, not being comfortable in front of the camera, I had to take my time in getting the best out of them but keep on schedule with their wedding timetable.
We took quite a few portrait shots away from the guests and this made for a fun shoot and they both soon got into the spirit of the day.
Here's the feedback I received shortly after sending their portfolio:

"Hi Den, just wanted to say a huge THANKYOU for our wonderful wedding photos that we received today. We are so pleased with them and can't thankyou enough for the superb job you did on our Wedding Day. We certainly couldn't have asked for anything more.
We will most certainly be recommending you to anyone looking for a professional photographer, who clearly takes pride in his work and knows how to get exactly what we as customers want from our wedding day photos.
Thanks again for doing such a great job, and giving us some great memories to keep."

Here's a small sample of their pics for your viewing too.

Browse more of my wedding photography at Visualsnap - Wedding photographers Kent.

Alison and Gordon at Donnington Manor, Kent.

2011-05-04T22:15:00.000+01:00

A small intimate wedding for Alison and Gordon took place at the Donnington Manor in Kent. The sunshine was out in force and the atmosphere was very relaxed and casual. That's not to say we didn't see a few tears being squeezed out by bride and groom!

All the best to Alison and Gordon for their future and here's a few of the pictures from their portfolio that day.

See more of my wedding Photography at Visualsnap - Wedding Photographers Kent

Wedding Photography - St Augustine's Church and The Grasshopper Inn, Kent.

2011-03-25T22:30:00.000Z

Joanne and Andrew are certainly lucky in love, they managed to bring out the glorious sunshine for their wedding despite a rainy day before and after their big day. The ceremony was very well attended by a crowd who did a really fine job of singing with real gusto.
From the ceremony is was short drive to the Grasshopper Inn for the evening reception. The light outside was dipping fast by this point but we managed to catch the last of it just in time.
So on with a brief pictorial of their day. Enjoy - and best of luck for the future to the happy couple.

For information of my wedding services please visit my main site: Wedding Photographer Kent.

Whitstable Castle Wedding - Rebecca and Michael

2011-03-20T22:17:00.001Z

Whitstable Castle in Kent is a cosy venue for a wedding. Cosy in this case, meant it was quite crowded and hot inside so my photography was challenging due to maneuverability. In these conditions a top quality and discreet wide angle lens is a must and the Canon EF 24mm F1.4L Mk2 did a great job as usual.

I always try to avoid being too obvious at a wedding so I can capture people simply being themselves.

So here we go with the pictures from their day... My best wishes to Rebecca and Michael for the future.

More of my wedding photography can be seen at my main website: Visualsnap - Wedding Photographer Kent .

The winter wedding of Lace and Simon at Eastwell Manor, Ashford.

2010-12-31T14:35:00.002Z

My final wedding of the year was that of Lace and Simon this week at Eastwell Manor in Ashford.
No bad weather this time, but it was very misty outdoors. I kicked off with her prep shots in one of the cosy bridal suites at the venue, which even had a secret door straight into the main ceremony room.
The Christmas spirit continued through the rest of their day. A great venue and a great couple.
Below are some of the images that tell the story of their day.

You can see more of my wedding photography at Visualsnap: Wedding Photographer Kent

The Winter Wedding of Rosie & Philip - St Mary the Virgin

2010-12-20T00:16:00.000Z

So to say I was little concerned when I looked out the window Saturday morning and saw it snowing horizontally was an understaitement. Would I be able to get the car out the drive? Would the bride make it to the church on time? Did I need to pack a sleeping bag incase I got stuck getting home? Such is the risky nature of winter weddings in this country. Regardless, the plus side is the lovely lighting a white cloudy sky provides us photographers and the timeless beauty of scenic snow.
Thankfully, nearly everyone made it to the wedding on schedule and the rest of the day progressed as planned.
Rosie and Philip held their marriage at St Mary the Virgin in Merton. My best wishes to them both and they proved to be a fun couple with a great sense of humour - and they needed it given the grilling from the best men during their speeches :).
Enjoy a selection of images from their day below:

Check out more of my weddings at my main site Visualsnap: Wedding photographers Kent.

Holley and Luke at Elvey Farm. Winter Wedding Photography Kent.

2010-12-04T16:58:00.000Z

I had to drive down some seriously narrow country lanes to reach Elvey Farm, the venue for the winter wedding of Holley and Luke in Pluckley, Kent. A charming venue but I wondered how many people would be able to get here if it had snowed - including me! My advice is simple, always book and visit your wedding venue at the time of year you are actually having your wedding if possible.
Space inside the venue was limited, so I shot mostly on the 35mm F1.4 due to low light - the lovely warm cosy lighting one often finds at such events in winter can be destroyed by the use of hard flash photography, something I never do. So while space was limited, we had additional locations around the main ceremony room to explore for the portrait shoot. It was already dark by this point so I made use of any existing venue lighting to compose my shots.
I hope you enjoy the selection of images from their wedding below! You can see more of my wedding photography at Visualsnap Wedding Photographer Kent.

Wedding Photography of Jo and Bert. St Mary The Virgin and The Plough in Kent

2010-11-29T00:11:00.001Z

Sure it was a freezing November day, but everyone had a great time at Joanna and Roberto's winter wedding. I don't think I've ever seen so many people wearing gloves during a wedding ceremony! Thumbs up to everyone who also braved the outdoors with me for their pics :) Here are a few memories from the day...
Enjoy more of my wedding work here: Wedding Photographer Kent.

Kent Wedding Photography - Sundridge Park Manor - Mel and Rob

2010-10-15T22:01:00.001+01:00

I had the pleasure of covering Melanie and Roberts cosy wedding at the grand venue of Sundridge Park Manor in Bromley. It was a rainy day yet as if by magic the rain cleared soon as the ceremony got started. Needless to say, we got to explore the scenic grounds for the portrait and group shots, much to their delight.
Melanie and Rob remained very laid back during the day, and everything went according to plan. They make a great couple! All the best from me.
Below is a taster of their photography on the day. See more of my wedding photography at Visualsnap - Kent Wedding Photography.

Kent wedding photography - Lympne Castle

2010-09-30T23:25:00.000+01:00

Catching what might be the last of the summer days this year , I covered the wedding of Gene and Gillian at the sceneic Lympe Castle.
The groom arrived late (very late) so time was against us. I was booked for 5 hours with a seperate venue for the reception in Maidstone. Following the ceremony and group formals, I quickly took the couple away from the guests for their portrait shoot. This dedicated time alone is part of all my bookings and designed to create those extra special pictures of the day. If you are booking me, plan in 30-45mins for this ideally.
Gillian and Gene proved to be quite camera shy, but we got some great shots all the same. Check out a bunch of images from the day below (click on images to enlarge).

Find out more about my wedding coverage at Kent wedding photographer.

Kent wedding photographer - Fanhams Hall - Hertfordshire

2010-09-28T21:46:00.000+01:00

Emma and David booked me to cover their wedding this month at the lovely venue of Fanhams Hall in Hertfordshire. The grounds of this venue provide many photographic opportunities and luckily the weather held out for us to make good use of the opportunity. I took Emma and David for their private portrait shoot after the ceremony and we got some great pics. The ceremony was also held outdoors and an overcast sky provided nice soft lighting which makes my job easier. Had the sun been blasting down I would have had to deal with hard shadows on faces and without using flash to compensate the pictures would have been less than subtle. Check out more of my photography at Visualsnap - Kent Wedding Photographer.

Here are some images from the day. You can click on all images to get a better view as usual.

Wedding Photographer Kent - Park Wood Golf Club

2010-09-28T21:25:00.001+01:00

Here we have Roger and Joanne who I photographed this month. I took the wrong road to get to the venue which was very bumpy to say the least - be warned if booking this venue :) SatNav is an essential part of a wedding photographers kit - but also quite unreliable when you most need it. Not to worry, I still arrived in plenty of time. The bride had a long steep staircase to negotiate before entering the ceremony hall, but she made it in one piece and remained very composed all day. It was a relaxed and fun event for all.
My session lasted 4hrs and a snapshot of the day can be seen below
Find out more about my work at Wedding Photographer Kent.

Bickley Manor , Kent wedding photography.

2010-08-23T23:11:00.002+01:00

Here's a selection of pics from Marc and Amanda's recent wedding I covered at St Giles Church, Orpington and Bickley Manor in Bromley. Both the church and reception venue had back-to-back weddings so I found myself with multiple brides in my viewfinder at times!
We had a good dose of rain to deal with during the day, but I always aim to deliver punchy and bright pictures to my clients despite the weather.

Marc and Amanda make such a great couple, I wish them the best for the future.

Visit my main site if you're looking for a wedding photographer too: Wedding Photographers Kent

Kent Wedding Photography at Ratsbury Barn, Tenterden, Kent.

2010-07-25T22:26:00.001+01:00

Yesterday I was delighted to be the wedding photographer for Elizabeth and Michael's wedding at the renovated Ratsbury Barn in Tenderten Kent.
The ceremony took place at the entrance of the barn so I had some lovely natural light cast onto the couple in open shade. I used my new lens, the fantastic 70-200 IS 2.8 Mk2 for much of the day - and it worked a treat (worth the expensive upgrade from the Mk1 version if you're a serious photographer).
A selection of pics from their big day follow below. All the best for the future guys!

If you're getting married in Kent, see my main website here: Wedding Photographers Kent

Wedding Photography at Frensham Heights, Farnham, Surrey.

2010-06-21T02:15:00.001+01:00

I had the pleasure of covering Michelle and Gareth's wedding at Frensham Heights in Surrey. The grand venue had very high ceilings which pushed my indirect bounced flash technique to the limit of its power. I could have shot only with ambient light - but I enjoy the sparkle of life indirect flash often provides.

Among the first arrivals at the venue was the wedding cake - which was probably the best crafted cake I've seen for a while. This was only topped by the Best Man's speech (make that song) which had the hall in hysterics.

Unfortunately we didn't get much opportunity to explore the venue grounds due to frequent rain once again - but we did dive out at every opportunity. A good wedding photographer has to master getting the important shots while not being too demanding of the couple's time, even when dealing with unpredictable weather.

Explore my main website for Wedding Photography : Visualsnap - Wedding Photographer in Kent

Wedding Photographer Kent : The Inn On The Lake Hotel, Gravesend

2010-06-21T01:04:00.001+01:00

Here we have Liza and Ben who I photographed in Gravesend at The Inn on the Lake Hotel. It was a day with no rain for a change, and we even had a gorgeous sunset when I took the couple aside for a portrait shoot by the lake, which generated some superb back/rim light.
To my surprise, Ben made a grand entrance at the venue in K.I.T.T. - yes the Knight Rider car! Clearly a fun couple who have been childhood sweethearts from what I heard during the speeches. A great day for all.
For the outdoor group shots I once again used my favourite lens the Canon EF 100mm F/2.8L Macro IS together with off-camera speedlite, Pocket Wizards and a silver umbrella (why silver? because it is the most efficient outdoors and provides a nice sheen to the skin). I put the camera into manual, dropped the ambient light by a stop and half and let ETTL Flash do its thing and compensate as necessary.

Explore more of my work at Visualsnap: Wedding Photographer Kent

Wedding Photographer: Winters Barn, Canterbury.

2010-06-21T00:08:00.001+01:00

The charming couple of John and Helen booked me to photograph their wedding at the rather new venue of Winters Barn in Canterbury. We had to battle the rain most of the day, (why does it always rain during the large group shots!) and events started to run late as a result. John and Helen remained in high spirits and we made the most of the typical wedding chaos. We continued the remaining group shots indoors on the ceremony stage where I set up a single large silver umbrella with speedlite flash and Pocket Wizards. I used on camera bounce flash (over my shoulder) for most other interior shots - even in this dim lit venue creating a large reflected light source by bouncing flash ensures images remain natural looking. Zoomed ETTL flash with at least +1 compensation is required in venues with lots of timber and coloured walls like this.
Bounced flash is also far less distracting to guests than a direct blast in the face, so I urge you to dump the flash diffusers you may be using for speed and master this approach in your photography. See the results below.

Visit my main website: Visualsnap: Wedding photographers in Kent

Wedding Photography at Beauberry House in Dulwich , London.

2010-06-20T22:59:00.000+01:00

This is Mike and Nori and I photographed their wedding at Beauberry House in Dulwich. This is a great venue , and has a lovely bright ceremony room making photography easy from a technical perspective. I worked fast for the portrait session outside as time was short and we had to move on to the reception venue up the road. The cloudy skies provided great soft lighting , but I always like to add a touch of flash also in these situations to provide a hint of sparkle to the skin and eyes. My lens of choice was the superb Canon EF 100mm F2.8L Macro IS.

Visualsnap wedding photography: Kent wedding photography

Wedding Photography at Priestfield Stadium in Gillingham.

2010-06-20T22:19:00.000+01:00

Here's Steven and Zoe who got married at Priestfield Stadium. During the evening reception I used my Orbis ring flash off camera to create some quick studio style shots of the guests (much more compact and less hassle than an umbrella or softbox). The Orbis was about 8ft away but still managed to provide a punchy and even light. The portrait shots below show the great results. I used a coloured gel on a second Speedlite flash to light up a black stage curtain for a bit of drama and interest in the background. A wedding photographer should always be ready to rig up a quick lighting set at a wedding to spruce things up.

Check out my main wedding site: Wedding Photographers Kent

Hoodman HoodLoupe 3 for outdoor photography

2010-04-23T15:26:00.001+01:00

Summer has kind of arrived and that means packing the Hoodman loupe in the bag again. This tool is way overpriced at around £70, but it has actually become an essential tool for working in bright conditions. The problem is simple, when you take your picture outdoors and check the preview on the camera's LCD screen you basically are unable to judge meaningful exposure due to glare and washed out contrast. Your camera probably has some kind of auto brightness setting to compensate - but you don't want to enable that if you've already calibrated your camera LCD with your studio monitor (which you should do). You can always try covering the screen with your hand or under your jacket while you turn away from the sun - but I find that still leaves a lot of guesswork, and your histogram is only part of the story. The solution is the HoodLoupe 3. Pop this rubber cup over the LCD and you get a magnified view of the screen in the dark - it's great for checking exposure and for checking focus - like looking at an 6in screen. The Hoodman optics are okay - sharp in the middle but not great round the edges, and there is a fair bit of CA there too, but it doesn't matter. You can of course focus the eyepiece with the diopter. However, the Hoodman is not perfect and daylight can still get in under the edges or through the eyepiece - they should have included an eyecup (not sell it separately) and a softer rubber trim around the base to improve contact. The diopter is easily nudged out of focus too with handling.

Ultimately, the Hoodman 3 means that what I see on the LCD out in the sun, remains exactly what I see back on the studio monitor, removing errors and saving production time. If you're into shooting video on your DSLR - this is also an indispensable tool for using live view with the Hoodman Cinema Strap.

Sample my wedding photography here: Wedding Photographers Kent

Fastest UDMA card reader for Pro Photographers

2009-12-12T22:59:00.002Z

Just a quick post about the Lexar UDMA card reader for professional photographers out there. If you're using a camera like my EOS 5D Mark II , no doubt you've invested in good quality fast UDMA compact flash cards too. Trouble is your normal USB2 CF card reader will not be extracting your photos from these cards at the best speed. If you shoot hundreds of pictures just getting them into your computer to edit can waste a far chunk of time. If you pick up one of these readers from Lexar - you can transfer a full resolution RAW 5D2 file in a little over 1 second. In other words you can copy over a full 8GB card in under 5mins compared to around 15mins over normal USB2. A good investment.
Explore my wedding photography at Visualsnap - Wedding Photographers in Kent

Wedding Photography and the PocketWizard MiniTT1 FlexTT5

2009-12-11T11:26:00.003Z

Next year I hope to be using a lot more off-camera flash for my wedding photography. This will enable more creative and dramatic shots - particularly for the private bride and groom portrait session that is part of my bookings.
Using off camera flash - particularly outdoors and in sunshine - requires compromises due to technical limitations. However, I've just invested in a set of Pocket Wizard MiniTT1 and FlexTT5 radio triggers (£400). This amazing technology means I can use the ETTL auto exposure abilities of my camera and position my flash units anywhere I choose to get the shot - with no compromises. The units are also unique in that they optimise the output from my flash units so I get faster recharges, more light and less power drain - meaning I can work faster with less interruptions on the technical side. Unlike Canon's own solution for wireless ETTL flash (STE-2)- the PocketWiazards increase the flash output when working at faster shutter speeds and wider apertures - so I can now use flash in bright daylight and super wide apertures. Being able to effectively use flash lighting at very fast shutter speeds is also plenty helpful in general.
Not content, PocketWizard have also included a 2 stop boost to the ETTL pre-flash burst meaning exposures in challenging situations (bounced flash / inside a softbox etc) are given more accuracy without needed FEC.
Using the beta firmware, the unit's worked perfectly straight out the box. The system now also supports an optimised version of rear curtain flash sync (Canon's own implementation seems to be flawed when used with the 5D Markii).
My early tests with the PocketWizards outdoors and my 580EXII flashes are okay. Seems to be reliable up to 28m away - which is more than I'm ever likely to need but much less than the advertised 240m. If you need full range you'll need to use a 430EXII flash or purchase the upcoming RF shield for the 580EX flashes for a 3X/5X boost in range. I'm told the AC5 sock shield will cost £25 - which is harsh considering registered USA customers get it for free and ultimately this should be included in the box anyway.
For my main website visit Visualsnap - Wedding photographers in Kent

Wedding photography: Oaks Farm Barn in Shirley

2009-12-08T22:52:00.002Z

Saturday gone and I was delighted to cover the wedding of Lavinia and Lee Masters. Everyone had a great time and Lavina and Lee proved to be friendly and relaxed right into the evening despite events running behind schedule. The rain held out long enough for us to explore the Oak Farm grounds for their portrait shoot and we got some great shots (and Lavinia's gorgeous dress a little dirty). A small selection of images from their day can be seen here and I wish them the best of luck for the future.
Explore more of my wedding photography at my main Kent wedding photographer site.

Wedding Photographer - London. Grand Palace.

2009-11-09T19:25:00.008Z

On October 4th, I was delighted to cover the wedding of Tarik and Kim. This was in fact their second wedding, having just had their main ceremony in Turkey.

As the entire wedding was confined to one hall, I used my Lightsphere flash diffuser to make the most of the environment and avoid shadows from direct flash. Bouncing flash off the white walls and ceiling gave me a nice soft light from all directions, but I was still at ISO 1600/3200 most of the evening to mix in the ambient light for atmosphere.

Visualsnap Wedding Photography - Wedding Photography Kent

Wedding Photography in Surrey - St Michael's Church and Hartsfield Manor.

2009-11-09T18:11:00.010Z

Back in August the 28th I had the pleasure of covering the wedding of Katinka and Richard. The weather was chaotic, with bright sunshine and heavy rain at the worst moments. However it also resulted in one of my favourite shots (see the couple indulging in ice-cream in the rain).

As a wedding photographer professional waterproof equipment is a must in this country !

Full marks to Katinka and Richard for being such good sports on the day too.

See more of my wedding photography at Visualsnap - Kent Wedding Photographer

See more of my wedding services at Visualsnap - Wedding Photographers in Kent

A new arrival for VisualSnap

2009-11-09T17:52:00.004Z

I've now entered the world of pink things, as bang on schedule, my daughter Leyla was born on 2nd November at 3:19am. The family are all doing well I'm pleased to say.

She joins my son Evren (now 4 years old). A snap of Leyla's first pics can be seen above. She's very quiet compared to my son at that age - must be a girl thing...

Visit my main website Visualsnap - Wedding Photographer Kent

Correct camera exposure for important shots.

2009-10-19T13:23:00.003+01:00

If you are not confident with dialing in the correct exposure for an important shot BEFORE you take the shot what should you do? There are a couple of tricks to remember: Firstly, set your camera for exposure bracketing (-2/3 - 0 +2/3) focus and keep your finger on the shutter for 3 shots - you'll probably find you nail it - although results can be less predictable if using ETTL flash.
Secondly, flip your camera into Liveview (assuming you have the function on your SLR) and you can now see the actual exposure in realtime - play around with your dials and WYSIWYG (unless you are using flash). Liveview can also be great for checking the DOF for a shot - keep your finger on the DOF button and dial your apperture in realtime on the screen. Failing all that, ensure you have Adobe Photoshop or Lightroom 2 , and you'll be amazed what you can fix if shooting in RAW (within reason of course).

Wedding Photographers in Kent - VisualSnap

Camera Metering modes for the Wedding Photographer

2009-10-19T13:18:00.003+01:00

The more photography you have experience of the more you settle on just one metering mode. If you master the use of EV compensation you aim to do away with worrying about metering modes completely. The important lesson is to remember that the adjustment of EV is dependant on the metering mode used. For example, if you are using Spot Metering the EV adjustment is only applied to the area being metered, and not the full scene like in Evaluative metering. You will find you need more or less EV adjustment depending on which metering mode you are using. For wedding photography (ie people) I've always prefered Centre Weighted metering - it just seems to give you a better starting point if you need EV
adjustment, particulalry in brighter conditions.

See my work at VisualSnap - Wedding Photographer Kent.

Wedding Photographer Swanley and London

2009-09-08T20:12:00.001+01:00

September the 5th and I covered the wedding of Sandra and Hassan. We found some time to head over to the local park for the formal shots. As the weather was cloudy I decided to simply use natural light on this occasion. Normally I would use off-camera flash for more drama, but there was a nice mix of shade and soft light between the trees. As I was also working with young children, their short attention span meant working fast was more productive.
Using trees as props or to frame the subject really works well in this kind of environment.

More of my work is at Visualsnap -Kent Wedding Photography.

Wedding Photography: St Mary's near Hastingleigh in Kent

2009-07-18T12:58:00.012+01:00

A photo summary of their wedding day...

I had the pleasure of covering the marriage of Sophie and Johnny last Saturday. I was there for around 5 hours providing the couple with 445 images of their day copyright free - as with all my wedding photography.
I'd been told there was no photography permitted in the church, but managed to sneak in a few shots through the open doors. The rest of the day went smoothly despite the threat of rain.

Visit my main Kent wedding photographer site.

Outdoors Wireless Flash Photography - Range

2009-07-13T22:41:00.004+01:00

How good is the Canon ST-E2 wireless flash system outdoors? Indoors, the near infra-red transmission signals bounce off everything so triggering the flash is hardly ever a problem - but what about outdoors in the sun? While abroad I found some time to test out the combo in full blown Mediterranean midday sun with not a cloud in the sky: I was impressed to achieve reliable triggering at 90ft with the ST-E2 in direct sunlight and a Speedlite 580EXII on camera in the shade. Flipping this around I achieved 60-65ft with the ST-E2 in the shade and the flash in direct sunlight. Pushed to the limit with both the ST-E2 and the Speedlite in direct sunlight I still managed to obtain distances of 40-45ft. All distances quoted are based on line-of-sight. It's good to remember these numbers: I know that one walking stride of mine is around 3ft - so I can quickly walk away from my flash unit/subject - up to 21 paces best case here - and know I'm still in flash range. Really your only practical limitation in this set-up is if you want to conceal the flash head behind or in an object out of shot - outdoors, line-of-sight is pretty unforgiving.

Feel free to visit my main site: Wedding Photography Kent

Photography tips: Level out your composition.

2009-07-13T22:15:00.007+01:00

When composing shots keep an eye on vertical and horizontal lines. It might be a picture on the wall or some steps, but some elements work best when viewed level. With software like Adobe Lightroom you can easily rotate images to fix angled shots, or you can even purchase a hotshoe mount spirit-level, but for handheld camera work I always use a much quicker method that's included with every picture you take: When you look through your viewfinder simply use your focus points matrix to level up against a straight line in a scene. I took the above shots as an example of vertical and horizontal alignment using the focus points in the 5DMk2 viewfinder.

Visit my main site: Wedding Photographer Kent

Photography : When (EV) Exposure Value adjustment fails

2009-07-09T10:31:00.005+01:00

I thought I would share here a query from a friend regarding a problem shot that requires a good understanding of your camera. He had been trying to take a picture of his garden pond one sunny weekend and was baffled why when we changed his EV +/- exposure values it made no difference to the image (he was in AV mode).
This issue happens in situations where there is such strong light and reflectivity that the camera exceeds the shutter speed available (note different SLR's have different limits). Turning your exposure compensation up or down to brighten or darken an image only works if you have shutter speed available, and in this instance the scene was so bright the camera was blinking the shutter speed as a warning. Turning down the EV (Exposure Value) compensation failed to bring it back into range (still blinking), so clearly increasing the EV would also have no place to go. I was surprised to hear of THIS much light in his garden, but as it turns out his mistake was failing to turn down the camera ISO to 100 or less, having moments earlier been photographing indoors at ISO 1600. Increasing his aperture to F8 or more would have also helped reduce light levels into range. As a side, if you also plan to take shots of water use a Circular Polarising filter to remove the glare and boost contrast.
See my main wedding photographers in kent site.

Kent Wedding Photography Consultation

2009-07-08T22:25:00.008+01:00

This Saturday I'll be photographing the wedding of Sophie and Johnny in Hastingleigh, Kent. I took a few casual snaps of the couple when I visited them for a pre-wedding meeting a while back. In this shot I used a single speedlite flash bounced off a white umbrella to the left of me, working together with window light to the right of my position. Sophie's Mum and Dad also happened to be present , and as I was dealing with different coloured clothing I set the flash and camera to manual to avoid the camera shifting exposure between shots. ETTL probably would have worked fine too if you're wondering, but as the location was static going manual made more sense.
The opportunity to meet couples before their wedding day is always welcome, but by no means a necessity in planning your wedding photography with me. I try to answer common questions on my main website's wedding FAQ page, while planning my coverage in detail is best done a few weeks prior to the wedding when time and schedules are no longer guess work.
Check out my main wedding photographer in Kent website.

Wedding Photography in London: Handling Videographer Lighting

2009-05-12T23:37:00.004+01:00

As you'll know from my main website, I also offer wedding videography to clients. It's only the large scale weddings that book a videographer in my experience, but for indoor locations, there never seems to be enough space for a photographer and videographer without each getting into each other's shot.

If you are a photographer and a videographer is present there is 95% chance they will be using a continuous hard light source on their equipment. Continuous video light is often essential for HD videography indoors, but can be an issue for the flash photographer. In such a situation, my advice is to keep one eye on where the videographer is (or rather their light direction) and either, take your flash photography when their light isn't on your subject matter, or more creatively, utilise their light as a second light source and position yourself at around a 90degree angle to them if possible. You can create some dramatic light on your subject with the videographer's direction hard light, and your camera's diffused light - as seen in the above images. You're going to get shadows regardless in this situation, but you have a better chance with highlight recovery if you're photographing from a different angle.

Remember also that the videographer's light on the same subject as you will change your camera's metering drastically, so if you happen to be shooting in manual mode - your highlights will most certainly be blown. If you need to use manual mode to take control of your shutter speed in low light, underexpose the ambient with -EV adjustment so the videographer's light has less chance of dominating the shot. For my uses , I stick to AV mode and try and work together with their light source - you might also try shooting into their light for pleasing silouette/rim light effects.

Pay a visit to my main site: Wedding Videography Kent

Wedding Photographer Workflow

2009-05-12T22:45:00.006+01:00

I had an email from Simon Craig (a budding photographer ) requesting information of my post-production wedding workflow. I aim to retain the highest quality at all stages in my work, so you'll need to set aside about 24GB of HDD space per 100 photos for editing (based on 5DMk2 resolution files), and have a quad-core computer to make this productive for you. If you don't, you'll probably want to avoid using uncompressed TIFFs at any point. As a forword, make sure that any sharpening and noise reduction in your camera is disabled.
Steps:
1) Create a desktop folder with the client name and copy over all RAW files from your camera cards.
2) Import the RAW files into Lightroom 2
3) Flip through all images and mark unwanted pics using X key. Delete these from the HDD.
4) I use the sync command to disable the sharpening and noise reduction applied by default in Lightroom to all images (I'll add these later).
5) I now work through all images fixing highlights and lowlights, colours and any other edits as needed. I'll copy and paste settings from one pic to another where the lighting is consistent.
6) Now I export the whole lot as TIFF uncompressed 16bit. This creates massive files (upto 120MB per picture!).
7) Now in Photoshop I batch process the exported TIFFs to a new folder with a custom Noiseware action I've created in the Imagenomic plugin. This removes ISO noise from images. Just this step takes about 30mins per 100 photos to process. Tip: Be sure to disable any sharpening your noise reduction plugin may have in this step.
8) So now I have an uncompressed folder of images that have all been cleaned up and colour/exposure corrected. This is then imported back into Lightroom2.
9) I go through each picture and make crops and straighten images as needed. ( I do this now rather than earlier to avoid copying crops and rotations between images)
10) Because I still have uncompressed TIFFs at this stage, I can still make any colour/exposure corrections I may have missed without degrading the image (particularly as I'm still in 16bit).
11) Be sure to disable the Lightroom sharpening option again at this point - but DO leave Colour noise reduction set to 20 and Defringe set to 'all edges'.
11) Now I export all images as Jpegs from Lightroom2 in full resolution 85% compressed. I then export another set with the resize option at 1024pixels on the longest edge - compression is set to 80%. The smaller set is to benefit easy use in email, distribution, sharing etc by the client.
12) My final stage is to apply sharpening. The is run as a Photoshop batch process on the two duplicate folders. I setup an action using USM sharpening setting 60/0.5/25/25 . This sharpens edges yet leaves skin detail looking natural.
13) The final two folders of Jpegs are burned to the client's DVD.
14) Once happy with everything I delete all TIFFs from my computer and back-up the final Jpeg folders along with the original RAWs to a Blu-Ray disc ( I can generally fit around two 500 picture weddings onto a single BD).
I hope this helps! See the results on my website - Visualsnap Wedding Photography Kent

High ISO Black & White Wedding Photography

2009-05-12T21:28:00.008+01:00

Depending on the conditions, sometimes you have no choice but to push your camera to the limits. In the 2nd above shot, I used ISO 6400 to enable a shutter speed of 80 at f2.8. As the couple were dancing at the time I didn't want to risk them blurring with anything less than 80 on my shutter, and I wanted to see the crowd reaction by keeping the ambient exposure reasonably bright. There was some hard light coming in from the left via the videographer, and my flash provided some fill to reduce the shadows.

To give the image a cinematic feel I flipped it into black&white in Lightroom2. In colour, the noise level at ISO 6400 would be unacceptable to me, it would be too distracting - and I would have cleaned it up with noise reduction using Photoshop plug in Noiseware2. However, as you can see (click to enlarge), ISO 6400 noise from the Canon 5DMk2 looks good in a B&W image - it's much like film photography and gives a nostalgic, timeless feel in my opinion. A final wide screen crop gives it that cinematic touch.

As a comparison, the first image was taken at ISO 3200, f1.4 to get a shutter speed of 80. There was no videographer light in this scene, just my flash with the tungsten balanced Lightsphere. Again , no noise reduction was applied in post production because of the choice of black&white - with a hint of bronzing this time to compliment the natural colour of the large oak doors.

Feel free to visit my main website: VisualSnap - Wedding Photographer Kent

Low Light focusing with the 5D Mark II

2009-04-25T22:11:00.004+01:00

The Nikon D3 has one over the 5D Mark II when it comes to low light focus ability without flash - it's just better at it. That's not to say the 5D2 is unable to cope - far from it, but there is a way to make it perform even better - use the Canon ST-E2. While the main purpose of the ST-E2 is a transmitter for remote flash control, it also includes a near infra-red focus beam and so does a very good job of hitting focus in very low light, leaving you with more 'keepers'. The St-E2 benefits from superb battery life and is incredibly lightweight, so is a good option if you don't want the bulk and weight of a Speedlite on your camera to benefit from a focus assist beam. A very handy tool for candid wedding photography. Just note that the ST-E2 used without a flash will under expose your images in this configuration , as your camera is expecting a flash to form part of the the exposure (check out what I mean by switching to LiveView on the 5D2).

Canon 5D Mark II with EG-S focusing screen

2009-04-25T21:09:00.005+01:00

There is an issue with the supplied focusing screen on the 5D2, in that it shows too much of the view in focus. Pictures taken wide open have more depth of field when viewed back than what you see in the viewfinder when shooting the image. This is because the default focusing screen (EG-A) shows a minimum of F2.8 in terms of DOF - if you have a faster lens fitted, it makes no difference, so if you are working with wider apertures like F/1.2 or F2, it becomes difficult to spot if you have focus or not in manual focus mode. For this reason you can fit the EG-S screen into your camera (30 sec job if that and a £30 part). Hence, the reason this addition is said to improve manual focusing is because you can SEE more DOF in the viewfinder at wide apertures and you can be sure you are in focus where you want to be as a result.
To be honest, the autofocus on the 5D2 works very well to live without manual focus. The EG-S is only really of benefit for macro photography or in a close-up portrait situation. You will suffer from a dimmer viewfinder by fitting this screen - meaning that low light photography (think wedding reception) becomes more difficult if you wish to focus manually as you will struggle to see enough light to focus - even at F/2.8, and particularly if using a wide angle lens.
If you are really keen to see the true DOF effect on your image before taking your pic - just switch over to Live view on the 5D2, it more or less has the same effect as fitting the EG-S.

Tilt-Shift and Bokeh Photography

2009-04-09T14:07:00.011+01:00

So I've been looking into photography lately using the Canon TS-E 24mm f/3.5 L. Such Tilt+Shift lenses enable you to blur different areas of your image for creative uses by physically tilting or shifting the lens on the camera. It is not the same effect as Bokeh which depends on your aperture. However, good T&S lenses are expensive and slowish (F3.5 or higher) in terms of aperture, so not super beneficial indoors, such as with typical low lighting encountered during a wedding. More critically however, is that I discovered you can very easily create the same effect in post-production using non T&S lens. I suggest you check out photoshop plugin http://www.alienskin.com/bokeh/ - it's amazing what you can simulate with this tool. The plugin is designed with preset simulations of classic bokeh and T&S lenses, but it particulalry excels at simulating a tilt-shift lens in my experience. An alternative, but less convincing plugin is OnOne's Focalpoint at http://www.ononesoftware.com/detail.php?prodLine_id=35.

If you do have a T+S lens, try it out at your next Bride and Groom Portrait shoot

Wedding Videographer - Neutral Density Filters

2009-04-09T13:45:00.004+01:00

As we are starting to get some sunshine this year (they say it's going to be a hot summer), it's worth remembering to pack some ND filters in your bag if you want to shoot video on the 5DMk2. Faced with very bright daylight, it can become impossible to get a shallow depth-of-field as the auto mode of the 5D2 video will stop down your aperture to get correct exposure. If you apply an ND filter you restrict the amount of light entering the camera and this will force the 5D2 to try and get more light by opening up the aperture. You can apply this principle to photography too of course where you want to maintain your depth-of-field in bright light.
A little trick you can also use for 5D2 video in bright conditions is to cover the lens with your hand, this will force the camera to fully open the aperture to the maximum of the lens attached - at which point you hit the exposure lock button and it will lock the wide aperture. Hit the exposure lock button twice more and the camera will correct shutter speed and ISO for better exposure WITHOUT changing the aperture.

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my options here: Wedding Photographer Kent

Canon LP-E6 Battery Hide-And-Seek

2009-03-27T11:27:00.006Z

Here we go again with Canon stock shortages. I've spent 2 hours trying to source another spare battery for my 5D Mk2 - I can confidently say there is no available stock in the UK. I had my suspicions recently when I noticed one selling on ebay for over £100! When I picked up my first few LP-E6 batteries they cost me £60 each. This is just a crazy situation - it's just a battery - how hard can it be Canon. Pee.
Despite the price, I would say you need to have at least 4 of these to hand if you are involved in professional wedding photography, and more in winter as the cold drains them faster.

Gimme Gimme : Canon EF 14mm f/2.8L II USM

2009-03-26T14:29:00.008Z

I've decided I need to get a new lens - and this is it. Up until now, Canon have disappointed (compared to Nikon) at offering a top notch really wide angle lens - you basically had no clear choice other than using the 16-35mm Mk2 zoom. I've never warmed to the distortion on the 16-35 Mk2; taking pictures with anyone near the edges of the frame turns them into elongated chubbies.

The Mk1 version of the Canon EF 14mm L was the other obvious option for wide angle shots on a Canon (other than going fish eye)- but despite the cost it remains surprisingly poor optically (the 16-35Mk2 is better). Recently, I got to trail the Mk2 version of the EF 14mm f2.8L and was impressed. For wedding group shots this is going to be the perfect lens, as it is for landscape and tight interiors.

In fact, the only negative against this lens is the price - since it's launch in Oct 08 the price has already gone up nearly £400 due to the economy, taking the asking price to at least £1,700! Photography is an expensive business you know.

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my options here: Wedding Photographers Kent

iPhone 5DMk2 Guide

2009-03-25T16:16:00.005Z

The fact that someone basically took the 5DMk2 manual and turned it into an iphone application to then charge for it - makes me laugh. I suppose some of you who don't read manuals might actually find this of some use however, so here is the link: http://appstorefeed.com/apps/Handi_5Dmk2/.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my options here: Kent wedding

Is Flash Dangerous for Baby Portraits?

2009-03-25T15:55:00.003Z

I was asked recently if flash photography can damage newborn eyes. I'm no doctor, but there doesn't seem to be any evidence that it does. However baby eyes continue to develop once born - they change colour after all, so take it easy and use a diffuser or off camera lighting. When my son was born I recall the midwife examining the baby's eyes using an instrument with a light pointed directly into the eyes at close range - so I imagine their eyes are more robust than you might think. Regardless, most babies keep their eyes firmly shut anyway, but be sensible with your lighting and avoid direct flash for a better picture all round. A little tip: when a baby is lying on their back (their usual position) your ceiling becomes an ideal surface for bounce flash as it is now in front of them rather than above.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my options here: Kent Portrait Photographer

Photography Kit - New Canon 500D | Speedlite 270EX

2009-03-25T12:34:00.004Z

Canon has announced some new entry-level SLR kit today. In the image above you'll see the EOS 500D and the Speedlite 270EX. So the 500D seems to be much of the tech from the (not very popular) 50D mixed with a 450D, at a price point between the two at £869.99. The headline is that you get 15.1MP with DIGIC 4 and hence, full 1080p HD video. Watch out for the video however, as if you want 1080p you have to accept 20fps (which is naff), so stick with the 720p setting to obtain 30fps (Canon still have not addressed the lack of a 25fps PAL friendly mode). Standard ISO speeds are very respectable up to 3200 - and expandable to 12800. The is probably the most 'serious' entry SLR Canon have ever made.
The new Speedlite provides more power over the model it replaces and uses only 2 AA batteries. Recycle times are 3.9sec minimum, and you also get a zoom and bounce head - note no rotational head. An AF assist beam and standard ETTL II features make this an attractive flash unit for a compact SLR. Available in May at £149.99.
If you are starting out as a wedding photographers on a tight budget, this is a good camera to get.

Photographers - In The Right Light

2009-03-24T16:28:00.008Z

Natural light photography is not as straight forward as it sounds - particularly indoors. Just looking for light is not as important as the quality of the light on offer. If you are framing a scene with poor quality light, it doesn't make sense going for a tight close-up, as this highlights the poor quality of light - stay wide angle in this situation. The time of day is also important as you will have the sun low in the sky during the morning, creating more hard lighting conditions. (popular with architecture photography). Learn to use this style of natural light to emphasise and craft drama with shadows and texture.
In winter the sun is also relatively low all day, and will appear soft due to mostly cloudy weather - this provides some lovely conditions for natural light work, esspecially using window light.
Sunset times provide another dramatic opportunity to use natural light creatively, particularly with the shift to warmer tones and less intensity - try shooting into the light.
Remember that weather changes light too. Rain will create reflections and boost environmental light for example.
You will find that B&W photography particularly benefits from natural light images due to the emphasis it gives to shadows and highlights. B&W photography means that colour is no longer a distraction or focal point of an image. If you find yourself shooting in ghastly coloured interiors - plan to convert to B&W in post for a dramtic difference. Black and white wedding photography always looks great and is timeless.
The biggest downside to natural light photography is the noise your images are likely to have indoors. Again, you can work this to your advantage by converting to B&W for a film grain look.
Just be creative, once you develop an eye for light - your photography improves leaps and bounds.

Looking Back On Canon Photography

2009-03-19T11:22:00.006Z

2009 is the 50th Anniversary of Canon cameras. Yesterday I found myself wondering what Canon's first camera had to offer at the time. Needless to say, a few minutes with Google and I had my answer here at cameraquest. I found it rather amusing to note that even back then Canon and Nikon where as fiercely competitive as they are today, with the Nikon F2 winning favour at the time. It took Canon another 30 years to come up with the EOS Autofocus system.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my work here: Photographer in Kent

Wedding Photographers - Strobe Bondage!

2009-03-18T12:06:00.005Z

Velcro is wonderful when it comes to creative uses of your portable strobe. However, I've never been keen on ugly sticky pads and residue on my expensive strobes. I would just like to recommend the Honlphoto Speed Strap seen here (created by photojournalist David Honl). It's not only easily removable (for other attachments that do not need Velcro), but gives you a massive working surface area to attach anything you wish. The Speed Strap costs around £9 and is very strong. Honlphoto also have a handy range of Velcro attachments too, all available by clicking here.
Looking for wedding coverage? Kent wedding photography

Wedding Photography - Highlight Tone Priority

2009-03-17T20:26:00.005Z

During wedding photography one deals with a lot of 'white' combined with detail (on the dress). Shooting in RAW provides scope to maintain this detail if your exposure is a stop off. However, camera's like the Canon 5DMkII offer a mode called Highlight Tone Priority. If you enable this in custom settings you automatically raise you minimum ISO to 200. Not a problem for a professional camera (unless you need the slower ISO speed due to very bright sunlight). The benefit is that the camera will now store more highlight detail than standard processing, without altering mid tones or shadows. Canon's 14-bit A/D converter also provides finer tonal gradations in this mode. The results might not be too obvious, but you'll want this mode enabled if shooting weddings, as emulating the same effect in software would increase shadow noise. Note you do also get a bit of extra noise by enabling this function. Together with shooting in the RAW image format you can get closer to processing your best wedding photographs.

TIP: Playing 5DMkII Video SMOOTHLY

2009-03-17T20:25:00.004Z

The awesome video quality of the Canon 5DMk2 is undeniable, but playing it back smoothly at 100% requires a beefy computer. VLC is one of the best software players around and you can get the 5DMkII video running smoothly on a lower spec computer by making these few simple changes:
Go to Tools > Preferences.
In the lower left of the box click the checkbox “Show settings - All”
Then go to Input & Codecs > Other Codecs > FFmpeg and look for the option called “Skip the loop filter for H.264 decoding”
Change it from “none” to “all”
Restart VLC
See my hompage at professional wedding photographers .

Professional Photographers - Virtual Photography Studio

2009-03-17T20:23:00.003Z

If you study professional photography you will be familiar with lighting diagrams. I would suggest you bookmark this link to professionalsnapshots as it will help you configure your wedding studio in a virtual environment and is a great tool to plan or discuss your shoot with others in a pleasing visual form. The site is Beta, and I hope it continues to be populated with options.

Wish you still had a Polaroid?

2009-03-17T20:22:00.004Z

I think just about everyone of a certain age remembers taking a picture with a Polaroid. While those instant pictures hit you hard in the pocket, they did have a very distinct look and feel. You can create a similar look in Photoshop these days quite easily, but I came across this fun website software that pays homage in a more fun retro way. Check out Poladroid here. Hmm, I wonder if anyone ever photographed a retro theme wedding using a Polaroid :)

Flash Gels Bumper Sample Pack

2009-03-17T20:21:00.010Z

Once you start having fun with flash, you will want to learn about colouring your light with gels. You can gel your light to correct white balance, or gel your light to create coloured backgrounds or similar creative uses. LEE Filters produce the best filters in the world, and their range is outstanding. If you want to sample the delights for FREE, you can use their contact page and request a sample pack. It just so happens that the sample pack gels are the perfect size for use on your Canon Speedlite too :) I've noticed some mean folk even try to sell these freebies on ebay.

What Exactly Is A Portrait Lens?

2009-03-17T20:21:00.009Z

Photographers talk about a portrait lens to describe lenses of longer focal lengths. A medium telephoto lens between 85-135 would be an ideal length for this purpose. By default a portrait should be flattering, and these focal lengths are optimal to balance perspective distortion with a practical working distance. Established portrait lenses also have a fast aperture of f2.8 or faster to permit a shallow depth of field of the subject from the background. By using a longer focal length, the photographer is forced to stand further away from the subject, hence reducing the visual distortion of a close-up view. Just think about how your face looks when you stand right up to a mirror, you will have a much larger nose and a curved head shape - and the more you step back the more normal you look. Lenses in this focal range also reduce the field of view, so are easier to frame with a single subject - and from their point of view keeping your distance will also make them more comfortable in front of the camera. In the Canon range the 85mm F1.2 ,the 135mm F2 and the 70-200mm F2.8 zoom are the popular choices for portrait photography. Of course, you can also use other lenses for effect if you desire a distorted look, or you can use a more conventional focal length like 50mm and crop your image in post to get a portrait close-up. These kind of lenses produce fantastic candid photography during weddings.
Canon really should make a 100mm F1.4 or something similar in my mind for portrait use.

Wedding Photographers - New Possibilities With E-TTL II Flash

2009-03-17T19:53:00.006Z

PocketWizard are well known for their wireless flash control devices. This year I'm excited because they are releasing E-TTLII compatible versions of their units - finally. This means excellent automatic flash control without the restrictions of line-of-sight positioning found on Canon's ST-E2 infra-red solution. Until now, you would have to mostly control everything manually if you used radio triggers. The new units seem very well designed, and they offer additional exciting features as covered in Rob Gallbraith's absorbing report here. I believe they have just gone on sale in the US, with Europe following later this year.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer?

Wedding Photography - Fastest Compact Flash Cards

2009-03-11T12:10:00.006Z

My Canon 5DMk2 uses Compact Flash cards to store images and video. I use the best CF cards I can find for reliability and performance, which for me at the moment is the SanDisk Ducati 8GB cards. I don't use bigger capacities should one of them develop a problem - I don't risk loosing everything. Luckily I've never had a problem with SanDisk. The Ducati card also reads and writes data at 45MB/s meaning I can take rapid shots in RAW mode and the camera will empty it's buffer to the card with minimal delay. Each image is about 20-25MB in size using RAW and I can fire around 15 in a row over 4 seconds. If shooting Video on the 5DMk2 you don't need such fast read/write speeds, but you need more capacity.
Pretec have announced an amazing spec Compact Flash card recently that not only offers a whopping capacity with 64GB, but is also speed rated at 100MB/s (666x) - that's over double the SanDisk Ducati. Compact Flash has a theoretical maximum speed of 133MB/s so there might still be better to come.
I'm not sure on cost, but the Sandisk Ducati is around £90 currently to give you some reference. You'll need high performance as a wedding photographer - particularly during the bride and Groom first dance where rapid shots are likely.

Don't Photograph The Police

2009-03-10T14:02:00.007Z

I note the following new addition to the Counter Terrorism Act 2008: It is now an offence to obtain or attempt to obtain 'information' about a police constable that is 'likely to be useful' to a terrorist. Photographs in which police constables can be identified are information.

This is pretty harsh as you are basically guilty until you have proved yourself innocent if arrested, plus you risk 10 years in jail and a fine. Crazy. Photographers are already very limited when it comes to photography in public spaces - basically, if the pubic space is owned by someone, you need permission, a good example being a train station.

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Kent wedding photographer

Learning To Judge Correct Exposure

2009-03-09T20:29:00.005Z

The histogram on your camera is a great tool for confirming your exposure. The only problem is that on an SLR you see it AFTER you have taken the picture. If you have a modern SLR like the Canon 5DII, a tip is to remember that you can use your histogram it in live view mode, and as a result can check your shutter, apperture and iso BEFORE you take the pic. You can then take these settings and dial them into your camera's manual mode and shoot like normal (assuming your light source is constant) and you should get consistent and balanced exposures.
There are a couple of negatives however, in that your metering mode is fixed to evaluative (not such a problem), and the histogram is useless if your flash is connected (as it shows exposure without the flash).
I don't recommend using this method if you are serious about photography, but it is an interesting (given live feedback) way to learn how different combinations of exposure (iso,shutter,aperture) work together under ambient lighting. Wedding venues often give you challenging light conditions to master.

Flash Photography With A Softbox or Umbrella

2009-03-09T20:28:00.003Z

Any wedding photographer would not argue the benefit of using an off-camera flash with a softbox or umbrella. Taking a flash away from the camera creates texture and drama to wedding photographs. The problem is most wedding photographers work alone, and off camera use of an umbrella or softbox requires an assistant to be practical. Sometimes I will hold the flash in one hand and the camera in the other to create this distance, but it becomes uncomfortable pretty quickly given the weight of a professional SLR and you risk more camera shake. So if you take your flash off camera what makes the best use of it? The choice of umbrella or softbox is really up to you - they both work equally well. A softbox creates square or rectangle catch lights in the eyes (simulating window light), and a softbox offers more directional positioning of the light. A photographic umbrella offers more freedom and is quicker to use, but much less durable and 'spills' a lot of light where you might not want it - it is also much cheaper than a softbox. Ultimately, a softbox is more useful outdoors if that's part of your criteria, and indoors you might want the larger spread of light from an umbrella for full length portraits. Usually the best option is one of each. At the higher professional end you will also find different shapes of softbox and you'll find boxed umbrellas too - so there is no hard rule, it just depends on the characteristics of the light you seek. Just remember the bigger the better.

Wedding Photography - Managing Depth of Field

2009-03-09T20:25:00.005Z

One of the real benefits of an SLR camera is the ability to control depth-of-field in combination with different lens options. Depth of field often gives an immediate professional look by keeping one element of a photo in focus and everything else thrown out of focus. On your camera it is the aperture that determines the degree of focus at any given distance. The smaller the F number on your lens, the more depth you can create in your focus. We call these lenses 'fast' lenses because a shallow depth-of-field also enables faster shutter speeds. In low light a fast lens becomes essential in maintaining a practical shutter speed. Keep in mind that DOF does not change with focal length ( a common misconception ). However, focal length does change the perspective so even though the DOF is identical, a wide angle lens will appear to show very little DOF compared to the magnification shown when using a telephoto lens at the same aperture. As the camera physically gets closer to a subject the DOF also becomes more shallow due to magnification, this means DOF is easier to focus at long distances, with very wide apertures like F1.2 requiring crucial focusing close-up.
In professional wedding photography I mainly use DOF to blur out distracting backgrounds and to shift the emphasis of a composition.

Photography Lighting Principles

2009-03-09T20:23:00.003Z

A wedding photographer has to worry about lighting conditions a lot. We do not always have the luxury to position people for available light, for example. As a result it is vital to appreciate the science of light and how to approach it for the best quality of photography. There are plenty of books on the subject, but to summarise - the size of your light source is the main thing that matters when trying to remove shadows. The closer you get with a big light source in relation to your subject the softer the light becomes. This is the basic principle behind bouncing light, using umbrellas or softboxes in photography - all these take a small light source of a bulb and make it much larger. The other key factor to consider is the distance between the subject and the light source, as the further away light is the more directional it becomes, and directional light creates shadows. The sun is a great example; without clouds the sun just creates shadows as it is a small directional light source viewed from Earth, so when you have clouds in front of it, the light is dispersed in random directions creating the effect of a giant soft box. As the sky is much bigger than us, shadows are reduced creating soft light.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Kent Wedding Photographers

Wedding photography - Understanding Camera ISO

2009-03-09T20:20:00.005Z

A professional SLR camera like a Canon EOS 5DII will give you access to very high ISO speeds with low noise levels - a standard piece of kit for a professional wedding photographer. In turn high ISO speeds enable photography in lower light by increasing the sensitivity to light of the camera. You need to appreciate how to manage ISO and get a good 'feel' for knowing which ISO speed is best for different scenarios. In bright sunlight, you need to go lower with the ISO to maintain flexibility with your exposure and in low light you need to go higher to maintain greater exposure flexibility. Your ISO speed will determine your shutter speed or aperture (unless in manual mode), so ISO can be used to prevent blur from you and your subject moving, particularly if you are using a long focal length over 100mm.
For example, in AV (aperture Value) mode you take a picture and it is too dark - just bump up the ISO right? You will find this makes no difference to the picture - it will not get brighter as the camera aims to maintain the correct exposure instead - BUT you will notice you have a higher shutter speed to play with. You can now use +/- EV compensation to make the scene brighter or darker than what the camera's metering decided to do for you. Always try and keep your shutter speed equal to the focal length of your lens.
Understand how ISO works in combination with your camera mode, shutter and aperture - and your photography will improve drastically. Also, if your lens does not have a wide aperture rating - bumping up your ISO will give you much more ability with indoor lighting.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding site here: Wedding Photography Kent

Wedding Photography - Lens micro adjustment with 5D Mk2

2009-03-09T19:52:00.004Z

If you have a Canon 5DMII you really should optimise your lenses performance using the micro adjustment feature. When you read about a 'bad copy' of a lens , it usually just means that on that particular camera body the lens is back or front focusing incorrectly. To get that crisp focus you probably need to tune each lens. There are various methods to do this, but in my experience it is best to do it in the natural working condition of each lens and forget about the quick fix LCD moire pattern solution and multiple photo examination tests you might read about on google.
Try this...
1. Put your camera on tripod and use a remote shutter trigger if available.
2. set your aperture to the widest F stop of your lens and set your exposure and focus on a subject with good detail and texture at a typical distance for that lens.
3. Go to live view mode and enable full magnification of the LCD preview.
4. Manual focus until your image sharpness is optimal.
5. Now exit live view and press the shutter to auto-focus while watching the barrel dial on your lens.
6. Did it move at all? if so you need to enter a + or - compensation value into your camera.
7. repeat steps 3-6 until their is no lens movement between the live view focus and auto focus.

That's it. The camera will recall your settings with each lens.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Kent Photographer

Wedding Photographer Kent - Digital Image Sharpening

2009-03-02T14:48:00.004Z

When working with digital photography all your images are are obviously made-up of pixels and this determines the detail level. Pretty much all photography from a camera needs a touch of sharpening to improve the clarity of this detail, but at high ISOs, image noise is also a factor of sharpening. However, there is a difference in sharpening for viewing on a screen and sharpening for printing. Some users argue that with a high resolution image - like the EOS 5D Mk2 produces - a quick fix is to halve the image size , hence improving the sharpness and reducing visible noise. This has some merit, but why bin all that lovely pixel detail to achieve it. Technically, image noise is not reduced by removing pixels because digital noise is bigger than a pixel, so it will remain. Truth is, how you sharpen will effect the clarity (and noise) differently on screen or on print. For wedding photography I provide full resolution files with sharpening for printing applied, and a duplicate set at lower resolution sharpened for screen. If you want to pay this much attention to your output formats I suggest you invest in Nik Software's Sharpener Pro 3 Photoshop plug-in. Check it out here for full details.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Kent wedding photography

Wedding Photography - Canon EF 85mm F/1.2L

2009-03-02T14:43:00.005Z

Regarded by most as one of the best available lenses today, the 85L f1.2 is a stunning (and heavy) piece of optics. It is renowned for the quality of images it captures and offers the fastest performance of any Canon lens in terms of aperture. Moving a big piece of heavy glass with auto-focus takes time, so the compromise you face with the 85L is a slow focus ability - some also find the minimum focus distance of 2m an issue. When you get down to a narrow aperture like f1.2 your focus becomes critical, so there is a learning curve, but your ability fo photograph in very low light as a result is unmatched. This is why this lens will cost you over £1600 currently. For portrait work this is a beautiful lens to own, and the 85mm focal length is the ideal distance for this kind of work as it maintains a natural optical perspective. I use it for wedding portraits.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Wedding Photographers Kent

Canon ST-E2 Wireless Flash Photography

2009-03-02T14:39:00.004Z

Not much bigger or heavier than a box of matches, one of the most useful accessories to purchase if you are into flash photography is the ST-E2 transmitter. The unit is designed to communicate with your Speedlites remotely, and provides a focus assist beam for when the ambient levels are low. Combined with the ability to set ratios between multiple Speedlites in A:B configurations, the creative freedom for off-camera flash you gain is very beneficial. The unit uses infra-red to communicate so you can't hide your flash strobe out of sight and expect it to work - however, you do maintain ETTL control which is a key benefit over radio trigger units. I have had no issues with my unit failing to communicate , even outdoors within reasonable distances like 15ft. The ST-E2 does not support lens distance metering if you have such lenses, and second-curtain sync is also missing: No big deal for most users. The ST-E2 unit is very light and compact, but does use a hard to find battery, so keep a spare with you just in case. If you already have a couple of Speedlites you can use one on your camera to control another in the same way as the ST-E2 will , and you will also gain A:B:C ratio options (assuming you have 3 Speedlites). Go pocket yourself an ST-E2 for about £170, and you'll be very happy, even if you just want to use it to get good focus in dark locations for natural light photography, such as at a wedding reception.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Kent Wedding Photographers

Canon 5D Mk2 for Videography

2009-02-27T15:18:00.007Z

Much has been made of the high definition video capability of the Canon EOS 5D Mk2 SLR. I don't think anyone would buy this camera just for this function (considering the price) and thankfully it has not compromised the photography aspects of the camera itself. So what use it it? Well, firstly the advantage of being able to use a choice of lenses with amazing low-light performance mean the 5D Mk2 is actually capable of producing much better video in very low light than most established professional wedding videographer camcorders. The main limitation is the lack of auto-focus, and in a live situation like a wedding this is a killer. While I normally shoot manual with my professional V1 camcorder , I can use features like edge detection and push focus to keep me in line. The 5D Mk2 has no support features for video mode, so if you can't react quick enough on the focus ring your footage suffers immediately. Make sure you keep it on a good tripod too as camera shake is a massive issue given the lack of image stabilisation and the physical design of the unit (you can't turn the focus ring without vibrating the camera).
For static scenes where the camera does not need to be moving the 5D Mk2 is superb, dial in your depth-of-field and away you go. You'll need to connect extra external equipment if you want to get decent sound recorded. For PAL users the problems really start when you try to edit your footage, as the camera only records at 30fps, and our standard in UK is 25fps. This makes it difficult to mix with footage from other camcorders without a conversion phase. The only software that does a decent job of this conversion to PAL currently is from Cineform. If you only want to show your videos on the internet - none of this is a problem. Ideally the 5D Mk2 video capability is both astounding and disappointing, but in certain situations , like a controlled interview or rehearsed act, the results can rival far more expensive video recording kit. The visual quality viewed in high definition 1080 certainly lives up to all the hype.

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Wedding Photography Kent

Display calibration for Wedding photography and videography

2009-02-27T14:31:00.004Z

One of the most important tasks in post-production of wedding photography or videography is to ensure that when you are editing you are seeing a true representation of colour, contrast and brightness. The light in your editing room and the time of day all have an impact on how you see colours on your display when working. The solution to this is calibration of your monitor (and printer if needed). Once calibrated you can confidently make adjustments to a colourmetric basline. If you calibrate all your devices , such as a laptop also - you can transfer images around and have them look exactly the same.
The best way to calibrate is with a hardware/software solution. I use the datacolor Spyder 3 Pro and full calibration takes under 10mins. The nice thing about this model is that the USB sensor unit continues to constantly monitor the ambient light in your room after calibration and adjusts the display as necessary for consistency between morning and evening work. Hardware calibration in this fashion is important because it is specific to your display type and will get the most out of it. The difference after calibration is quite impressive, colours are rich and vibrant and mid tones more defined.

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Kent wedding photographer

Professional Videography Steadicam

2009-02-27T13:39:00.005Z

Moving a video camera smoothly is a big challenge. If you want smooth pans and the ability to follow a person without 'bouncy' video you need to invest in a steadicam. For use in wedding videography the ability to move among guests and negotiate obstacles smoothly is outstanding. On professional TV and movie sets such rigs cost hundreds of thousands, but there is a portable and effective option in the shape of the Merlin Steadicam. The Merlin will 'glide' a camera up to 5lbs in weight and give you that wonderful smooth footage that immediately looks professional. Setting one up takes time and patience, as you have to balance it against the forces of gravity. It's like balancing a ball on your finger, and once nailed, you have to operate the rig with care and respect. The steep learning curve for such a simple device is tough to appreciate, but the rewards are worth it. Keep in mind once balanced, adding a light or a different battery etc will require you to re-balance the whole thing, and the hand's off approach once balanced means you are unable to manual focus. The Merlin costs around £600 so not for the faint hearted, or those with weak arms. See their website here for some convincing video examples.

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Kent Wedding Videographer

Removing image noise in high ISO photography

2009-02-27T11:39:00.008Z

My canon EOS 5D Mk2 is a superb camera for handling high ISO noise. Wedding photography can often force you into using high ISO speeds like 3200 or more to get a good exposure. Some photographer's might like to leave this noise and hope that it looks like film grain in their final prints, but I don't. You can find quite a few plug-ins designed for removing image noise in Adobe Photoshop - I wouldn't recommend any of the default Photoshop options for this. Try Noiseware from Imagenomic, Noise Ninja from Picturecode, Dfine 2 from NikSoftware and Neat Image from Neatimage as your best options. They all cost about the same apart from Dfine 2 at around £100. Each of these packages will profile your image and aim to remove the noise without destroying the detail. In my opinion Dfine 2 does the best job in retaining sharpness and permits multiple profiles on different areas of a sinlge pic - so if you want to address noise manually, it's unique. All these packages have a trial option so it's over to you to decide which interface you prefer - they are all capable tools. I think Noiseware 2 is the best overall for speed and performance without having to create custom profiles like the popular Neat Image.

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Wedding Photographers Kent

A compact camera for professionals

2009-02-27T10:42:00.009Z

If you ask a professional photographer what pocket camera they own, chances are they will say a Canon G9 or G10. These are pocket size cameras designed to bridge the gap between consumer and keen photographer. The main difference is that they offer full manual control of the settings, meaning you get the same degree of control you would expect on a normal SLR camera, giving you much more expressive freedom. With these models you can also shoot in the RAW photo format for even more control in post production. You can also connect your full size flash strobe from your big SLR, so the attraction to a serious photographer is clear. The only negatives are the limitations of the lens and the noise at high ISO speeds - although that is the main reason to get an SLR in the first place.
You might want to also consider the superb Panasonic LX3 in this category - it probably has the edge in terms of picture quality.
Cost wise all these babies are pretty expensive at over £300- but their main audience are likely people who already have an SLR and simply want a manual compact.

Looking for a professional wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Wedding Photographers Kent

Canon’s Optical Photography Image Stabilisation

2009-02-26T22:26:00.005Z

As a professional photographer you are expected to know enough about the operation of your camera to avoid or minimise camera shake. The rule of thumb is to keep your shutter speed at least equal to your focal length, or 1.5x to be sure. Camera manufacturers include image stabilisers as standard these days on mainstream cameras, and it's quite common on mid-range lenses. However, you will not find image stabilisation on a Canon prime lens, and it's only on a few of the high end lenses. The reason is that image stabilisation is expensive to build-in , and on a quality level, it may reduce sharpness. On the common IS enabled versions of Canon's EF 70-200L IS lenses, there is an obvious advantage to handling and performance with IS activated, you can hold a steady shot at a noticeably slower shutter speed than you might get away with normally - so the F2.8 lens speed is less of a limitation in lower light. Don't forget that IS will not prevent a moving object from blurring at slower shutter speeds, only you blurring a still subject - you'll need to use flash to freeze the action if your shutter speed is not high enough.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Kent Wedding Photographers

Lightsphere II Flash Diffuser for Weddings

2009-02-26T22:22:00.006Z

There's no question that anyone using a flash on an SLR camera will need a diffuser. Turning the hard harsh flash light into a diffused soft light is what these contraptions are designed for. Diffused light is the ultimate aid to professional photography. You will find a lot of choice in buying a diffuser - but generally the bigger the better, as a big light equals a soft light. The alternative is to bounce your harsh flash off a white ceiling or a white wall, or door etc - but that limits your options and locations. The Lightsphere II is one of the best options for a diffuser with flexibility and I've used mine with great results. The principle of this diffuser is to bounce light in all directions, and for use indoors it excels. I find outdoors it works very well too, although less efficiently than head-on diffusers - so your recycling times are a touch longer. I would recommend the cloud dome option with the silver hood if you want to improve power usage, or when you need the power to shoot large groups of people; the silver hood kicks light more aggressively in the forward direction. Attaching the amber hood onto the cloud dome and setting your camera to Tungsten white balance, gives you a quick solution for balancing indoor ambient tungsten light with the white light from the flash, and also works well in removing the cold tint of outdoor shoots in the shade. For three pieces of plastic the official Lightsphere II set I've described here is very overpriced at £90+ from http://www.bbjimports.com/. Since then I have found an identical non-branded version for a third of the price at http://www.microglobe.co.uk/ - sourced from the same factory I believe.

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Kent Photographer

Canon EF 135mm f/2.0 L Lens for weddings

2009-02-26T22:19:00.005Z

Canon do not make a zoom lens faster than f2.8, so if you want good reach in low light you have to go for a prime lens to keep your ISO setting low. The 135L is most compact lens Canon make with a long focal length. This lens is surprisingly light and compact on a camera body so you don't need a mono pod like you may with canon's other bulky 'white body' telephoto options. I my experience the 135L is an ideal wedding photographer lens for candid photography, enabling you to keep your distance and still get intimate close-ups in low light thanks to the fast f2.0 performance. Canon's popular 70-200L zoom lenses are a more versatile option - but if you want the quality and low light ability , this lens beats them hands-down and is one of the sharpest lenses you can buy. You will find the focusing on the 135L to be very fast and accurate too, and to top of the appeal is the relatively low price of this lens.

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Wedding Photography Kent

Wedding Videography / photography LED light

2009-02-26T22:15:00.005Z

I spent a while looking for a decent camera-top continuous light solution the my videography (also being of some use in photography). The traditional problem has been very poor battery life , weight and heat. All those problems disappear when you use quality LED lighting. Not to be confused with your pocked LED light, these LED units are temperature balanced 5600k to daylight and when you dim them the colour remains constant which is important. My solution was to purchase the Litepanels Micro (made by Litepanels an industry leader in the movie world). On full blast this unit truly lasts upto 7-8 hours on a set of four Energizer Lithium AAs (or 1.5hrs on normal AAs) - enough to film a full wedding event. It never produces an uncomfortable heat on clients faces, has no flicker or sound, and the light is wonderfully diffused without an obvious hot spot. As I mentioned you can dim it for close up use too. It weighs practically nothing, and the front panel has a flip down slot in filter system for further colour control (3200k Tungsten, warming and clear diffusion filters are also included ). This Micro compact unit is just 3.5 inches wide and does a good job of illuminating a wide angle view. There is one disadvantage to LED light however, and that is the throw and fall-off. In my experience, the optimum working distance is around 5-6ft. Used in a photography set-up it also makes a nice portable hair-light I've found. At around £250 it's also not cheap, but it's proved very useful. I notice Lite Panels have repackaged the unit also as a photographer light option now.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Kent Wedding Videographer

Portrait Photography Backdrops

2009-02-26T22:14:00.005Z

For traditional portrait photography, customers expect some kind of backdrop. In recent years it's been a popular look to go for bright white (hi-key) or black for individual moody shots (low-key). For one or two people I use the 6x9foot Lastolite 6921 pop-up reversible backdrop. This curls up in seconds into flat disc for travel and expands itself when released for instant use. Being black one side and white on the other it's very handy, and you can simply lean it against a wall on location. Lastolite claim the material is also crease free - and that's about 90% true. When you need to get more people into a shoot you need to start looking at portable support systems. You can find many options, but you will get what you pay for. Cheap ones from Interfit for example have poor construction and strength with limited use. Lastolite models are a safe choice, but in my opinion the best options come from the Manfrotto 314B (£150ish) and Giottos LCB 3-1 (£120ish). Giottos is cheaper but may be discontinued soon. The tripods with both these supports are high quality and can be used perfectly well as lighting supports, with Giottos also including safer air-cushioned tripods as standard. On both models the telescopic cross bar (3m) is also solid enough to support vinyl background rolls or any other material you may wish. The last thing you want is a system that may collapse onto your clients. For regular use invest in vinyl rolls - they don't rip and and can be simply wiped clean of footprints and marks repeatedly. Do make sure the width of your chosen backdrop fits your support rail with space to spare for handling.

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Kent Portrait Photographer

Photography with Hassleblad

2009-02-26T22:11:00.005Z

When you are the top of the game in photography, (which is when you can afford it) the camera we all desire is the Hassleblad H3DII-50. Hassleblad have been producing serious medium format cameras since World War II and are most famous for their use by NASA and the first landing on the moon. Given this heritage, it's no surprise that their 50Megapixel camera costs over £17,000 without a lens. The kodak sensor in the Hassleblad is about twice the size of a normal professional SLR sensor so clearly outperforms anything else available in clarity. It's the kind of resolution you would only really need for stunning landscape photography (cue NASA) or advertising use on giant billboards. However, with an ISO range limited to 400/800 it would be challenging to use in certain situations. At least ex-BBC cameraman turned wedding photographer Damien Lovegrove seems to enjoy using his on assignment (but his prices for shooting your wedding do start at £5,000).

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Wedding Photographers Kent

Having a mini wedding

2009-02-25T13:58:00.008Z

I keep hearing that 'vintage' is the new trend for 2009 weddings. That being so I thought I would drop in this link to A Mini Wedding, who provide a chauffeur driven stretched mini limo service for your wedding day - not quit vintage but retro will do.
I'm not sure it would be the most comfortable way to travel, but it's certainly unusual and comes dressed with ribbons, bows and nice champagne, servicing Essex and Kent. Priced from £325.
Looking for a professional wedding or portrait photographer? See my services here: Kent Wedding Photography

Dressing your wedding

2009-02-25T11:21:00.003Z

This is a fun little tool to help get everyone looking the way you want on your wedding - well at least in theory. I like it because the couple can also use it to visualise their wedding group pictures too. Brides will enjoy the ability to mix and match dress styles and colour themes etc. Go take a look at http://www.davidsbridal.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Category_-49998496?top=Y

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding site here: Kent Wedding Photographers

Designer Wedding cake tops

2009-02-25T10:57:00.002Z

I see a lot of wedding cakes but they are generally similar and not much of a talking point. If you want to make yours more memorable I would love to see more emphasis placed on the choice of cake topper. For example, you might want to consider http://www.westonsuper-models.co.uk/weddings-cake-toppers.html they make cool mini versions of you or anyone else ! - great fun.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Kent Wedding Photographers

Portrait Photography - How to be photogenic

2009-02-25T10:38:00.002Z

Most people don't get much practice at posing for a photographer. If you try too hard it looks false - the camera doesn't lie as they say. Your wedding photography is probably the only time in your life you may be under pressure to look your best in a photo (school portraits don't count :). Your portrait or wedding photographer can help you along but you may not feel comfortable being posed. I note this basic guide you might want to skim for some basic starter tips before your shoot. http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Photogenic
Looking for a professional wedding or portrait photographer? See my website here: Kent Portrait Photographer

The rising price of Canon Lenses

2009-02-25T09:44:00.002Z

If you're thinking about stepping up to become a professional photographer it's a bad time, as you will find the costs of lenses has absolutely rocketed over the last 4 months and continues to rise. This is due to the economic manufacturing climate and the poor value of the British pound. As a professional wedding photographer for example, you will probably not be wanting to use anything other than Canon's L range lenses (the ones with the red ring). It's fair to say that every single model in this range has gone up by at least £200. Take the popular Canon EF 24-70L (a bread-and-butter professional lens for many), back in Sep this was available for around £650 - today the average price is over a £1000. Towards the higher end and my favourite portrait and low light lens - the Canon EF 85L f1.2 - used to cost about £1,100, now some places sell it for double that! Keep yourself informed on prices at http://www.camerapricebuster.com/ for the best deals, and don't expect to find a bargain on eBay either.

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Wedding Photographers in Kent

Diamonds beyond your wedding budget

2009-02-24T15:01:00.002Z

If your finger sparkler just isn't enough on your wedding day, and you want to look even more glamorous for the wedding photographer, you can now hire some stunning gems thanks to http://www.rentyourrocks.com/. Some of their hand-picked wedding jewellery items are worth £18,000 so I'd advice you have some decent wedding insurance before you even think about it. Rental prices are from £50.
Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding coverage here: Wedding Videography Kent

Portable Wedding photo booth

2009-02-24T14:39:00.002Z

I've seen a few companies now starting to play with this idea. Essentially, what you have for hire is a customised photobooth to be installed at your wedding or event. Guests bundle in and amuse themselves. Boothnation have taking this a step further, and include a wind machine and portrait lighting set-up inside the booth to achieve more professional results.

Never tried one myself, but I'm not worried - hardly the kind of pics most couples would want in their wedding album. If you've also spent a fortune on your wedding venue - I'd assume you want to see it in your pictures for a start. Clearly these are designed more for festive, corporate and less critical scenarios.

Looking for a wedding or portrait photographer? See my wedding services here: Wedding Photography Kent