F.A.Q. II

So I'm spending a long time sitting in the car these last two days, and since I don't drive, that's giving me the opportunity to blog more! And there was something I mentioned I would start doing more often! FAQ posts!!!!! Remember, if there is any subject you would like us to talk about on these posts, email us! We'll be glad to help you!!!! Here you go!

What are your favorite camera settings when shooting a regular portrait session?

This will vary on the weather circumstances. But as a general thing, we love shooting with the lowest ISO we can. If it's 100, then awesome! If it's 400, then great too! We try not to go above 400 to avoid camera noise, even though the 5D works really well with high ISO and the 5D mark ii is even better! 

We try to keep our speed no lower than 1/250 unless extremely necessary, and try to keep an aperture of 2.2 or so. We use a 50mm 1.4, so that means that at 1.4 it won't be the sharpest (even though this lens works great at 1.4) because it's the widest aperture allowed in that lens. If the lens were a 1.8 maximum aperture, then we would shoot at 2.8 or so. So keeping our aperture at 2.2 and speed at 1/250, we just move the ISO to lower or higher depending on the light. If we end up having a very dark day, then we might have to end up bringing the speed down a little or the aperture! I hope this all makes sense!!!!! We love the effect of using a very open aperture, because it just focuses on the eyes and softens the rest. And since we work with interacting subjects (couples, children, families...) we like keeping the speed as fast as we can to ensure there won't be any blur.

What kind of lighting do you use?

Honestly, there is nothing like natural light. I think I've mentioned this before! But to me there is no better light than that! It's the light that our God has created, and it is just soft, natural, and beautiful! So we try to use natural light as much as possible, work with reflectors and find the best light when we get to a location. We do use a Canon 580 EXII for ceremony and reception shots at weddings. We need to in order to avoid using a high ISO or a low speed ,and to avoid too many shadows on the subjects' faces (my pet peeve). To be honest, I've used off camera lighting in the past when I was starting and worked as a photographer assistant. We would light the subject with one flash and the background with another flash. Pocket wizards are great for that and you can do amazing effects with it! But to me, that just means more distractions during the ceremony or reception. We want our subjects to enjoy their day and not overwhelm them. We want to capture their natural expressions and just how they are being themselves and enjoying their time! So to me, the more complicated I make it, the less natural results I will obtain. My Gary Fong works great for these shots and gives me satisfying results! Of course, this doesn't apply to all photographers and there are amazing photographers out there using all kinds of lighting and obtaining amazing results. So you just need to find what you like and how you like to work!

We hope this information was helpful to you! Have a wonderful and blessed day!

Arancha

Nate and Arancha Photography-Huntsville Children and Family Photography