Digital Wedding Photography: Capturing Beautiful Memories

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Chapter 3 ✦ Choosing the Right Equipment for the Job

Low-light shooting

The large f/2.8 aperture and the image stabilizer combine to make the 70–200mm lens great for shooting

in the low-light conditions of late evening. When I schedule an evening portrait session with the bride

and groom, I rely heavily on this lens to allow me to shoot right through sunset and on into the dark.

Photographers refer to this time as the “magic hour.” With a 70-200mm lens, you can leave the tripod and

shoot handheld at speeds as slow as 1/40 second. As you can see in Figure 3-7, this lens enables me to

continue shooting far into the evening than I ever could without the stabilizer. What a dream come true

for wedding photographers!

Shallow depth-of-field effects

Another use for the 70-200mm lens is to create shallow depth-of-field effects, as in Figure 3-8. The sharp

zone is so small that it serves to focus the viewer’s attention on the subject by isolating it as the only

sharply focused point in the image.

Figure 3-7: Thanks to the image stabilizer and the Figure 3-8: One of the best features of the

wide f/2.8 aperture, the 70-200mm telephoto 70-200mm zoom is its ability to emphasize the

zoom works great in low light. subject by throwing everything else out of focus.

140mm, f/2.8, 1/40s, 3200 ISO 110mm, f/2.8, 1/160s, 1600 ISO

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Part I ✦ Understanding Digital Wedding ...