How can I get professional clarity in my images for wedding photography?
by Editor on March 19, 2010
in Wedding photography
I’m an amateur wedding photographer, and I’ve seen some photography where the images are so clear and crisp. How do I achieve something like that?
Is it the camera type? The ISO? Lighting?
I shoot with a Pentax K100 D Super. Please see my portfolio and tell me what you think I need to work on, or how I can achieve more professional photography.
www.amkarphoto.com
Thank you!
To do the best job you need a good camera like a Nikon D3 which has a large, full size sensor. Or, at least a Nikon D2X. And, very good quality lenses and high intensity strobes.
The highest quality images can be obtained by a “very” good camera, a “very” sharp lens, a tripod, low ISO (100), the second to the widest f-stop, and the fastest shutter speed possible, and preferably several fast, soft light, strobes.
Remember, when shooting a wedding to use the zoom lens set to as close to 100mm focal length as possible. This will prevent distortion in the facial characteristics, especially when doing close ups.
If all of this is out of your price range you can only do what you can do.
I agree with the previous answer….your photography quality is not very good. I would not hire you as my wedding photographer. Some of the photos you posted were out of focus. ALOT were over or under exposed. Your composition is really good though, but watch out for shadows!! Invest in a light reflector. Also, I think you should invest in a better camera. I don’t know where you live, but Wal-Mart sells the Canon Rebel XSi for about $700. It is a great camera. Shoot in RAW format and then edit them using photoshop or Lightroom and then save them as JPEG. Good luck.
It’s probably as simple as them using superior optics on cameras with better sensors. Also, they may be running them through sharpening filters in photoshop. I guess, in some ways, it could be related to lighting. I mean, if there is insufficient light, and you’re using a slower shutter speed, camera movement can also reduce the apparent sharpness of the image.
I just check your portfolio… your pictures have terrible quality… You have some nice ideas for wedding photos, pictures are not bad, I would say much better than most of the wedding “photographers” (read money makers) I know… but you MUST start thinking about better equipment… pentax is not a equipment for you.. you need better camera, and better lenses… camera for start: even one of the cheaper canon brand Rebel XTI or XTS but lenses only Top Shelf Lseries… I know its not cheap but wedding photographer making good money so let call this investment
than you`ll have better quality pictures, and start shoot in RAW and than process them to JPG….
Which lens are you using? If you are using the standard kit lens, you can only expect so much. Please tell us which lens ( es ) you use. For the most part, the other professional pictures you see were taken with pro-level full framed cameras with professional grade lenses. Most wedding photographs use full framed cameras. Full-frame works best in wedding and portrait photography. The lens also plays an important role in image sharpness, color, and quality. You should be able to get good images with a kit lens, but for professional images you need the gear to suit.
Clarity is an ambiguous term, I’m not sure what you mean by it, possibly the combination of brightness and contrast.
Lens quality might have a bearing in the detail recorded, but with Pentax theres no problem about lens quality.
What post processing are you doing? Are you shooting in Raw? All digital pictures require sharpening and a saturation increase whether you allow the camera to do it with its ‘best guess’ in the Jpeg conversion or do it yourself can alter the results dramatically.
In Photoshop the Clarity slider in the Raw Converter just alters the contrast in the mid tones.
One thing for sure its not ISO, camera type yes but you have a good DSLR. After over 10 years judging photographs in club competitions I can say that you can’t tell which make of camera was used to take the picture, sensor size yes (particularly in low light shots), lens quality definitely, but manufacturer never. I’ve seen mediocre pictures taken with full frame cameras with L grade lenses and jaw dropping superb pictures taken with entry level DSLR’s and kit lenses. The difference has always been in the lighting and post processing.
Chris
I am going to disagree with a lot of people here. You do not need a full frame senor, nor do you need a different camera. My studio uses eight Canon 40d’s, which are not full frame, for all our work and it’s just fine. I did a Flickr search for images people have made with your type camera and should should be able to get much clearer, crisper images from it. Now there is either one of two reasons you are not getting the required results. One..the lens you are using is no good or Two..you don’t really have a good working knowledge of your camera. In either case, you are not ready to, nor should you be charging hundreds of dollars and doing such a personally important job. You have some great compositions, but I think you need to iron this out before you continue.
By the way, you state you are an amateur wedding photographer, however you list prices on your site. That makes you at least a semi pro and you need to live up to that title.