Am I missing something?

[NMP]

After 15 years behind the cammera for family and friends I have recently "come out" and am trying my hand at paid work. Spending some time watching others in an effort to learn, I recently saw a wedding at the Opera house which is where my question comes from.

The Bride was in the shadow with only the street light, the photographer (dont know who it was - other wise I would ask him) was not using flash and I could see his LCD was lit up like christmas... thinking to my self HOW? I used my 758D to spot measure I read 1600 -1.4f @ 4s on the dress high light!

What am I missing......

[WitnessOnly]

Hey NMP,

Well done for watching whats going on with the pro's. With weddings you'll find that 50% of the work a photographer will do will be 'people based', that is relaxing, coralling and flattering... ;)

Did you get a look at what body they were driving? was a tripod in evidence?

I've seen some pretty good results coming out of the D3 at 3200 ISO!

I had a look through some of my night shots, I looked at some of my lowest light available shots (no flash) and found that my trickiest number sets float around 800 ISO, 1 sec at f2.8. Given that the Opera house at night has a far bit of spill light from elsewhere, I'd almost say 10-30th at 2.8 is quite 'in the range' of that environment.

If you're going to 'dip your toe in' I'd take your kit out and find it's 'limits'. The 'what you can get away withs'. These limits help you to know what can and can't be done.

Maybe take a friend down to the same location @ about the same time and have a play with your kit. RAW will give you a little extra to play with if it's slightly (-1 stop easy) underexposed.

WO

[NMP]

I guess my real question was, is ISO 800 + realy good enough for professional wedding work?

[mrjet]

I guess my real question was, is ISO 800 + realy good enough for professional wedding work?

Depends on the camera... with some of the newer bodies these days (and even some of the older Canon bodies e.g 5D) absolutely!

[WitnessOnly]

If it means getting the shot, I'll go it in a second! Pro doesn't always mean 'without noise', pro should mean "bloody nice shot that"... IMHO

Oh, and don't get me started on blur...

[DG77]

I frequently do 12x18" enlargements of photos I shot at 1600 and 2000 with my 1d3 and the noise is barely visable providing the shot has been exposed correctly and I don't have to add too much exposure compensation to the RAW file.
Anything being blown up bigger than 20x30" I try to avoid using over ISO 1250 if possible. It's probably more critical that you get the focus spot on. (especially if shooting wide open)

[mbrown]

The answer is yes you can shoot at high ISO's depending on your gear (these printed up great)
D3 ISO 2800 f1.4 (no lighting)
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2101/2408587771_5718ccab6e.jpg

D3 ISO ISO 5600 f1.4
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3173/2442906554_e825263d4c.jpg

[gemma-clarke]

Gorgeous photos!!