I have the nikon d-200 I need help with?

Question

please help me. I have been photographing weddings for a number of years with my nikon f-90, I am pleased to say have never once had a complaint. I bought the nikon d-200 last year and still have not shot a whole wedding with it, just used it to take some photos. My problem is they don't seem to print as nice as the film. maybe this is down to the processing. my question is, I am shooting an outdoor wedding using lighting, would it be ok just shooting with the d-200 on auto and using the sb600 flash on auto?

many thanks in advance and any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Using the D200 in auto .... do you mean using aperture or shutter priority?  Usually setting the shutter at 1/250th and then using the flash on TTL is a good strategy.  Do a few test shots before your wedding, but in general, if you set your camera to shoot RAW + JPEG basic you will have your bases covered and there should be no difference in shooting style whether using a film or digital body.   I say JPEG basic, because I am assuming you will do a rough edit using the small JPEGs and also after adding your water mark, post them on your website so the client can order from them.  Then once the orders have been placed, you will use the corresponding RAW image files to produce only the high resolution JPEG's you need to fulfill the orders.

When I moved from my F4 and F5 to a Nikon DSLR, it was a seamless transition.  All the skills needed to shoot film applied.

I just shot an open casting call at a night club and set my ISO to 400, with the camera in the manual mode with  the shutter at 1/250th of a second ... I later placed the shutter speed at 1/60th to get more of the ambient light in the background to add the the overall look.

I too use the SB600 and the whole shoot was a success.

And yes, film is film and digital has a different look and feel.  No way around that without a lot of post production work ... that just drives up the costs which of course you have to add to your fees.  Buying a $5,000 camera body every 18 to 24 months is bad enough and has required some fee adjustments ... adding a $300 post production fee for each shoot could make or break come contracts.

Answer 2

The SB-600 Can be used in the Auto mode. However, that might be why you're not satisfied with your images. The auto mode sometimes throws you the undesired aperture, or to slow shutter speed. You should use the A mode ( aperture priority ) and control just the aperture so you can get the effect that you'd like. Traditonally, Film is better than digital, and i think that's how it'll stay. When you shoot weddings, why not carry both bodies?

It'll fire in auto mode though to answer your question. Just trying using the different modes, like portrait, landscape, A, S, they are all automated modes, unless you're way off, you can't go wrong:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdotfhMGf...