God I love this thread. I want to take things up a level (still a beginner but have come a long way since I bought my D5200, albeit slowly
) but for my photography as I am doing a friend's wedding in a month but it will be my first full day rather than just the ceremony/reception. Off to learn about the following
- Stacking
- Histogram in LR
- Get a better grip of colour temp and other settings I haven't really used in post
- Astrophotography (off to Wales next week and we're within spitting distance from a dark park)
- Settle on a style/profile for post
Good luck! One of my best friends did his first wedding recently and said it opened his eyes up to the stresses of such a task! It's super fun though and you just have to get into it and be a part of the day as well. Over the past few years I've grown more and more used to just socialising with more guests during the daytime as the photos later end up being more natural as they're used to you when you're engaging a group or someone solo. The bulk of my images are documentary style though of course! But having fun and being part of the event are equally as important!
To be honest I've never looked into focus stacking, nor do I use the histogram in Lightroom either. If it looks right whilst I'm in post, I'll stick to that! I use the light meter in the viewifinder a lot however.
White balance in post will be important but make sure your screen is calibrated correctly, else colour hues and tonal ranges won't be as accurate as you might like, that pure white might look off white, for example. You don't need super expensive calibration kit, just a Spyder Express etc should be ample to get you on the right track.
Astrophotography is fun! I've only done it a few times but plan to do more this year as I have free travel to the Isle of Wight. I think you'll have a blast!
Finally, settling on a style will take time. Don't feel you have to have a style or signature look immediately. My style is still evolving, but I'm at home with the way my images end up looking whereas I was subtly changing tones, shadows etc before getting to this stage. Took me a few years I'd say.
In short, if it looks right to you, and you had fun, then there's nothing wrong, everything else will come with time
This past weekend I was at Creation Fest in Cornwall as I had a collaboration gig with a friend and another performer there (WYLD and Rowan Lark). Being on stage was quite an experience. I've had media access before,. but not on something of this magnitude.
Some photos:
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