Tucker Shots

Our Best Advice for Budgeting for Your Wedding

tuckershots — Sat, 11 Sep 2021 13:58:12 +0000

Our Best Advice for Budgeting for Your Wedding

We’ll be posting many blogs about budgeting for weddings, but in this post we want to convey the most important piece of advice that we’ve learned from watching many couples plan a wedding.

We find that the normal way to go about budgeting for a wedding is to start to do some research about the average price of each expense – venues, catering, photography, videography, the dress, etc., choose where you want to fall in the distribution (higher than average budget wedding, average budget wedding, lower budget wedding, etc.), and then scale the average prices based on that.

The problem with this is that you’re going to be setting everything in your wedding according to that one budget decision, and most couples only care really strongly about a few pieces of their wedding. That’s why our biggest piece of advice is to

choose what you care the most about and prioritize it in the budget.

That will look different for everyone. Some people really care about the food and will want to prioritize finding a phenomenal caterer. Maybe that means holding the event at a less expensive venue or spending a bit less on the decorations. Some couples really care about the quality of their photos and prioritize that over hiring a more expensive videographer. Some are the other way around.

For the most part, it really is true that you get what you pay for in the wedding industry. So choose what you really care about on your wedding day and budget for that first. Then let everything else that you care less about come into place around it.

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You just got engaged! Now what? The first steps in planning a wedding

tuckershots — Sat, 11 Sep 2021 02:25:16 +0000

You just got engaged! Now what? The first steps in planning a wedding

First of all, congratulations! This is such a special time, and it’s worth taking a few days or a couple of weeks just to let it sink in before diving into heavy wedding planning.

But once you’re ready to start planning, there is so much that needs to get done that it seems overwhelming to even know where to start. This guide is meant to give you the first steps that you need to take that everything else is going to hinge on. There’s really not a lot you can do until you do these.

Pick a Date and Find a Venue

I include these together because there is some give and take in this process. You’ll probably want to go into wedding planning with a number of dates in mind and if you’re really set on a specific venue or a small set of venues, you’ll want to be flexible based on their availability. And the further out you can book a venue, the more you’ll be able to choose your date. Venues often book a year to a year and a half in advance, so you’ll want to move pretty quickly.

This is absolutely the first step you need to take, though, because everything else is going to depend on what your date is. Every other vendor that you’re going to need to book isn’t going to be able to do much for you if you don’t already have a date chosen so they know if they are available.

Find a Photographer

There are three reasons that this should be what you do right after you book a venue and have a date picked. First, photographers book fast. Most wedding photographers book 9 to 12 months out from the wedding date, and sometimes even further. If you want to get a photographer that really matches your style and jives well with you, you want to move fast. And it takes some time to find a photographer.

Second, photographers can be a huge help in the planning process. We’ve seen it all, so we can give you a good idea of what works well and what doesn’t. And there are a lot of things you can do to your timeline to make for much better photos (a future blog post on that to come). If you book your photographer early, they can be integral to your planning process. We recommend trying to meet with them about once a month if photos are a big priority for you.

As a tangent related to this point, there’s a good chance that your photographer is going to be spending more time with you on your wedding day than your future spouse. We’re with you from early in the getting ready all the way through the reception. That’s another good reason to start the process early – you want to have a good relationship with them.

Third, your photographer is probably going to be a fairly large part of your budget, so it’s a good idea to know what you’re going to be paying early on in the process so you can better plan out your budget.

Find a Videographer

If a stunning wedding video is a priority for you, you’ll want to start this process early on as well for many of the same reasons as finding a photographer early. Videographers often don’t book as far out as photographers, but they still book early.

But if you really want a phenomenal video, there are some things that you’re going to want to make sure you make time for in your timeline (a future blog post on this to come). That’s a good reason that you’ll want to get your videographer involved early on. And you probably want to get your videographer and photographer talking as soon as possible so they can coordinate the impact they have on your day.

As a shameless plug, one of the advantages of booking with us is that your photo and video team are under the same roof (figuratively in terms of the company and literally since we’re married). This means we act as a well practiced team and it will never feel like your photo and video coverage are competing for your attention.

And onward!

Once you have these three things lined up, everything else starts to come into play. It can be helpful, but not necessary, to hire a wedding planner. There’s a lot to do and so much to think about, but we promise everything will come together! We really feel like the most important part of this process is to use it as something that you can enjoy doing with your fiance. No wedding day is worth overly straining that relationship. Ultimately the only things that are essential for your wedding are the two of you, an officiant, two witnesses, and a marriage license. So try to enjoy the process as much as you can!

© 2021 Tuckershotsphotography. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy

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What Gear Should Your Wedding Photographer Have?

tuckershots — Thu, 09 Sep 2021 13:52:19 +0000

What Gear Should Your Wedding Photographer Have?

The most important thing you’re paying for with a wedding photographer is the person. You’re looking for a photographer who knows how to take beautiful photos – who knows composition, lighting, editing, and all the other essential skills that go into the artform. And a good photographer can make beautiful images regardless of the gear they are using. If you need evidence of that, just watch DigitalRev’s Cheap Camera Challenges.

All that said, gear really does matter. There’s a reason that professional photographers don’t just take photos on their iPhones. Professional cameras are built to preserve an incredible amount of data in the images. This both gives enormous flexibility in editing, allowing the photographer to create the style she wants, and gives professional photos the color depth and dynamic range that you just can’t obtain otherwise.

Because of all of this, it’s a good idea to look into the gear that your potential wedding photographer uses. I wanted to write this blog because many wedding planning guides out there try to give advice on what kind of gear your photographer should have, and a lot of it was clearly written by a single photographer who is very adamant about the gear that is in their personal preference or by someone who knows very little about photography. In reality, there is a huge variance in personal preference across photographers, and the differences in gear that they use contribute to the difference in their styles. I wanted to write this guide to give you some idea of what you really should be looking for in the gear your photographer uses so you know what to look for and hopefully dispel some of the myths out there about things that are necessary.

As a final note before I get started, I’m writing this in the context of very professional, medium to upper budget wedding photographers. Many of the features on this list are rather expensive, and there are lower budget photographers who shoot with cheaper equipment. There’s not necessarily anything wrong with that if it’s what you can afford – you’re still going to get better results than someone on an iPhone. But if you really want the full wedding photography experience, these are some things you should look for.

Camera

Obviously your photographer needs to have a camera. There are a ton of phenomenal cameras on the market right now, and there’s a lot of personal preference. At a very basic level, their camera should be a DSLR or mirrorless camera. Mirrorless is the way that the world is going and the best cameras on the market right now are mirrorless, but there are still DSLRs out there like the Canon 5D Mark IV that can hold their own and are very popular among wedding photographers.

Their camera should have good low light performance (most wedding receptions and often ceremonies have very little light) and should be full frame – that refers to the size of the image sensor. Crop sensor cameras don’t perform as well in low light, preserve less depth in the images, and generally are less-expensive, more consumer level cameras. Often the best lenses also will not work with them.

Generally wedding photographers should have a camera with two memory card slots. That way the photos are stored to two memory cards at the same time, which means there is a built-in backup system. Card failures are rare these days, but they do happen. I’ve had one card fail in all the weddings that we did, and it was my card from the ceremony. I can’t tell you how glad I was to have a backup! No images were lost and the couple doesn’t even know it happened.

That said, the way that Canon released their mirrorless cameras has made the two card slot rule a little less certain. Canon made their first forays into the mirrorless world by releasing the R and then the RP, which were designed to be advanced consumer level cameras, as indicated by only having a single card slot. But the R had essentially the same sensor as the 5D Mark IV mentioned above and had the advantages of a mirrorless camera (things like eye detection autofocus, exposure simulation, etc.). A reasonable number of wedding photographers jumped on the R to take advantage of those features and have since stuck with it. It’s certainly a respectable camera, and I wouldn’t necessarily rule out a wedding photographer for using it. But in general, you’ll want to look for two memory card slots.

Lenses

This one gets pretty hard to question your potential photographer about if you don’t know much about the market. In general you want to make sure that they are using high quality lenses, but what those are depend on the system they shoot on. For Canon shooters, you generally want to look for photographers that use L series lenses. That said, Canon has recently released some non-L series lenses made for their mirrorless cameras that produce gorgeous results. Some photographers actually like the less expensive version of the 85mm prime better than it’s L series counterpart that costs about four times as much – some independent testing suggests that it’s a bit sharper around the edges.

There are two reasonably good indications you can look for when asking about lenses. The first is that you want to make sure they’re not shooting with a kit lens. These are lenses that are often sold along with the camera body and they are generally worthless. Many used camera companies won’t pay anything for them. They normally yield terrible images and the autofocus barely functions.

The second is the speed of the lens. This refers to the maximum aperture that the lens can achieve, which has to do with how much light the lens is letting in. You want to make sure they have at least one wide angle (35mm or less) and one longer (85mm or more) lens that can shoot at f\2.8 or higher. And note that higher here actually means a lower number after the ‘f.’ So a lens that reaches a maximum aperture of f\4 is much slower than a lens that reaches a maximum aperture of f\2.8. You want to see lenses between f\1 and f\2.8.

Most other differences in what lenses photographers use is driven by personal preference. Karyn likes to shoot on prime lenses; I shoot on a mix of primes and zoom lenses.

Lighting

There are some photographers who only use ambient light, but this is pretty infeasible at many receptions and some ceremonies where lighting levels are low. Your photographer is normally going to need to add some light, particularly during the reception, to get good photos that aren’t full of noise (it looks like really heavy grain in the photos). You should make sure that your photographer has some kind of external lighting (in other words, they shouldn’t be using a flash that is built into the camera – if they are, run and run fast). But from there every photographer has their own personal preference.

The most common lighting options are an on-camera external flash. This is a flash that sits on top of the camera. As long as they know what they are doing, they’ll use it to either bounce the light off of a ceiling or wall or they’ll use a diffuser so the light isn’t too harsh. The second most common are off camera flashes. This means the photographer will set up one or more flashes on stands throughout the room and use a transmitter to trigger them when the shutter button is pushed. One isn’t necessarily better than the other – it just depends on the shooting style of the photographer.

Some photographers will use lights that stay on rather than flashes. We sometimes use these when we’re shooting photo and video so that we get nice, even lighting in the video as well as the photos. There are plenty of ways to do this from using handheld lights to full on studio lighting. With this as well, there are plenty of right answers.

Backup Equipment

THIS IS ESSENTIAL. Things happen. Cameras suddenly die. Photographers fall into pools (just try looking up photographer falls into pool on YouTube – surprisingly common), guests run into a lens. If your photographer only has one camera and one set of lenses, something like this would mean the end of your wedding photography. Your photographer MUST have a backup camera and a backup wide angle and backup long lens. At a minimum. It’s not worth the risk to hire a photographer that doesn’t come prepared with backups.

Conclusion

That’s it for the essentials. Outside of the equipment listed above, there is a lot of personal preference. There are things that some photographers swear by that others would never touch. Outside of these basics, just make sure that your photographer turns out good work – ask for full galleries and check their reviews. And check out the rest of our blog for more advice on choosing a photographer!

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What do you really need to shoot a wedding?

tuckershots — Wed, 08 Sep 2021 16:36:53 +0000

What do you really need to shoot a wedding?

The impetus for this post has been the massive number of posts we see in photography groups asking what gear you need for a wedding. We’ve been surprised at the massive variance in responses. It seems like every photographer has their pet piece of gear that they think every other wedding photographer on the planet needs to have or they shouldn’t even be charging for their photography. If you were to invest in everything that people post, you’d have to spend at least $50,000 before you were “ready” to shoot a wedding. In reality, you can get by with a very minimal amount of gear. The point of this post isn’t to tell you everything that would be useful while shooting a wedding. Rather, we want to give you an idea of the minimum set of gear you should have before shooting a wedding.

Camera

Obviously, you need a camera. What kind of camera is heavily debated and the topic of some of our other blogs (for example, this one). Ultimately a lot of that is going to come down to personal preference. There are a few minimum requirements, though. It should be something that has at least reasonable low light performance. There are going to be moments throughout the wedding day that you can’t add lighting, so you’ll need to be able to shoot in a higher ISO and know that you can at least recover the photo in post. This doesn’t mean that you need the best low light performance on the market, especially if you’re comfortable with a flash, but it does mean you’ll want a decent DSLR or mirrorless camera.

You’ll see in many posts that you absolutely have to have a camera with two card slots. I would put that in a nice to have category, but when you’re starting out I don’t think it’s an absolute necessity. Most wedding photographers started out with a camera with only one card slot because they couldn’t afford anything else. There are many very respected wedding photographers who are still shooting on a camera like the R, which is a very good camera but only has one card slot. Card failures do happen, and they can be really bad from a wedding day. But they are also becoming increasingly rare as technology improves. If you do shoot on a camera with only one card slot, I would recommend shooting on 32GB SD cards and switching them out fairly often. That way if one card fails, you only lose part of the wedding and not hte full wedding.

A backup camera is also nice to have as some extra comfort and is an absolute necessity when you get into higher price ranges, but when you’re just starting out I certainly wouldn’t tell you not to shoot a wedding just because you don’t have an extra camera body.

Lenses

You need to have a wide angle lens and a longer lens. But that’s really it. You’ll probably have some tight spaces during the getting ready shots and the reception, which is why you need something fairly wide. You’ll also likely have some close up shots you want during the ceremony that you can’t get with a wide angle lens, so you need something longer.

What lenses these should be are heavily debated. Our favorite combinations are either a 35mm and 85mm prime or a 24-70mm and 70-200mm zoom lens, but there are plenty of other options out there and ultimately it’s personal preference.

It’s definitely useful to have fast lenses – something that can shoot at f\2.8 or higher. But if you know lighting it’s certainly possible to get away with a lens shooting at f\4 for a while. That said, you can pick up a nifty fifty for pretty cheap on most systems, so that might be worthwhile if you don’t have anything else fast before your first wedding.

Lighting

You’re probably going to need some kind of external lighting, flashes being the most common. There’s a lot of personal preference when it comes to lighting, so you’ll probably end up trying a few things. But when starting out I would recommend getting an affordable flash like a Godox. Once you learn to use that well, you may start branching out, but there’s no reason to spend a lot before you really get a sense of how you’re going to work with it.

Extra memory cards

I don’t really know why, but one of my greatest fears is running out of memory at a wedding. So we bring tons of SD and CFExpress (for our R5s) cards. I will say that the quality of cards is somewhere that you probably don’t want to skimp. We use Sandisk SD cards, which have proven to be quite reliable. We use a few brands of CFExpress cards, but since most beginning wedding photographers don’t have something that takes them, I’ll save that for the topic of another post. How much you really need depends on your camera, how long you’ll be there, and how much you tend to shoot. So there’s not really a right answer. But make sure to bring enough that you never feel like you’re running out of space.

Extra Batteries

You obviously don’t want to run out of power during a wedding, so you’ll want a few extra batteries. How many depends on how fast your camera burns through them. With our R5s and R6s, we can feasibly get through a full wedding day with two batteries in each (if we’re not filming), but have more than that just in case. It’s also a good idea to bring a charger along with you so you can keep one charging throughout the day. That will also reduce the number of batteries that you absolutely have to have.

Comfortable Shoes

You’re going to be standing, walking, and running all day. Believe me, this is a necessity. We’ll be writing a post soon with all of our shoe recommendations, but make sure you have something that looks nice and that won’t destroy your feet throughout the day.

Water Bottle

This is easy to overlook, but with how much you’re moving around and how few breaks you get on a wedding day, it’s really easy to get badly dehydrated. You can probably get a glass of water or two from the bar, but it’s a good idea to have your own water source around for when there’s a long line, you’re too far away, etc.

Conclusion

That’s honestly it. If you have everything on this list, you can shoot a wedding. There are plenty of other things that we’ll talk about in other posts that are nice to have and can really improve your work. But especially if you’re just starting out, don’t overthink it. This is all you really need.

© 2021 Tuckershotsphotography. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy

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How To Learn Wedding Photography

tuckershots — Mon, 16 Aug 2021 16:30:14 +0000

How To Learn Wedding Photography

You’ll never find a single blog post that will teach you everything you need to know about wedding photography, although some seem to claim to try. Beyond just being a good photographer, being a good wedding photographer requires substantial amounts of niche knowledge. From knowing where to stand during the ceremony to the key shots that you can’t miss to knowing how to support your couple through what is often a very stressful day, there’s a lot to learn and know. My purpose here isn’t to teach you all of this myself – that will come over the next few years of blog posts and videos. Rather, I wanted to compile links to all of the resources that helped me learn how to be a wedding photographer.

Learning Photography

Some of you will be coming to this with a lot of experience in photography and wanting to make the transition to weddings. You’ll probably want to skip to the next section. But for those of you that are new or still somewhat new to the craft, here are some resources that have been very helpful to me:

Stunning Digital Photography by Tony and Chelsea Northrup: this has very quickly become a best selling photography book, and for good reason. This is by far the best introduction to the essentials of photography that I’ve found anywhere. You can get a copy here:

Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson: this is a classic in building your understanding of the exposure triangle, and after reading it and practicing the skills in it, you will be well on your way to capturing the correct creative exposure in any situation. You can get a copy here:

The Photographer’s Eye by Michael Freeman: this is another classic in photography and I think an essential pairing to the books above. Understanding Exposure is largely focussed on the exposure triangle. Stunning Digital Photography contains some basics of composition, but it’s just enough to get your started. This is a full book on the essentials of photographic composition and it will change the way that you see photographs around you. You can find a copy here:

Tony and Chelsea Northrup’s YouTube channel: I love learning by reading, but at some point video instruction is a necessity in learning photography. The Northrup’s channel is by far the best single resource that I’ve found. Their tutorials are both in-depth and understandable and the breadth of topics that they’ve taught about is astounding. You can find their channel here: https://www.youtube.com/user/VistaClues

Instagram: There’s no link for this one, but one thing that you need to do when learning photography is look at a lot of photographs. One of the best things you can do early on is to find a diverse set of photographers whose style you like and follow them on instagram. As you look at their photos, don’t just look for ways to imitate them. Take some time with each one and think through why you like it or why you don’t like it. Try to do that in the context of what you’re learning from the resources from above. Doing this will train your eye to see the concepts that you’re learning about elsewhere, which will allow you to see them when you’re holding your own camera.

Learning to Edit

Editing is an absolutely essential skill, and you certainly shouldn’t shoot your first wedding until you are reasonably confident in your editing skills. Here are a couple of resources that helped me learn to edit in Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop:

The Adobe Classroom in a Book series can be quite helpful. I started out with the then current version of Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom Classroom in a Book. Because it’s covering both Lightroom and Photoshop, it won’t teach you everything you need to know, but it’s a fantastic and gentle introduction to editing software that can seem overwhelming. My recommendation is to start by working through the exercises in the book and then branch out to the resources below. You can find a copy here:

Signature Edits: Ryan’s videos are phenomenal, and I have yet to find anyone better and teaching about any concept in Lightroom. I will say that it’s probably best to approach his channel after being reasonably confident with the basics of Lightroom – otherwise it will be hard to even sift through the wealth of tutorials he has to find what you need to learn. Hence why I think it’s best to start with the classroom in a book. Here’s a link to the Signature Edits YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCUEdBZq4oC7wUZHz22_-UMQ.

Learning Wedding Photography

Now we’re moving into ways to learn all of the niche knowledge that is essential to being a good wedding photographer. You should never go into your first wedding (or any wedding for that matter) without a plan, no matter how good of a photographer you already are. Here are some resources that will help you feel ready to walk into your first wedding knowing what to expect.

The Basics of Wedding Photography by J. Cantwell: this is a short e-book that you can find for just a few dollars on Kindle. It’s a great introduction to the essentials that you need to know for your first wedding.

John Branch’s full wedding day videos: this is probably the best resource that you’ll find to feel ready for your first wedding, especially if you haven’t had the opportunity to second shoot. John Branch has filmed a number of his wedding photography days and posts long, detailed, and phenomenally helpful videos that walk you through every part of the day and what you should be doing. Here’s a link to one of my favorites: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zyEOKMQ7p74. You can find others of his from there.

Street Photography Resources: I certainly wouldn’t be the first to acknowledge that street photography and wedding photography involve very similar skillsets. Things move very quickly at weddings, meaning that you need to be able to get the correct exposure and composition in a very short amount of time. The same thing is true on the streets. Lighting changes quickly as do subjects and events, and many of the moments can’t be planned and if you miss them they are gone forever. I’d recommend starting with The Street Photographer’s Manual by David Gibson (link below) and then going out and practicing it. You’ll want to do all of it in manual (which many street photographers don’t do, but you’re going to need to at weddings) as a way to get really fast at getting your camera settings to the right place.

Instagram: one of the best things you can do to improve your wedding photography is to find wedding photographers whose styles you love on Instagram and follow them. As they post photos, take some time with each one to think through why you like it or what you don’t like about it. That will give you the kind of intuition that will allow you to quickly get beautiful shots in the fast changing environment of a wedding.

Learning the Business of Wedding Photography

You can’t be a wedding photographer if you’re not finding clients. There are many resources that have helped me learn the business side of wedding photography. Here are a few of my favorites:

Joy Michelle’s YouTube Channel: Joy posts incredibly helpful videos covering topics all across the business of wedding photography. Generally I find her advice to be very good. Here’s a link to her channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC-Ou6jRKxcjMrVMxWxLO_fQ

Samantha Grant’s FaceBook Group: Samantha Grant’s group is entirely focused on the science of Facebook Ads, and her videos and the group in general are extremely helpful resources. I’ve also heard good things about her paid courses, but I haven’t taken one myself.

Taylor Jackson’s YouTube Channel: Taylor Jackson posts a lot of great YouTube videos with fantastic business advice. Here’s a link to his channel: https://www.youtube.com/user/TaylorJacksonPhoto

Getting Help: As a final note about learning the business of wedding photography, it’s important to know when to invest in getting help from professionals in any given area. You shouldn’t expect yourself to be an expert in everything, and if you try you’ll end up spending a ton of time that you could be investing into growing your business in other ways. There are a few areas in particular that I think most people will want to think about hiring someone to help:

Attorney: this one is really quite critical. It’s easy to think of this as an expense that isn’t quite worthwhile and to just depend on either free contract templates or to buy some online, but if those contracts aren’t enforceable in your state, they’re worthless. I would especially caution against buying contracts from websites online. Doing so has been my most regretted purchase. You’re better off creating a draft using a free online contract (like the ones from SLR Lounge) and then sending them to a local attorney to review. It costs more upfront, but you’ll save money in the long run and if you ever do get taken to court, you’ll have a contract that will actually protect you.
Accountant: tax law is incredibly complex, particularly for businesses, and it’s probably worthwhile for most people to hire a tax professional to handle them for them.
Website Design: there are a lot of nice templates out there, but if you want a really impressive website, hiring someone may be the way to go.
SEO: Building your website’s SEO takes a lot of work and specialized knowledge. It may be worthwhile thinking about hiring someone who already has the expertise to get your site to rank on Google to take over for a few months.

© 2021 Tuckershotsphotography. All rights reserved | Privacy Policy

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Which Canon R Series Camera is Right For Me?

tuckershots — Thu, 05 Aug 2021 15:45:09 +0000

What Canon R Series Camera Is Right For You?

One of the most common questions on photography forums and facebook pages is which Canon R series camera to buy, and for good reason. All four cameras are phenomenal pieces of equipment with massive price differences, so the choice has an impact not only on the gear you get but on your wallet as well.

Now that we’ve owned the entire line of R series cameras for several months (and after rewriting some version of this about a hundred times on forums), I decided it was time to put my advice on the right R series camera to buy into a blog.

Is the Canon R series right for me?

The most important consideration here is something that really has very little to do with the details of the cameras themselves. You have to think about the kind of lenses you’re going to be investing in. If you’re just starting out, there are two very good reasons to start in the R series – they’re full frame and they’re mirrorless. The former is important because eventually you’ll want to upgrade to a full frame camera and it will be an expensive transition if you only have crop sensor lenses.

The latter is important because all of Canon’s R&D money is going into their mirrorless lenses. There are still plenty of high quality EF lenses on the market, but they will become increasingly outdated. If you’re going to start building up an investment in a new system, you should be thinking about its future and the RF glass is only going to get better. Remember that high quality glass matters more than the camera body and glass is a much longer term investment, so positioning yourself within a system that you can stick to is essential.

The people that might not want to think about moving into the R series are primarily Sony or Nikon users that are already heavily invested in their systems. Ultimately Nikon, Sony, and Canon mirrorless cameras are all phenomenal and each system has their own advantages and disadvantages. For most people, switching systems, selling your glass and investing in an entirely new environment probably isn’t worth the cost. But if you’re just making your first transition into the mirrorless market, you can’t beat Canon’s glass.

Which R Series Camera Should I Choose?

So you’ve decided that the R series is right for you. Which of the four cameras do you choose? Ultimately the decision will be determined by a mix of your budget and what kind of photography or videography you do. I think it makes sense to split the decision into two stages. The first is to choose between the two classes of cameras, the first containing the RP and R and the second containing the R6 and the R5. The second is to choose within the class.

The reason this makes sense is that the R6 and R5 really are in an entirely different class than the RP and the R. You’ll notice an increase in image quality between the RP and the R, but the move from the R to the R6 is just astounding. The R has essentially the same sensor as the Canon 5D Mark IV, which means you’re getting the image quality of one of the best renowned DSLRs with the features of a mirrorless camera. With the R6 and R5 you’re getting a truly revolutionary system with gorgeous color depth, phenomenal low light performance, in body image stabilization, huge dynamic range, among many other cutting edge developments.

So who are these classes for? The RP and the R were clearly designed by canon to be enthusiast level cameras. The main indicator of this is the lack of the second SD card slot. That doesn’t mean you can’t produce professional quality images with these cameras, though, and depending on what you shoot the R may be enough. You still get beautiful images off of both cameras and if you’re not shooting events like weddings where image security is essential, the lack of the second card slot might not matter as much to you.

That said, these cameras are really for the people without the budget for the R6 and the R5. If you’re just getting started or want a good mirrorless camera without the high budget, these are good choices. In fact, if you’re just starting out and don’t have a good set of lenses, I would recommend getting the RP or the R with an L series lens. Upgrading your glass will do more for the quality of your images than upgrading the camera body.

The R6 and the R5 are built to be truly revolutionary professional level cameras. But they do come with a high price tag that may not be worthwhile for everyone. Moving into this class of systems is definitely worthwhile, but don’t sacrifice the quality of glass you can get just to get the R6. You’re going to do better with a good L series lens on an R than you will with a cheap lens on the R6.

Should I get the RP or the R?

If you’ve decided that you just don’t have the budget for the R6 right now (which is perfectly fine! No shame in that at all and you’re still looking at very high quality cameras), the next choice is to decide between the RP and the R. To start out, if you do any video work, the choice is easy and you should get the R. Beyond having a lot more options for video settings, the R can shoot in CLOG, which will preserve a greater level of dynamic range and color depth. Both cameras have a pretty substantial crop when shooting in 4k, which is annoying at best, but the R will still give you much better quality than the RP. In fact, the R may be the sweet spot for vloggers and youtubers who don’t have the budget for or who just don’t need a camera like the R5 but still need to shoot high quality video.

If you only shoot stills, the R is still a much better camera. It has a higher resolution sensor, and you will notice the difference especially if you do much cropping in post. It also has noticeably better dynamic range and color depth. If you can stretch the budget to the R, it’s definitely worthwhile. And I’d recommend shopping used – you can get a good quality used R for around $1,500. But if you really can’t stretch the budget, the RP is still a great camera and an easy camera to start out on for beginners.

Should I get the R6 or R5?

First of all, no matter which of these cameras you get, you’re going to be blown away. But the decision between these two is important, particularly because there’s a substantial price difference. And it’s important to recognize that the price difference is larger than it initially appears because the R5 uses CFExpress cards. These are what allows it to shoot in 8k raw, but they’re also wildly expensive. Make sure to price out the memory cards you’ll need and factor that into your budget.

So who is each camera right for?

If you shoot video, there’s no question that the R5 blows the R6 out of the water. It can shoot in 8k raw, 4k at 120p, and CLOG3. It also has more options like custom video modes, which is a major firmware limitation built into the R6. Additionally, if you do any hybrid photo/video work (like we do for weddings), the R6 is much harder to use. The reason is that the only way to use the record button on top while in a photo mode is in auto exposure mode, which means you have no control over your camera settings. The workaround is to make C3 mode on your dial into your manual mode so you can easily switch between that and manual video mode (otherwise M is on the opposite side of the dial from video), but even then the transition is clunky. With the R5, the record button is linked to C3 video, meaning you can set that up as a manual video mode.

All that said, the R6 still shoots gorgeous video and with the latest firmware update can shoot in CLOG3. It’s still limited to 4k 60fps as its highest quality video mode, but that’s more than enough for many video shooters. Given the massive price difference, it’s certainly worthwhile thinking about whether you need all of the high quality video settings of the R5. But if you do hybrid work, I don’t think there’s much of a question that the R5 is a necessity.

If you only take photos, the decision is harder. To start out, there is an image quality difference between the R6 and the R5. When you upgrade to the R5, you get a bit more color depth, which is noticeable in editing if you’re comparing images side by side. But you probably will never notice if you’re not editing similar images right next to each other. I think that the extra megapixels on the R5 do make images seem a tad bit sharper, but that’s again something that you’re probably not going to notice unless you’re comparing images side by side. It’s nice to be able to crop a lot on the R5 and does help you not miss shots in fast moving environments because you know you can crop later in post. But the size of images coming off the R6 are plenty large to blow up the images as large as the vast majority of photographers will ever need to. I have noticed little to no difference in low light performance. Ultimately these are fairly minor differences and for most photographers the R6 will be more than enough.

So here’s my recommendation for photographers: if budget really isn’t a concern, get the R5. It’s overall the better camera and you’ll get the best image quality that Canon can offer. But if you’re at all budget constrained, I think that for most photographers it will make more sense to get the R6 and save the money that makes up the cost difference to invest in some of the phenomenal RF series glass that Canon has released. That’s going to make a far greater difference in image quality than the marginal differences between the R6 and the R5.

Summary

If you shoot video, there’s no question that the R5 blows everything else here out of the water and for most video shooters, it will be the right choice. If you shoot hybrid photo and video, the R5 is also the most functional.

If you only shoot stills, the RP and the R are good options if you’re on a tight budget. If you’re looking for a professional level camera, the R6 will make the most sense for most photographers and you can use the substantial price savings to invest in the incredible RF series glass that Canon has been coming out with. If budget isn’t a concern at all, then get the R5.

The post Which Canon R Series Camera is Right For Me? first appeared on Tucker Shots.

Gibson’s Senior Shoot

tuckershots — Thu, 20 May 2021 02:03:27 +0000

Gibson's senior shoot

Gibson is such an awesome kid. He makes being cool look effortless. To top things off, he has the looks of a male model! The abandoned hospital and downtown Trenton made for the ideal backdrop for this Jersey Boy. I loved getting to explore Trenton with Gibson and his mom. I can’t wait to see where he goes in his life!

The post Gibson’s Senior Shoot first appeared on Tucker Shots.

Hannah’s Maternity Shoot

tuckershots — Sun, 16 May 2021 02:46:29 +0000

Hannah's Maternity shoot

Hannah is one of the rare people who are genuinely herself in all situations and lightens any room she enters. She is genuinely herself and I was over the moon when she told me she was expecting her bundle of joy! Besides being a great person, she’s a PhD candidate at Princeton University. When the magnolias started blooming, we were able to take advantage of the flowers for this amazing shoot!

The post Hannah’s Maternity Shoot first appeared on Tucker Shots.

Best Month of the Year

tuckershots — Sun, 16 May 2021 01:51:28 +0000

Best Month of the year

Today is May 15th, but there is plenty of time to enjoy the best month of the year! Why is May the best month, you may be asking? Well, let me tell you!

Team Gemini! May is birth month at the Tucker residence. Sharing a birth month with your spouse means that you get to celebrate each other, yourself, and your relationship as a whole all month!
Spring is in full swing! As a SoCal girl, I never realized just how beautiful and rough seasons can be until moving out East, but wow. May is now a whole mood, with everything finally blooming and temperatures at the point where I can finally take off (most of) my jackets!
Walks in the park! Our four-legged friends get to venture out more frequently since days are longer, not as cold and not too hot for their paws. Deer, rabbits, groundhogs and squirrels are out and about and the streams around here aren’t too full or too dry, making it perfect for the pups to splash around in during our adventures in the park.
Memorial Day in the United States of America. This day is a day for remembering those who have paid the ultimate price for the freedoms that we enjoy so freely in this country. We honor those who serve and have served.
Mental Health Awareness Month! There is such a stigma around mental health and it’s easy to inadvertently use language that can make the struggles of others harder to handle. Be kind and educate yourself. For those fighting mental dragons of all kinds, we see you, honor you and are here for you. You are not alone.
National Photography Month! I will admit that I didn’t realize this was a thing until today. I think I might have known this years ago, but was reminded by the internet this week that this is a thing! Get snapping!

This list could go on, but we need to run to our second shoot of the day. Take care and enjoy the best month of the year!

Best,

Karyn and Jacob

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Megan’s Maternity Photos

tuckershots — Fri, 14 May 2021 00:29:10 +0000

Megan's Maternity Photos

Sam and Megan (PhD candidate) were among the first friends we made when we first moved to New Jersey and we have been lucky enough to maintain the friendship after their move. We were so thrilled for them when we heard that Megan was expecting and are honored to have captured photos of this intimate and sacred time of life for our friends. To say she is going to be an amazing mother is an understatement!

We found a covered bridge and an old church building in Rising Sun, MD that is about halfway between Washington D.C. and Lawrenceville, NJ and met there on Mother’s Day afternoon. The rain stayed away and the weather was quite pleasant for the duration of the shoot, making for a fun day with friends.

If Megan’s child is anything like his parents, the world is going to be much better for his birth. We are so excited to meet him and hope the remainder of the pregnancy is smooth!

The post Megan’s Maternity Photos first appeared on Tucker Shots.