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Reading Lovegroves Wedding book and he certainly loves his f4 and 1/60... in fact I would say the majority of the books images follow those settings...
Do you normally strive to shoot at a favourite setting first or just go with an open mind and use whatever is needed?
I go with an open mind and use whatever is needed
It all depends if you choose to use a tripod or not I suppose.
I would imagine the photographs in the book you are talking about were all taken hand-held going by the settings?
Not all shots were and a lot with fill flash... but aside I was just wondering if lots of people actually go to shoots with "I really want to use... settings".. rather than just approching it fresh and a "each shoot has a favourite setting" attitude.
I suspect the reason for using fill-in flash was also to keep the shutter speeds from dropping too low to safely handhold.
I'm not sure if your talking about yourself doing a wedding shoot?
Speaking for myself I always try and get a setting like f/16 and a fairly slow shutter speed if possible but this limits me to always using a tripod.
Last time I handheld during a wolf shoot meant I had to use flash, not to light things up as they were too far away for the flash to even reach them but it meant I could manage a faster shutter speed than if the flash had stayed in the bag.
Only one way to see what you like is to get out there and see what works and what doesn't.
Ok... I'm just curious as to whether people approach shoots with a favourite in mind... nothing to do with anything I'm shooting or not shooting... just interested.
Sorry I should have put it in general discussion.
OK, I'll bite!
Quote: I had to use flash, not to light things up as they were too far away for the flash to even reach them but it meant I could manage a faster shutter speed than if the flash had stayed in the bag.
If you were only using flash to use a faster shutter speed, but the flash had no effect on the subject, then why use flash? Why not just keep the flash in the bag and use a faster shutter speed anyway? Surely the flash must have been contributing to the image in some way?
Back to the original question.
It really depends on what I'm shooting and what I'm using.
If I'm shooting landscapes with my EOS5d and 17-35mm lens then I try to stick at f16 as much as possible. If I'm using the Linhof 617 then it'll be f32 (and about 4 days!)
If I'm in a studio, or to some extent outside with flash then I'll try to get an aperture of around f5.6 or 8, but that's just me.
To say that Mr Lovegrove seems to love f4 @ 1/60 would indicate that he has some degree of control over the light, which could indicate the use of flash?
Ohh for sure.. he uses flash (ttl).. mainly off camera from what I've read.. I just think its interesting. I was reading another article by a portrait tog who does hollywood celebs and musicians who states he always uses f8..
Quote: OK, I'll bite! Quote:I had to use flash, not to light things up as they were too far away for the flash to even reach them but it meant I could manage a faster shutter speed than if the flash had stayed in the bag.If you were only using flash to use a faster shutter speed, but the flash had no effect on the subject, then why use flash? Why not just keep the flash in the bag and use a faster shutter speed anyway? Surely the flash must have been contributing to the image in some way?
Mirror lens, fixed aperture, shutter speed way to slow to safely hand hold hence the flash to increase the shutter speed...thought you would have known that.... The wolves were several hundred yards away and way out of range of any flash gun known to man, or in other words the only way I could use a decent speed and make use of the f/8 was to fire off the flash while at the same time knowing it would not affect the lighting...easy really.
Quote: Does your camera not have a manual setting then?
Not much good when the light is always changing, the subject is on the move and you are trying to focus on a manual setting...I thought you would have known that.
Quote: ...thought you would have known that....
I must say, I wondered what that was all about too - never heard of having to fire a strobe to achieve faster shutter speeds, without the light affecting the image, but then, I've never used a mirror lens.
I think BigCol was right to ask for clarification - the way it was written might have made sense to you, but not to anyone else 
For what it's worth, I tend to stick to f2.8 for social photography, using apperture priority. This is usually more down to the (lack of!) available light than anything else, though I do like a shallow depth of field to seperate the subject from a sea of faces and distracting BGs.
OK still makes no sense to me, adding the flash will set a shutter speed of say 1/60th, but if the flash has no effect on the available light/exposure then the image will still be underexposed. So you may as well choose that setting manually and deal with the underexposure later - not something I would chose to do myself.
Oh and f/4 is my fav aperture 
But of course it is subject dependant.
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