Bit off quite the chewy wad!

[Elsaspet]

Ok, I took a few photos of my neighbors kid and she loved them and was showing them around to some girls at a Keno party and a friend of hers wants us to do her neices wedding. Whaaaa??
I told them that we haven't ever done a wedding and would have no idea how to do one. We were asked, "so you will give a discounted rate then?"
LOL.
Ok, what books or advice or websites can you turn me on to so I can start cramming for this little adventure.
And yes, I know it will be a disaster!!!!!! :shock:

[eurotrash]

Originally Posted by Elsaspet

Ok, I took a few photos of my neighbors kid and she loved them and was showing them around to some girls at a Keno party and a friend of hers wants us to do her neices wedding. Whaaaa??
I told them that we haven't ever done a wedding and would have no idea how to do one. We were asked, "so you will give a discounted rate then?"
LOL.
Ok, what books or advice or websites can you turn me on to so I can start cramming for this little adventure.
And yes, I know it will be a disaster!!!!!! :shock:

if you get in over your head, i call first dibs. and ill even give you a sweet referral fee, which you have the option of waiving since im a young, poor, hungry boy.

-todd

[Bill Huber]

Do you know someone with a wedding album that you can set down with and look at the type of pictures that are being taken. If not let me know and I am sure I can get my daughter's from last June.

I would set down with the bride and find out just what she wants, and make a list of them.

Once you know the type of pictures you will be shooting, make a list on a card to carry with you as a check list so you do not miss any of the shots.

You will need an external flash, a good tripod and I always had a helper.
Between now and the wedding go inside and take all the pictures you can with the flash, take people shots, just anyone you can and have them dress in white. Now if you can find 2 persons to take pictures of have one in white and one in black. One of the biggest problems is all that white and all that black.

A church would be the best place to practice if you could, a lot of times there is very poor lighting and you need to work with it. Work with dragging the shutter, or slow sync with the flash, you will need to get light in the images and not just be a cold black background.

Anyway I am sure the pros can give you a lot better info them me, but as you know I always have to put in my 2 cents....

[Noe]

Here is a "short" list i found online or in a book. I have the word file, if oyu need it I can email it to you.

Wedding Photography Checklist


Brides house
 Mother / Maid Of Honor adjusting veil
 Bride putting on garter with brides maid looking
 Bride in dressing room with mirror
 Corsage being pinned on mother
 Corsage being pinned on father
 Portrait of mother and bride
 Portrait of father and bride
 Brothers and sisters with bride
 Group shot of bride with bridesmaids
 Individual shots of bride with each bridesmaid
 Bride leaving house with bridesmaid and parents
 Father helping bride into car

Church Prior to Ceremony
 Groom and Groomsmen photographs
 Best man adjusting groom’s tie
 Groom and best man handshaking
 Groom with father
 Bride and Matron of Honor
 Bride with parents
 Bride with mother
 Bride with father
 Bride kissing father on cheek




 Bride and mother with father looking on
 Bride and bridesmaids group pose in dressing room
 Bride’s mother on usher’s arm
 Grandparents accompanied down the aisle
 Other people accompanied down the aisle

During Ceremony
 Bridal party coming the aisle
 Bridesmaid, flower girls, and ring bearer coming down the aisle
 Bride being taken down the aisle by father
 Father giving away bride
 Shots during ceremony
 Time exposure of overall area during ceremony

After Ceremony At Church
 Bride and groom coming down aisle
 Receiving line after ceremony
 Best man signing certificate with bride and groom looking on
 Matron of honor signing certificate with bride and groom looking on

Set Poses at the Church
 Groom kissing bride at altar full length
 Groom kissing bride at altar ¾ pose
 Groom kissing bride at altar tight head shot
 Groom putting ring on brides finger
 Bride putting ring on groom’s finger
 Bride and groom lighting candles, full length
 Bride and groom lighting candles, ¾ pose
 Bride and groom’s hands with rings and flowers
 Bride and groom with officiator
 Bride and groom and bridal party with officiator
 Missed shots during ceremony
 Bride with bridesmaids flowers around her
 Bride and groomsmen
 Groom with bridesmaid
 Bride and groom at church door or stained glass in silhouette
 Bride and groom on steps of church
 Bride and bridesmaid on the step s of the church
 Groom and groomsmen on the steps of the church
 Group shots inside church
 Bride and groom with bridal party
 Bride and groom with bride’s family (all, immediate, parents)
 Bride and groom with groom’s family (all, immediate, parents)
 Bride with her parents
 Bride with her mother
 Bride with her father
 Groom with his parents
 Groom with his mother
 Groom with his father
 Bride and groom with both sets of parents
 Bride and groom with special family members
 Bride and groom leaving inside of church
 Getting into car
 Shot through sun roof of limo
 Shot while seated in limo
 Wide shot of church / ceremony site and limo

Outside shots
 Outdoor shots of bride and groom
 Outdoor shots of bridal party
 Shots of groom and best man
 Shot of groom and groomsmen
 Shots of bride and maid of honor
 Shots of bride and bridesmaids

Reception
 Wedding cake
 Guest book
 Guests signing book
 Wedding favors
 Gift table
 Introduction of the wedding party
 Wedding party toasting bride and groom
 Close up of bride and groom toasting
 Close up of bride and groom at head table kissing
 Groups shots of guests at their table during their meal
 First dance
 Bride and father dance
 Groom and mother dance
 Parents dancing
 Bridal party dancing
 Guests dancing
 Bride showing rings to bridesmaids
 General dancing shots
 Flower girl and ring bearer together
 Candids of guests and bridal party
 Bride and groom posed in front of cake
 Cutting the cake
 Bride and groom feeding cake to each other
 Bride faking the bouquet toss
 Bride throwing the bouquet
 The catch of the bouquet
 Groom taking off garter
 Groom throwing garter
 Catching of the garter
 Guests leaving
 Posed departure shots of bride and groom
 Getaway car
 Bride and groom leaving reception area
 Bride and groom in car as it goes the distance

Noe Medrano
noe_medrano@yahoo.com

[jheiliger]

The best thing you can do for her is refer her to a friend that is a pro... and I am serious.

Let me tell you a story...

About 8 months ago, on a Monday afternoon, a couple called me. They were very upset because their daughter was getting married THAT SATURDAY, and they had just recieved her pre-bridal portraits from the photographer that was supposed to shoot her wedding. They were upset because, "for some reason they look horrible when we print them any larger than 4x6." They had all permissions from the photographer to do whatever they wanted with the images, so I told them to bring them over. They informed me that they had a disk with the images on it, and they came over.

Upon inspecting the files, there were some problems.

1) The file size - each file on the disk that she had was about 150kb-200kb. Not big enough to print hardly anything.

2) They had been heavily sharpened to mask the lack of focus and camera shake.

I began explaining what the issues were, and the gentleman, who was relatively tech savy, seemed to understand. He said, "So, the settings in her camera were wrong? How can she correct it??" I told him that every photographer makes mistakes, but that she needed to be made aware of the issues. Some of the errors were just really, really poor technique, and I told him that, "No camera in the world can fix that."

Then I expressly told him: If it were me, I would not want someone practicing on my daughter's wedding.

I was free that weekend, and I could have shot the wedding if they wanted me too.

I spoke with them a couple of days later after they had talked with the other photographer, and he told me that "she knew what she did wrong, and that she would correct it for the wedding."

FAST FOWARD 8 MONTHS -

I get a call a week ago, and it is the mother of this same bride asking me if I remembered her. I said sure and asked how I could help her. She said, "Well, here we are 8 months after the wedding, and we STILL don't have any wedding pictures." She began to tell me how after the wedding, the photographer became very "stand-off-ish", wouldn't return their phone calls, and finally she moved to another city about 250 miles away. Before she moved, she dropped a disk with the images from the wedding in their mailbox with letter that said sorry for the inconvienience. I began to wonder... so why are you calling me??

Then she told me that the images that were in a format that they couldn't open on thier computer and wanted me to open and convert them to a different format so that they could at least see them on their computer. She wanted me to do some prints for them and possibly build an album. I said sure, told her what the fee would be, and she happily agreed.

Well, I opened the disk as the files were Nikon RAW, and OH BOY:

- there are only 80 files from the entire wedding on the disk.
- 10-15 of those are duplicates of other images on the disk.
- 20 of the images were shot at 1/3 or even 1/2 of a second! And, obviously unusable.
- 25 of the images were shot at the reception with the "on-camera" flash, and look like it.

So, from the mere 80 images that the lady did take, only about 25-30 of them are even print worthy. More than half of those have considerable camera shake and can't be printed larger than 5x7.

No offense intended, but, if you have not recieved any training from a pro and spent considerable time with the equipment in a wedding environment, do her a favor and don't do it. You don't want to bear the responsibility of possibly screwing up someone's wedding pictures.

The reality is that a wedding is an event that cannot be recreated. Even if they went as far as to walk through the day again, the feeling and emotion would be totally different.

I say all this in a spirit of humility and grace, and am not trying to make anyone angry in any way.

Let me ask you a question Elsaspet... If you went to this wedding and screwed up the pictures, would you ever again have the courage to go and photograph another wedding?? I would encourage you... If you want to shoot weddings, go as a second photographer with a pro that can teach you for a season of weddings (6 months) and learn what to do and how. You will have greater confidence, a portfolio, and freedom to be somewhat creative because you already know and understand the basics of how the day should flow, what shots to take, and where to be when.

With all kindness,

Joe

[Elsaspet]

Hi all, thank you for the responses.
Joe I absolutely agree but apparently this lady is very cash poor. I totally agree with everything you said, and like I said I know it's going to be a disaster. I don't want to make an enemy of my friend's friend.
However, I don't know if she will end up with having to settle with Uncle Johnny's point and shoot if we don't do the wedding. In that case she would be way better off with me because at least I have top notch equipment.
I'm not sure which is the ethically correct choice here. Honestly.
I'd really like to discuss this more, because now I'm REALLLLLLLY confused.

[gpgyo]

It sounds to me like the decision to use you as the wedding photographer is as much a financial decision as it is anything else. While you may not be experienced at weddings, you are an accomplished photographer. For them, that's probably better than the alternative.

I think you need to just level with them. Make sure they understand your experience. Make them "work" for a discounted rate by searching the Internet or other wedding albums for the kinds of pictures they want and do your best to get what you can. I suspect that you will work very hard studying wedding pictures before the wedding and at this wedding and provide them an album they will be excited about. Perhaps not as good an album as an experienced wedding photographer but if they could afford that, they would not have asked you to do it.

You could always look at it this way, with over half of all marriages ending in divorce, odds are by the time either one gets married again, you will have a couple more weddings under your belt and will be able to an even better job for them next time.

Do it and have fun,
Greg

[labguy]

Hmmmm wonder how much they're spending on flowers, food, limo etc. everything that will be gone in a few hours!!! the pix are the only thing left years later.

[ShutteredEye]

Let me tell you a story. :D :D (and no disrespect intended to those above.)

I too was put in this situation. I had never shot a wedding before, and was asked to by my future sister in law. I agreed somewhat reluctantly, but since they were doing the "ultimate discount wedding" I figured I could manage.

I went and talked to the guys at my local camera store. Bought a decent tripod, a decent flash, and a book on wedding photography because it had a great list like above.

Went ahead and shot the wedding. I did an engagement session first which really let me get comfortable with the whole arrangement. The pics turned out great, she gets compliments every time someone sees her album. And they are very surprised to hear her bro in law took them and had them developed at the local Wolf Camera.

So, there is another viewpoint. You can do it, and have them be happy with their photos.

[jheiliger]

Here's what you do...

If you want to go ahead and shoot the wedding, then shoot it, and don't charge her. If you charge her, then she can place ALL KINDS of expectations on you. But, if you are doing as a "Favor" (and so you can get some portfolio shots and learn), then she really can't say squat to you about what the product looks like. She didn't "hire a professional", you showed up as a favor and did the best you could.

If afterward she, out of kindness, wants to give you "something" for your work, then accept it kindly.

This keeps her expectations low, you haven't promised anything, and the end can only be good. Because, what you do provide will, I am sure, be better than uncle bubba's Walmart disposable.

I hope this makes since...

Joe

[Elsaspet]

We are on the same page Joe. I made that offer just today.

[Elsaspet]

Originally Posted by labguy

Hmmmm wonder how much they're spending on flowers, food, limo etc. everything that will be gone in a few hours!!! the pix are the only thing left years later.

How true is that!

[Elsaspet]

deleted.

[saberry]

I won't pretend to be anywhere near qualified to shoot a wedding, but I will make one recommendation. Take a helper - someone who doesn't mind carrying gear and being a gopher. Years back my dad used to do Wedding Photography on the side. I, of course, was the helper. Along with carrying gear, I would help make sure we had gotton all the photos on a list like the one Noe posted. I'd also make sure whoever was needed for the next shot was present by the time the previous shot was done. You'll be amazed how hard it is just to get people to stay in one place for a few minutes.

[mramos]

Make sure to talk to the minister who is doing the ceremony, to find out the photography rules. Is flash allowed? when is it allowed? can you move around or do you have to be stationary? etc. Every church and officiator has there own rules so you have to find out before you get there. Most of the time flash is allowed as the wedding party is walking in, then not allowed during the ceremony, until the kiss. Like I said, each minister is different, and each has their own set of rules. If flash is not allowed, do you have fast lens (f1.4, f1.8). Find out where it is going to be, and go practice at the same time of day, that way you can check out the lighting. good luck.