Wedding Advice

[pfritzd]

Greetings All,

I've been "suckered" into doing a friend's wedding and wanted some advice ... Here's what I know and my plans ... any tips, advice, DOs & DONT's would be greatly appreciated. Ok -- here goes.

My friend asked me to do his wedding (not the entire thing) after seeing a lot of pics I've taken of RC races, my kid, my dogs ... I told him I've got NO experience with weddings and that he should get someone else ... well he threw the bone that would get me ... I could use it as a learning experience for the freelance work I do .. well I bit.

The wedding is to be held at Red Rocks (here in Colorado) at dusk. The scenary at this place is awesome ... but as you can guess from the name of the place there are a lot of red rocks that will give off thier lovely glow when any light source hits them, and to complicate things a bit ... my friend is one of the palest guys I know.

The wedding is the 21st of this month. I am going out to scout the location this weekend. My wife has agreed to be my lovely assistant for this event (and thank goodness .. she has an eye for wedding stuff). I will be using my d70 and bringing the 3 lenses that I own (see below my name), 1 sb 800 flash, tripod, and a list of shots that I got from the couple that I know they want, as well as photos I should get. I plan on renting an extra camera body and a reflector.

The questions ... do i shoot in RAW (WB will be a bit tricky b/c of the time of day as well as the "red" background? or do I shoot in HiRes jpeg. Anything else I should bring (besides food, water, and a good attitude)? Anything I shouldn't do? Where do I bounce the flash (off the reflector) to get the "cleanest" light source? ...

If you can't tell I am SCARED ... but figure if I come prepared and give it my best .. that's all I can ask for ...

Anyway .. sorry for the long ramble ... but any tips would be appreciated

thanks :)

[pfritzd]

ohh -- to add one more wrinkle ... if the weather doesn't cooperate ... the wedding will be held indoors ...

[shutterflypro]

You won't need the tripod, everything occurs too quickly for that.

[MyKey]

Best advice I can give you for a newbie is to shoot RAW. It will allow you to correct newbie mistakes in the way of exposure to white balance and everything in between. Since everything happens so fast as ShutterflyPro said you will make mistakes I promise you and by shooting RAW you will be able to go back and correct many of them. While it is much more work, shooting RAW was one of the best things I have ever done to jump my wedding business into the next level. Besides that relax have fun, do some fun stupid pics before the wedding with each of the Bride and Groom to help relax them and just do what feels right. Once you get some decent stuff have fun and try and get creative and just go with the flow. It will happen no matter what so do not freak out!

[cmalana]

I second the suggestion to shoot in RAW. You will be needing to correct WB quite a bit, and also your exposure given the extremes faced in a wedding (white dress/dark suits). If the camera sets wrong exposure, it'll be off by a lot (more than 1 stop at times).

You may want to rent a good, fast zoom (nikon equiv of a 24-70/2.8) because you'll use that the most. (You mentioned 3 lenses but only had 2 on your sig). I also recommend getting a good diffuser for your flash. You'll be relying on it. Bring extra batteries...between using diffuser/bounce and shooting indoors, you'll need them.

If you're not used to shooting RAW, bring plenty of flashcards and perhaps even a way to download (laptop?). You'll probably take around 600-1000 shots, so plan appropriately. The bigger the group shots, the more shots - someone will blink!

I'm no expert but I hope that helps.

[AjP]

RAW, RAW and RAW

the best range for weddings something between 16-200, sometime you need wide angle, sometimes telephoto for curtain pics.. but most of the time (agree with Clamana) 24-70 or equv is 90% fo the time... I don't know if you really need tripod, only for group pics (may be) and u might us you bees and might now... but bring external camera flash for sure and try to bounce it as much as you can.

IMHO

[Erin Kathleen]

Yup, LOTS of FCs. You'll be surprised at how many you fill up and how quickly. If you can, bring a laptop to dump to as necessary. Especially at your first wedding, it's always better to shoot too many and throw them out later than to miss that all-important shot (or 100 all-important shots). Things move fast. VERY fast. Shoot RAW, like the guys were saying, and fix the WB later. You won't have time for it then. The 24-70 would be a nice lens to have if you can rent one. I've shot a few weddings without it and then I've shot entire weddings JUST using that. It all depends on the wedding, the couple, your style, etc. And don't forget to have fun. Like Mykey said, get the key shots that you "have" to get, and then just have fun and get some really crazy stuff too. That's usually everyone's favorite shot and definitely the most fun to shoot.

[ndsimm]

Originally Posted by MyKey

Best advise I can give you for a newbie is to shoot RAW. It will allow you to correct newbie mistakes in the way of exposure to white balance and everything in between.

Newbies aren't the only ones that need to correct mistakes
Ditto on the RAW and since you are going out there, try and go around the same time as the wedding and shoot some of a nice model (i.e. the wife ) to get an idea of how things will look.

As it has been said, have a good time and take the pressure off yourself

[Erin Kathleen]

Oh yeah - and look at LOTS of wedding websites when you have time. They will give you tons of fun ideas to try and hints on how to pose and all that. I especially like to use Mykey's for ideas.

[Holly]

I like to bounce off the ceiling whenever I can. Shoot manual especially when using flash. You are smarter than the in camera metering system. I agree with the RAW comments, memory cards are cheap. And more durable than a portable hard drive. LOTS of batteries for everything. Take a peek the night before at some wedding photographers you admire, figure out what it is you like about certain images, and what you don't. While you don't want to copy someone, take the ideas behind it and make it your own. And like MyKey said..don't be afraid to experiment after you've gotten the standard, must have stuff. My favorite part of the weddings (after the detail shots of course ) is the dancing. SO much fun to be had with people dancing, who by this time are more than comfortable having you around and are natural. And by this time, you've gotten all of the necessary stuff.. and can have a lot of fun...laying the camera on the floor with a wide angle, standing on a chair, holding it above the crowd, dragging the shutter, endless fun to be had with multi-colored strobe lights....you get the idea. Have fun! And don't forget to pack yourself a little snack in the gear bag, in case you get hungry before, or don't get a chance to eat, at the reception. (beef jerky for me) Some weddings (and my last one did this) can drag on for 14+ hours, when you had only planned on staying for about 9 or 10.

[markperez]

I just shot my friends wedding at Red Rocks (well near by there anyway) and you MUST i repeat MUST shoot in RAW. I really wish I did because I have so many over exposed photos because of the afternoon sun (I am blaming that instead of me). Please learn from my mistakes. PLEASE!!!

I really need to get some sleep.

[CypressPhotog]

I agree with Wilson: before every wedding I psych myself up by poring over wedding sites to get some cool ideas and get my mind in the wedding mode.
At my wedding I wanted way more pics of guests. I still have no memory of so many guests being there and I also have no pics of them. Work the room. Assume the bride wasn't even there--take pics of everything so that she can remind herself later.

[pfritzd]

WOW -- thank you everyone!! I am furiosly cutting & pasting all of your comments into my cheat sheet. I am sure I'll come up with a few more questions after I scout the site ... but for now you've given me a lot to work with -- Gracias :)

[pfritzd]

Scouted out the site .... I should be in good shape with my current equipment ...

While scouting out the site, there was another photographer there doing a weddnig shoot (needless to say, I followed him around taking notes on where he shot and the poses he had the new couple doing) ... the question ... he used a light box instead of a flash off of his camera ... I used a flash (sb800) and at close ranges it works great, but at distance, I obviously lose the light from the flash .... the magical question ... do I rent a light box ... or do I use a homemade gizmo that allows me to place the flash as close to the couple as possible ... or keep it on the camera and just move in

posted a few pics to illustrate the lighting issue
















As usual gracias for your help

[ndsimm]

check your settings on the camera and the flash. Based on these images, the SB800 should have no problem giving you enough light. I have used the SB800 at much farther distances and had no problems with lighting at all. Are you shooting Program, Apeture Priority, Shutter, or Manual???