Asked short notice to shoot a wedding, looking advice/help.

wilt

wilt

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Steven
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I've been asked to photograph a friends daughters wedding very short notice (this Saturday). I've never shot a wedding and never wanted too but I've said yes and now need to get it sorted in my head.
It's meant to be a very small, relaxed and no pressure wedding.
I know it'll wreck me physically as I had to give up shooting events, but want to do my friend a favour. I'm not getting paid, although he did offer.
I'll have a Nikon Z8 and if it arrives on time a Nikon Z50II to double sling.
It's in a barn and looking at images, it could be quite dark if the weather is grey.
What lenses should I pair with each camera? I want to try and stay light, but want flexibility and quality.
I have these native Z-mount glass
14-30mm f/4
24-70mm f/2.8
24-120mm f/4
20mm f/1.8
35mm f/1.8
50mm f/1.8
85mm f/1.8
70-200 f/2.8

Is all natural light possible or should I take a flash and small softbox for posed shots?
 
I shoot every wedding with a 35 /50 so you have more than enough gear.What you choose is just down to shooting style. You will rarely almost never need anything longer than 85mm or wider than 24mm.

What venue is it?

You will deffo need to bring a flash or two even just for the dancing.
 
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From someone who shot a friends wedding last year in a similar situation.....

It depends :) On where the wedding is? Inside or outside areas? The weather? Amongst other things.....

Mine was registry office & the outside for some quick group stuff & then some couples shots in a few local places - Saturday morning/midday in the middle of Bristol so the main issue was all the other people about..... Registry office was well lit & outside (aside from the group shots) I just found somewhere that wasn't direct sunlight. If you are shooting the whole standard day then I would take/use a flash too.

I used A7Riii & 35GM for the majority of it. A7 & 85mm for some couples shots & I think I took one registry room shot with the 24GM.
 
wilt said:
The Green Holiday Cottage
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Aggh right so it’s an AirBnB rather than a wedding venue.

This is what I would do with your gear.

Getting ready 20 + 35mm.

Ceremony 35 + 50 shoot wide open. Don’t worry if there is a bit of noise nobody cares about noise they will care about you firing a flash in their face. Ask what type of ceremony it is if it’s a Humanist which is likely keep an eye out for handfasting, quaitch etc. on top of the usual ceremony stuff.

Portraits either 35/50 or 35/85 use the 35 for the groups.

Speeches just use the 85mm.

Dancing 24-70 with a flash. If possible add another flash on a stand to use as a backlight no need for a modifier.
 
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f/2.8 said:
Aggh right so it’s an AirBnB rather than a wedding venue.

This is what I would do with your gear.

Getting ready 20 + 35mm.

Ceremony 35 + 50 shoot wide open. Don’t worry if there is a bit of noise nobody cares about noise they will care about you firing a flash in their face. Ask what type of ceremony it is if it’s a Humanist which is likely keep an eye out for handfasting, quaitch etc. on top of the usual ceremony stuff.

Portraits either 35/50 or 35/85 use the 35 for the groups.

Speeches just use the 85mm.

Dancing 24-70 with a flash. If possible add another flash on a stand to use as a backlight no need for a modifier.
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The Z50II is crop so anything on it will be focal x1.5
 
wilt said:
The Z50II is crop so anything on it will be focal x1.5
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Aggh right I haven’t used Nikon in years.

Use the 20mm in place of the 35 on the z50 then.
 
One thing you can do, in order to make sure you have something usefull to hand over, is to make yourself an ordered list of the shots you must take, something like...
  1. Bride on her own
  2. Bride and groom
  3. Bride, groom, best man and maids
  4. Bride, groom, best man, maids and parents
...and so on. That will make sure that they'll have at least a basic record of their wedding.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
One thing you can do, in order to make sure you have something usefull to hand over, is to make yourself an ordered list of the shots you must take, something like...
  1. Bride on her own
  2. Bride and groom
  3. Bride, groom, best man and maids
  4. Bride, groom, best man, maids and parents
...and so on. That will make sure that they'll have at least a basic record of their wedding.
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Also, out source any group shots - get the couple to make a list in advance of any group shots they want, order it sensibly (e.g. any oldies don't have to keep coming in and out) and to give the list and responsibility to someone in the wedding party (preferably someone loud who knows most of the guests) to manage. Get them to introduce you so you know who it is, but they manage it. You're just snapping while loud mouth is getting the next group shot ready.

Lenses wise I think you're really well covered especially given the crop factor. I'd just be taking the primes though. Zooms are for wildlife and travel for me.
 
Tricky01 said:
Also, out source any group shots - get the couple to make a list in advance of any group shots they want, order it sensibly (e.g. any oldies don't have to keep coming in and out) and to give the list and responsibility to someone in the wedding party (preferably someone loud who knows most of the guests) to manage. Get them to introduce you so you know who it is, but they manage it. You're just snapping while loud mouth is getting the next group shot ready.

Lenses wise I think you're really well covered especially given the crop factor. I'd just be taking the primes though. Zooms are for wildlife and travel for me.
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Using a list will add on a minimum of 30 minutes of time that the couple won’t want to waste in my experience and I hit 1000 weddings earlier in the year.

There is no need for a list parents, siblings and then up to the couple if they want anything else guarantees family photos being completed in 10-15 minutes which is usually about the time you have available.
 
f/2.8 said:
There is no need for a list parents, siblings and then up to the couple if they want anything else guarantees family photos being completed in 10-15 minutes which is usually about the time you have available.
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You know what you're doing but Steven doesn't, hence the suggestions from Simon and myself.
 
Tricky01 said:
Also, out source any group shots - get the couple to make a list in advance of any group shots they want, order it sensibly (e.g. any oldies don't have to keep coming in and out) and to give the list and responsibility to someone in the wedding party (preferably someone loud who knows most of the guests) to manage. Get them to introduce you so you know who it is, but they manage it. You're just snapping while loud mouth is getting the next group shot ready.

Lenses wise I think you're really well covered especially given the crop factor. I'd just be taking the primes though. Zooms are for wildlife and travel for me.
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Yes. It then becomes the fault of the whipper-in if anyone is missed, not yours.
Start with the largest group, work your way downwards to just the Bride.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
You know what you're doing but Steven doesn't, hence the suggestions from Simon and myself.
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He has already said that its a small relaxed wedding, I think it's better to make it as less complicated as possible. Lists will always make everything more complicated and take longer regardless of his experience level. When things take longer than expected that will cause whatever timeline the couple have to go up in flames and create a lot of stress for the guy who is doing the work. There is no point stressing the guy out for what looks like a very simple wedding to shoot.

To be fair the couple probably don't even care that much or they would have booked a wedding photographer rather than asking their Dad to ask one of his friends at the last minute.

My advice would be to keep it super simple.

For getting ready he will need to get the dress and then the usual bog standard Flowers, Shoes, Jewellery, etc. easiest thing to do is just throw them all into a layflat as it's one photo and you are done. Then some hair and make-up photos.

Ceremony is the easiest part, just shoot what is in front of you.

Grab the couple for some portraits usually best to shoot the bride on her own, groom on his own then get them together. Keep it simple, get them walking around and interacting with each other.

For group photos they are super easy to bang out. Bridal Party, Groom and Groomsmen, Bride and Bridesmaids, they may not even be any if its a small wedding.

For Family photos - parents, siblings and most of the time that will be that. If they want anything over and above that just tell the couple they will need to arrange someone to get everybody waiting before he starts then just have the couple shout out the names of the people that they want in and bang them out, job done in 10 minutes. The couple and some of the guests 9 times in 10 will hate doing these just bang them out as fast as possible so everyone can hit the bar.

Speeches - Shoot what's in front of you, don't overshoot nobody cares, just get each speaker and a few guest reactions.

If the weather is playing ball, unlikely for Saturday, grab the couple for another 10 minutes of portraits in the downtime between dinner and the dancing.

Dancing - keep it simple one camera with a 24-70 and a flash and if the space is available another flash on a stand for a backlight. If you want you could add a few shutter drag photos if they have a proper D.J style lighting set up.

Job done. Weddings are the easiest thing in the world to photograph.
 
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f/2.8 said:
My advice would be to keep it super simple.
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...which is what Simon and I were doing.

What comes naturally to you and I, after doing many weddings, is quite unnatural to a person who hasn't done one before. Our suggestion is not to make a palaver of it but to make up a simple "cheat sheet" to help him in what might otherwise become a tense situation.

He is, after all, free to accept or ignore our suggestions.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
...which is what Simon and I were doing.

What comes naturally to you and I, after doing many weddings, is quite unnatural to a person who hasn't done one before. Our suggestion is not to make a palaver of it but to make up a simple "cheat sheet" to help him in what might otherwise become a tense situation.

He is, after all, free to accept or ignore our suggestions.
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In my experience lists make nothing simple and everything becomes a tick box exercise losing much needed time.

If you are the sort of person that needs a list then work away.

From your previous posts here you don’t strike me as someone with a lot of wedding experience. How much experience do you have?
 
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f/2.8 said:
In my experience lists make nothing simple and everything becomes a tick box exercise losing much needed time.

If you are the sort of person that needs a list then work away.

From your previous posts here you don’t strike me as someone with a lot of wedding experience. How much experience do you have?
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I did a few hundred between the late 1960s and the middle of the 1980s.

It was, as I understand the current business, a very different world from how you will understand it. Most wedding studios worked on fixed numbers of fixed types of pictures. Packages were sold typically on 12, 24, 36 and 48 images; the types of image were static and posed and the albums were part of the deal. 6x6 cameras were pretty much the rule, usually TLRs and most people carried two, one as a spare. There were still people using 5x4 sheet film for the more upmarket jobs and those show offs with Hasselblads.

Typically, an operator would do two weddings a day and you had to hope that the first one finished on time! If the studio had an operator out sick or whatever, someone had to do three and then there was a lot of finding phone boxes to rearrange what job you were doing next.
 
AndrewFlannigan said:
I did a few hundred between the late 1960s and the middle of the 1980s.

It was, as I understand the current business, a very different world from how you will understand it. Most wedding studios worked on fixed numbers of fixed types of pictures. Packages were sold typically on 12, 24, 36 and 48 images; the types of image were static and posed and the albums were part of the deal. 6x6 cameras were pretty much the rule, usually TLRs and most people carried two, one as a spare. There were still people using 5x4 sheet film for the more upmarket jobs and those show offs with Hasselblads.

Typically, an operator would do two weddings a day and you had to hope that the first one finished on time! If the studio had an operator out sick or whatever, someone had to do three and then there was a lot of finding phone boxes to rearrange what job you were doing next.
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Unfortunately your experience wouldn’t really be a good match for how weddings are now being a completely different era. Wedding photography has changed a lot in the last 5-10 years even, never mind 50-60 years ago, just as they probably evolved way back in the day when you shot them. Like for example being able to shoot 3 weddings a day. While on a couple of occasions we have shot 2 elopements in a day, a typical wedding day is about 12-14 hours. Just as an example for our last wedding we left the house at 7 a.m and got home at 1.00 a.m by the time I was finished backing everything up and had generated their previews it was 4 a.m so pretty much a 21 hour day. Our wedding tomorrow will be similar as will our wedding on Saturday.

Couples expectations are completely different. Things like group photos aren't as important to a lot of couples like they would have been even when I first started shooting weddings and it's something we often find ourselves trying to almost persuade the couples into doing, especially with younger couples. It's probably because if they want a photo with a relative, it's not a big deal they can just grab a selfie on their phone. Could easily see a time in the not too distant future were they disappear completely, plenty of wedding photographers already don't do them at all.

Can also see a time in the not too distant future were wedding photography disappears completely. Content creators are already replacing videographers for a lot of couples and they provide a lot of photos as well so as technology improves that will be that for wedding photographers. Lots of videographers are already struggling to compete with content creators for non high end weddings and their job over the next couple of years is likely to become completely defunct. Only those that are happy to become completely hybrid photographer, videographer and content creator are likely to survive longterm apart from maybe the very high end market. It makes sense from the couples point of view as they can have someone that just comes along with their phone who has little to no equipment costs so are much cheaper and who can deliver everything the day after your wedding as they can just bang everything into A.I software and provide pretty decent results. Average price for a good content creator is around £750, average price for a decent photographer is about 2-3k , its about the same for a decent videographer as well.
 
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f/2.8 said:
In my experience lists make nothing simple and everything becomes a tick box exercise losing much needed time
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I completely agree, but as @AndrewFlannigan is saying, tickbox exercise is likely to be useful for someone new to this.

What OP can do is fold in your advice to the request for a list - e.g. suggest it’s only 5 or 6 different group shots, because otherwise it does become long and laborious. You started listing out siblings, the couple, maybe you can suggest the other key ones you look to capture so OP could propose these?

I think here the list serves a few purposes:
1. Removes responsibility for misses - if afterwards the couple regret any missed group shots, it’s on them.

2. Removes responsibility for time - if afterwards the couple regret the amount of time spent on group shots, it’s on them.

3. Maximises efficiency - someone else being responsible for organising them.


The couple may well decide they don’t want any/many group shots, but it’s about making sure they have the opportunity to get what they want at minimum effort to OP.

The less OP needs to think about on the day, the more they can focus on doing what they’re great at - taking beautiful pictures (and hopefully enjoying a day a bit too)
 
I visited the location and met with the couple last night.
They have a list of group shots and I've already delegated a family member on each side to round them up when needed.
There's plenty of picturesque areas for the Bride & Groom shots, but not much for groups with a clean background. Either distractions or ground that's not level.
Both the wedding ceremony and reception locations are quite dark. Inside dimly lit barns with trees surrounding them. Hopefully on the day, the weather and light levels are decent.
 
My typical wedding day would go something like.
2-4 hours at least before she leaves for the venue. Arrive at brides location for bridal prep shots, get a few of hair and make up being done, and things like the dress hanging up and shoes, a few fun shots of bride and bridesmaids, dont forget detail shots of lacing the dress etc.
If I'm on my own I'll shoot the boys at the venue (usually use a second tog) get a few of the groom and best man/groomsmen, maybe fixing ties or buttonhloe flowers, a few fun shot as well
The service (you'll often need flash) take plenty, get the ring exchange and bride coming down in with her dad. Dont shoot the actuall signing, the official usually dont like it, so shoot a set up after the actual one. I do bride and groom then add the witnesses. Then get them walking out together. This is often when confetti shot is done.
Group shots if they want any, the trick here is keeping them out of the bar.
Couple shots, ideally in nice location :rolleyes: but often not possible. I use a longer lens for some and get bride and groom on their own as well.
Speech, Be ready for unexpected things, sometimes they do daft stuff as well as the speech, and the brides often cry.
Cutting the cake, and be ready for a cake splat in ones of the cuples faces, it happens more often than you might expect
First dance, be aware of the disco lights, some use lasers which can damage a sensor, I always try to be back to the DJ's lights.
Have fun and good luck.
 
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Lots of good information, thanks
swanseamale47 said:
My typical wedding day would go something like.
2-4 hours at least before she leaves for the venue. Arrive at brides location for bridal prep shots, get a few of hair and make up being done, and things like the dress hanging up and shoes, a few fun shots of bride and bridesmaids, dont forget detail shots of lacing the dress etc.
If I'm on my own I'll shoot the boys at the venue (usually use a second tog) get a few of the groom and best man/groomsmen, maybe fixing ties or buttonhloe flowers, a few fun shot as well
The service (you'll often need flash) take plenty, get the ring exchange and bride coming down in with her dad. Dont shoot the actuall signing, the official usually dont like it, so shoot a set up after the actual one. I do bride and groom then add the witnesses. Then get them walking out together. This is often when confetti shot is done.
Group shots if they want any, the trick here is keeping them out of the bar.
Couple shots, ideally in nice location :rolleyes: but often not possible. I use a longer lens for some and get bride and groom on their own as well.
Speech, Be ready for unexpected things, sometimes they do daft stuff as well as the speech, and the brides often cry.
Cutting the cake, and be ready for a cake splat in ones of the cuples faces, it happens more often than you might expect
First dance, be aware of the disco lights, some use lasers which can damage a sensor, I always try to be back to the DJ's lights.
Have fun and good luck.
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Good Luck tomorrow!

Hope you manage to get a client list.
 
wilt said:
I've been asked to photograph a friends daughters wedding very short notice (this Saturday). I've never shot a wedding and never wanted too but I've said yes and now need to get it sorted in my head.
It's meant to be a very small, relaxed and no pressure wedding.
I know it'll wreck me physically as I had to give up shooting events, but want to do my friend a favour. I'm not getting paid, although he did offer.
I'll have a Nikon Z8 and if it arrives on time a Nikon Z50II to double sling.
It's in a barn and looking at images, it could be quite dark if the weather is grey.
What lenses should I pair with each camera? I want to try and stay light, but want flexibility and quality.
I have these native Z-mount glass
14-30mm f/4
24-70mm f/2.8
24-120mm f/4
20mm f/1.8
35mm f/1.8
50mm f/1.8
85mm f/1.8
70-200 f/2.8

Is all natural light possible or should I take a flash and small softbox for posed shots?
Click to expand...

You're in 'danger' of being overawed by the argument above lol

I'm at around 700 Weddings, including 5 in the last 9 days

EVERY ONE of which was shot 90% on my Z6ii and 24-70 f2.8, with everything but a few Groups shot at f2.8

Two of those were only shot on the 24-70, and they were all 'relaxed' with emphasis on documentary/candids rather than formals

With the crop potential of the Z8 I'd not bother with any other lenses unless you really like the shallow DoF look, in which case the 35 or 50 at f1.8 would do

TRY to have fun :)
 
swanseamale47 said:
My typical wedding day would go something like.
2-4 hours at least before she leaves for the venue. Arrive at brides location for bridal prep shots, get a few of hair and make up being done, and things like the dress hanging up and shoes, a few fun shots of bride and bridesmaids, dont forget detail shots of lacing the dress etc.
If I'm on my own I'll shoot the boys at the venue (usually use a second tog) get a few of the groom and best man/groomsmen, maybe fixing ties or buttonhloe flowers, a few fun shot as well
The service (you'll often need flash) take plenty, get the ring exchange and bride coming down in with her dad. Dont shoot the actuall signing, the official usually dont like it, so shoot a set up after the actual one. I do bride and groom then add the witnesses. Then get them walking out together. This is often when confetti shot is done.
Group shots if they want any, the trick here is keeping them out of the bar.
Couple shots, ideally in nice location :rolleyes: but often not possible. I use a longer lens for some and get bride and groom on their own as well.
Speech, Be ready for unexpected things, sometimes they do daft stuff as well as the speech, and the brides often cry.
Cutting the cake, and be ready for a cake splat in ones of the cuples faces, it happens more often than you might expect
First dance, be aware of the disco lights, some use lasers which can damage a sensor, I always try to be back to the DJ's lights.
Have fun and good luck.
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Wow 4 hours for bride prep is allowing a lot of time, don't think we have ever allowed more than 90 minutes - 2 hours and still often spend a lot of time twiddling our thumbs although to be fair there is always 2 of us so that makes everything quicker. Groom prep is normally 10-15 minutes max.

Don't know of anyone that uses flash during the ceremony other than the very old school people who use a flash for absolutely everything. Flash is the first thing most ministers and priests say isn't allowed. We are over 1k weddings in and have used flash during the ceremony once.

Shooting the actual real signing of the register is encouraged in Northern Ireland, its not like in England.

In over 1000 weddings have never once seen someone mash a cake in someones face. No other photographer I know has seen this either. Maybe it's a cultural thing, just does not happen here. It used to be a thing in the states but stopped being popular about 10-15 years ago as it's deemed to be almost offensive now. We shoot a lot of weddings and elopements for American couples travelling into Northern Ireland to get married and a few of them have mentioned this. Surprised thats normal in England.
 
f/2.8 said:
Wow 4 hours for bride prep is allowing a lot of time, don't think we have ever allowed more than 90 minutes - 2 hours and still often spend a lot of time twiddling our thumbs although to be fair there is always 2 of us so that makes everything quicker. Groom prep is normally 10-15 minutes max.

Don't know of anyone that uses flash during the ceremony other than the very old school people who use a flash for absolutely everything. Flash is the first thing most ministers and priests say isn't allowed. We are over 1k weddings in and have used flash during the ceremony once.

Shooting the actual real signing of the register is encouraged in Northern Ireland, its not like in England.

In over 1000 weddings have never once seen someone mash a cake in someones face. No other photographer I know has seen this either. Maybe it's a cultural thing, just does not happen here. It used to be a thing in the states but stopped being popular about 10-15 years ago as it's deemed to be almost offensive now. We shoot a lot of weddings and elopements for American couples travelling into Northern Ireland to get married and a few of them have mentioned this. Surprised thats normal in England.
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Four hours isn't that often, but we normally arrive the two hours before. The flash varies, a lot of the places we do are very dark, and I mean dark.

Theres a church not too far from me where the guests take torches to to see the hymn books (I kid you not) it's stupid dark. Plus a lot of the wedding venues here favor the "black hole of calcutta) look, it seemed to be the fashion a few years ago,

Thankfully that seems to be changing. :)

The cake thing is propably every few weddings? never kept count, but it's popular, and never seems planned, it also seems to happen a lot with the chocolate fountain, where the bride will get chocolate spread on her face by the groom. (this doesn't often go down well ) I never thought of it as a culture thing.

The registrars here are really strict about the register, have been for a long time, strangly back in the 1970s you normally shot the actual registrer. They blame data protection, but it's a public document anyway. Still it's easier to do a set up for me.
 
swanseamale47 said:
Four hours isn't that often, but we normally arrive the two hours before. The flash varies, a lot of the places we do are very dark, and I mean dark.

Theres a church not too far from me where the guests take torches to to see the hymn books (I kid you not) it's stupid dark. Plus a lot of the wedding venues here favor the "black hole of calcutta) look, it seemed to be the fashion a few years ago,

Thankfully that seems to be changing. :)

The cake thing is propably every few weddings? never kept count, but it's popular, and never seems planned, it also seems to happen a lot with the chocolate fountain, where the bride will get chocolate spread on her face by the groom. (this doesn't often go down well ) I never thought of it as a culture thing.

The registrars here are really strict about the register, have been for a long time, strangly back in the 1970s you normally shot the actual registrer. They blame data protection, but it's a public document anyway. Still it's easier to do a set up for me.
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I guess time needed for getting ready depends on how you work. It’s handy for us, we go in and I do all the details while my missus shoots whatever is happening until I am done. Have needed less and less time for getting ready in recent years as can just fire everything in a layflat which is what couples want now. Could prob do getting ready in well under an hour if needed. Only really need photos from the touch ups anyway.

Churches in N.I are reasonably lit, if it’s an old school church they pretty much always have usable light from the stain-glass windows. Modern churches are usually very light and airy even though they often have a conference centre vibe.

You get the odd venue usually the lower end ones were lighting can be a bit of an issue but not enough to absolutely have to use flash. We have only used flash during the ceremony once just because there was no lighting at all just a few fairy lights in a completely dark room. I know a couple of photographers that have tried using flash during the ceremony who got tore to shreds by both the couple and the officiant. There are hardly any of the old school guys that use on camera flash for everything at weddings left anymore. With how good cameras are these days I can’t see any reason why anyone would need to use flash during the ceremony.

The cake thing is an odd one that just wouldn’t happen here. Have never seen a chocolate fountain be used that way either. Have never even seen a bride go near it. They seem to be mainly used by the kids etc.

A set up photo from signing the register we would only do if the couple ask for it and that is pretty rare. Most of our couples don’t want to do any set up photos, maybe that’s just down to the type of couple we attract. I do remember seeing other English photographers talk about not being allowed to shoot it as it happens, some even seemed to think it was against the law, but have no idea as not a thing here.

Differences are probably just regional variances. A wedding here won’t be exactly the same as an English wedding. In saying that though we shoot weddings for couples from all over the U.K who have come here to get married and not heard of any of that. Our couple for today for example are coming in from London. We have one for a couple from Glasgow and a couple from Leeds next week. Maybe they just decided to do things as we normally would here.
 
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I've shot at that location...there's plenty of areas to use especially down by the river ....it's a great spot for a wedding and the owners are very helpful
 
Dave Goodier said:
You're in 'danger' of being overawed by the argument above lol

I'm at around 700 Weddings, including 5 in the last 9 days

EVERY ONE of which was shot 90% on my Z6ii and 24-70 f2.8, with everything but a few Groups shot at f2.8

Two of those were only shot on the 24-70, and they were all 'relaxed' with emphasis on documentary/candids rather than formals

With the crop potential of the Z8 I'd not bother with any other lenses unless you really like the shallow DoF look, in which case the 35 or 50 at f1.8 would do

TRY to have fun :)
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You're an alien species to my one if you can find fun in that!!! :)

I mean that in an admiring sense.

I'd find a wedding very stressful.
 
I've a new found appreciation for wedding photographers and a confirmation that it's something I'll never do again.
It was very stressful but overall they look to have turned out pretty good.
A very long day starting with a 6:30am trip to the hotel and 9pm finish, after first few dances. I'm completely wrecked.
The two guys in charge of rounding up the group shots done a decent job and they were reasonably quick to get through.

My only criticism is the "barn" was incredibly dimly lit, practically fairy lights for the dance shots and I struggled to get focus, even when put into in starlight mode.
But there's a few keepers and I'm happy enough with that.
 
wilt said:
I've a new found appreciation for wedding photographers and a confirmation that it's something I'll never do again.
It was very stressful but overall they look to have turned out pretty good.
A very long day starting with a 6:30am trip to the hotel and 9pm finish, after first few dances. I'm completely wrecked.
The two guys in charge of rounding up the group shots done a decent job and they were reasonably quick to get through.

My only criticism is the "barn" was incredibly dimly lit, practically fairy lights for the dance shots and I struggled to get focus, even when put into in starlight mode.
But there's a few keepers and I'm happy enough with that.
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Well done. (y)
 
wilt said:
I've been asked to photograph a friends daughters wedding very short notice (this Saturday). I've never shot a wedding and never wanted too but I've said yes and now need to get it sorted in my head.
It's meant to be a very small, relaxed and no pressure wedding.
I know it'll wreck me physically as I had to give up shooting events, but want to do my friend a favour. I'm not getting paid, although he did offer.
I'll have a Nikon Z8 and if it arrives on time a Nikon Z50II to double sling.
It's in a barn and looking at images, it could be quite dark if the weather is grey.
What lenses should I pair with each camera? I want to try and stay light, but want flexibility and quality.
I have these native Z-mount glass
14-30mm f/4
24-70mm f/2.8
24-120mm f/4
20mm f/1.8
35mm f/1.8
50mm f/1.8
85mm f/1.8
70-200 f/2.8

Is all natural light possible or should I take a flash and small softbox for posed shots?
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Personally I would take the 35mm 1.8 and the 85mm 1.8 and nothing else.
Good luck with the rest
 
Steven
At least you did it and got a bit or experience because of it. So well done for you. Definately not the easiest job to undertake which is why I would not do it again.
No wonder that wedding photographers charge so much
 
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wilt said:
A very long day starting with a 6:30am trip to the hotel and 9pm finish, after first few dances. I'm completely wrecked.
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Not to bad getting to finish at 9pm doesn’t happen often at this time of the year. Had 3 weddings this week. At all 3 the band arrived late and weren’t ready to go until about 9.45-10.00p.m

A one off wedding day isn’t too bad it’s when you have 3/4 weddings in a row is when it gets more difficult.

We have 5 weddings this week starting tomorrow. Will sleep when we are dead.
 
f/2.8 said:
Not to bad getting to finish at 9pm doesn’t happen often at this time of the year. Had 3 weddings this week. At all 3 the band arrived late and weren’t ready to go until about 9.45-10.00p.m

A one off wedding day isn’t too bad it’s when you have 3/4 weddings in a row is when it gets more difficult.

We have 5 weddings this week starting tomorrow. Will sleep when we are dead.
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The band was a little late, but the ceremony started off a bit earlier than planned.
You're a better man than me, I don't envy you one bit.
You are a glutton for punishment.
 
wilt said:
The band was a little late, but the ceremony started off a bit earlier than planned.
You're a better man than me, I don't envy you one bit.
You are a glutton for punishment.
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Tbh other than the lack of sleep it’s not too bad when you have a run of a few it’s usually the second one that’s the most difficult after that your kind of in the zone and it’s not really a problem. It also helps if they are not similar weddings.

Plus you got to make hay while the sun shines Sept is always pretty busy as it still reasonably close to the summer but venues offer off season rates. Once you get into Oct/Nov it usually drops to about 1 a week. December this year for us is quieter than normal and we only have a couple. We don’t take any booking for January so we always have a good long rest then.
 
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