First wedding in November...

Much apprciated guys, in terms of the flooring with it being a hotel it is carpeted so lens caps being dropped don't worry me too much it is more the noise of the mount as it twists and clicks into place.

In terms of the flash techniques I am going up there again tomorrow night for one last recce with my other half (she models for me lol) so I'll have another go of lighting the pagoda and if I don't get it nailed I will leave that shot rather than risking it becoming a waste of time on the day. I am meeting up with the couple again on Sunday and plan to get a list with the order of the day and to just finalise the photo based plans in accordance with that. I don't really intend to buy anything further now for the day itself aside from some more appropriately sized memory cards for the d750 as I am already investing a fair chunk of cash I to this to date with things like the lens rental and various other bits without being paid for the work. That last bit sounds a little resentful, completely not the case, I am treating it as a loss leader with the view that it could lead to other work of I do a good job, but I have to draw a line somewhere financially unfortunately.
 
keep the lens changes to a minimum, if you have to do it, do it during a reading or other lul - else missing something is a possibility. I shoot with a 35 and 85 for ceremonies, on two cameras, never change lenses, never use flash. I don't shoot during the vows while the couple are speaking and keep my movement to a minimum - its the most important part of the day and you have to respect and not disturb that.

Chatting to guests at weddings the 2 comments we hear about other wedding photographers all the time is 1. how scruffily dressed they were and 2. how miserable/unfriendly/inconsiderate, it doesn't matter how good the pics are if you fall down on these basic points, I'm not saying you were going to, but just in case!

Good luck with the wedding, winter is ofter the most challenging time but with the softer light and darkness there can be some great opportunities.
 
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thank you, that does sound like good advice regarding the lens changes and i will have both of those lenses with me too.

The interacting with guests thing is something i am not greatly worried about once the ice is broken as i am normally pretty good at reading people in social situations (in terms of their humour/manners etc etc), it is the breaking the ice bit i normally struggle with though! That being said the groom has reassured me that it is a small affair (60 guests) and should be pretty laid back so i am hopeful that once i get some of the initial shots out of the way (getting there early to make use of the daylight to get some of the detail shots) and i am feeling more comfortable in my own skin that i will just get into the role and it will work out well. I have put the time in preparing and despite my earlier statement about not spending any more money i have now purchased a set of rf-602 wireless flash triggers due to the line of sight issue associated with the nikon commander system (i want to hide the flash behind a pillar on a pagoda as cloning it out in the trial shots proved to be a no go).
 
My main forte is landscape and travel photography so I am not an expert on weddings. However I did my first (and possibly only) wedding three weeks ago. It was for my Nephew and so was done as a wedding present. So please take this post as a POV of someone who's just been in a similar situation and not the view of a seasoned pro.

The venue for the ceremony was the local Town Hall and the reception was at a seafront hotel. My wife assisted but didn't take any pictures (that was a minor mistake)
I did massive amounts of research online and watched hours of youtube tutorials. I also studied a lot of wdding togs websites for inspiration.
I visited both venue before hand and took trial pictures using my wife as a 'model' and I practiced, using high ISO, TTL and HSS flash until I was feeling very comfortable with what could be achieved and what suited what situation. I also practiced taking good photos in the rain and bought a couple of white umbrellas from Amazon to use if necessary.

I had a long meeting with the B&G and used the 'model' shots to show them options and get their opinion (this was sort of in lieu of a portfolio). We did a couple of ring shots at this meeting so that there was one thing less to worry about on the day.
The bride didn't want any prep shots which meant that I could visit the reception venue in the morning to get plenty of detail shots of the place settings, favours, room layouts and the cake.
We agreed a shot list with the 'must haves' and the 'it would be nice ifs'.

On the day I had a Pentax K3 (yes I did say Pentax!) with a 16-50 (1.5 crop factor) and a Pentax K5iis with a 50-135. Both were hanging around my neck on a black rapid james bond swat thingy (fortunately covered by my suit jacket). This was done so that I could swap focal lengths without changing lenses (minor mistake two).
I had a TTL flash fitted with a stofen type diffuser. I wasn't allowed to use this during the ceremony but used it extensively on the main staircase shots in the town hall. I also had a backup flash, a battery pack and more AA batteries than you can shake a stick at. I had a spare SD card in the battery grip and carried 8 spare 16Gb cards in a holder in my pocket. Both cameras were gripped but I also carried a spare camera battery and 4 AAs in my suit jacket.
I also carried a 18% grey card and a lens cloth on me. Every time I had the chance I pulled out the card and took a white balance shot for use later in LR.

So I was just about as ready as I could be. What could go wrong....?

Firstly the Registrar spent so long briefing me as to where I could stand and what I could that I ended up missing the bride arriving in the car with her dad. Tip 1: Speak to the registrar early and confirm what's allowed.
Secondly, I was so focussed on getting the first shot of the Bride as she entered the room I forgot that she is preceded by the Bridesmaids and only just managed to capture them. Tip 2. Think of the next shot, not the one you'd like to take (if that makes sense)
Thirdly, I was able to stand so closer that the 50-135 was unnecessary. I only need one camera so I could have stuck the second camera on auto and given it to my wife to capture some shots from the back of the room. Of course this is debatably as, if my main camera had failed, I still had one with me without disrupting things. In hindsight giving it to my wife would have given us a different perspective.
We tried to follow the shot list (from memory as I never actually referred to it once) but simply ran out of time to do half the things wanted. Fortunately it was most of the 'it would be nice ifs' that suffered.
At the end of the day I also missed several of the 'must haves' because the B&G had had enough of posing.

I set up a OCF on a light stand by the dance floor and used a wireless trigger in conjunction with a camera mounted flash to get a nice rim light for the first dance shot and for many of the dancing shots.

Afterwards I reviewed my achievements. I had taken 1884 images (only 4 were taken with the longer lens). With being 24Mp RAW files that was a total of 5 16Gb cards. Many were blurred, a few were just plain indecipherable, a lot were very noisy (ISO 6400 was the max I shot at) most were on the slant and quite a few were not as I had hoped. I was very disappointed and felt like I had let them down.

After choosing around 300, I edited them in LR and put together a slide show for the couple which they watched last Wednesday.

Do you know what, they didn't notice the noise, one of their favourites was slightly out of focus, they weren't bothered about the ones I'd missed because I was 'so nice' at getting everyone to pose and I wasn't 'in their faces' all day. they were completely over the moon and, according to them, I had far exceeded their expectations and the Bride had a tear in her eye as she watched the slide show.

Would I do it again, yes. Would I want to do it for a living, mmmm jury's out on that.

A couple more tips.
I was so nervous that my hands were shaking to begin with (I think this is why some are not as sharp as they should be), so consider using a slightly higher shutter speed than you might normally.
Don't think about changing lenses or doing anything too 'sexy'. All the B&G want is a decent record of the day. Time will fly past so quickly that you can easily miss something if you're 'fiddling'.
I you have a partner attending consider giving them a camera (P&S or phone). The different perspective can make great 'fill' images.
Practice using a 'model' with the kit you are intending to use on the day. I found this invaluable.
By all means have a shot list but be prepared to throw it out the window and never refer to it. However make sure you have a good reason or a good relationship and agreement.
Professional togs are often hired because of their unique 'style' whereas people like you and I are there to simple capture the day for the B&G so "capture first, style if you can".
Be comfortable. I was wearing this BDSM black rapid harness with two weighty cameras, a tie and a jacket. On this day Gt. Yarmouth turned out to be the hottest place in the country. I was melting. If you're doing all the time you may get used to it. If you're like me and have a fairly sedentary job then it came very hard. Bear this in mind.
Take a small step ladder (£10 B&Q) I found it very useful for dance floor shots.

And finally, when the brides sister takes the microphone and is singing a solo of a self composed song for the B&G, your wireless trigger doesn't trigger and your on camera flash decides not to flash..... DON'T PANIC. Wind it up to max ISO and get what you can (Yes that did happen and they loved the image). Something is always better than nothing.

Above all enjoy it. Excuse the slight hijack but this is a few of my favourites:













 
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What a great post Ralph - I imagine there will be a lot of people who will take a lot of valuable information from your post, and the pictures you added show some happy people which is so much of what a wedding is about.
 
Definitely concur with the above post, thank you for that reply as it really was informative and I can certainly see why the couple are happy with the photos!

Bizarrely in the last 24hrs I have been formally approached about a wedding in August and asked for a price for a friend of a friend lol, it's like waiting for a bus! I have told both of them basically the same thing which is to hold off until I get next weekends one done and then they will be able to see some of my actual wedding shots to make an informed decision (since I would be charging these two) about whether they still want me to do it. It also gives me the chance to decide if I want to do more weddings after next weekends lol.
 
Couple of tips from me:

Dont sneak about. You look like a fool and draw attention to yourself. People accept photographers at weddings needd to move about so don't worry if you have to move or make a slight noise now and then.

Shot list. Get that formal shot list nailed. Worst thing you can do is not have a shot that they wanted even tho its up to them what they ultimately want in that shot list.

Print out copies of the formals and get the best men to help.

Plenty of memory cards. Also delete on the fly any massive blurred or incorrecttly exposed photos.

Take a small cloth. It can get pretty hot in some venues.

Take a pen. A nice pen. You wont believe how bad some of the pens these places use for the signing of the registrar.

Dont experiment too much. Stick to what you know and feel comfortable with, get the shots then have a play if you want.

Dress smart, smile and enjoy it yourself. You wont believe how forthcoming people are to have their photos taken if you are nice to them and have a laugh.

Do your research on the venue. Go there. Google how people have shot it.

Know all the timings of the day.


Good luck, im sure you'll be fine. :)
 
ralphhardwick said:
Thanks Steve.
Keeweeman, Glad I was able to help. Good luck next week and don't forget to let us know how it went. :)
Click to expand...

Oh i definitely will be putting some of the better shots up for them to be shot down lol!

Memory cards are something i have definiely invested in recently especially since getting the new camera, the small cloth and pen ideas aren't ones i have come across yet and could well be worthwhile thank you!

Thanks again folks!
 
Bit of an update just as to how it went, B&G were great and exactly what they promised to be in terms of being laid back and helpful. The event went without any real hitches and thankfully the guy from the hotel that manages the weddings was also very helpful as there was another (much larger) wedding going on at the same time so there was a couple of moments of crossover and he was trying to work in tandem with me to make sure the other wedding weren't in our way and vice versa. I used a combination of flash and natural light, the D750 was an absolute dream, the D7100 only got used for about 20 shots all night due to just not being able to cope with higher iso without excessive noise. I haven't commenced the pp side of things yet but at a glance (ie dragging the entire set of images into camera raw but not doing anything other than flick through as opposed ot on the camera screen) i would say 50% are acceptable with, from that 50% i would say 10% are as good as i hoped they could be. The ones i think have come out very well are as you would expect the more formal ones where more time was allowed for the shot etc. The candid side of things was quite difficult due to the venue, the room the ceremony and the party were in was quite small so generally people were sat down for most of the time until after the food when the music started properly rather than mingling etc.

I definitely learnt a hell of a lot, I also enjoyed it a lot more than i anticipated and once I got going I didn't feel as shy as expected although i do need to learn to talk louder and be more assertive. The B&G were really happy with me and surprised at how far i actually went on the day in terms of doing a proper job so hopefully they will be as happy with the images as they seem to be with me on the night. I also got a bit of a Brucie bonus today when i returned the lens to calumet, there was an issue with the 85mm as some inconsiderate so and so broke the lens and calumet couldn't get hold of a replacement so i got the 24-70mm f2.8 from them instead (absolute delight to use i must say) and said they would honour the original price as it was meant to be slightly dearer than the 85mm prime, when i took the lens back they actually did it for me at half price so certainly no complaints from me and i will gladly use them again!

Oh, and we managed to set the brides dress on fire, as you do...

I will follow this up in the coming days with a couple of shots once i have got going with the pp. Thanks to everyone who has given me advice over this, its been really useful to learn from others experiences etc!

Cheers again

Col
 
thank you :), i have gone through some of the shots tonight and so far i am fairly pleased with some of them, some could have been composed better (people in the way of bits of a shot, one or two where the best composition of the shot isn't focussed properly etc), once i have passed over the images to the B&G i will put some shots up here for people to see (seems only proper that they see them before the internet does!).
In terms of how many i took the final count on was about 765 which i think is probably about right given that it was a twilight wedding and therefore the entire event was only 6 hours long including the part of the night i didn't shoot, and the lack of bridal prep/arrival shots (bride stayed at hotel night before so they didn't bother with cars). If it was a full day wedding with a 2pm start, plus bridal prep and arrival/departure shots i would anticipate the figure would have been somewhere between 1500 and 2000 judging by what others have mentioned in some threads. I took enough cards to cover approximately 1700 shots i would say which allowed for using dual cards with one as a backup each time.
 
Right folks, photos have now been delivered to the bride so i will see about putting some up on here once i have resized and watermarked them for flickr. Feedback wise I actually got quite upset this morning because the bride was talking to some people in work (my other half included) and mentioned that having looked at them last night she spent the entire time complaining about how fat and old she looked, my other half informed me of this and i felt utterly deflated as i have worked incredibly hard to do a decent job of this, plus while she isn't a mid 20s lass she certainly isn't particularly old and she most definitely isn't fat and i don't think the photos make her look either being honest. As it transpires my missus got the wrong end of the stick, and the bride is actually really happy with the images but was basically doing the woman thing of being self depricating rather than just enjoying the shots for what they are. Total image count to begin with from the D750 was 754 of which 170ish went onto the disc to the bride, D7100 wise there was approximately 20 photos, none of which were kept for various reasons. A few of the shots i have kept hold of simply because i quite liked them as candids but they didn't really work from a wedding point of view so they were omitted from the disc.
 
Right folks, i have had the all clear to post some of the shots online so as promised these are a selection of the ones from the wedding disc. There were many more i could have chosen but i have tried to give a bit of a spectrum of the types of shots i took (from posed to candid etc). The group shot i wasn't happy with as i hadn't practiced for that shot and it just turned out ot be the best option on the night. The formal shots with the flash i made the mistake of having the iso too high when using the flash, I am annoyed at myself over this but it is a mistake i don't intend to make again. I have been pretty self critical over these as aside from wanting to progress i also wanted to do a good job (free or not) for the bride and groom. Comments welcome as always.

Col

Group shot
Wedding Shots by keeweeman, on Flickr

Details
Wedding Shots by keeweeman, on Flickr

Wedding Shots by keeweeman, on Flickr

Wedding Shots by keeweeman, on Flickr

Candids
Wedding Shots by keeweeman, on Flickr

Wedding Shots by keeweeman, on Flickr

Wedding Shots by keeweeman, on Flickr
 
Well done Keeweeman, just finished reading the your initial post til the last one. Sounds and looks like you learnt a bundle. Always a bit nerve-wracking shooting the first wedding on your own. I still get nervous now actually. You did well to cope with the low light situations.
 
I like the group shot, it messes with my eyes if I look at it too long though :)

Nice shot under the dome aswell but seems a bit on the wonk.
 
Thanks guys, the group shot i have to be honest has become by far my most viewed shot on flickr but i am still unhappy with it personally (like the concept, just think i executed it badly). The dome shot, i have straightened it but i think its a perspective control issue mostly since its curved beams and the columns aren't just straight verticals either as they are shaped. I did play with the perspective in pp but couldn't get it to a point where the b&g looked right so i made the judgement that the dome looking a little off was better than the couple doing so. I might well revisit it though and have another play with fresh eyes!
 
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