Shot a Wedding yesterday

Les McLean

In Memoriam
Suspended / Banned
Messages
6,793
Name
Les
Edit My Images
Yes
I normally run a mile if anyone mentions shooting a wedding, it's one of the hardest genres of photography out there , as I've often said, you not only need to be a competent photographer, but also a referee, social worker, psychologist, crowd controller, cheerleader, best friend and chief bottle washer.

For a variety of reasons, yesterday I ended up being the main photographer at a wedding, and after wading through the images this morning, made me realise just how much easier it was pre-digital.

From the wedding, there are over 300 images, and after purging the most obvious bad'uns, it will leave me with around 250 images to process, and although I've kept the settings pretty much consistent throughout (white balance/flash etc) and even though I can batch process some of the processing, it's still a day's work selecting, cropping, renumbering, uploading to a web gallery, putting together A DVD presentation, copying files to CD, arranging/ordering Wedding Albums etc etc.

Many, many years ago when I was a skint student (aren't students always skint ?), I used to shoot 2x36 rolls of film, send them off to a pro-lab for processing, the only labour intensive part of processing was numbering the prints and slipping them into a proof album (an hours work), and then ordering completed wedding albums from the lab (another hour or so's work).

So much for progress :bonk::bonk:

And it always amazes me, because you are maybe a competent landscape photographer say, folk assume you will be the best person to shoot their wedding. It's like asking Mo Farah to turn out for Yorkshire Cricket Club because he's pretty good at sports.
 
Last edited:
any chance of seeing some shots then Les :thumbs: Im being bullied into a wedding in september ( the shooting of not getting married bit :lol:)

for a work friend, said Im not sure I want to get involved, but She's having none of it, she actually said, "well its just the same as any other photograph you take isnt it???"


:Les :lol::lol:
 
haha I was having the same issue recently when I got asked to photograph a Christening!

My friend's argument was, "WELL YOU HAVE A GOOD CAMERA SO IT WILL BE FINE"

lol
 
I've been asked by some friends to shoot theirs in January.

Never thought I'd be an Uncle Bob. I fancy a go though as they want a purely PJ stylee. And I'll get some cake.
 
any chance of seeing some shots then Les :thumbs:
:Les :lol::lol:

so gwan, pics and what did you learn that I can leach from?

I only ever post shots that I consider my best shots.

I'm only a competent wedding photographer in that I'm experienced enough to get everything in focus that's needed, all images exposed correctly, an understanding of light & flash, and can compose and arrange individual & group shots, and have good enough equipment to ensure quality images.

What I lack is the inspirational bit of creative magic that good wedding togs possess.

The couple I know will be over the moon with the images, but I know that the image set is merely competent, that's the main reason I would never consider doing weddings.
 
Looking at your Pbase site you are obviously a brilliant photographer. Now, when it comes to weddings you may not be so confident, but sure you did a fair job, so c'mon man, give us a peek.
 
I used a 1DS MKIII throughout the day with a 7D as backup, all images shot with either 24-70F2.8L, 85mm F1.2L or 135mm F2L lens
 
Last edited:
Edit:images removed...I've just remembered, one of the wedding guests is a member here, it wouldn't be right for him to view the images before the bride/groom have seen them, so images removed.
 
Last edited:
With regards to your opening post.. as someone who balked at the charges of the wedding photographer 10 years ago I now understand the sheer amount of work involved and would never do so again. Well done for helping out and bringing your skill to the party.
 
Back
Top