Beginner Wedding nerves.

coddy72

coddy72

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Paul
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Not so sure as to why i'm posting this on here, but i'm a bit nervous and just needed to share my feelings with like minded people.

I recently volunteered to do the photography at a friend from work's wedding. Him and his fiancee haven't got much in the way of money and a friend of the bride, who was due to shoot the wedding, let them down, so i stepped in and offered to help out.

Now i've never done anything like this before, and i don't particularly have the best kit in the world, so now i'm starting to feel slightly nervous about it as it's tomorrow (Sat 27th Aug)

I've been watching YouTube vids and reading the forums on here on a loop recently just trying to get ideas. I have a healthy interest in photography and love taking my camera out and about to try and get better at it, but it is just a hobby and have no real interest in starting up a business, but i do want to do a good job for the lad.

I only have a 18-140 kit lens for my nikon, but after finding out i was to shoot this wedding, i went and purchased a second hand nikon flash and 50mm f1.8 lens as i thought these might help for the night do, plus i couldn't afford a 70-200 :(

Any thoughts or experiences are appreciated.

Cheers.
 
Good luck!

You should get some decent shots with the 50 1.8, but as a word of warning don't just shoot everything at 1.8 because you can (people sometimes do this...).

Also, if you don't 'know' flash, be careful with how you use it. I assume you won't be using it off camera, if you just have a single flash?

If using it in the hotshot, use ceilings and other reflective surfaces to bounce the flash off, rather than fire directly into people's faces, in most situations - it will be far more flattering.

I've never shot a wedding (other than as a guest), so big respect to you for trying - report back with some images, and let us know how you got on.
 
Point the camera, press the button, smile, interact with people.

90% of photography isn't photography, it's making people feel at ease while having their picture taken.

Top tip: don't try too hard. There is some amazing stuff on the interweb - but those are the best/luckiest shots of people who have tried a few times (and in most cases failed a few times). If your pictures are in focus and decently exposed you will be beating most of the other people at the wedding - don't miss all the good shots by aiming for one awesome one.
 
I would consider- If you can afford it a 35mm f1.8 - much better than the 50mm in my opinion

Les
 
Have a shooting plan and that should get you through the day and the s***s you want
 
Well, i'm back from the wedding, all done and dusted.
Turbo-G said:
Good luck!

You should get some decent shots with the 50 1.8, but as a word of warning don't just shoot everything at 1.8 because you can (people sometimes do this...).

Also, if you don't 'know' flash, be careful with how you use it. I assume you won't be using it off camera, if you just have a single flash?

If using it in the hotshot, use ceilings and other reflective surfaces to bounce the flash off, rather than fire directly into people's faces, in most situations - it will be far more flattering.

I've never shot a wedding (other than as a guest), so big respect to you for trying - report back with some images, and let us know how you got on.
Click to expand...

Some great advice here, was origanally shooting with the pop up flash, but the photos looked too blown out (?) and flat with a lot of dark shadow. I bit the bullet and attached the flash, it was amazing the amount of attention i got just from doing that !!, and remembered the advice and tilted the flash to the ceiling, and what a difference to the pictures !! much more flattering.

And the 50mm !!! what a lens !! much, much faster than the 18-140, i also followed advice here and kept the f-stop down to f2.8 and this gave fantastic images.

So, big thankyou to Turbo-G for the advice, worked a treat :)

JonathanRyan said:
Point the camera, press the button, smile, interact with people.

90% of photography isn't photography, it's making people feel at ease while having their picture taken.

Top tip: don't try too hard. There is some amazing stuff on the interweb - but those are the best/luckiest shots of people who have tried a few times (and in most cases failed a few times). If your pictures are in focus and decently exposed you will be beating most of the other people at the wedding - don't miss all the good shots by aiming for one awesome one.
Click to expand...

Pretty much nailed it on the head there ! I was initially nervous at first being around people i didn't know and asking them for pictures, but i think once they knew i was around, they relaxed and tat also put me at ease and i "had a laugh" with them more.

Also, i think i was the only one in the room with a dslr, so pretty much everyone wanted a look and that enabled me to get some pictures while they also wanted to have a go, which i didn't mind as i was stood over them at the time.

Thankyou all for the great advice, the day was a great success and i think we got a few half decent photos from it, which i'm sure my friend will be pleased with.

I'll try and put a few up when i get them from my camera. :ty:
 
No problem at all, sounds like the day went well!

It sounds like you made the right decision regarding the bounce flash too.

Share a couple of shots once you've done your edits.

Cheers,
Grant
 
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