Wedding photography advice please!

Guymetcalf

Guymetcalf

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Hi everyone...
Ive been an amateur photographer for about 4-5yrs now, love and wanna learn and do more all the time.
I have just been asked to photograph a friends wedding. Now, im to say the least, a little aprehensive about it, but equally looking forward to the challenge.
I just need some advice from people who have shot weddings before.
I have a Canon 400d with some nice lenses, and im in the process of buying a new flash gun for it, which will be essential for the wedding. The bit which im not sure on is which filters to buy and use.
Would anyone recommend maybe a warm up filter, or soft focus filter etc etc.

If anyone can shed some light on whats the best kit to have i would greatly appreciate it.

Many thanks guys

happy snapping!

Guy metcalf
 
Hi Guy

This subject has been more than done to death on TP, and recently too - you are not asking anything that hasn't been asked many times before, so without being rude (hope not anyway), may I suggest you use the search facility here and spend the next week reading all those threads and their replies first

:thumbs:

DD
 
Kerioak said:
Hi Guy

From my fairly limited experience of weddings I would recommend a second camera as your priority, apart from being useful to have different lenses on each camera you then have a back up if anything goes wrong.

Do you have photoshop - if so you can recreate filter effects using that
Click to expand...

Ditto. It's probably easier adding them pp then trying to remove them.
 
Guy

I'm in the same boat mate, doing a wedding next week. There is lots of advice out there in TP land, but I'd advise trying to get hold of a second camera, spare batteries for camera and flash, more CF cards than you think you'll need and bucket loads of confidence.

Oh if you can, check out the venues first.

Mark
 
maddog.mark said:
Guy

I'm in the same boat mate, doing a wedding next week. There is lots of advice out there in TP land, but I'd advise trying to get hold of a second camera, spare batteries for camera and flash, more CF cards than you think you'll need and bucket loads of confidence.

Oh if you can, check out the venues first.

Mark
Click to expand...

And charger! Never forget the charger. You could be charging the used batteries while your using new ones. Even 15 minutes of charge time will give some picture time and you never know what those 5 minutes of picture time might turn up.
 
Markk said:
And charger! Never forget the charger. You could be charging the used batteries while your using new ones. Even 15 minutes of charge time will give some picture time and you never know what those 5 minutes of picture time might turn up.
Click to expand...

Err :thinking:, a charger ? Just take enough batteries to cover you for the day, you don't want to have the additional worry of thinking when / if you can charge batteries.
 
is this a freebe or are you charging?
are you the second photographer or the main one?
how long before the wedding? (please dont say next week...)
 
I shot my first wedding the other week (as a joint tog) and I'll reitterate what has been said by others:

  • Second Body is your number 1 priority (2 bodies with different lenses are damn handy)
  • A minimum of 2 batteries for each body if each body shares the same battery but if they use different ones you'll need 3 for each.
  • More CF Cards than you think you'll need by a factor of 2 (and at suitable moments swap the cards over for fresh ones before they fill up - lesson nearly painfully learned), lots of 2GB ones are better than 1 16GB because as memory cards do die.

Your flash will be great for the reception and formals (fill in flash) but don't use it during the ceremony even if you are allowed (most places don't let you) as it is distracting. I'd definate consider getting a stofen to soften the light and reduce the hard shadows (7dayshop has them at a good price).

I hope when you say you've got nice lenses you are talking about low f number (f2.8 or better) Canon L series lenses including a 70-200L f2.8. If not head over to Lenses for Hire and book yourself some for the week, you'll need them to cover the low light found in churches and possibly more importantly to get the out of focus backgrounds. If you are shooting for free (I hope not), you could ask the B&G to cover the cost of the hire, explaining you will get better photos with them, and you'll have to pass as you won't be able to do the job justice without it.

When I shot the wedding the other week I took my S5Pro and Nikon D200, with 35-70 f2.8 and my 80-200 f2.8 were attached, I also had my nifty fifty (f1.8) in my pocket for the really low light shots at the reception (espeicially first dance as flash ruins the atmosphere). I also had my SB-600 and SB-800 flashes with stofens attached for fill in during the day. I took 6x 2GB and 2x 4GB CF cards (20GB total capacity) and swapped cards after the preparations and before the ceremony and once again before the formals and again before the reception. I nearly missed the Bride walking down because I run out of space on a 2GB card in my S5Pro (they are some damn large RAW files and only get about 80 to a card). In the car I had a full backup kit as well; a second D200 with my consumer 18-70 and 70-300. I'll be posting some shots in time but I have promised to let the B&G see them first.

Personally I would never had considered doing something so critical as a wedding unless I knew I had backup kit to cover breakdown and could get decent results.

Lastly and possibly more important than the kit is to plan everything properly, check out the venues for the ceremony and reception well in advance and speak to those in charge (vicar, priest, registrar, event organiser) and talk about what's allowed (by asking nicely I was allowed on to the flat roof of the reception building to get a photo of everybody).

Good Luck (it is great fun - at least it was for me but that's because it all went well).
 
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