Wedding photography nightmare

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Halflap

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Steve
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Had a call from my uncle a few weeks ago asking if I could take a few group shots of my cousins wedding. They had wanted a small informal wedding and the bride was not really interested in having 'proper' photos taken but he wanted a few group shots to remember the day. I had intended to take my camera anyway so I agreed after explaining that I could not promise to provide pro level shots.

The wedding was last saturday and even though I had been told not to worry I was more stressed out than the bride. God knows how you pro wedding photos get the superb shots I see on here week after week. At various times during the day I managed to:

Meter at ISO 200 when the camera was set to 1600
Accidentally set the flash exposure compensation to +1
Forget to look at the shutter speed when it fell to 1/10sec

Fortunately I think I have enough shots that the bride (my cousin) will be happy and hopefully I can put together a small album.

I know my abilities when it comes to photography and would never consider offering to do weddings on either a pro or semi pro basis.

I now understand why the pro's react as they do with some of the wedding threads on here.

Will try to post a couple of shots once I have had a chance to 'repair' the days shots and the bride and groom have seen them.
 
A lot of pro's will have done everything you've put on your list in the past I assure you! We shot a wedding today and I was unaware that for some reason my wife had put one of my camera's ISO up to 640. Not a major issue but it annoyed me that it took me as long as it did to notice....

Part of being a pro is about getting around these issues. I shoot with two cameras and the wife shoots with two - that way if one is set wrong or even if three are, we still get images. 4 camera's = 4 different cards containing each bit of the wedding.

Photoshop is a wonderful, powerful tool for rescuing photo's and whilst I don't advocate relying on it - it will solve the majority of issues with a bit of practice.

I felt a bit like you after my first wedding.... The the brides reaction at the photos made me realise that whilst I wasn't 100% happy with the photo's (And still to this day I feel like this after most jobs) the bride was so happy with them that I must have got somethings right.

It can be a big step admitting that you are good enough to get paid!

(And looking forward to seeing the shots)
 
I've shot several weddings with a couple more booked, and I still make silly mistakes like ISO and leaving the aperture at 2.8 when I could easily put it up to F11 if needed.

Its rare now, but it can happen in the madness of the day.
 
Hi Steve

this is interesting reading because I am doing exactly the same thing next Friday. And like you i am not charging on the basis I cant promise pro level results so that should take the pressure off, but i'm still nervous as I want to try and get pro level shots which will hopefully go in a portfolio.

I'd be interested to see some of the shots you managed.
 
I'm no wedding tog and wouldn't want to be but i have done a couple that turned out quite good using some tips from a pro.
Practice before the event, i got my Mrs to put on her white dressing gown and took some shots indoors with lights on/off flash on/off, outside bright sun/shade flash on/off and saved the settings on the custom functions.
At the wedding it was just a case of checking i was on the correct custom function and reviewing the first shot on the histogram and then making some fine tuning adjustments. Doing it this way was a massive help and if i didn't i think i may of made some similar mistakes.
The old saying " By failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail" comes to mind.
 
Halflap said:
Meter at ISO 200 when the camera was set to 1600
Accidentally set the flash exposure compensation to +1
Forget to look at the shutter speed when it fell to 1/10sec
Click to expand...

I take it you were using the camera in manual? I think the lesson here is to use the camera meter
 
Thanks for the replies. Started off the day in manual and using incident readings with a light meter but soon changed to aperture priority. Was shooting in RAW and managed to recover most of the shots. Even in aperture priority still had problems with brides dress blowing out slightly as I had flash exp compensation set to +1 for quite a while before I noticed. Also I set the camera to iso1600 to take shots in the registry office, then turned to see the bride and father coming towards me. All the shots I took there were seriously over exposed.

Up until now I have managed to get out of doing any weddings but have done this one and got another in 5 weeks. I have a habit of trying to rush things when under pressure and must remember to slow down for the next one.

The bride and groom have now seen the photos and are extremely happy with them so that is good. Once the rest of the family have seen them I will post a couple.
 
You know, a lot of pro's are more bothered about the actual composition of the shot, the lighting, the mood etc to worry about manual or AV etc.

Don't be afraid to just shoot in P mode - but ALWAYS shoot in RAW.

Andrew Miller
http://www.andrew-miller.co.uk
 
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