Photographing as a guest...

Hi all,

I guess this is kind of a first timer question...but I'm not an

actual wedding photographer. I just enjoy photography and see

weddings as a fun challenge for myself. I have some questions about

taking photos of a wedding as a guest.

 

I'm going to be at a Pakistani wedding at the end of May. In the

past, I have used fast BW film so that I could use natural light and

be as unobtrusive as possible (ie - no flash). I certainly didn't

want to give the impression that I was _the_ wedding photographer

(felt it would be unnecessarily complicate things if people started

thinking that, and maybe annoy the actual photographer).

 

Since this will be a very colorful wedding, I figured I should shoot

color film. Then I started thinking that maybe I should use flash,

so that the images aren't awash in grain or anything like that (I

like grain in BW, but have never really liked it for color). But

then I get worried again about being distracting.

 

As wedding photographers who 1) are at weddings a lot :-) and 2)

have to deal with guests and their cameras a lot, what do you

recommend? Should I stay with being as unobtrusive as possible?

 

Also, as far as film - the last wedding I was at I needed 3200 speed

film to get usable shutter speeds. Color film doesn't go that fast,

though I've read that Fuji 800 pushes pretty well to that speed (I

read that 800 pushes better 2 stops than 1600 pushes 1). Any

recommendations?

 

Sorry for the slightly weird post. Maybe I'm thinking about this

too much :-)

allan

I am responding not as a wedding photographer, but rather as a one time groom. It is the bride (and to a lesser extent, the groom's ;) wedding, not the photographer's. So long as you do not interfere with the bride and groom getting what they want, you are ok. The photographer is a paid professional, and it is HIS job to work around people at a wedding. If the bride and groom do not object you are free to use your camera, and even flash. Just use common sense and dont go pop your flash off durring the cermony, or in the big organized group photos, etc...

For those situations where flash is inapropriate, you should get a faster lens (if you do indeed, NEED 3200 speed film to shoot, then I suspect the rooms are either darker than my poorly lit house (hard to beleive), or your lenses are not fast enough). By the way Fuji 800 speed color film is great. I use it indoors without flash all the time with a 1.8 lens (or faster) and get consistantly good shoots.

 

One last point is that I view avaliable light photography more about capturing mood than sharpness. If you are already using a fast lens, then we might be going for a different look.

Jamie,

Thanks for the help. I, too, go for mood when it comes to available light photography. I guess I just haven't really gotten the hang of capturing the mood of low light situations with color film. I've only done it with BW film before.

 

I'm not expecting this wedding to be as dark as the last one. I was using a 1.4 lens, actually, and needed it almost wide open in what was basically a candle-lit room. Very atmospheric, very hard to get usable shutter speeds.

 

We'll see how it goes. Heck, at the least, this will be a good experiment with capturing moody available light shots in color. :-)

allan

As a wedding photographer, I'm happy to have guests shooting

additional photos as long as they respect the job I'm trying to do

(it's not as though I can capture every possible good image that

will occur). All I require is that other people don't try to shoot over

my shoulder while I'm doing formal shots (not only does it make

the process longer and more stressful for everyone involved, it's

quite rude), and I don't want people jumping in front of me if I'm

shooting the cake cutting, exit from the hall, etc. If the officiant

doesn't want flash used during the ceremony, you should also

respect that.

 

I really don't care what kind of equipment you use as long as you

don't interfere with my job.

Hmmm... responses seem good to me.

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Do perhaps talk to bride and groom beforehand if you can and let them know you want to take some pics.

<p>

Discretion.

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Yeah, I was just at a wedding in Brazil brought my camera. I completely stayed out of the way of the hire photographer and videographer! I really really went out of my way to not be in his line of sight etc.

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We were friends of the groom - one thing I did was take pictures of their friends informally, especially at end of nite after the official photographer started packing up but the party was still going. I think I got some nice informal portraits of their friends just celebrating that I can give them to add to their collection.

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It's their day, and it goes fast from their perspective.

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On color film - will you need a filter to color correct? B&W seems nice for available light of varying quality. (I was using a flash).

Fuji NPZ 800 handles available light very well. It has very fine grain for so fast a film and could be rated at EI 1600 and push processed without much of an increse in grain, if needed.

Thanks for the help. I don't know exactly what kind of lighting situation we'll be in (it's a 3 part, 2 day wedding, some inside (the first part I'm in as part of the wedding party, so no pictures then...), some outside in a tent, and some outside in the tent at night). So no idea yet on filters for correcting color. Maybe I'll bring my grey card and snap a shot of that so I can do easy curves to fix color casts.

 

I would love to shoot BW, but I'd lose all the great colors at this wedding...

 

guess I should go get me some NPZ.

allan

Allan, it appears you are on a mission to get some great shots. My only advice would be to

remember that it is a wedding not a photo op. If you wish to do something for the Bride

and Groom that is commendable. If you are shooting for yourself then you ARE seeing it as

a photo op. No judgment here, just an observation to consider.

 

To do something for the Bride and Groom, I'd say supplement the pro's work with shots

the B&G will cherish as exactly that...a supplement, not in competition with the

photographer they hired to do the job.

 

Of course I get invited to weddings and sometimes take a camera. It's usually a little Leica

M, two fast lenses and some tri-X or Fuji Press 800. If I shoot, it is strictly as a guest and I

hunt the shots the pro can't get while taking care of the obligatory shots. I never, ever,

duplicate what the pro is shooting in any way.

 

Here's one at a wedding of a friend of my wife's. We were walking to the reception past

where the B&G were with the hired pro taking formal shots in the garden. I noticed that

they had hid their beers behind the tree and thought it would make a funny shot. I did

maybe 2 rolls of such candid shots during the course of the evening, and presented a

dozen 8X10 B&W silver prints to our friends a few weeks later. They absolutely loved them,

but it did not take away the joy they got from the Pro's work.<div></div>

BTW Allan, if you're looking for a documentary feel to your color shots, Fuji Press 800 is a

great choice to consider. I personally love the look of it when mixed in with B&W shots on

Tri-X.

 

Here's one from an informal rehearsal dinner at a Southern California Pizza joint. It's of the

Bride's dad with her nephews who were going to be in the wedding party.<div></div>

Wedding photographers deal with guests taking pictures all the time. Their attitudes range from, "knock your self out" to being somewhat hostile. Formals/group shots have the potential for being the biggest problem. It can be very distracting for the people having their picture taken when there are multiple cameras, and you have some people looking at one camera and others looking at another. Provided someone isn't trying to get a shot of every group, we just ask them to wait and let them take a shot when we are done with the group. I see no point in standing off to the side and taking a picture of the group, because they are all looking at the photographer, instead of you, and the picture looks kind of dopey. Any issues that come up are between you and the photographer, and should not involve the B&G; they made their position clear when they hired the photographer.

 

The rest of the wedding is pretty simple: don't block frames, don't be in frames. It is like being a second shooter where you are taking different pictures than the primary photographer. Work to your strengths which will be better knowledge of who the guests are and interesting things that the photographer may not be awear of.

I've done the good and bad of what Marc has said. I've just gotten shots that the photographer couldn't get, so that I could supplement the photographer's work. I've also duplicated, or nearly duplicated some shots that the photographers set up. This was done with the permission of the photographers involved and at the B&G's request because I was shooting B&W, while the photographer was shooting color only. The one thing I always do is stay out of the way. It's funny because a couple of the photographers were really nice and helpful. They noticed my hesitance in getting some of their shots, and they would ask me to jump in and shoot. Most of the time I would decline, because I didn't want too many of their setups.

Marc,

Valid point, especially because I didn't make myself clear. I tend to be long-winded and my attempts to prevent that sometimes leave me needing to explain myself later :-)

 

The groom is actually my best friend, and he'll be my best man at my wedding in July. Because there aren't really "best men" in muslim weddings, I'm not his, but I would be (at least, so he says :-). That doesn't nec. mean I'm not approaching it as a photo op, but rest assured when I say that I in no way would put my photographic experience before the wedding.

 

To me, all situations are, in some way, a photo op. But only in the sense that I seek to continually learn how to capture the moment, the mood, and the atmosphere wherever I am. Whether that is on the street doing candid street photographer, in the mountains doing landscapes at sunrise, or at a wedding. But at most it's just something in the back of my head, to think about, and certainly not something that would supercede the enjoyment of the bride and groom. Wow. Even thinking about being that rude makes me shudder. That's just not me.

 

Anyway. Thanks for all the help. I'll go and bring my camera, and see what happens. This is my best friend's biggest day. I look forward to maybe helping capture some of it, but no big deal if I don't. Whether I am doing it as a gift to the B&G depends a lot on whether the pictures come out :-).

 

allan

I think it would have given the formal shots a little "punch" if they were taken with them holding the beer. Different anyway.

...or AFTER they drank a 6 pack each... then the formal shots ; -)

allan,

 

konica makes a 3200 color film. its called sr-g 3200 color. while paying at a camera shop in columbus ohio one of the salesman gave it to me to try. i dont normaly shoot color, so i have'nt tried it out to see how it does. hope that helps you a little.

 

doug

Oh. Konica makes a 3200. Okay - might throw a roll in there. :-)

 

thanks,

allan