Advice

Hi there. I am shooting a friends wedding in a few weeks and would like some advice. I am a bit nervous as she has brought the wedding forward as her father has not long left to live and want to make the photos extra special. I have done a few friends weddings before and some photos was ok but I think that was just pot luck. When I have tried to take a nice picture of the wedding dress it always turns out yellow. I have a Canon EOS 600D. I am always switching from manual to portrait to TV etc and am always unsure which settings and functions I need to use. I would be most grateful for any advice. Thank you in advance.

"I am always switching from manual to portrait to TV etc and am always unsure which settings and functions I need to use."

 

Those are the very rudiments of photography which you can learn from a few YouTube tutorials in a couple of hours, but mastering those techniques and employing them on the fly will unfortunately take more than a few weeks. Nonetheless, try a YouTube search for "Wedding Photography"; it'll at least be more comprehensive than any written text anyone can offer here.

 

It's a lot of pressure to be the photographer for such a special occasion, but there's always the option to suggest or recommend an alternate photographer for the couple, or you can simply try your best while making it clear to the couple that your results might not meet their expectations.

When I have tried to take a nice picture of the wedding dress it always turns out yellow.

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A white dress that photographs as yellow generally means that you don't have a setting called "white balance" right. The reason for this setting is that the "color" of light can vary a lot. Now we humans don't generally notice a color difference because our eyes quickly adapt to the light, but the camera doesn't necessarily do so.<BR><BR>

 

If I were photographing the dress, I'd probably set a custom white balance by photographing a test card (white or gray) and using that to set the white balance; see your camera manual for the exact procedure. This will make the dress photograph as white. But ... the setting is only good for that lighting - if you move to a different lighting condition then the white balance will be wrong again. So you have to constantly be aware of the light, and change custom white balance as needed.<BR><BR>

 

If you don't already understand how this works, your best bet is probably to set "auto white balance," where the camera makes its own best guess for each shot. This is what I'd do if I didn't have time for custom white balances.<BR><BR>

 

Note: it's possible that you have accidentally set a color balance offset into the camera, so check your camera manual to make sure there is nothing set there.<BR><BR>

 

You will probably get recommendation to shoot in a mode called raw, that allows you to set white balance after the fact; I'll let the proponents explain that.

Is your friend paying you the same way you have to pay a friend who is a dentist or attorney? And if you are "...a bit nervous.." then for sure let her hire a professional photographer instead so you can enjoy the wedding as a guest and let the pro do what they are trained to do. I don't do weddings but I do know is a fast pace and with lots of pressure. You must think fast, clearly and be able to click and execute on the dot. IF you are "nervous" you will be shooting and looking at the back of your camera every second while missing the right shots. There is not time for excuses during the wedding or afterwards and like you said her father doesn't have much time left. If something goes wrong you don't want to ruin your friendship at all. Is like hiring a mechanic who may fix your car properly or maybe no, but you will only know when you are on your way to LA from Tennessee. Or having an appt with a doctor who right away is telling you that he is nervous and is not sure if he will do a proper surgery at all but he will do some practice on a cadaver before he works on your body. You don't want to relied on just pot luck.