What to do with rain? Wedding Photog Emergency...

[elle_m]

<p>I have shot in a bit of rain before. My assistant will hold an umbrella over me and my camera, and I have a 5d II which is fairly weather-tolerant. I also have additional rain gear for those really rainy situations and I have umbrellas for the wedding party too. Rain can make for some really romantic bridal/couple/party photos.</p>

<p>However, what do you do when there are large formal group/family photos needed, and they haven't planned to accommodate rain? For example, if the only covered area is the dining area -- full of tables and other guests? You can't put 20 people under umbrellas and get a good photo. You can't make grandma stand out in drizzle...</p>

<p>What to do?</p>

 

[railphotog]

<p>Way back when I used to do part time wedding photography, I tried to take group photos in the church. The bridal party would walk down the aisle, then back up to the front by a side aisle to the altar/front.</p>

<p> </p>

[thesaltypeanut]

<p>... I would take the pictures in an inside location...</p>

[Matt Laur]

<p>Look into renting a 10x20 canopy. If the bridal party wants such shots, they might not mind spending that small rental fee to set up a second space.</p>

[william-porter]

<p>Basic principle #1: You can't do the impossible. </p>

<p>This is where you have a conference with the bride and groom (and/or their parents, whoever is running the show) and you improvise. I shot an outside wedding in the early spring here in Texas a year and a half ago. It didn't rain, in fact, it was bright and sunny (and THAT was a problem for me). But it did turn out to be really cold by Texas standards—too cold to ask the bride and groom to stand outside taking pictures without wearing coats. The venue was a ranch and HQ was the rancher's house. So we moved furniture in the not very large den and I did the group photos in front of the fireplace. It was less than ideal for lots of reasons but it worked.</p>

<p>So you meet with the clients, discuss, and consider your options:</p>

<ol>

<li>Shoot outside in the rain with umbrellas but take far fewer shots than originally planned.</li>

<li>Find a place inside, move furniture, shoot there.</li>

<li>Go somewhere else nearby where it's dry.</li>

<li>Cancel or postpone the group shots (a logical option, if not a practical one).</li>

<li>Pray for the rain to stop and then wait for prayers to be answered (see #4).</li>

</ol>

<p>I think that about covers it. I will be interested myself to see if others with more experience have other ideas. Basically, #2 above is your main option.</p>

<p>Will</p>

[picturesque]

<p>First thing is to determine where you can go in the house that is workable and involves the least amount of furniture moving, cleaning up, etc. Obviously, you move guests if you have to. The place just has to be large enough, clean enough and allow you enough space to back up enough.</p>

<p>If the house is two stories, consider a staircase, looking up or down from an angle, or looking down on the group. Use chairs, sofas and other items as posing tools. Be creative about group posing. At the very least, if you are stuck with the dining room with table of food, put guests in another room, gather everyone around one end of the table. Use a ladder to elevate yourself at the other end. Shoot with some of the bounty showing in the picture.</p>

[elle_m]

<p>Thanks for all the advice! Since I'm still fairly green in this area of the industry, I never know how much pull I have, and how "bossy" I can get. Nadine, it is alright to ask other guests to clear out of areas?</p>

[david_garcia10]

<p>Umm. That is why they sell a rain coat cover for the camera. I bought mine for $50 for my main camera just in case and i also have some cheap plastic camera cover that i bought for $5 and it comes with 3 plastic cover. u never know when you need it but at least you are ready anytime. don't be putting walmart plastic bag on your camera it won't look classy. :p</p>

[picturesque]

<p>Elle--absolutely. Nicely, of course. Most guests are understanding because they want the best for the wedding couple.</p>

[DickArnold]

Two quick experiences. It rained outdoors at the beach after a group has traveled some distance to get there. On one it was raining so hard I refused to photograph the wedding. The JOP and I contacted a local hotel and the two of us moved the party bag and baggage into the hotel and brought off the wedding without a hitch. I had the B&G back the next sunny weekend and we got plenty of pictures with lots of ocean in the background. The second time I moved a smaller wedding to the town Gazebo near the ocean and we got pictures. It was so dark I did the wedding all with flash. I have done other weddings at that location and you could see the water in the background. That night you couldn't. They did not get what they wanted in terms of ambiance but they got their wedding photographed and I got paid. Neither group had plan B. It rains in June in New England and most of my customers wanted to be outside near the water. I strongly suggested to all my customers that they have a rain plan. The first wedding the wind was blowing so hard that no canopy or umbrella would have sufficed. The second was about that bad as well. It says a lot for alternative plans and able to use flash effectively when all else fails. This stuff happens.

[daverhaas]

<p>I had 3 outdoor weddings over the past year - 2 it rained on and 1 it didn't. The one it didn't rain on - turned out beautiful. The ones it did also turned out beautiful... why? because bride and groom (and I) had backup plans.</p>

<p>#1 - in most locations it will rain at some point during the summer, spring and fall. Plan accordingly. I pack almost like a pro golfer for the weather - golf umbrella, rain gear, bag for the camera, sweater (only for cool days) spare shirt, etc....</p>

<p>#2 - Make sure the bride / groom have a rain plan - Bride #1 - didn't want a rain plan... it started raining at 10:00 am (wedding was at 1:30pm) and didn't stop - at 12:30 - bride still didn't want to make the call - suddenly there was a clap of lightning and thunder - and her mother said - "Okay - God just called it for you!" - We ended up moving reception tables to one end of the reception area and having the ceremony and photos there. Bride #3 - had a rain plain - tents were set up and we had an indoor / outdoor wedding.</p>

<p>#3 - Be prepared. Meaning don't assume the wedding will be outside and not bring your lighting equipment or fast lens. For the last wedding that would "inside/outside" the couple had told me it was going to be outdoors - just a small garden wedding - fortunately I brought my battery pack and SB 800's - otherwise they would have some really dark photos.</p>

<p>#4 - for wedding #2 - the one that it was actually dry for - I went out to the location of the wedding the week before to shoot the location. Meaning I took shots with no one in them of different locations around the venue. Our backup plan was to shoot the wedding photos at the reception area (which was indoors) against a green screen and add in the backgrounds in post.<br>

Technically, you could put 20 people under umbrellas - and probably get an interesting shot, but hopefully there's a better way.</p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

[ricd]

<p>" <a href="../photodb/user?user_id=4763889">Bob Boudreau</a>,<br>

Way back when I used to do part time wedding photography, I tried to take group photos in the church. The bridal party would walk down the aisle, then back up to the front by a side aisle to the altar/front."</p>

<p>Hi Bob, Please accept my apology for my statement: The center passageway of a church is called the nave whereas the isles are to the outside of the seats along the wall (other criteria for isles do apply as well). This was pointed out to me with a firm but polite manner by an officiant. He stated he becomes annoyed when folks call it an isle that it is not. He also, stated he makes sure all the workers at his church know to call it by its correct name. I smiled, nodded my head, thanked him for his correction. </p>

<p>That happened many years ago, if not decades. Often I have used the term nave and, when I did officiants were most surprised and pleased I used the correct term.</p>

<p>Cordially,<br>

RicD</p>

 

[Jerry_]

<p>Take three groups: six, six, and four persons -- <strong>indoors</strong>. With a little Photoshop editing, you should be able to get all 20 into one image...</p>

<p> </p>

[craig_gillette]

<p>"Isles" are land surrounded by water. A nave is the central portion of the church, that is, generally speaking the area used by the laity, and not just the center aisle. Traditionally, it's the area between the narthex and the chancel. You are likely only to hear it in context in a church where one might also hear the terms narthex and chancel, etc. These days, there is less structural need for a nave and the theology that also separated the laity from the clergy has also been more than a little modified over the years as well.</p>

<p>The church were I was married was presided over by several fussy traditional priests and one came to know the traditional terms. Neither of them used nave for aisle nor vice versa. </p>

<p> </p>

[william-porter]

<p>Digression...</p>

<p>My long understanding is in line with Craig's and not with what RicD was told. In Catholic churches anyway, the word "nave", when it's used at all these days, doesn't simply refer to the central aisle, but rather refers generally to the central part of the church, where most of the pews are. It's the main part of the T in a traditionally designed church. It has no applicability to non-traditional designs, like round churches; at least it would never occur to me to use the term in connection with such a church.</p>

<p>Somebody who knows enough to use the word nave probably would know enough NOT to use it to refer to the pews in the transept, the cross-bar in the church's layout, or the narthex, the lobby in the back. Anyway, I was educated by very traditional Catholics but I don't find these old terms (nave, transept, narthex, chancel, etc.) used much. (I think chancel may be still used among Anglicans; not sure.)</p>

<p>In medieval churches (gothic, romanesque, and to some extent later) the nave was indeed often flanked by and distinguished from the "aisles", but the aisles (on the left and ride "sides" of the interior of the church) were always separated from the nave by columns. Sometimes there was more than 1 aisle on each side; see St Peter's in Rome. But that was a very different architectural environment. And even then, the nave wasn't the central aisle. There was no central aisle, because there weren't any pews. So the idea that the "nave" is the central aisle, and the aisles on the side are "aisles," is simply wrong, at least as the terms are used traditionally. Modern side aisles are generally NOT separated from the nave by columns, so they're technically in the nave as much as the central aisle.</p>

<p>Church architecture has changed (not in Orthodox churches, so much, by the way, but elsewhere) and the old terms just aren't used much. At least I don't hear them and I have plenty of opportunities to do so.</p>

<p>Not saying that RicD's report is wrong; I'm sure he was told that and that he's gotten nods when he used the term nave. And any pastor has, I suppose, a right to call any part of his church anything he wants. But to be honest, I would be inclined to suspect RicD's getting approving nods from priests and pastors when he uses the word "nave," simply because it's a traditional term for the central area of the church that most Christians are no longer familiar with. He's getting the response we might give if somebody using a point and shoot camera asked one of us about the hyperfocal distance or some other technicality we don't expect amateurs to be familiar with. Never mind "nave": most Catholics today have no idea what the difference is between a basilica, a cathedral, a shrine, a chapel, and a church.</p>

<p>These days when I think of "nave" I think of Le Corbusier's famous chapel, Nôtre Dame du Haut, which is designed to LOOK like a boat. (Nave comes from Latin "navis" which means "boat.")</p>

<p>Sorry for the digression.</p>

<p>Will</p>

[savagesax]

Seems pretty simple to me. If it's raining the bride and the groom surely don't want to get wet. Shoot inside.

[sherijohnson]

<p>Whatever you do, discuss with them before the wedding about their back up plans. No one can know ahead of time what the weather will do that day. Sometimes the back up plan is less than ideal, but you have got to work around it. For future reference consider having something in your contract to put the liability for these issues on the client.</p>

[savagesax]

One time it actually rained here in California. Hard to believe, but its true! It was an outdoor reception, at the parents house, so someone called the local bowling alley. They had a small reception room. Without doing into great detail I got a lot of fun shots of the wedding party bowling. I stood in the gutter, about 1/2 way down the lane and snapped a few. Pretty fun. Oh, the owner of the place bought a huge print and he also used a few of the shots for advertising.

[ricd]

<p>Hi Craig and William,</p>

<p>Though we digressed thank you for your input. Yes Craig, isles was "a" mistype on my part, thank you for bring that to my attention. Blame it on my tri-focals.</p>

<p>Cordially,<br />RicD</p>

[michael_krouskop]

<p>I have something in my contract that states I do not shoot in the rain or anywhere where my gear gets wet. There is no way I would risk my livelihood by ruining my gear over one wedding. It is also not my responsibility to come up a back-up plan for their wedding. I will take photos, but only indoors or under a tent. </p>