Wedding disaster: no pictures

[peter_lushing]

Hope this hasn't been covered already, but it was hard to find search

terms for this query. I'm an amateur with maybe 2 or 3 more cameras

than I need, but I have fun. Except for a camera I bought on ebay,

I've never had a roll completely or mostly unexposed. One word

closely associated with MF is "wedding," which has made me wonder:

do pro's fail at weddings, i.e., come out with no pictures? How

often, once in a million, say? How is this guarded against? I would

imagine every major pose could be taken with two cameras, but I don't

believe that's what they do...but I don't know, obviously. Hope this

doesn't cause anybody psychic pain dredging up bad memories...but

expressing them might be purgative (again, in a field I don't know!).

[steve_levine]

As a career wedding shooter, I can shed some light here.Many things can and do go wrong.Sync switches can go on cameras,labs can have fires,flash misfires,you name it.The equipment we use for weddings is tested constantly,and we always use new cameras.Also I shoot 2-3 sets of "formals"at a wedding,these are the money shots ,B&G ,wedding party etc.I also make it a point to shoot these with 2 different cameras.This way the worse case scenario,a camera malfunctioning.We are guaranteed at least one set of formals shots.Also most pro labs will break up a large order,and not run it all at once.This way if the film gets damaged in process,we dont lose all of our film.

The biggest malfunction for MF begginers:loading that roll upside down!!Biggest 35mm mistake,mis-loading,not making sure film is rolling thru the camera constantly!

[nolan woodbury]

With wedding season coming up, this is a good discussion to get into!

 

I've now shot lot's of weddings, and carefully listen to the advice of those who have done more. I think the worst thing that can happen is a photographer shoots a few successful weddings, then gets over-confident and starts getting sloppy and careless. These rules I always try to remember: Be Confident, Be Careful, Be Prepared.

 

I never choose a wedding as a time to be cute or try experimenting! I take my trusted shooter's (Minolta Autocord, Pentax K1000/Minolta SRT) and their backup's (Yashica A/D, Rolleiflex MX for outside portraits because the screen is too dim for indoors) and carefully load each camera with film after checking to make sure the shutters are firing and everything is working correctly. With 4 or 5 TLR's and 2 or 3 35mm SLR's, I know I'll get through. This might be overkill, but I've never blown a wedding yet! I make sure both flashes (Sunpak 522 & 555) have fresh batteries and spare PC cords, and take plenty of film. I check the tripod's, check my gear cases...check everything! I use 35mm for motion shots (bride coming down the isle, dancing) and the TLR's for the portraits, but back everything up with 35mm. Something has to turn out. I normally use Fuji Reala and Kodak Porta 160VC in both 120 and 135.

 

After going over the ceremony with the bride and groom (or wedding planner) I study the church and reception area, take meter readings and jot down notes for later. I also list what the bride wants in the way of photos beforehand, and keep those notes in my pocket too. If I don't like where the wedding cake is, I'll insist it be moved, I also insist on a pleasing location to take the portraits after the ceremony. I might be a royal pain in the ass, but they won't remember that; they will only remember how nice the photo's look as the years go by.

 

Flirt with the bride! Get her to "glow" and laugh, it really makes a difference. Make sure you get across the message that this is a special day, and your honored to be there. I talk with my customers a lot during the shoot, and I've remained friends with many of them.

 

Let's review: Use only the camera's and equipment your most comfortable with and check it once, twice, or more. Study and make notes on where you'll be and what the couple wants, be pushy if you have to be, but remain calm and put on a happy face. Enjoy yourself (or look like you are, even if your working your butt off) and set your talent free...you wouldn't be there if you didn't enjoy photography in the first place.

 

Bad things still happen sometimes. Once, I completely blew the wedding bands/hands close-up's. I must of had the flash head tilted or something, because I had a bad vertical shadow down the middle of the groom's hand. My wife (and wedding shoot partner) took the print and scanned it, fixed it on Photoshop and printed it out on Epson photo paper. She then put the photo on the front of their proof book in a heart shaped cardboard cutout. They never knew! And they loved the way it looked.

 

Good luck in the up-coming wedding season everyone!

[frank_kimble]

No horror stories yet, but my rolling case has at least 2 of everything. Bodies,lens,flashes, extra dryfit battery, extra filmbacks, PC cords etc. Two complete camera setups, just alike, no remembering what camera does what. One goes on a tripod and the other around my neck. All the formals get shot on each camera.If something doesn't seem right, it gets shot again. The film from each camera is kept separate. One set goes to the lab next day/Monday. When I get them back, the lab gets the second set. For most(?) brides it's a once in a lifetime event. I don't want to be the one who messes it up. Not exactly what you wanted, but my way of avoiding it.

[john_hicks___]

A true pro is a bit more anal-retentive than NASA, has backups for backups, spreads the job over at least two cameras and flash systems, sends the film to the lab in at least two trips etc.

 

Despite that, there are failures. The true pro then does a reshoot if at all possible at his own expense or, if that's not possible, supplies the photos that _did_ work ok (a majority, if he's any good) perhaps for free to try to make the customer happy.

 

Note that this is for an event that in the great scheme of things is relatively unimportant and can usually be restaged if needed. <g>

 

In comparison, news photographers shoot events that are sometimes of great importance, cannot be restaged, sometimes can't _find_ the backup in the jumble of stuff in the car trunk, develop the film in a motel bathroom, washing it in the toilet etc....and are incredibly relaxed about the whole thing.

 

The point of that last bit is that beginning wedding photographers really should do what they can in the way of backups etc, then relax about it rather than tripping over their nerves. <g>

[michael_goode1]

Working in a minilab that also does some weddings, I'd agree that the

true pros use backups for everything, and thus very rarely lose many

shots. However, one of our customers who is a great nature

photographer just started doing people--portraits and weddings, and

one of his first weddings, everything was 3-4 stops overexposed.

Turned out his aperture was not stopping down on his camera.

[james_kuhn]

My first and only wedding was for my Goddaughter last June. I was an absolute wreck emotionally. My equipment was a Rollei 2.8F Planar TLR, Nikon F3 HP, and Metz 45 CL-4 and Nikon SB-16 flash. I made one critical error. I did not check the Metz ASA setting before I started to shoot. I had been shooting a lot of Portra 160; however, for the wedding I chose to use 400 ASA film because this was a late afternoon wedding. Needless to say, by shooting at ASA 160 I overexposed all the MF film. The good news was, being print film I was still able to salvage most of the images. Now for the real bad news. My lab lost several rolls of film!! Not once, but, three times!! They would find them and then lose them again. It took a few weeks, but the lab eventually found all the film I'd shot. I have to say it was the most nerve wracking experience I'd had in awhile. I work in our Nations space program launching Shuttles so, I'm no stranger to stress. I learned a great deal in my first wedding shoot and overall, I was pleased with the results as was the Bride and Groom.

 

Jim

[steve_levine]

After many weddings,I have learned to go on "autopilot".I shoot the same album each week!Only the faces change!I have learned "the shots" and can quickily put them onto film ,by shooting in a logical sequence.Once this skill is learned,the stress goes away.

[miles_feigenbaum___dallas_]

Hving been in the aviation business for the last 20 some odd years and the photography as a serious hobby/sideline i can attest that from the smallest piper cub to the largest boeing 747 every flight crew member that is a true professional uses a CHECKLIST. This can be of your own design and modified many times. You can type it out on small card and have them laminated to fit your top pocket. A page for the 'shots'. a page for normal operating proceedures and setup. a page for abnormal situations, etc... your assistant can call these off to you just as the flight crews do and wait for the correct response before going on to the next item. PPPPPP (PRIOR PLANNING PREVENTS PISS POOR PERFORMANCE)

I didn't see anyone mention to use a PROFESSIONAL LAB, and not the local drugstore or 'chain camera stores'. Don't ruin someones lifetime memories to save a few dollars, build a repor with your Pro Lab, its worth the effort. Be prepared to put in the overtime and 150 percent effort. Having said all this, I was traveling to Wichita Falls Texas a few weeks ago to work on a customers plane and there's a ranch off the side of the main highway with the owner raising CAMELS and i had known this for sometime and seen them several times. This time i pulled over and shot about half a roll with my Canon F1N thinking I had plenty of film remaining on the roll only to find out that the camera was empty. This case it was only my mistake and for my own use, but it really set off a bell. CHECKLIST.

GOOD LUCK DUDE!

[ulrik_neupert]

I once did a mistake on a wedding that has not been mentioned before: I exposed a 35mm roll twice! This is of course more difficult with 120 film.

[kevin_kolosky]

Peter

 

I have shot a little over 300 weddings. So far, only one bad mistake, and I was able to correct it. I use Hasselblad cameras and basically what I did was to shoot an entire reception on three backs that did not contain film!!!! that was operator error instead of equipment error.

I certainly agree with the rest of the shooters who have posted their replies. Well maintained equipment. spares. etc. I don't shoot two of everything like many do because I am constantly checking to see if my flash is synching and I know the sounds of my equipment so well that if something doesn't sound right I immediately look it over.

As I said, no equipment failures yet. I did have a child knock a hasselblad over onto a sidewalk which ruined the camera and lens and it was a good thing I had another with. Other than that, again, keep checking things while you are shooting and you shouldn't have any problems losing shots. Kevin

[ronald_l._marvin]

Kevin briefly mentioned maintenance. Be sure that your cameras and lenses are well maintained. I know a guy several years ago that never had his camera checked, and he never cleaned it out either. Needless to say disaster struck at the worst possible moment while he was shooting a wedding. He was using a Hasselblad and the shutter on his 50mm lens broke and he had no backup. Always carry backup equipment for everything, and get your entire system checked by qualified sevice personel at least once every year.

[jim_harrington1]

In my very limited experience with weddings, I've learned to:

--As others stated, always have backup equipment and spread your risk out over your equipment;

--Don't increase your risk by trying to save a few bucks on film, batteries, developing. Use fresh batteries, fresh film, and a pro lab.

--Know your equipment well. Watch and listen to your flash so you can detect when it's malfunctioning. Know the sound your camera makes when it's advancing film properly. Do you know how to use your flash in manual mode if the auto sensor fails?

--Check your settings regularly. It's easy to dial in an exposure correction for, say, fill flash outdoors, and then forget to reset when you go indoors.

--Think through your contingency plans. Will your backup gear be close at hand if the camera jams during the first dance? What compositions will you use if you must revert to manual flash mode and shoot from a fixed distance? What are your highest priority shots if the bride is an hour late and you can't get through the whole shot list? What will you do if the wedding officiant sudenly decides to forbid flash during the ceremony?

 

I've personally lost a few photos by forgetting to reset an exposure correction. A friend lost 4 rolls out of 8 at a wedding when he forgot to reset an exposure correction while using TTL mode. I had the sensor on my flash stop working (one of the contacts was dirty - easily fixed, fortunately). I was close in on the cake cutting shooting at a wide aperature, my Vivitar 283 set on "yellow" I think, when the flash began firing full power. Fortunately, a quick look on the Vivitar's dial told me what aperature to set for the distance so I only lost a couple of shots.

[peter_lushing]

Wow! I guess I pushed a red button. I hope more responses come in, but right now I want to take the time to thank everybody for their comments to my query. As I said, I'm an amateur, and while years ago I tried over a dozen criminal cases before a jury of 12 people who preferred law and order to crime, I would do that tomorrow rather than take on the responsibility of a wedding. And yet, the answers make it clear that the same principles apply: preparation and calm are the key (trials and wedding shoots, that is). A few days after I posted my question I recalled that about ten years ago I shot my brother-in-law's rather informal wedding. I remembered at once that I shot everything twice, on my EOS and my Fuji 6X7 rangefinder. Things got a little pink, but I was confident a lab could fix that, and they did, and the pix are not professional, but OK for the money paid to the photographer.

[karl_hardenbol]

Tongue-in-cheek question:

How many cars do you guys use to go to a wedding ?

[steve_hovland]

For those of us who occasionally shoot wedding pictures for friends I would advise:

 

Shoot a picture from time to time using your flash unit so you are confident in the combination you would use.

 

Use 400 film so the flash recycling time is short and battery life is long.

 

Events within the wedding go by really fast so keep it simple- my last time out I just put the TTL flash on my camera and shot everything on Program. It came out looking pretty good. This was in the woods and I suspect some of my pictures looked better than the ones by the paid photographer who took a lot of shots without flash. In this case the paid "professional" arrrived with one camera, one flash, and a shopping bag with extra film. At one point she dropped her flash on concrete. It continued to work but she had no backup.