First paid wedding... just want to make sure I have my ducks in a row

[jeff_forbes]

As the subject says, I'm shooting my first paid wedding this weekend. The

general photographic aspect I'm comfortable with, my equipment is pretty adequate:

 

Canon 30D, 300D, 580EX w/diffuser, 420ex w/diffuser, 6.5GB of CF cards (might be

a bit low, but I'll have someone that can dump the 4GB card to my laptop if

needed), 70-200 f4l, 17-50mm F2.8, 17-85IS, and 50mm 1.8... so I'm all set on

bodies, lenses, flashes, and backups. I'll be shooting RAW+ small/basic JPG for

the ceremony and formals, and just JPEG for the candids and reception afterwards.

 

Odds are, I'll use the 300D with the 17-50mm 2.8 zoom, with flash, and the 300D

with the 50mm prime or 70-200mm (maybe with flash, maybe without), depending on

circumstance. The 70-200 might just stay on the camera with the flash.

 

I'm more comfortable shooting candids than I am formal shots, which is my second

biggest weakness coming in to this. I've shown the couple what I've done in the

past, so they know what to expect (I've priced myself at a comfortable level

according to my skillset, so I don't see that as a concern). I'm comfortable in

ambient light and using fill flash, although my tendancy to underexpose in

tricky conditions is annoying, if I stay deliberate, I can do fine in that

regard, and my mistakes with underexposure are easily enough fixed in PS

(Underexposing a stop at ISO 100 isn't the end of the world).

 

 

My biggest technical worry is using multiple flashes. I've hardly dipped into

using a second flash, so I'm thinking I will probably avoid trying to use

something I am not comfortable with. I can use the 2nd flash "okay" as long as

I'm sticking to using both flashes at the same power level, but I have a hard

time dealing with flash ratios... I'm thinking that if I use 2 flashes, it'll

only be on the occasions for where I need more even lighting for a larger group

shot. I'm very comfortable bouncing a single flash in a small room as a primary

light source, and okay at balancing fill flash to ambient lighting for a larger

room or in outside dusk situations. Outside in daylight, I have better luck

just running the flash at -1 or -2/3 than getting it perfect, so I'll stick to

that as the results are acceptable.

 

 

 

If I use the 2nd flash, I'll likely just run the slave on the low side, and use

it to kill shadows or light the background a bit more - but the big question is

whether I should even bother doing that, or if I should just keep the flashes on

the bodies, and forget about getting too fancy.

 

 

My main concerns are the flow of the event. I've shot at a couple weddings, one

as a slightly overambitious guest, another as a free, but "offical"

photographer, and in the second try, I did a fair bit right, but need a lot of

work in some areas.

 

I will not be doing the dressing room shots, so that's a non issue.

 

 

Ceremony:

 

The one time I shot a ceremony, I found it incredibly difficult to get a good

angle on what was going on, despite having freedom to go all around the couple.

Then again, I was looking for some idealized, amazing picture that simply

didn't exist. The results weren't fantastic, and the couple was satisfied with

them, but I wasn't. I've seen some people here recommending longer lenses for

the ceremony - with the previous one, I shot with my 17-85, and shot most

pictures in the 30-70mm range, some on the wide end. I suppose which range to

focus on using (I'll have both avalible, with a lens and flash on each body),

and I'm comfortable doing people shots with the telephoto lens, and I do have

plenty of flash power to do so.

 

I won't be happy if the ceremony shots don't work out well, but I won't lose

sleep over it. The bride and groom are more concerned with other stuff, but I'd

still like to do the best possible work.

 

Formals:

 

When are the formals typically done? Just after the ceremony?

 

From what I understand, they are often done inside if the venue is nice, and

there's enough time. I think the couple has the chapel for two hours for the

ceremony and setup, so I'm thinking that it would give us enough time to shoot

them in the chapel after the ceremony, before people start going outside. The

couple has expressed an interest in doing them outside, but the forecast is

looking to be bright and sunny, which doesn't bode too well.

 

The typical groups for the formals are the B&G, the couple with

parents/immedeate family, bridesmaids, and, what else? I just know I'm going to

miss *something*, but, again, the couple is more concerned with some other stuff

(they have a couple specific shots which were their main concerns)

 

At the reception, I'll be in my comfort zone, shooting mostly candids of

everyone at the party, and extraneous couples/families together.

 

 

Contract-wise, I'm in good shape, as it protects me, and spells out pricing

details on almost everything, so I don't forsee any significant issues with it.

[medina photography cherry]

OK, sounds like you have everything wrapped up, good Luck.

 

Rob

http://medinaphotography.blogspot.com

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

If you're not comfotable with a technique, like using multiple flashes, someone's (hopefully) once in a lifetime event is not the time to try it out, so I'd keep the stobes on camera and use the skills you're comfortable with. Sometime down the road, you can grab a friend to practice new techniques. You definitely need more CF space. Maybe you can rent some cards. Can you attend the rehearsal and scope out angles for your ceremony shots?

[charlene_beckman]

Formals: This may be included in your "B&G" formals, but (speaking from experience as a bride) be sure to get formals of the bride alone, at least one of which is suitable for going in a newspaper. The bride probably doesn't care, but her mom almost certainly does :) You also didn't include groomsmen in your list, but I presume you meant to.

 

We did most of ours before the ceremony, which was a lot more relaxed and which I was really pleased about, and then extended family shots after. But lots of people do all the formals after so B&G don't have to see each other beforehand. Sounds like your couple is pretty laid-back and therefore may not have that issue.

 

Otherwise, sounds great -- good luck!

[lucafoto]

"Formals:

 

When are the formals typically done? Just after the ceremony? "

 

If the B&G are not too superstitious about seeing the bride before the ceremony, it is best to get the formals done with the wedding party first, while make-up, outfits and attitudes are fresh.

It is helpful to present a list of the group photo combinations to the party to help them organize themselves and speed the process along.

 

As for flashes, practice before hand, and see if you can scout the location a day or two before the ceremony, and at the same time of day that the ceremony is to be held.

 

Good luck!

[jeff_forbes]

No point in renting cards when the rental costs almost as much as a new one, and the nearest rental place is an hour away; if I can spot a deal locally, I can grab another 2-4GB card, if not, I can borrow a few smaller cards from a friend.

 

I expect to shoot 100-150 shots through the ceremony, then another 40-50 or so for the formal pictures - I'll be fine if I shoot the second part of the day in JPEG, I might need to swap out to a second card, but I might not. If it comes to hitting my last 1GB or so, I'm confident enough in the "normal" quality JPEG for my uses. I won't be shooting the whole thing in RAW due to the amount of time it takes to process RAW shots as compared to JPEG.

 

Point taken on not shooting a way I'm not famaliar with; I'll keep the flashes on camera.

 

Thanks!

[picturesque]

If you aren't comfortable using multiple flash, don't do it on your first real wedding. What lenses you need during the ceremony partly depend on what you are allowed to do by the church. If you are banished to the back and sides only, you need long lenses and possibly a tripod. If you can move around and get closer, it is possible to use nothing but short and medium lenses, with or without tripod. Formals are usually done after the ceremony but can be done before. The basic groups are couple alone, couple with wedding party, couple with extended family (each side), couple with immediate family (eash side), couple with parents. Further subgroups and other-nice-to-have-but-not-basic shots can be done, such as couple with maid of honor and best man only, or just the kids in the wedding party, or just grandparents, or couple with both parent sets, etc., etc. Find out what they want.

[jeff_forbes]

The way the ceremony is set up, I won't be able to shoot the formals beforehand.

 

Thanks for reminding me of the groomsmen - I would have seriously forgotten, otherwise.

 

As I won't have an opportunity to visit the location, I'll be showing up an hour early so I can scope everything out. Far from ideal, I know, but I can make do with that.

 

I'll definitely remember to get a couple formal shots of the bride alone... should I bother with the groom alone?

[picturesque]

Groom alone is usually done before the ceremony, along with just him and groomsmen. If you haven't done that, then yes, you should include the groom alone. Same with the bride, although it is common to photograph her alone twice--before the ceremony and a formal, full length on the altar after.

[mercsadies]

At the wedding I just participated in (I was the "family" and pro-backup) the photo sessions went like this:

 

Bride and bridesmaids all went outside.

Took shots of bride.

Bride with each bridesmaid.

Bride with all of the bridesmaids together.

Bride with selected family (parents, sister, brother, mother-in-law ... )

 

Girls went in ... guys came out.

 

Took shots of groom.

Groom with each groomsman.

Groom and groomsmen all together.

Groom with father.

Groom with mother (pinning on the corsage)

Groom with select family members (father-in-law ... )

 

Then the Ceremony happened.

 

Most of the formal shots are already out of the way.

 

Bride at the alter.

Bride and groom together before the alter.

Bride, groom and her family.

Bride, groom and his family.

 

At this time, the bride was asked which couples she wanted photos of.

Her parents.

Her family (without her)

Her sister and fiance.

His parents

His family (without him)

His brother and wife.

 

Just thought I would let you know what we ended up doing. Hope it helps you cover your bases.

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

Jeff,

 

If you can avoid it, I wouldn't re-use a card during a wedding. That's a sure recipe for disaster. I don't reformat a card until I've seen the image on my computer screen and backed it up on HD and DVD. And RAW+JPEG has never made sense to me. It's easy to batch process the JPEGS from the RAW. Don't waste card space with JPEG, unless you were planning to do a slide show during the reception or something like that. And shoot everything in RAW. You may think that's overkill for the reception, but I promise you it's not. Especially since this is your first, why deny yourself the extra margin of safety?

 

Paul

[robbie_caswell]

I'm sorry if I sound harsh, but you asked...

 

I find your approach is silly and down right irresponsible. You are getting paid, you should invest it in more memory. Why consider doing it at all if you are going to cut corners?

 

You don't want to take the time to process the images in RAW, though you are getting paid. Troubling, considering you state you can't get the exposure correct in the camera. If not RAW how do you expect to get it right for JPEG? Are you shooting manual mode?

 

What if you run out of memory? Is "normal" by Canon standards "Fine" by Nikon? Are you at least shooting the highest possible JPEG quality?

 

You may run into serious trouble if you don't buy more memory.

The formals will eat up an enormous amount of memory if they are never ending. Shoot as many of the groom/groomsmen and then hopefully the bride/bridesmaids BEFORE the ceremony. Then the entire group afterwards.

 

That will solve a few issues. Also, use a tripod and drag the shutter. Develop a comprehensive shot list. At least then you can accurately estimate and dump those into your laptop and get through the rest of the day.

 

Also, formals are mind numbing and intimidating, at least for me, and the less you stress you place on everyone with the least amount of shots... the better.

 

Good luck!

[jeff_forbes]

RAW files on the 30D run around 7-7.5MB, and 5-6MB on the Rebel. This gives me 880-900 shots in RAW, or, conservatively, 800. I could probably shoot everything in RAW with what I have, and the 2GB I will probably pick up in addition will be plenty; it is a small wedding, and I don't typically feel the need to shoot candids blazing at 5FPS. The JPEGs in RAW+JPEG will be small, minimum quality ones, they are in the 200-300KB range, and are more for browsing through efficently than anything else (The couple will also get most of these shots, which I've gone over with and is in the contract).

 

It isn't a huge wedding, by any means, either; 70-80 people is it.

 

I do have a tripod, failed to mention that, but I presume you mean using the tripod and dragging the shutter for the formals, which I will most definitely do; I do drag the shutter a fair bit in my normal shooting with flash - I'd presume it's pretty safe to dip in to the 1/8-1/15th range dragging it with a tripod, as long as the people hold still. I've had fine luck without a tripod shooting down to about 1/20-1/60 (with flash), depending on focal length, but there's no sense in not using the tripod for the formals.

[robbie_caswell]

I struggle with and detest formals. Shoot what you can before...

 

Cramming them post ceremony is never a good thing in my experience. It will just add to the stress and pressure you are under.

[patrick_viebey___orlando__]

Hey Jeff...

 

So, I'm not much farther necessarily down this road, but I'll share a few thoughts...

 

Make sure that backup is *HANDY*. Like if one camera dies when the bride is coming down the aisle. Which also means it has a card in it...so you have less capacity than you thought.

 

Insurance. Like what happens if all the pix get 'lost' in digital-land, or somebody trips over your tripod and breaks a hip? That can be 'life altering' for you. This, to me, was one good reason to join PPA.

 

Memory is cheap. I bought a 8GBb CF card for like $150. Basically, I put the card in, and really try to avoid touching it until I get home (I've read more than 1 horror story of people losing CF cards, and if it's in the camera, that's harder). This also reduces the odds of mechanical connection 'breaks' sticking a new card in that renders the camera useless. Others like to use many smaller cards, but given it's solid state, I worry more about flat losing them than any other problem...

 

Make SURE you have a shot list, and I personally make sure the B&G have input into it. You can take 'extras', but otherwise, it's too easy to miss combinations (especially where people have divorced/hate each other/etc).

 

Assistant. Yeah, that's real helpful. Mine keeps the shot list and people organized to let me focus on shooting. And good for 'hey, you need a drink!'

 

I bring my own drinks and some kind of snack, so I can quickly zip, get something fast, and get back in the game. I try real hard not to be part of the 'party'. Take a break sometime (you'll be amazing how fun it is, but how tiring it is at the same time!) Be careful eating or anthing else that could render you 'disabled' when you need to start (a good recommendation I read about where someone tried something new the day of the wedding and make themself ill).

 

Batteries/cords/spares. Bring LOTS. Make sure you charge everything the night before. Don't forget you need to change batteries in your flash, 'cause unless you have a high power pack, AA's will run out at the worst time. I have a small pouch on my belt where I keep spare CFs and batteries (both camera and flash), so I don't have to hunt.

 

Don't forget you need batteries ready and up in your spare, too (no time to change over!) I forgot this once, and dropped a shot as well as had some weird color shifts I had to fix.

 

One of the books I read had a good recommendation to put together a small 'emergency' kit to keep nearby with like Tums, Aspirin, maybe some pins or something in case something tears, stuff like that because you really don't want to be stuck shooting photos with no time to fix stuff or deal with a headache.

 

It wouldn't be a bad idea to have a list of 'stuff' to make sure gets into your car for the wedding. Like, forgetting to get the batteries off your charger will suck. Forgetting to pack the tripod is bad. I once went our shooting (happily not a commercial shoot) and realized I left all my 'usual' CF cards on my desk (luckily I had an old 1Gb CF hard drive that I try to never use still in the bag).

 

Security of 'stuff'. More than 1 story of people putting a camera down and it disappears. I bought a Pelican case on wheels I store my stuff in, and if I leave it, I can lock in and lock it to something so it can't walk off. This also is a place an assistant can help you (extra set of eyes/hands).

 

Hope this helps...

 

pat

[uncle bob]

Also, make sure to get a list from the bridal party of what extra shots they want you to take.

 

I just got married and was extremely disappointed in the photographer. If I knew then what I know now. He missed quite a few shots that I wish were taken. In his defense, I didn't know I needed to ask for them, I thought it would be part of his "wedding mantra," ie, a shot of my dad and I. He cranked through a few formals after the ceremony and then was drinking a beer chatting with people....

 

Sorry for the rant. BUT, do ask the bridal party for a list of any shots they might want that are out of the ordinary.

[jeff_forbes]

The B&G gave me a small list of shots they wanted, and they will have someone there that knows who they want formals done of, beyond what we disucssed. They gave far more weight to their special requests than the normal formal picures (specifically, a shot of them riding their motorcycle from the ceremony to the reception, complete with motion blur (should be fun to shoot, eh? Good thing I have a lens with IS))

 

Equipment I'm taking:

 

8.5GB in CF. 4, 2, 1, 1, .5. Good for 1000 RAW shots, or 2500 JPEGs.

 

2x bodies

2x flashes

2x diffusers

1x tripod

1x monopod

Both tripod and monopod use the same QR system, and I keep the bases on the cameras.

3x batteries for cameras

12x AA batteries for flashes

laptop w/external hard disk for onsite backup, if necessary.

lens hoods for the lenses that need them

2GB in USB memory sticks

 

 

 

Insurance: uh, maybe next time, and certainly not at the price I'm charging here.

 

Assistant: Hah. No money for that, as I had mentioned originally, I'm doing this very cheap; a family member will help out with who to shoot, though.

 

I've made the mistake of forgetting equipment before, so now my tripod and monopod live in my car, and I quadruple check everything before I leave if I'm going anywhere further than the end of the road.