My husband's cousin's photographer is in the hospital. Her wedding is scheduled for April 9th and I've been nominated by the family to take the wedding shots. I've never taken pictures with an SLR at a wedding nor been part of the traditional wedding shots. (My husband and I bought a dozen disposable cameras for our wedding and distributed them to the guests instead of opting for a professional photographer). I really need advise. What equipment should I bring with me? What traditional shots do I need to take? I have a tri-pod, a couple batteries, my Canon 20D, a Kodak Z740, and some extra filters. It is an indoor wedding and reception with fluorescent lighting. Any advise is appreciated.
Get the bride & groom to tell you what shots THEY want from the day, so you have some kind of brief to work to.
Shoot in RAW so you can sort out the lighting in post production.
Have your battery charger with you & keep one battery on it while you're using the other.
I've never officially photographed a wedding, but I look through wedding magazines to see some of the shots other people seem to like. That might be a thought for you. :)
Be ready for a hard days work , it is very stressful . Ive only done 3 and doing another 2 in 2 months time.
I wouldnt even bother about a tripod as u will be doing alot of candid type shots . May need to ask the church what are ur limits regarding photography e.g is flash allowed , where are u not allowed ?
Do plenty of homework before the day , study wedding photos get ideas . Dont forget to get the small details e.g close up of detail on the dress , table settings , rings , marriage certificate.
Take a bottle of water for u , can get thirsty. Take lots n lots of shots , try new camera angles . Dont stress about positioning the couple it will all come natural . Most important thing is trying and get a good back ground in ur shots .
Dont want to fill ur head with too much . Just enjoy the day and im sure the bride and groom will be very happy with ur hard work .
First, congratulations may be in order, but you won't feel like once you are done. Wedding photography is intense, exhausting, and nerve-racking.
You won't need to ask the church anything because the church actually has very little to do with the wedding itself. Sometimes the bride and groom rent the church, other times they are church members, but either way the church usually isn't involved.
Don't rely on the lighting inside the church. Even the most, most well-lit churches in the world aren't good enough for good wedding photography.
The few times I have worked as a backup, or second shooter, at a wedding, here is the equipment I have used:
Nikon D300
Nikon D200
12-24mm f/2.8
24-70mm f/2.8
50mm f/1.8
85mm f/1.8
80-200mm f/2.8
Nikon SB-80DX strobe for each camera body
I mostly shot all the photos at 400 ISO, f/5.6 @ 1/60 exposure with the strobe at about 1/2 power with a softbox attached. This provided for good ambient lighting in the background while the strobe lit the faces.
You will have to rent some equipment, most likely, but I would highly recommend taking fast f/2.8 lenses and strobes, or you will end up with underexposed, blurry shots.
Good luck with it all...but make sure you have the right equipment to shoot it with.
I would say there are a couple of things that would help make life easier for you
1) dont approach the event as a whole but consentrate image by image, when you think of it as taking a wedding often it puts a lot of stress on you but if you think about taking a series of single shots then it doesn't seem so bad.
2) find a couple of co ordinators, this makes life a lot easier, find someone from either side of the family that will help get people to where they are needed in the formal shots it saves a lot of hassle trying to find out who is who and running around
3) scout the locations, wherever the wedding takes you make sure you know a rough layout of the places, where would be a great place to get the time out shots of the bride and groom, if it rains is there somewhere undercover, will save a lot of worry
4) be prepared make sure you have the right lenses, filters other guff, all the batterys are fully charged memory cards or film are blank and have an idea of the itinerary so you know where to be when, its advisable to have a couple of cameras with different lenses as often you may not have time to change,also you have a back up if one stops working, you can shoot a wedding with one camera but it is a bit of a headache
5) details, these are little things that are missed out but mean a great deal when looking back on the day, wedding rings, detail on the brides dress, floral arrangements, the brides shoes, they all add to the day.
but most important dont stress it and have fun :) I am sure there are a few more tips but others can fill those in :D
I'm so pleased that you asked that question Marja, because I have been asked to do a wedding as well and am madly looking for all the help I can get.
The wedding that I am doing is an outdoor bush type wedding in late April.
All good advice so far........but a little hard not to be a little stressed!
@jasonbarnette sorry my bad when i was saying asked the church for permission i should of written ask Priest , cant really go up to a building and ask to take photos in it now can we.
I would say the main equipment you need is a tripod, two different lenses (your choice) and your camera. One battery should do the trick if you recharge it before, but just in case go ahead and take the extras.
Make sure you take a lot of detail shots, don't be afraid to move around during the ceremony, don't be afraid to experiment with angle and lighting, don't be afraid to take charge during the family and wedding party pics and don't miss the kiss. I was the second photographer for a wedding and the main photographer missed the kiss and my version was slightly blurry.
Also, don't let my story scare you. The bride and groom were really happy with the pictures.
@liipgloss Haha...true. But still, the priest/pastor/rabbi have almost nothing to do with the wedding itself. The person to ask would be the wedding coordinator, bride and groom, or most often times the mother of the bride.
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Shoot in RAW so you can sort out the lighting in post production.
Have your battery charger with you & keep one battery on it while you're using the other.
There's a few basic thoughts for starters...
Be ready for a hard days work , it is very stressful . Ive only done 3 and doing another 2 in 2 months time.
I wouldnt even bother about a tripod as u will be doing alot of candid type shots . May need to ask the church what are ur limits regarding photography e.g is flash allowed , where are u not allowed ?
Do plenty of homework before the day , study wedding photos get ideas . Dont forget to get the small details e.g close up of detail on the dress , table settings , rings , marriage certificate.
Take a bottle of water for u , can get thirsty. Take lots n lots of shots , try new camera angles . Dont stress about positioning the couple it will all come natural . Most important thing is trying and get a good back ground in ur shots .
Dont want to fill ur head with too much . Just enjoy the day and im sure the bride and groom will be very happy with ur hard work .
You won't need to ask the church anything because the church actually has very little to do with the wedding itself. Sometimes the bride and groom rent the church, other times they are church members, but either way the church usually isn't involved.
Don't rely on the lighting inside the church. Even the most, most well-lit churches in the world aren't good enough for good wedding photography.
The few times I have worked as a backup, or second shooter, at a wedding, here is the equipment I have used:
Nikon D300
Nikon D200
12-24mm f/2.8
24-70mm f/2.8
50mm f/1.8
85mm f/1.8
80-200mm f/2.8
Nikon SB-80DX strobe for each camera body
I mostly shot all the photos at 400 ISO, f/5.6 @ 1/60 exposure with the strobe at about 1/2 power with a softbox attached. This provided for good ambient lighting in the background while the strobe lit the faces.
You will have to rent some equipment, most likely, but I would highly recommend taking fast f/2.8 lenses and strobes, or you will end up with underexposed, blurry shots.
Good luck with it all...but make sure you have the right equipment to shoot it with.
http://weddings.about.com/od/photographer/a/Photogchecklist.htm
I would say there are a couple of things that would help make life easier for you
1) dont approach the event as a whole but consentrate image by image, when you think of it as taking a wedding often it puts a lot of stress on you but if you think about taking a series of single shots then it doesn't seem so bad.
2) find a couple of co ordinators, this makes life a lot easier, find someone from either side of the family that will help get people to where they are needed in the formal shots it saves a lot of hassle trying to find out who is who and running around
3) scout the locations, wherever the wedding takes you make sure you know a rough layout of the places, where would be a great place to get the time out shots of the bride and groom, if it rains is there somewhere undercover, will save a lot of worry
4) be prepared make sure you have the right lenses, filters other guff, all the batterys are fully charged memory cards or film are blank and have an idea of the itinerary so you know where to be when, its advisable to have a couple of cameras with different lenses as often you may not have time to change,also you have a back up if one stops working, you can shoot a wedding with one camera but it is a bit of a headache
5) details, these are little things that are missed out but mean a great deal when looking back on the day, wedding rings, detail on the brides dress, floral arrangements, the brides shoes, they all add to the day.
but most important dont stress it and have fun :) I am sure there are a few more tips but others can fill those in :D
The wedding that I am doing is an outdoor bush type wedding in late April.
All good advice so far........but a little hard not to be a little stressed!
Make sure you take a lot of detail shots, don't be afraid to move around during the ceremony, don't be afraid to experiment with angle and lighting, don't be afraid to take charge during the family and wedding party pics and don't miss the kiss. I was the second photographer for a wedding and the main photographer missed the kiss and my version was slightly blurry.
Also, don't let my story scare you. The bride and groom were really happy with the pictures.