Beginner...shooting my first wedding.

linpelk · Sep 6, 2009

Ok, not really a total beginner, but figured it would get some blood boiling from some of you

.
Some friends of ours are getting married in a couple of weeks. Both of them have been married before. It is a very secret ordeal. It will only be the bride/groom, my husband and I, plus the pastor. So, they want me to take pictures. They are planning to get married in a pretty dark patch of forest...which SUCKS for me! They want to do this in the Redwoods next to the largest tree in this particular forest which means it will be pictures of them near a really large tree trunk. I am having issues with this because I can't imagine how I'm going to make these pictures look nice. I swore I would NEVER take wedding pictures, but they want this to be short and sweet and don't want to hire someone. I am shooting with a Canon 30D, I have a 24-70 f/2.8L lens, a 50mm lens, and was thinking about renting a wide angle to help capture the feel of the forest. I have a 580 EX II, an umbrella and wireless triggers...that's about it. The couple has offered to rent me any equipment that I think I might need.
Can anyone offer any advice for this situation? Lighting set up? Or how to take pictures of big trees AND people??? Is it possible? Thanks for any help!

DScience · Sep 6, 2009

Although I have had only one experience shooting a wedding, I can offer one piece of advice. You might want to look into a Gary Fong flash diffuser. It's used by pros for weddings, and is pretty amazing at what it does.

Besides that, you need fast glass, lots of memory and spare batteries, and practice.

doogan · Sep 6, 2009

I'm a fairly new wedding photographer with about 10 weddings done, so I'll approach the problem as if I was the one shooting in that forest.

I would just use the 2 lenses that you have. The 2.8 is going to be pretty handy, I would shoot wide open most of the time, taking care to focus on the eyes. Depending on how dark it is, I wouldn't be afraid to go past 800 ISO, even up to 2000 if I had to.

I did a wedding recently and did some closeups of the bride, forgetting that I was at 1600 ISO outdoors. Not a problem really, the way I see it.
I imagine your 50 lens is even faster than your zoom, that'll come in handy
too.

Of course you can use flash, but as the other person said, best to have a diffuser. Myself I would try both lenses without flash and some with flash.
You'll need to take your time and thinking of what depth of field you'll need for some shots, which way the light is coming from, and keeping an eye on your shutter speeds that they don't drop too low.

As I said I would just use the lenses you have, seems to me the 24-70 would be wide enough to show a lot of the forest. There's nothing at all wrong with having a large view of the forest with the bridal couple appearing quite small in the image. Have them adopt some romantic poses or even just walking holding hands. If you combine these image with medium shots and closeups you'll have a good variety. Do some practising if you can. Best of luck, Bob G.
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musicaleCA · Sep 6, 2009

linpelk said:
Ok, not really a total beginner, but figured it would get some blood boiling from some of you .

Blood boiling, no. But I did gasp for air from the horror of what I thought this thread might be. Curse you, I'm still catching my breath! :lol:

shortpballer · Sep 6, 2009

DScience said:
Although I have had only one experience shooting a wedding, I can offer one piece of advice. You might want to look into a Gary Fong flash diffuser. It's used by pros for weddings, and is pretty amazing at what it does.

Besides that, you need fast glass, lots of memory and spare batteries, and practice.

Agreed Dscience. This diffuser is AMAZING

musicaleCA · Sep 6, 2009

Er...Can someone please tell me why the Gary Fong is so "good"? It just splashes light all over the place. I see it as a lazy-man's diffuser. Bouncing the flash looks better (because you get directional lighting, not flat soft light all the time), and you simply have more control over the light. Say there's a mirror in the room, you'd want to avoid bouncing light off of it, but with a Gary Fong on there you'd need to take it off and...bounce it off something else.

Plus it makes your flash look like a torpedo. :lol:

linpelk · Sep 6, 2009

Thanks everyone for your replies. I don't have a Gary Fong, but I have a Sto-fen and I will definitely bring it along to try out a few diffused shots. I was thinking I might even have my husband hold the Speedlite in his hand with the wireless triggers and try to get the flash off the camera completely. I normally prefer to bounce my flash as much as possible, but clearly in this situation, it won't be possible. I'm hoping I won't have to use the flash at all. I'm going to bring my big reflector and see what I can do with manipulating the natural light but I feel so limited by my camera. I never, ever shoot above 800 ISO on my 30D because of the noise and this camera gets it right at about 600. I also am worried about shooting everything wide open because of my increased risk of blurring those faces if they are not in the same plane. Anyway, I'm going to head out to this spot later in the week to check out the lighting at this particular time of day. Thanks again for your support and input. Any other advice is still welcomed if you have anything to add.

Antithesis · Sep 6, 2009

Natural light will look kind of dappled if its during the day and sunny, and probably pretty muddy otherwise. Flash might come in handy, and I agree with using a diffuser. Your right about the wide-angle, which will make some of the photos look pretty dynamic. Just using pretty standard lenses will make it seem plain and flat IMO. In a forest, you just have to have something wider than 24mm to get some really good photos.

linpelk · Sep 6, 2009

Antithesis said:
Natural light will look kind of dappled if its during the day and sunny, and probably pretty muddy otherwise. Flash might come in handy, and I agree with using a diffuser. Your right about the wide-angle, which will make some of the photos look pretty dynamic. Just using pretty standard lenses will make it seem plain and flat IMO. In a forest, you just have to have something wider than 24mm to get some really good photos.

I agree, especially with a crop body like mine

Eyetattoo · Sep 7, 2009

Of topic a bit, but are you shooting at Calaveras Big Trees?

linpelk · Sep 7, 2009

Eyetattoo said:
Of topic a bit, but are you shooting at Calaveras Big Trees?

Nope, not Calaveras. It will actually be at Henry Cowell in Santa Cruz.

GeneralBenson · Sep 7, 2009

FYI everyone, using any kind of bare bulb equivalent diffuser like the Fongdong or a Sto-fen cap is completely useless outdoors. They are only effective when there is something for your light to bounce off of, like walls and ceilings, and don't add any 'softness' the the flash without bouncing. Outside, all you doing is wasting about 1 1/2 stops of light.

IgsEMT · Sep 7, 2009

oh wow, talk about a challenge...
I'd try at ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/60sec (all to allow more ambient light in). VR lens, would be a GREAT help. Opening aperture wider would be helpful. Don't open to wide since you don't want to blur out body parts (nose, ears, etc).
flash - 1/4 power w/omni bounce straight fwd (adjust according for correct exposure); 1/2 to 1/1 power bounce 45-60degrees with bounce card and/or diffuser. Umbrella with off camera would be great to - will light the front and the back (a bit) :thumbup:

As for Gary Fong or other kind, I made one my self - went into arts&crafts store purchased for $0.99 sheet of foam paper - velcro on one end = bounce card. The second one I shaped into a funnel, placed foil inside, and a thin piece of cloth (removable) on the outside. In short I spend about 30min-1hr and $3.00 VS lots of money and less time.

Good Luck

Clawed · Sep 7, 2009

GeneralBenson said:
FYI everyone, using any kind of bare bulb equivalent diffuser like the Fongdong or a Sto-fen cap is completely useless outdoors. They are only effective when there is something for your light to bounce off of, like walls and ceilings, and don't add any 'softness' the the flash without bouncing. Outside, all you doing is wasting about 1 1/2 stops of light.

:thumbup: Agreed, use a reflector or your umbrella diffuser for the portraits and it will be MUCH more effective

linpelk · Sep 8, 2009

IgsEMT said:
oh wow, talk about a challenge...
I'd try at ISO 400, f/5.6, 1/60sec (all to allow more ambient light in). VR lens, would be a GREAT help. Opening aperture wider would be helpful. Don't open to wide since you don't want to blur out body parts (nose, ears, etc).
flash - 1/4 power w/omni bounce straight fwd (adjust according for correct exposure); 1/2 to 1/1 power bounce 45-60degrees with bounce card and/or diffuser. Umbrella with off camera would be great to - will light the front and the back (a bit) :thumbup:

As for Gary Fong or other kind, I made one my self - went into arts&crafts store purchased for $0.99 sheet of foam paper - velcro on one end = bounce card. The second one I shaped into a funnel, placed foil inside, and a thin piece of cloth (removable) on the outside. In short I spend about 30min-1hr and $3.00 VS lots of money and less time.

Good Luck

Thanks for your advice. I have a foamy thing too and it is what I use for a light modifier 90% of the time if I use anything at all. Most of the time, I avoid flash if I can use the reflector. I feel much more comfortable seeing the light before I take the picture and adjusting my settings accordingly. I don't have an IS lens anymore. I sold my 24-105 f/4L IS because I wanted the 24-70 f/2.8L. It is just unfortunate that they don't have IS for that lens!! It is worth it, though, for the f/2.8!! I will definitely drag everything I have down there to the forest. I wouldn't want to regret leaving anything at home. Thanks again everyone for taking the time to respond!