First Time Wedding

[chinadoll81]

I am doing my first wedding portraits on the 20th of this month. Anyone have any ideas, suggestions or whatever to give me?? It's an outside wedding at a winery then the reception is at a lake house, both in Chelan, Washington.

I already have a checklist the bride and I made up.

 

[tirediron]

-LOTS of batteries and memory

-Two bodies, one with wide zoom, other moderate tele zoom

-Bring and shoot white cards frequently to maintain WB accuracy

-Shoot RAW

-Scout the area before hand, discuss how/where/when people will be, establish your shooting positions, look for shadows, image distractors, establish optimum DoF for various vantage points

-Have contract signed ahead of time, ensure prices and products are agreed on

-Make sure you've got a CPOL

-Bracket all your shots 1/3 under (when shooting lots of white 1/3 and 1/2)

Good luck

 

[Crimsonandwhite]

Ok Tired, incoming newb question. Can you please explain shooting the white card. I get that it somehow checks the white balance accuracy but what am I looking for after I shoot it and what would I adjust after I see what I see?

Thanks

 

[tirediron]

Ok Tired, incoming newb question. Can you please explain shooting the white card. I get that it somehow checks the white balance accuracy but what am I looking for after I shoot it and what would I adjust after I see what I see?

Thanks

Shooting a white card allows you to have a point of known "whiteness" in your image which you can use to set a white point in Photoshop, and calibrate your white balance from there. They're available quite cheaply from most photo stores in 8x10, white card on one side, 18% grey on the other. Very useful especially if you're dealing with rapidly changing light conditions.

 

[SnowNow12]

In reading this post, now I have a newbie question. So do you shoot the card prior to taking shots in specific locations/lighting so you can go into photoshop and basically set a formula for the shots you took in that specific location/lighting? That was the longest sentence ever. Hopefully it made sense.
Thanks.

 

[tirediron]

In reading this post, now I have a newbie question. So do you shoot the card prior to taking shots in specific locations/lighting so you can go into photoshop and basically set a formula for the shots you took in that specific location/lighting? That was the longest sentence ever. Hopefully it made sense.
Thanks.

Yes! (The shortest sentence ever) It's not always necessary, but if you have a situation with difficult lighting, it's good to have a reference.