Wedding equipment suggestions

[Puma]

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I have searched the forum and have not found a similar thread.

I am getting into the wedding market. I already own an established dj business and will be adding the photography business to it.

What I would like to know is...... if you were starting out what would be your list of equipment that you would want.

For Your Info..... I have so far:
Nikon d80
Nikon 50mm
Tamron 28-75mm
Nikon sb-800 flash and diffusers & softbox
Tripod
reflector (5 colors)
umbrella and stand for the sb-800


I have seen quite a bunch of photographers at the weddings I dj and they are not all the same in the equipment they carry. One of the best I liked had a strobe light that remotely fired on a 8-10ft stand. The photos he took really came out great. Im not sure what kind of strobe it was, but I would like to find out and maybe get a similar setup.

Any suggestions and/or lists is greatly appreciated

-Puma-

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[Big Mike]

You should be able to wirelessly fire your flash with your camera (read up on Nikon Commander Mode).

A lot of photographers use radio triggers (Pocket Wizards are the best).

The biggest thing I see lacking in your list...is backup equipment. If you are going to be shooting weddings professionally, you need back up equipment.

Also, your widest focal length is 28mm? That isn't very wide on a D80. I would suggest something like the 17-55mm F2.8

 

[wxnut]

Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8G ED-IF AF-S VR

Its expensive, but SOOOO worth it. Take out a small loan if you have to. I shoot Canon, but use the Canon equivilant to that lens. Here are some examples...

Taken from the balcony in the back of the church...
http://www.wxnut.net/katie6.jpg

You can be far away and the subjects dont know you are taking pics...
http://www.wxnut.net/nikkijoe3.jpg

http://www.wxnut.net/huff3.jpg

This whole page was shot with a 70 - 200 2.8
http://www.wxnut.net/wedding10.htm

Doug Raflik

 

[JIP]

I agree with Mike, Puma and, more. Do not I repeat do not go out and charge anyone for a wedding unless you have the proper backup gear. The preferable thing for you to do would be to upgrade the body you have now to a D300 and use the D80 as a backup/second body. If you go into a wedding and do not have a backup body you are taking your livelyhood in your hands. Before you start investing in studio strobes for lighting rooms you need better lenses. I do agree with Puma on the 70-200 another good lens would be the 17-55 2.8 whatever you do if you invest in lenses make sure they are all 2.8. If you want to do some multiple off-camera strobe shooting a place to start would be http://strobist.blogspot.com/ . If you want to start shooting weddings you need to start as simply as possible at first when it comes to lighting try using just your camera, a single lens like a fast 35mm and, your flash like the SB-800 on a bracket. Things start getting a little too complicated for a beginner if you start adding external flashes and studio strobes to the mix. There (as you know a little being a DJ) is alot of things going on at a wedding too many sometimes to keep track of so if you try jumping in feet first with lots of lighting you may complicate things too much and really, turn yourself off to the whole process. But basically you need to walk before you can run and the best way to do that is as basic a setup as possible.

 

[uberben]

if your on a budget and want wireless flash, Check out the ebay triggers. Just remember, unless you get the new RadioPopper's..You are goign to be using fully manual flash with no metering.

If you have the coin, wait untill the Radiopoppers release and then you get ETTL metering with them.

as far as gear goes. Back up for you back up gear. I have had 3 camera's go down before. I have 6 camera's now and I bring at least 4 on a regular basis. Make sure you have backup lenses and flash too. Things happen so fast and you can't waste time with gear failures.

Depending on your style, I'd leave the studio type of lighting at home. A couple speedlights that you can bounce off stuff and your probably goign to be okay.

Bring LOTS of Compact flash. I shoot Raw+jpeg and I never reuse a card at a wedding. I normally bring around 40gigs with and haven't needed more. I wouldn't use cards more then 2-4gb. If you should loose a card or if one fails, I'd much rather loose 2gigs of data then 8gb.