HELP- 1st Wedding.. Any tips?

[LeighUSC]

So my Uncle has asked me to photograph his SMALL wedding in the middle of October... I am a photography student and have promised myself not to do wedding but how can you say no to family? I have a Canon Rebel XTI with a kit 18-55mm lens and a Quantaray 70-300 mm lens. The wedding is at 6:30pm, on a golf course... a good external flash?

Any tips?
Thank you!

 

[Double H]

Wow, sounds like you are in a bit of a bind. Light will be your major issue with a fall wedding at that time of day. You will obviously need some extra lighting. I would get yourself a nice speedlight, maybe two, and start experimenting NOW! Play around with some diffusion, and bouncing of light. Also, read as much as you can about off-camera lighting. Try this for starters: http://strobist.blogspot.com/

 

[maulrat]

Wow. That is extremely scary. I would suggest bringing a helper and a reflector. Chances are you're going to encounter some harsh shadowing since you are in southern California. I'm in San Diego it is tough hiding from the sun. A friend of mine often carries around a white reflector and has a helper point a remote flash through the reflector at the subject to kill shadowing. He does a pretty good job at it. Good luck with the wedding. I would love to see some of your shots. Don't forget to show and tell on TPF when your done PP

 

[maulrat]

ROFL, Double H and I were thinking the same thing, same time LoL.

 

[LeighUSC]

Chances are you're going to encounter some harsh shadowing since you are in southern California.

Opps, the USC in my name is for the University of South Carolina...Sorry.

So guys, going to see if I can get an external flash ASAP and play around with it...

 

[maulrat]

Opps, the USC in my name is for the University of South Carolina...Sorry.quote]

LoL, sorry Leigh. When I saw the USC all I could think of was trojan football helmets. My bad.

 

[chrisburke]

as someone who shoots weddings, family or not, they are going to want nice pictures, and it sounds like you might be getting in over your head... the responsible thing to do would be tell them your not comfortable doing it...

 

[sultan]

I agree with the others. Pick up a speedlight and a nifty fifty ASAP and get practicing.

I suggest the fifty for it's large aperture and smooth bokeh. It'll be great around and after sundown with the low light.

 

[manaheim]

^^^ +1

I would suggest politely explaining to your uncle that you think its a bad idea. Explain that you wouldn't want to risk screwing up the special day's primary memories.

If they don't understand that, I STILL wouldn't do it. Let him be mad. He'd be way more mad if you made an error.

To give you an idea, I consider myself a reasonably good photographer, and I'm a pro and get paid for what I do... I wouldn't touch a wedding with a 50' pole.

 

[LeighUSC]

Alright guys. I guess I didn't go into enough detail for ya'll... I have already talked to my Uncle and he is (and has been) FULLY aware that I am a student and not by any means a professional.. I have shot for a couple of magazines here and know that I can handle this. This is an extremely LOW cost wedding, less than 30 people and I was just looking for some advice on a good external flash and some extra little tips/ tricks.

As for the advice on saying "no" and that I am "way in over my head", I am doing the wedding and not backing out... Sorry I was not clear enough with my first post... I was just hoping to receive was some tips!

 

[manaheim]

We're just trying to help. You should see some of the posts on here about wedding train wrecks.

So anyway, you've said you're gonna go for it... fair enough.

As someone mentioned, a couple external flashes may be good. Look for some diffusing things such as a softbox as well, probably at least one bounce card (though an index card usually works fairly well for this... also grab at least one of the "tupperware" style diffusers (white plastic) for whatever flash you wind up with.

Try to avoid using flash if you can, of course, but be wary of your depth of field and noise issues with higher iso if you go that route. (an app like neat image will help a lot with the noise but may soften the image so just beware)

EDIT: Clarification for above... depth of field isn't an ISO related issue. I was rushing a bit. I meant if you're in low light, you're likely to use wider aperature, thus DOF may be a problem from time to time.

If you do go high iso tend towards overexposing just slightly as it works better on the properly exposed portions of the shot.

Bring an extra camera, SD card, etc. Rent a cam if you don't have a spare.

Good luck.

 

[epp_b]

Have you suggested to him that he should hire a professional photographer? I'm not trying to insult you, but if you need to be asking these things, you really shouldn't be the one to be doing this.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime event for which you need to get everything exactly right. That won't happen if this is your very first wedding and it's unfair to your uncle suggest that it will.

Tell him to hire a photographer who knows the ins and outs of wedding photography. Take your camera along and take photos anyway, but for fun. If you get some keepers, great! If not, well, it's not a problem, because there's no pressure on you.

 

[Double H]

Have you suggested to him that he should hire a professional photographer? I'm not trying to insult you, but if you need to be asking these things, you really shouldn't be the one to be doing this.

This is a once-in-a-lifetime event for which you need to get everything exactly right. That won't happen if this is your very first wedding and it's unfair to your uncle suggest that it will.

Tell him to hire a photographer who knows the ins and outs of wedding photography. Take your camera along and take photos anyway, but for fun. If you get some keepers, great! If not, well, it's not a problem, because there's no pressure on you.

She has made it clear that certian things were not an option and she is going to move forward with her initial plans. Obviously the guy can't hire someone professional, so rather than all of us putting more pressure on her, we should be offerring suggestions on how to make the most of this opportunity. We all have to start somewhere.

This is a very small wedding, sounds like a great opportunity to get her feet wet without too much pressure and stress.

 

[LeighUSC]

Have you suggested to him that he should hire a professional photographer? I'm not trying to insult you, but if you need to be asking these things, you really shouldn't be the one to be doing this.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime event for which you need to get everything exactly right. That won't happen if this is your very first wedding and it's unfair to your uncle suggest that it will.Tell him to hire a photographer who knows the ins and outs of wedding photography. Take your camera along and take photos anyway, but for fun. If you get some keepers, great! If not, well, it's not a problem, because there's no pressure on you.

GURRR!
This is a very low cost wedding.. they have both been married before and are in their 60's. Never in this post did I say anything about doing a huge, formal million dollar wedding... in that case, I would have said HELL NO and ran away! I am NOT a new photographer. Photography is what I am getting my degree in and something that I have been doing for 10 years... it's not like I have been using a Kodak easy share and just decided to photograph a wedding out of the blue. Again, for the third time, I was looking for style tips, little tips and the best external flash to get for my camera....

Thats all.

 

[LeighUSC]

She has made it clear that certian things were not an option and she is going to move forward with her initial plans. Obviously the guy can't hire someone professional, so rather than all of us putting more pressure on her, we should be offerring suggestions on how to make the most of this opportunity. We all have to start somewhere.

This is a very small wedding, sounds like a great opportunity to get her feet wet without too much pressure and stress.

Thank you. :hail: I think you are the only one that actually read what I wrote and has not drilled me into the ground. I can handle this challenge and can't wait to prove these "professionals" on this forum wrong.