How do you do to shoot a first wedding?

bratkinson · Feb 10, 2013

Fortunately, my first and last wedding with a DSLR was as the out-of-town ex- stepfather of the bride and they had professional photographers there. My pictures were a disaster, mostly due to white balance issues, unnoticed scounce lighting on the walls, and a myriad of other things a pro is on the lookout for.

Some of the lessons I learned the hardway, and have applied to all my photography ever since:
1. Fast lenses, fast lenses, fast lenses.
2. Off-camera flash. I had a 'clunky' bracket that I didn't take with me. I should have. Even with a 580EX II atop my Canon 60D, I got too many undesired shadows, especially when trying to shoot portrait format.
3. I didn't know diddley-squat about white balance at the time. One really big, bad lesson learned the hard way.
4. Don't trust any shutter speed slower than 1/100th to stop action - mine or the subject(s). In less-stressed situtations, these old hands can still hold a camera still-enough at 1/40th and slower. But my successes as such are getting fewer by the day, and are below 10%.
5. Wear shoes that are VERY COMFORTABLE for LONG periods of time. My feet hurt so bad after 3 hours I had to call it a night!
6. Carry at least 2 spare sets of flash batteries, and 1 or 2 sets of camera batteries as well. Divide your shots between 2 or more memory cards, too!

MiFleur · Feb 10, 2013

bratkinson said:
Fortunately, my first and last wedding with a DSLR was as the out-of-town ex- stepfather of the bride and they had professional photographers there. My pictures were a disaster, mostly due to white balance issues, unnoticed scounce lighting on the walls, and a myriad of other things a pro is on the lookout for.

Some of the lessons I learned the hardway, and have applied to all my photography ever since:
1. Fast lenses, fast lenses, fast lenses.
2. Off-camera flash. I had a 'clunky' bracket that I didn't take with me. I should have. Even with a 580EX II atop my Canon 60D, I got too many undesired shadows, especially when trying to shoot portrait format.
3. I didn't know diddley-squat about white balance at the time. One really big, bad lesson learned the hard way.
4. Don't trust any shutter speed slower than 1/100th to stop action - mine or the subject(s). In less-stressed situtations, these old hands can still hold a camera still-enough at 1/40th and slower. But my successes as such are getting fewer by the day, and are below 10%.
5. Wear shoes that are VERY COMFORTABLE for LONG periods of time. My feet hurt so bad after 3 hours I had to call it a night!
6. Carry at least 2 spare sets of flash batteries, and 1 or 2 sets of camera batteries as well. Divide your shots between 2 or more memory cards, too!

Thanks for sharing your experience, all these happened to me too, just not in a wedding situation.
I have struggled with awful yellow images and green skin tones, the good point is I shoot raw, and it saved me quite a few times.
For the 1/100 of a second shutter speed, I can try that, but in low light situation, I do have problems not sure yet when I should chose wider aperture, higher Iso, lower or faster shutter speed. Yesterday we had a surprise party for one of my friend and I brought the camera to take a group picture, I thought that it was better to choose a smaller aperture because there was about 25 people in the picture. I boosted the ISO, did not check the pictures yet.

My lens are 2.8, and I agree with you on that, I would like to get a 35 mm 1.4, I have been looking at the Sigma, but that will be for later.
I have so many questions on flash photography that I am not sure where to start. I have used my flash off camera for the first time last week.
Thanks for the shoes... I will
I do have spare batteries because it already happened to me too, what an embarrassment when you cannot take pictures because you have no power!

My camera has 2 slots for 2 memory card, should I use one as a back up? I guess that would fill the buffer real fast. I never tried it.

your input is much appreciated, thanks!

pgriz · Feb 10, 2013

It's probably not a bad idea to make a little DOF table for yourself for the lower end of the aperture scale and at typical distances one finds during group events, to give you a quick idea of the DOF you have to work with. Then, the process would be "ok, got a group at about 15 ft., need about 6 ft. of DOF, using a 50mm. So, f/4 will give me that. set it on aperture priority and see what the shutter speed is. Not enough? boost the ISO."

As for flash, bounce flash can work great IF you have low ceilings and white walls/ceilings. Otherwise, you'll need some kind of small softbox that you can put on your flash. Putting it on a bracket to move the shadows to the side (even with a softbox) would probably also be a good idea. But when you look at what you are holding (camera + bracket + flash + softbox + connector cabling) it can be pretty intimidating, not to mention heavy.

bratkinson · Feb 10, 2013

For what it's worth, I solved the low-light ISO/shutter speed conflict/nightmares by first going to L glass, 2.8 and faster before my "wedding fail". And finally, this past Thanksgiving, upgraded to a 5D3. Can't beat the 5D3 when it comes to incredibly fast ISO with little noise!