I just did a wedding

RabbitCatCat

TPF Noob!
Joined
May 19, 2013
Messages
41
Reaction score
4
Location
Michigan
Can others edit my Photos
Photos OK to edit
hi there,

This past Saturday I was the photographer at a cousin of mine's wedding. We aren't close, he is my second cousin so it's not like he tricked me into with family bonds or something. He just approached and said his fiance loves my photography and would like me to do their wedding. I told them I have never done a wedding, and that even though my photos of sessions she likes, I don't have the experience to pull off a wedding.. but they also are very humble people and couldn't afford to hire even the most basic professional at $500 so I did do the wedding despite every thing I've ever read advices you not to.

I don't regret doing the wedding. It was a very humble and plain event, as far as scenery, decorations, location etc went. Out in the country, nothing but mosquitos, a brown river, and lots of green trees. The bridal party looked VERY GOOD! I was happy to see that! I think that's where the entire budget went. Now I don't judge people who do not have money for things like a professional and I don't look at this as a black and white scenario, the advice is to say no but remember that's in general. If I hadn't of done their photos, who would? They deserve wedding photo's too, but I don't have the money to hire a pro for them! So, I did it.

I studied hard. I practiced harder! All that practice taught me so much about my camera. I shoot in manual now and prefer it over AP which is what I always shot in before. Now that I understand the relationship between the three elements so much better the manual mode makes me feel more secure over what I am creating in camera.

Anyway it went good, bad and got down right ugly. I knew that they wouldn't be as invested in the photography as I myself am. It was difficult to get everyone to group together when nobody pays attention to my little voice, but, I did bring an assistant and the brides sister is a photographer herself and they both tried to help out gathering up people.. why is this part so difficult? I did prepare myself reading to have the maid of honor and best man to help out with different things, but they were so busy themselves..

I did ok. I did bad. I did good.

What went bad and good at the wedding.. please read if you've never done a wedding and are planning to, this could help you. Please read if you're experienced in weddings and would like to shed some light on these things.

Slight issue: What I kept forgetting was to switch from my outdoor settings back to manual when I would go indoors. I couldn't really save any one setting for indoors on u2 (outdoors was on u1) because there were a variety of lighting situations indoors.. yet I'd have it on u1 and totally forget for a few frames. Luckily nothing was so underexposed that I wasn't able to fix it in post, thank you raw.

My goal is to always get it right in camera of course.

My first worst issue is composition. I may need some help, when we tried to pose them at the bottom of the hill for the river to be in the bg there were too many mosquitos, bride wasn't having it and moved halfway up the hill. Where did my basic posing knowledge go, because I forgot that posing on the side of a hill is a HUGE ugly thing to do.. is there anyway I can salvage these photos? Either the horizon is tilted or if I straighten the horizon they look like they are standing crooked wah. I can't believe I did this.

Slight issue: I did bring water but didn't drink enough and became dehydrated. This might not be an issue for most people, but I have a very sensitive bladder and if I am not constantly drinking water I am in PAIN. (I have ulcers in my bladder sorry for so much info) so part way through I got hit by the pain and had to take a moment to myself, this was when people were just milling about, and I downed water quickly and then bared through the pain until it passed.

DONT FORGET TO DRINK WATER. I didn't see that on ANY advice articles I read.

My second worst issue was where to stand and take photos during the ceremony. I gave my friend my 70-200mm lens to take photos from the front, and I went behind them and took photos. They turned out ok. I feel pretty badly, they are just above snapshot quality in my opinion.

My third worst issue was trying to get the bride and groom to get along.. after the best man said 'you look so lovely in your dress you can't even tell you're pregnant' for his speech, that was his whole speech, they were livid with each other. They wouldn't do any more of the traditional activities.. they did cut the cake but with angry faces, and so I am going to have to crop those in. They wouldn't do the dance even, but I finally talked them into it. They asked me to leave after that because they were not in the mood. Ok.. so I left. Mistake on my part, I was already there for 8 hours though, but it looks like on facebook people took camera phone photos of them doing all the things they wouldn't do for me.. so I was glad to see they patched it up but disappointed in myself for missing those photos of them. (bouquet toss, garter belt, they redid the cake thing, and people finally started dancing where before the DJ was there for 2 hours and nobody danced).. I did get the bride to do a few poses with her leg and garter out, since they were not yet getting along. She was more pliable, the groom was like stony faced and told me they were DONE with photos and that was it.

My fourth worst issue was taking prep shots. How does one go about this in a crowded, cluttered, messy room, of people wearing pajama's and not even cute ones, with stuff all over the place.. how does one get such lovely photos? Mine did not look lovely, creative cropping is going to have to come into play here. Any advice on this?

My fifth worst issue I had was dealing with impatient parents of the children in the wedding, not wanting them in their nice clothes for too long, rushing the photos because of it, and over my shoulder every 2 minutes asking me how long it will be. I told her.. look this is her wedding, we need to get more photos.. but because of that the bride/groom photos were cut short.. and I didn't get nearly enough variety. I also went blank on poses, I read advice to take photos of poses you like with the memory card you plan to use, then when you get a blank just look at the images and you'll refresh yourself. I should have done this. PLEASE do that if you are going to do a wedding for the first time!


My sixth worst issue was not knowing how to make a very inexpensive wedding in a very dirty venue look good. I did ok. Like the cake was in a concrete garage type room, with spiderwebs, old plastic chairs, beat up equipment, etc etc


What went correctly:

1. I felt confident with my camera and lens, prepared with batteries, back ups, memory cards etc
2. Having an assistant was good just for moral support alone so bring one!
3. I did manage to get many nice photos and I will be able to create a story type album for them.
4. People skills were very good other than my soft voice.
5. I didn't forget how to work my camera or freeze up or forget the exposure triangle or anything like that. I knew how to compensate for the glaring sun at the 3:00pm outdoor ceremony. Some hot spots that were unexpected did show up in one set of photos though.

I think this is a thread to help those who are in the same position I was in. Can people with more experience give some input on the things that went wrong, and how others in the future can handle it (myself included) if I ever do a wedding again. Yes, I would like to one day be a professional wedding photographer, but I know my limits.

Thanks for reading, I'll share photos later. Still processing them.
 
My fourth worst issue was taking prep shots. How does one go about this in a crowded, cluttered, messy room, of people wearing pajama's and not even cute ones, with stuff all over the place.. how does one get such lovely photos? Mine did not look lovely, creative cropping is going to have to come into play here. Any advice on this?

Angle, close crop, and bokeh!! :D

My sixth worst issue was not knowing how to make a very inexpensive wedding in a very dirty venue look good. I did ok. Like the cake was in a concrete garage type room, with spiderwebs, old plastic chairs, beat up equipment, etc etc

Lighting, angle, close crop, and bokeh!!! :D


Your first wedding shoot is usually horrible. My first wedding was also horrible, I posted a "Then and now" thread in the People Photography. lol I've seen horrible pictures from so called "expert" studio photographers so it's pretty common. I don't think I know anyone that created awesome pictures on the first wedding. It's an important day for someone and as long as they know what they are getting into then have at it.
 
:addpics:
 
This is why I don't recommend amateurs shoot weddings, especially not without a contract. Lack of experience and understanding not only with and of photography but weddings clearly led to problems for you. I'd love to teach amateurs more about photography if they'd be willing to listen, but the best teaching is done in person, not in a forum. To go down your list would take a lot of work and nobody here is getting paid for it. But I suggest understanding the fundamentals of photography and then studying portraiture techniques. If you want to shoot weddings, you should already have control of the fundamentals of photography and get some wedding training.
 
Free advice is worth what you pay for it. Not so much because it's bad advice but because it's seldom heeded.

You can mitigate many things with photography but in the end the subject still determines the end-result.

The best advice I've ever heard concerning shooting a wedding is to wear comfortable shoes- there's going to be pain but that's no reason to make your feet suffer.
 
My goodness.. such party poopers. A lot of people like myself would love to hear solid answers to the questions I asked because not everyone does have access to a local experienced photographer to study under, & not everyone can walk the path you walked.

The photos and the wedding were a success despite the issues and challenges listed because I AM experienced in photography, I DO know my camera, and I DO study hard and learned so much about wedding photography. I listed issues I experienced so others who are in my place may have them as a warning and be able to learn/apply from it. I don't need pats on my backs, or boos from the peanut gallery, about the photos I took.. that's not what this thread was truly about so much as an experience that others could hopefully learn from. I said I would share pics because I know people are interested.. this thread is NOT worthless without pics thank you very much, oh but you know what, you all are just so smart that you said the same drivel we have all read and heard 1000 times on 1000's of threads about this very topic and has it ever, and will it ever, effectively stop these situations from happening? NO.


You're like the parents of teenagers who don't want to give them protection, thinking it will stop them from having sex. Really, that's not how it works. The young budding photographer is not going to just heed a warning, they need to experience it to learn. Send us out with protection... I think there could be value to hearing what experienced photographers have to say about the specific issues I listed. Why is that so complicated?


---------- Upon further reflection I came to understand what you all meant, and I posted a response below.
 
Last edited:
My fourth worst issue was taking prep shots. How does one go about this in a crowded, cluttered, messy room, of people wearing pajama's and not even cute ones, with stuff all over the place.. how does one get such lovely photos? Mine did not look lovely, creative cropping is going to have to come into play here. Any advice on this?

Angle, close crop, and bokeh!! :D

My sixth worst issue was not knowing how to make a very inexpensive wedding in a very dirty venue look good. I did ok. Like the cake was in a concrete garage type room, with spiderwebs, old plastic chairs, beat up equipment, etc etc

Lighting, angle, close crop, and bokeh!!! :D


Your first wedding shoot is usually horrible. My first wedding was also horrible, I posted a "Then and now" thread in the People Photography. lol I've seen horrible pictures from so called "expert" studio photographers so it's pretty common. I don't think I know anyone that created awesome pictures on the first wedding. It's an important day for someone and as long as they know what they are getting into then have at it.

Thank you for the advice and actual answers. I do think that as long as they are made aware and are ok with it, nobody has room to say 'no you can't do that or you're evilllll' .. you know.. and yes my first picture was of a bridge, crooked lol... it was really bad you couldn't even make out it was a bridge really!
 
This is why I don't recommend amateurs shoot weddings, especially not without a contract. Lack of experience and understanding not only with and of photography but weddings clearly led to problems for you. I'd love to teach amateurs more about photography if they'd be willing to listen, but the best teaching is done in person, not in a forum. To go down your list would take a lot of work and nobody here is getting paid for it. But I suggest understanding the fundamentals of photography and then studying portraiture techniques. If you want to shoot weddings, you should already have control of the fundamentals of photography and get some wedding training.

I do understand the fundamentals.. not sure why it came across I didn't. My mistake. Anyway, I appreciate what you mean about free advice, and time. My mistake, I shouldn't have thought that it was information people wanted to share. I should have realized that it's information which is valuable, and through experience and training earned. I appreciate what you are saying. Thank you.
 
I think that this thread would have been great with your above information and then if you included some images from the wedding. Then you could have gained a few other perspectives on how we think you did overall. It would have tied the whole learning experience together by getting valuable feedback from other experienced wedding photographers. Just my two cents.
 
I think that this thread would have been great with your above information and then if you included some images from the wedding. Then you could have gained a few other perspectives on how we think you did overall. It would have tied the whole learning experience together by getting valuable feedback from other experienced wedding photographers. Just my two cents.

Ok I agree with you- photos are necessary to see exactly what I mean. I'm just embarrassed to post the ones on the hill. Thank you for your input!
 
I think that this thread would have been great with your above information and then if you included some images from the wedding. Then you could have gained a few other perspectives on how we think you did overall. It would have tied the whole learning experience together by getting valuable feedback from other experienced wedding photographers. Just my two cents.

Ok I agree with you- photos are necessary to see exactly what I mean. I'm just embarrassed to post the ones on the hill. Thank you for your input!
Don't be embarrassed. Don't make me bust out some of my first wedding images. There were some that would make me go hide under a rock right now! We all started somewhere, but if you push yourself into that critique zone I promise you are going to learn something.
 
Everyone chant with me.

pics...pics...pics....pics....
 
Kathy is right, post pics. if your embarresed by them that means you know they arn't right. lets the experienced people in here point out what could have been done and learn from it. if you still want to do wedding photography then you need to be willing to learn from your mistakes. and bad photos for us is a lot of our mistakes. I will try to randomly put my thoughts to a couple of things you did, though I am by no means a professional at wedddings having only done two myself.

A lot of yoru problems come with inexperience. Knowing your camera is one thing. but when doing weddings your not just shooting photos. your playing coordinater, trying to get everyone you need together. your playing psychologist trying to keep that bride or groom calmed down and relaxed so you can get the photos you want. etc. etc. etc. and when your trying to do all that other stuff while planning out in your head what you need to do and what you need to get, other stuff get's forgotten about. this is why if you want to do more wedding you need to find someone to second shoot with. to get that experience withing being the main one in charge (something i'm trying to do.)

Not sure where to stand to get the shots during the recepting. that comes down to planning. both my wedding I went to the wedding rehearsals. I had my second with me as well so we can both see how the location is laid out, what we are able to do. where we can stand to get the shots we need, and get a basis for how long the wedding will last and the order in which it goes in. so you know when say this prayer is read they will move onto another part of the wedding and you know to move doing that pray to get to your next spot. planning, planning and more planning and then being able to adjust on the fly when your plans get changed on you, and they will.

composition, posing, etc. all come down to having that experience. something you can gain working with an experienced wedding photographer and learning as you go.

prep shots. messy room. clean it up. move things out of the way of the shot you want. if i see a shot and there are some shoes or clothes on the floor cluttering the shot. move them and get your shot.

stress of the bride and groom. This is where you really have to know what your doing. you have to be firm enough to be the photographer and get the shots you want. without upsetting the bride and groom. my last wedding the bride didn't want to do shots at all. she wanted the shots. she just didnt want to stand there to get them. 5 or 6 shots and she was ready to go sit down. after the wedding doing family photos we had taken 5 shots of the grooms family with them and she was asking us if we were done, that she had been up there forever. I just politly asked her if she wanted any photos of her with her own family. She realised that and laughed and things were good for a little bit. they had shown up to the church 2 hours late and added family photos, and also didnt want to be seen before the wedding. so we had to go over to them and just say "hey. we know you want to relax at the reception but we have absolutely no photos of you two together, if you really want to have those shots were going to have to pull you out of the reception after dinner and quickly get some shots." you know they don't want to deal with it but you have to be as diplomatic as you can so that you can get the shots. because at the end of the day that's your job.

The parents and other people are just the same way. you have to gently let them know your there to get photos of the bride and groom on there speacial day and to just be patient, This comes with experience as well. kids don't like to stand around and do photos normally. so if your inexperienced and not sure how to pose them and its taking a lot longer then it should. then your going to have those issues. preplanning as much as you can. having your shots on paper or in your head so you can nock them out comes with experience and training.

making an ugly envirement pretty. sometimes you can only do so much. but be creative, use flash, close your apature and keep that spiderwebbed concrete backgroun hidden in the dark and just have this lit up cake. keep a shallow deapth of field so thinsg in the background are blurry. get creative with your angle and hide as much of the ugly as you can.


that's my 2 cents. but a lot of it just comes down to getting the experience. without placing yourself in charge of the situation until you feel comfortable doing it. weddings just arn't simply catching photographs, its about creating magic while controlling chaos.
 
A lot of yoru problems come with inexperience. Knowing your camera is one thing. but when doing weddings your not just shooting photos. your playing coordinater, trying to get everyone you need together. your playing psychologist trying to keep that bride or groom calmed down and relaxed so you can get the photos you want. etc. etc. etc. and when your trying to do all that other stuff while planning out in your head what you need to do and what you need to get, other stuff get's forgotten about. this is why if you want to do more wedding you need to find someone to second shoot with. to get that experience withing being the main one in charge (something i'm trying to do.)

Not sure where to stand to get the shots during the recepting. that comes down to planning. both my wedding I went to the wedding rehearsals.

I don't do wedding but I do shoot events and used to shoot theater a good amount.
I require someone from the event stay with me to point out important people to shoot and organize group shots.
Shooting theater, I always attended the dress rehearsals. With no audience I could move around and understand where I needed to be and when to get good shots.
 
post pics... if they are good, then that will shut up the doubters, right? If not.. or if you don't post pics, then that kinds of proves the doubters points!
 

Most reactions

Back
Top