My first wedding, some help please

[manaheim]

you should probably use an iphone

<chuckle>

 

[Ganoderma]

thanks guys....perhaps a little more info. also the pics above were nothing special, they were from friends emailed to me and resaved/sized a bunch of times....they are there for no other reason other than to show everyone what the wedding is like. i am adding more wedding pictures at the bottom. (again not good ones that would be used, only for a visual of a wedding)

unfortunately the recession has hit some people more than others, and they are really on a budget. so its more of an extra they cannot afford.....so unfortunately its me or nothing....hope im not that bad to rather nothing lol.

they will be hiring a pro and getting their own photos done and an album made, this is always done BEFORE the wedding here because it is displayed at the wedding for all guests to see....so they will have their pro stuff. not like they are onyl stuck with me.

of course they, and me, want the pictures to be as good as possible, but we are best friends and this is a favour and they are realistic folks, so no worries if i didnt ge teh best angle of a certain shot kind of thing.

I am also trying to work my way up into making photography into a possibel career (not to step on anyone's feet here, but i doubt there is any competition from guys here where i live )

most of my own experience is rather basic, and almost all of macro scientific use, not so much "artsy" which is what is needed with weddings. so i am here hoping for some pointers. i have read the wedding sticky over a couple times and printed the key points (including the lists) so as not to miss anything.

i was at another friends wedding today, indoor wedding, and playing around with photos practicing a bit and came across the painfully obviouse conclusion that i also need a better flash...


the lens i am thinking of right now is either the canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM OR Canon EF 28-135mm IS USM.


here are some more pics of weddings here to give an idea of what a taiwanese wedding is all about (90% eating!) and also a little snippet of what happens in what order, beggining to end.

first the ladies get ready with all their makeup and dress and all that jazz.

and all the tables and and food and such is being prepared.

guests start arriving and give the front table red envelopes (which have $) (done at this table, imaging a basket with red envelopes and a book to sign.

at a start time (often 12:30) the food comes out and the bride/groom and the family sit at the head table. there are often say 12 dishes in total, and takes a good 2 hours for all teh food to come out.

in the meantime, there is a frint stage where people can sing karaoke (i admit not the finest part of a taiwanese wedding!) and people go up on stage and sing, talk, say something etc...including drunk relatives...so many chances to take fun shots there

at the end the bride and groom stand at the exit and offer small pictures, candy and cigarettes to poeple leaving and they say their final good byes.


after all that at night the main family (parents/grandparents/sisters/brothers usually...close family) has another banquet like the wedding, but much smaller and HEAVY drinking....i swear it must be law for these guys to drink at weddings, cause they wont let you go until you physcially CANT go

as for storage, i intend on bring about 6gb of cards and my laptop which i use on vacations for photo storage on the go, has a good 200gb, should be ample.

i will also have my wife as a helper for things liek uploading pics, batteries, getting peopel etc, she knows the peoples family better than i do

always up for some more suggestions

 

[c.cloudwalker]

Well, if you want to pay for the flight, I'd be happy to come and teach you how to do this. Of course, it might not work out very well for you as I'd probably be seating at the table stuffing my face Darn, your photos made me hungry.

Thanks for the class in Taiwanese wedding ritual. Sounds to me like you have a very good idea of what to do. Which, if I understand correctly, will be mostly candids. Candids of people eating is actually kind of hard as they tend to look weird when they're stuffing their faces. Try to get the pictures when they're not chewing and also when they are not putting the food in their mouths.

Lens: from the picture of the tent, I would thing that a 17-85 would be more than enough since you won't have a whole lot of room. Wide angle to try and get more than a few people in one shot and the 85 should be long enough to get some tighter portraits. If you're getting a new lens or borrowing one, make sure and shoot with it before the wedding so as to see how the lens is and get use to it. A lot of zooms are not their best at the ends of their range.

flash: you won't be able to bounce off the ceiling and you don't want to use direct flash (harsh shadows) so you need to get a bounce card of some sort to attach to your flash.
Peter Gregg&#039;s A-Better-Bounce-Card | abetterbouncecard.com
I don't know what this brand is worth. Just putting the link so you know what I'm talking about. And again, try and get it early enough so you can try it and get used to how it works.

Best of luck with this wedding. Come back and show us the photos.

 

[Ganoderma]

thanks for the suggestions if i had the cash, i would probably pay for someone to come out lol.... unfortunately i am on a budget, hence the cheaper lenses.

what do you think about the Sigma 18-125mm f/3.8-5.6 DC OS HSM?

compared to the canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

im just thinking the f/3.8 is a little nicer, especially as many places i shoot are darker.

i never saw those bounce cards before, that is pretty nifty. i was looking at those hand held white reflectors, but that would be too intruding in a wedding, these seem like a good solution. :thumbup:

 

[c.cloudwalker]

thanks for the suggestions if i had the cash, i would probably pay for someone to come out lol.... unfortunately i am on a budget, hence the cheaper lenses.

what do you think about the Sigma 18-125mm f/3.8-5.6 DC OS HSM?

compared to the canon EF-S 17-85mm f/4-5.6 IS USM

im just thinking the f/3.8 is a little nicer, especially as many places i shoot are darker.

i never saw those bounce cards before, that is pretty nifty. i was looking at those hand held white reflectors, but that would be too intruding in a wedding, these seem like a good solution. :thumbup:

I am new to digital and have been out of the business for a while so I'll let someone else who is up on the new gear answer your lens quality question. If you don't get an answer in this thread, start another one specifally about the lens comparison.

The bounce card is not perfect but in your case it will help. A bracket will help also by moving the flash somewhat off camera.