My First Wedding.

irishmack93 · Dec 23, 2012

This summer my brother got married, he didn't hire a professional photographer, so he had a two of his amateur photographer friends do the wedding, and he let me goof around and help out. I really enjoyed doing it, and realized that I would enjoy doing it a lot more in the future.

After the wedding I had another friend who is getting married ask me to do all the photography for her wedding in June. I realized I have a lot to learn between now and then (not to mention, I don't own a camera, so I need to get that worked out) I would really like your guys input on the work I did on the first wedding.

I did all of the shots with a Nikon D60 camera that I borrowed from my friend, it was the first time I had ever used the camera. It was all manual focus while shooting, but I shot a lot of the ceremony with Auto settings (still with manual focus) as I was having a hard time figuring out all the settings.

So...here it goes, be as harsh as you like...I like blunt honesty.

irishmack93 · Dec 23, 2012

irishmack93 · Dec 23, 2012

irishmack93 · Dec 23, 2012

irishmack93 · Dec 23, 2012

irishmack93 · Dec 23, 2012

deepsixphoto · Dec 23, 2012

I can't really see any of these - they are very pixelated. Are you using really small file sizes? They only seem to be comfortable at thumbnail size.

rexbobcat · Dec 23, 2012

From what I can see from the small photos they look pretty decent for not being a studying photographer. I would pay a lot of attention to the exposure especially when in shade. I'd rather see an overexposed background than an underexposed person.

Also; why manual focus the whole time?

SCraig · Dec 23, 2012

I would recommend you spend the next six months reading every book you can lay hand to pertaining to photography, lighting, and composition. From what little I can see some of those are, well, pretty bad. It's very hard to tell, but it looks like most are out of focus, there are hands in front of faces, many are grossly underexposed, the backgrounds are extremely distracting, etc. These are just snapshots that anyone could have taken, not someone who was (or will be) in charge of providing "The" photographs for the wedding.

We go through this same scenario about once a month here. Inexperienced photographer has a friend who wants them to shoot their wedding for free or low-cost. I'll give you the same advice that we normally give them: DON'T DO IT! This is your friend's once-in-a-lifetime shot at wedding photographs. She will never be able to reproduce them if they are ruined, and there are no "Do-Overs". The best thing you can do for her as a friend is to decline to photograph her wedding because you do not have the ability to do it. That's my advice and I'm sticking to it.

PhillipM · Dec 23, 2012

When a prospective bride comes in for a consultation, I show them images like these... And explain to her, everyone with a camera is a photographer nowaday's.

Does she want to look back in a few years knowing she scrimped on hiring a professional and cringe everytime she views her prints?

Learn the craft first, then shoot weddings before you end up in court. Going to give you a break though, because shooting anything with a d60 is tough. I had one. Great color from it, but terribly slow..

I know. These were for a friend. But still...........

Tee · Dec 23, 2012

Irishmack- read this thread about the first time I shot a wedding: http://www.thephotoforum.com/forum/...learned-photographing-wedding-first-time.html

binga63 · Dec 23, 2012

you still have a lot to learn.....say yes ?....nah ......... honestly you will crash and burn...... its not worth the heartache.......shoot more learn more and get your own camera

irishmack93 · Dec 23, 2012

Sorry, about the small size, everytime I tried to upload the photos the uploader kept telling me they were too big...so I kept shrinking them...figured out the magic size though.

I know I'm not experienced and I know shooting my friends wedding is a huge risk, I will say, in my defense...the other option is that she has another friend do the wedding who is, and I know I'm not good...but much worse than me.

The D60 was definitely a challenge, very slow, and the lense I was using my friend told me in advance tended to be a bit of an issue. I was definitely also struggling with the lighting, it was 3 in the afternoon, with the ocean behind us and the sun glaring down right where it shouldn't during the ceremony and then in totally the wrong direction during the reception.

Thanks for all of the input so far, glad to see you guys are much more honestly blunt than my friends.

Derrel · Dec 23, 2012

LOTS of out of focus images. TONS of OOF shots. Backfocus mostly. You have a few good shots, for sure, yes, you do. Buuuut, I've never seen such a high percentage of blown focus shots from a d-slr that was used during outdoor,daylight hours. I would agree that, based on my OWN,personal experience with shooting the Nikon D40 and 18-105 kit zoom and also the 55-250 zoom that the 3-area Nikon bodies have pretty weak AF systems, compared with the higher-end models that have 11-area AF systems and more-powerful AF modules. One of the absolute BEST things a D60 user can procure is a professional-grade lens that has a fixed, f/2.8 maximum aperture and AF-S focusing; THAT is the one,single thing that will boost the AF capabilities of the low-end Nikons.

keith foster · Dec 23, 2012

These are really nice snapshots of the wedding and I am sure they are glad to have them. If a bride had paid you to take pictures of the wedding and you showed her these you would be in court and getting ready to pay several thousand dollars to the bride for misrepresentation and failure to deliver as promised.
I am not saying this to be mean though I know the hurt you must be feeling from these kind of comments. I will point out a few technical issues that are killing you.

Your white balance is all over the place. Some are are way too yellow, some are just yellow and some are, well, just off.
Your crops are wrong by most accepted standards. We see way too many backsides, hands in front of faces, shooting up nostrils, people on the right of a photo looking right with dead space on the left.
Mostly they are underexposed. Your equipment is not adequate to shoot a wedding. You need a camera with good performance at high ISO and lenses with fast fstops. f2.8 minimum.
You also need flash either off camera or one of Nikons SB series. I shoot Canon so don't know the Nikon numbers.

Now understand I have been a photographer since 1975 and have never shot a wedding. Because they scare the heck out of me from a photographer standpoint. As has already been pointed out there are no do overs, no retakes, no asking anyone to wait just a second so you can change positions. You have to be able to change settings on your equipment without looking as you hurry to get to the other side of the couple before the shot is gone. (It is usually gone by the time you get there anyway) You have to be constantly moving and you have to be 2 steps ahead of everything. One step to get there and one step to get your settings right.
You must have 2 of everything. Most of us have experienced camera, light, or some equipment failure in the middle of a shoot. There are no valid excuses as weddings. Get the shot or get sued.

I think it is awesome you want to shoot weddings. Maybe people will quit calling me to do their wedding if enough good wedding photographers are out there to cover the market.
But to do it you need to get your camera and equipment. Learn how to use it and change settings in the dark. To change settings from inside the church to the front steps in 3 seconds without looking at your camera while you are walking quickly through a crowd of people trying to get to the same place you are.
When you can do all that then go find a GOOD wedding photographer who is willing to let you be an assistant and maybe do a little second shooter work. After 4 or 5 of those then take on a small wedding, buy insurance, and give it a go.