New to TPF, wedding pics

aimee0508 · Apr 27, 2011

It's so nice to find a forum to have real people to answer your questions instead of just doing 'google' searches!! TIA for any responses, kind or not:hugs:.

In short, my sister is getting married..... was engaged a year w/plans to wed NEXT year but w/new baby on the way she feels she MUST marry this month to apease my grandparents..... yadayadayada. She is doing a VERY simple outdoor ceremony w/ a JP at the light house on the ocean near us w/only 30 guests. Small dinner recept to follow. My point is this is VERY casual although we are all dressing like it is a big ta-da because it still is to her. I have talked, encouraged, SCREAMED at her to hire a professional to take pics for her but she was just hoping for family to take pics. I WISH I could afford to pay for just a few hours for her to remember this special occassion but she insists that the money could be given as a gift instead because they are in the process of buying their first home (she has a good head on shoulders.... I would splurge for the memories, she is for the necessities, lol). I also recommended putting out on craigslist for her incase there is someone who is portfolio building. She doesn't want to be bothered. I don't want to step on toes. She now has a friend of the fam who is just starting out willing to take some pics.

OK, I'm rambling.
My questions are, I have a D90 I have been shooting w/for 3 months Learned in manual mode on a Nikon 8700, have been shooting for 4+ years in manual. I have control of A, S, and ISO. I only have the kit 18-105 and have been wanting to purchase the 50mm 1.8D. I would LOVE to surprise her w/ some decent shots and hope to get some advice here as to poses to look out for, angles to shoot from, will the 50mm be OK from distances outside? Could you post some poses that are 'safe shots' or point me to threads with them so I might get her some keepers? I would love to get some silouette pics of them near the lighthouse w/ocean in background but it will be 5pm, sun still 2 hrs away from setting, is this realistic?

****I have not said to her that I will be trying for professional shots because I am completely freaking out since your wedding should be the MOST photographed time of your life!!! A day to feel like a princess, AND be able to have those same feelings when you go back and look at the pics years later!

sbakewell0508 · Apr 28, 2011

where are you located? lighthouse back drop seems very romantic and nice!

I would just look for the sutle moments between the two of them... your 50 mm will be good for the close ups of the two i have that lens and love it.. you may look at renting a lens.. at atsrental.com you can rent a 17-55 or a 24-70 (both 2.8 fstop) for $41 each (plus shipping) this would give you bit more flexibility in your shots as far as nice fast glass. but i have the 18-105 and it works for me.. but the benefit of renting also means you get to play with a new lens and you cant go wrong for something less than $50!!

if you are going to be doing group shots, remember TAKE CONTROL, they are your family, so this may be harder than normal or easier than normal depends on how much they listen to you, weddings go by quickly and you dont want to waste time gathering people in for the group photos... and shoot more than one of the group photo.. i shout two or three because someone always blinks!

after the wedding you can also download free software (for 30 days) to help with retouching.. photoshop, lightroom, onone, portrait professional all have try it before you buy it and it with the tutorials on their sites and youtube you should be able to muster up some type of retouching skills.. if you need help in the retouching, i am sure you can upload the pictures here and let the forum members do their thing.. (i know i love retouching...)

Robin Usagani · Apr 28, 2011

Wedding cake = You eat it once, youll never see it again. The only memory you have are the pics
Wedding dress = You wear it once, youll probably never wear it again. The only memory you have are the pics of it with you in it.
Hair and Make up = You got it done once, youll never see your self again except the photos take with the hair do and make up
Food drinks= yada yada yada

Doesnt matter what the budget is, photography should be one of the main priorities.

gsgary · Apr 28, 2011

Has this post been copied and pasted because i have read it a thousand times

mwcfarms · Apr 28, 2011

Some people Schwetty just dont care about wedding pics. They have other priorities and I say good for them. If they can't justify spending a grand on pictures and are happy with friends taking shots who cares its their day. OP there are some great books out there with traditional wedding poses that you can look to for inspiration. You can check out Flickr and probably see a thousand more. If you do a quick google search for standard wedding shots that will give you some more. I say good luck, have fun at your sisters wedding first and foremost, if you can give here a couple great shots that's just a bonus.

CCericola · Apr 28, 2011

I can relate to your sister. When I was married we could barely afford the $80 to pay for the wedding chapel ceremony and we lived in a crappy apartment in NE philly. I have 1 photo of us. That's it. I think trying to get them some nice photo memories is very nice of you. Don't worry so much. Your sister doesn't expect you to be a Joe Buissink or Dennis Reggie. Go to the library, check out all the wedding photography books and just absorb as much as you can then let your creativity loose!

Ginu · Apr 28, 2011

HI Aimee,

Welcome to the forum. I can relate with your situation to a certain extent.
I had my wedding over two years ago when the D90 was released and I chose to purchase a D90 with the kit lens 18-105 and have my brother and father use the camera instead of paying about the same and having a full time photographer. They both had experience with SLR's but not with DSLR's and I figured I can make a decent album if I had pictures as my background is in computer animation and not to mention a justified shiny new toy to play with instead of my Praktica MTL3 SLR...

Our ceremony was held in a church so the light wasn't in our favor however most of the pictures turned out quite good and usable. If you use a 50mm indoors I don't think you will have light issues however I would strongly recommend to have a flash handy if you plan to use the kit lens.
If you decide to use the D90 with 50mm lens, make sure to have the Nikon 8700 nearby as you might need to go a little wider in certain situations. 50mm on a crop body like the D90 becomes telephoto at a equivalent 75mm.

Our party was held at a restaurant and again the light was not in our favor however 95% of the pictures turned out good with the exception of red eye due to on camera flash being too close to the lens (again I would recommend a flash).
I purchased a flash (SB600) not long ago and I have been practicing quite a bit with portrait shots and since I mainly bounce the flash or use a diffuser, I haven't gotten a single bad picture and it eliminated the red eye effect.
Last week I shot a staff party of around 100 people and got really good results in a bar using the D90 with the 18-200 VR and SB600 (light was absolutely craptastic there).

In your situation, I think your pictures will be quite amazing as the ceremony is outside and at the lighthouse near the ocean so I would probably use the 18-105 lens in that instance as the light should be in your favor. For the dinner reception I would expect the light to be on the dim side so try using the 50mm if you got it or the 18-105 with a flash and try to bounce it off walls to get the best possible natural looking light

There is one main disadvantage... you will be missing from 95%+ of the pictures as you are the shooter so keep that in mind and perhaps you can school someone into shooting with your gear, just so you can be in some of the pictures also.

I will post a couple of pictures over the weekend just so you can get an idea.

aimee0508 · Apr 28, 2011

I am humbled by all your kind responses

After creating the initial post I wandered off to search other newbie wedding photography threads and saw quite some harsh responses!!! Sorry, I probably should have performed the search first!!
We are in New England and the wedding ceremony will be held on the beach in Southern Rhode island. I purchased the 50mm prime today but with all the rain and late time of the day I haven't had much luck testing it out for the true feel. I will DEFINATELY be looking into that rental option. I had no idea that even existed! What a great way to decide if you truley want to spluge or not on a fabulous lens! I wish I could figure out the bracketing feature, for the ceremony portion but I watched a great tutorial on youtube and my camera would not operate as the spokesperson was showing. I will have to look through my user manual a little better. I am having difficulty getting in practice because of my own baby's first bday being this weekend so I have been preparing for that!! I wish I would have had the 50 to take her pics, I bet they would have come out a lot better!

I also have an older version of elements, 6 I think? I shoot in RAW, w/med jpeg, I am just learning how to use the exposure/lighting/saturation feature from the RAW perspective. And I will have to ask her to bring the 8700 with her since I passed it down the line since she want's to learn to capture some of her newborn in natural light.

Is there a specific forum to upload pics to for cc? Or do I just do it in this one? I know my post processing needs fine tuning and I'd be open to any education!

mrpink · Apr 28, 2011

Get a speedlight (flash). Shooting portraits with a strong backlight such as the sun will need some serious fill lighting. A SB-600 will do, but a 800 or 900 would do a lot better. A large reflector will help as well (you will need an assistant to hold it in place).

Good luck.

p!nK