beagle100
Been spending a lot of time on here!
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Been there, kinda.
My nephew and his fiance asked me a couple days before the wedding if I could shoot part of the wedding, as the pro was scheduled to leave at a certain time during the reception. It was me, or cell phone cameras.
My flash was left at home, so all I had was the dinky pop-up flash. Oh well.
I was not happy with the results, but they were.
- get and use an assistant. This is VERY important.
- Make a list of ALL the shots to shoot. You will NEVER remember them.
- They need to be clear on what shots they want.
- They need to provide someone to tell you who is who, for that list of photos. And that person NEEDS to be the one to round up the people for the shots (usually the formals), not you.
- The couple needs to make sure that the people in the formal know they need to stay for the pictures. There have been instances where one of the uncles/aunts left the church and headed for the reception, before the family formals were shot.
- If you have not shot formals, LEARN and PRACTICE.
- Posing people can be very difficult for some of us, like me.
- PLAN the shoot. Shot by shot. What to take, were to be, where people will be, etc, etc.
- Write this stuff down, you won't remember it all.
- Your assistant needs to keep track of the shots.
- Go to the rehearsal and really think about where people are and where you need to be for what shots.
- If they don't have a wedding planner, you need to step in and help.
- For me the timing of the couples walking down the church was important, so that they don't stack up, and you can get clear shots of the individual couples.
- Go to the venue of the wedding and church to see what you have to deal with and how.
- Do a full "dry run" shoot of EVERYTHING (wedding and reception) with them and a few friends, so you can practice where you need to be to get what shots. And to get a feel for what the timing will be like.
- Practice the cake cutting and feeding; where you need to be, how they hold the knife and look at you, etc. I found that always difficult for me.
- Depending on the church, you may be restricted to where you can be, how much you can move around during the ceremony, and if you can use a flash. Find out what these restrictions are, in advance, and plan how to deal with them.
- If you have not used a flash, PRACTICE and PRACTICE some more. It is not as easy as some think it is.
- Understand the limitations of the flash; recycle time, max number of quick consecutive shots, range, coverage angle, when you need to use flash exposure compensation, etc.
- I told my future niece, I can only take ONE shot of her tossing the bouquet; toss, mid air, or catch. I discussed the issues, primarily that my flash could not recycle fast enough to get more than the one shot. She made her choice, the toss, and it worked.
- But the garter toss was a bust. My nephew tossed before I was ready, and I barely got the catch.
- Get a flash bracket to raise the flash. Cuz cleaning up 'red eye' after the fact, is a real PiA.
Gud Luk
- Since YOU are shooting the wedding for them, you cannot let other guests shove you aside. You need to be the camera in the correct location/angle to get the shot.
^^
sounds like good advice
(but I remembered the flash)
www.flickr.com/photos/mmirrorless