Settings advice please?

[WelshMark]

Just landed at my brother in laws wedding and they have asked me to be the unofficial photographer
I have a canon m5 and 3 lenses with me ( wasnt expecting it ) a 28mm super macro, 55-250mm lense and a 75-300mm lense ( dslr but with a adapter for the m5 )
Any advice on which lense/s to use? with any setting advice much appreciated!

 

[Overread]

RUN!!



Honestly I'd say "thanks for the offer, but no I can't do it, but I'll have some fun and take some snaps and we can look at them after" kind of thing. Just go, enjoy your time, kick the camera into auto or whatever mode you generally find most comfortable to use and just have some fun at the event. Your 28mm might get some nice wide angle shots of the church and groups; but your other two lenses are going to be far too long, though the 55mm end would likely do ok in general. Thing is you've not got wide bright light gathering lenses suited for indoor shooting; it doesn't sound like you've got a flash you can swivel the head on or diffuse; you don't sound like you're really experienced enough. So just do what everyone else does and just take snaps through the day without being the official unofficial anything.

If you've just arrived chances are you've got no time at all - heck you're probably in the service right now as I'm typing this!

 

[WelshMark]

Its not till 4 lol
Their after random pics more than pro ones thankfully, i have no experience at all with this kind of event, and dont plan on doing this kinda thing, i prefere wildlife and scenery
Its a registry wedding so lighting is gonna be dreadfull so i will probably do a fair bit post editing
I thought the 28mm and low end of the 250mm would be best but as i said i have no experience as im just starting out and teaching myself
I wont learn without asking questions no? ( and trial and error of course )

 

[Original katomi]

Have to agree with Overread, and add look for those moments that are different, the things that will bring back the moment with a laugh. I did just this at a friends wedding and have several moment shots. The grooms mother fussing her son trying to brush his hair, those sort of moments have fun.

 

[WelshMark]

Thankyou for the replies, ill just keep my eyes peeled i think
Would it be best to have on auto throughout or say maybe change to portrait mode for the party?

 

[Derrel]

The good thing is you have a digital Camera, so you can see how your picture are coming out. Personally I think that your two longer zoom lenses are too long for indoor shots that have "connection"with the subject, so
I would be tempted to use the 28 mm lens For a roughly 42 mm full frame equivalent, or a pseudo-wide /Pseudo- normal look.

Just make sure of your exposures on the back of the camera and try not to screw up. LOL. Best of luck to you.

 

[Soocom1]

My niece's wedding is in oct. I am doing ALOT of preliminary work well ahead of time, and I am not the "official" photographer for the top end shots, just to do the off hand shots for her.

Overread is right, if you can... RUN AWAY!

It takes ALOT of planning and ALOT of careful equipment prep well ahead of time with ALOT of practice to get wedding shots right.


The only advantage of the 55-250 will be the ability to not be on the podium during vows.

 

[photoflyer]

Use this as an excuse to get a nifty fifty. You need a faster lens in your bag and this one is about $100. At f 1.8 it will give you better results in low light.

I do not have a good flash and so generally stay away from using the in body flash although a I will sometimes bounce it with a piece of paper.

I would chose an ISO setting commensurate with the light available and shoot in aperture priority. Experiment with f 1.8 (if you get the nifty). Given the shallow depth of field at that f stop shots may appear a bit soft but some folks like that look. You may want to shoot at f2.8 so long as the ISO required does not result in too much noise and the speed becomes too slow.

 

[vintagesnaps]

If you don't know how to set the camera for indoor use because you do outdoor wildlife photography, I don't think it's possible to learn how to shoot an indoor event in a thread on a message board. People who do portraits and weddings have spent a lot of time learning and developing skills and have the needed equipment (and know how to use it well).

This is like trying to cram for a test when you haven't read anything for a class the whole semester! I suppose just set it to auto and use it like a point 'n shoot and hope you get something.

 

[ac12]

I hope you did OK.

As you said, you are an outside wildlife photographer. A wedding is a completely different animal.

My nephew did that to me, when I arrived for his wedding.
Their paid photog was leaving at about 1230pm, so they asked me to shoot the reception after the paid photog left.

The paid photo would shoot all the formals and the ceremony itself. whew.​

ARGH . . . !!!

• My flash, bracket and power pack were at home, 2400 miles away. So I had to use the pop-up flash, which I normally do NOT like to use.
• I did not bring my spare battery. I had not planned on using the flash much, if at all. So would the camera battery last me the entire reception? Luckily it did.
• We had very little time to plan, as they were still working on the wedding/reception stuff.

Luckily I did a few weddings before, so it wasn't too bad.
But there were still issues, due to getting this at the last minute.

• I got the bouquet toss (good planning), but barely got the garter toss (bad planning, nephew did not wait for me).
• I did not have a list of people to shoot at the reception, so I had to wing it, and probably missed shots of the brides family, that I should have gotten, because I did not know who they were.

Luckily the 18-140 lens that I had with me, while not the best, was adequate for the task.

 

[WelshMark]

Ac12, im currently uploading to the pc as i type this, about 400 images, i tried the built in flash but it was shockingly bad because it directs right at the subject ..aarrgggghh was my reaction aswell!
I will prob spend most of 2morrow in post edit
Vi tage snaps....wasnt trying to learn from a forum, just wanted some sort of base setting with the gear i had as a starting point
Hopefull i got a few good ones, time will tell
Thankyou all for the help thi! Much appreciated

 

[vintagesnaps]

AC you gotta stop taking your camera with you to weddings! lol I mean, seriously, people have a budget for a wedding, they can figure out what they want to spend their money on. If it's not for photography that's up to them. Chances are there will be guests taking pictures with their cell phones and that might be all they want of the reception anyway.

 

[ac12]

AC you gotta stop taking your camera with you to weddings! lol I mean, seriously, people have a budget for a wedding, they can figure out what they want to spend their money on. If it's not for photography that's up to them. Chances are there will be guests taking pictures with their cell phones and that might be all they want of the reception anyway.

I wasn't going to.
For my nephew, attending his wedding was part of our vacation, so the camera came for the vacation, not the wedding. That is why I did not bringing my flash and power pack.
Then the day after we arrived, "Uncle, can you take pictures at the wedding for us?"

Yes, they should have asked me in advance, rather than spring that question on me.
That would have been the polite thing to do.
And it would have given me the chance to configure the kit.
But they are young, and not as into planning as we are.