Wedding Photography... HELP

[Goldeeno]

Thanks for that EOS JD, much appreciated. You mean you looked at my Flickr!! I bet that bored you !

Yeah the christmas shots i tried to take without the flash, other people with there point and shoots, flashing away, so i went for the warmly feel, but i totally see what your saying.
Thing is... ive just splashed out on the 100-400L and 10-20mm, so at the moment money is a little tight. Buying another lens might be difficult. But ill deffinatly check out renting. Cheers

 

[Tighearnach]

Im a big fan of taking shots of people when they are completley unaware of your presence. I love capturing them natural smiles etc. I think if there will be periods of the wedding spent outdoors it would be a shame to leave the 100-400L behind. Just stand in the background when people leave the church or are in the park for photos and snap away. Could be the best pics u get of the whole day......

 

[EOS_JD]

Im a big fan of taking shots of people when they are completley unaware of your presence. I love capturing them natural smiles etc. I think if there will be periods of the wedding spent outdoors it would be a shame to leave the 100-400L behind. Just stand in the background when people leave the church or are in the park for photos and snap away. Could be the best pics u get of the whole day......

100-400 range is great for outdoor candids but inside - particularly in a church or reception it will be just too slow. If you have a couple of bodies it's a useful lens and will take very nice bridal portraits if the light is good.

 

[nicfargo]

You could possibly get that 100-400mm to work with a decently high ISO. I'd do a lot of test shooting way before the wedding in low light situations. See how noisy the pictures are and how much noise a decent noise reduction software package can take out.

 

[usayit]

Candid photos has less to do with how far you are situated with a long telephoto and more to do with "how" you shoot. During the wedding reception, you will also be using a flash which is going to bring attention to you as soon as the first photo is snapped. You'll want to keep the camera at your side until you see your next shot. You'll want to move around a lot. You have to be quick.

Unless outdoors and posing your subjects, shooting indoors in a smallish closed in area is going to be less than ideal with "most" super telephotos. People get in the way, lighting is low, flash is less effective, obtaining a fast enough shutter when handholding are all going to be issues. Add to that the 100-400L (albeit a wonderful zoom) is not the ideal glass indoors. Yeh.. there will be times that a telephoto will be required for weddings but in those cases a fast medium telephoto like the 70-200 f2.8L is going to shine.

Since you are doing this for little pay, as a favor, and on a budget, I would recommend focusing your attention on getting the normal regular shots of the wedding rather than get all creative with wide-angles and telephotos. You have a lot on your plate right now... in this case, I would focus on the basic sets.

* Bride just before the wedding
* wedding party walking down the isle
* Groom
* Bride and father
* exchange of vows
* exchange of rings
* Bride and family
* Groom and family
* Bride, groom, best man, maid of honor
* Bride maid of honor
* Groom and best man.
* Bride and groom + their immediate family members
* Grandparents and such
* The cakes
* Wedding party entrance into the reception hall
* First dance
* Bride and father
* Groom and mother
* Cutting of the cake
* "Dollar" dance
* throwing of the bouquet.
etc.. (keep a cheat sheet in your pocket)

Once you have those done... then the candid stuff is icing on the cake.


btw... you should scout out the locations prior (if possible) to get a feel where you need to be for the best vantage point... going to be very important as you have to be quick with composition. As suggested, take some test photos to get a feeling on how you will have to work. Talk to the church to get a feel on limitations that you will have to work around... How close can you be? Is flash allowed? I assisted on one wedding when nothing was allowed... not even cameras. It was a religious occasion that should be kept strictly that way. Fortunately, they allowed for "re-enactments" after the fact... This is information that was extremely important to know ahead of time.

 

[RMThompson]

Get yourself a 50mm 1.8 or faster and a external flash if you dont have one.

You need to. It's not an option for a wedding.

 

[Mike_E]

What RM said.

A rolling stand and a Metz 45 W/wireless trigger would be very handy (I have a 60 but that is overkill for the most part). You can get some really good lighting and you just wheel the stand around and are free to shoot away from where ever you like.

 

[JerryPH]

You can also use the super cheap (ieL normally free), voice controlled stand. Usually you refer to them as your friend.. lol

If you want a TON of wedding photography info, just google it. There is enough good info there alone to occupy you for many hours.

The most important piece of advice is that the bride and groom have absolutely no expectations of how the pictures turn out and that you are doing it as a favor.

That way if the pics don't come out too well for whatever reason, no one looses any friends or gets sued.