Wedding Photography

[Romphotog]

Make sure your contract says you are not to be held liable if you cant make it because of acts of god, car accident, medical emergency, arrest, alien abduction, civil war, fire, theft of your equipment, etc.
My friend was hired to be a photog for a large hasidic wedding in Jersey. He was arrested by the NJ troopers because he didnt pay $500 in traffic fines while on the way there.
In a TV court case, a photog's equipment got stolen 1 day before wedding, so she used plastic disposable film cameras which were placed on guests' tables to shoot the wedding.
In another incident a photog's studio burned down in a fire started in a pizzeria next door. All wedding photos and video were lost. Lesson is have insurance.

 

[jt69]

Nikon D90 with the 18.105mm f/3.5-5.6G
Sigma EF-530 DG ST Flash

I was asked to do my Niece's Wedding day. This will be my first wedding and I am not looking forward to it really, My main concern is taking photo's in the church with no flash, need help with the settings.

I really don't understand why are fellows colleagues instead of giving you advise the only thing they do is tell you good luck!.

Ok, here is the deal, if it is true that you lack on equipment and experience , nothing is lost and I hope this quote is not to late either.

First thing first strategy!, See if you can go to the church couple of days before the wedding and scope the location. Make sure you go at the same time the ceremony is going to happen or better yet 1/2 hour later than the set time, this will give you a more realistic lighting and color temperature.

Tip 1.

Take your camera yes that simple camera that you have and if you definitely can not use flash take a mono pod. Look inside the church and look where the upper windows are located if there are any, also look for the direction the sunset happen and see if any light over spiel trough the windows, if this is a catholic roman church they where usually design with the sun light hitting the altar. Believed it or not you want to position your self so the little light that goes in from those windows are behind you. make some test shots without flash and see how much predicament you will be. Based on this you can take some of my few notes to follow.

Aperture priority mode wont do you any good here , you have to go with speed priority. I use Canon so I don't know which setting will be on Nikon. Set your ISO to 400 or 800 , I don't know how much noise level your camera will have for those settings but prepare to do some post work on PC.
Get a 12-28 or 28-35 glass with 1.2 or 1.8F stop , this will allow you to go to speeds as low as the focal distance of the glass,in other words 28mm you can go to 28. This will allow you capture fair amount of photos even if the altar is candle lit. Watch your distance between the couple and you since your focal distance will be short because of lighting condition.

If they are not paying you to make this job and you don't have the cash to spear I would only rent a good glass and conquer or learn how to use your camera. If it's true that a product helps a photographer it does not make one. It's all about composition.

My two cents...

 

[JerryPH]

I am about to pi$$ off a lot of people.

OMG, I love the advice all the people who have little real experience or knowledge about weddings are giving.

- carry a tripod
- use a flash
- get fast glass
- how about a monopod
- rent a D700 or D3
- if it doesn't come out, you can retake it again
- My favorite "you don't need to be an expert to do weddings..." (the sound of the clueless... hahahahaha!!!)

Here is the situation in a nutshell:

- the OP is not even experienced with the most rudimentary functions of his own camera
- the OP doesn't even have the BASICS of photography down
- the OP has inadequate equipment.
- the OP still wants to do a wedding

Sorry to say, but unless he does something *really* smart like get together a few friends and family and split the cost of a real good and experienced photographer or get very aggressive with his studies in photography, spend some serious cash and learning time with some proper equipment, the results will be mediocre at best.

This is not a new story, and it happens ALL THE TIME and the results are ALWAYS the same. The bride and groom, the people who deserve to get the BEST results on THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF THEIR LIVES... get screwed over.

I say it time and again... wedding photography is the most demanding form of any photography out there. Not only **must** your knowledge have to be way beyond the basics of photography, your equipment had better be pro level or damn close. Sorry, no excuses and no exceptions to this club, I am sad to say.

This may piss off a few people or the posers who want to play wedding photographers, but this happens way too many times and the only people who suffer are the ones that should NOT... the bride and groom.

I never mentioned this anywhere, but last year, I got down and dirty with a true wanna-be on another forum and he showed me his "stuff". To be kind, it was pure crap, but him being clueless thought he was king-$hit.

As fortune would have it, he was local so I invited him to assist me at an engagement session. In an E-session one has about 2 hours to pull out about 150 images of which at least 50 have to be killer for the engaged couple. Easy-peasy, right? The stress level is about 1/10th but time is a factor.

I am not going to go into details, but just based on his experience of trying to participate and seeing what it takes in real life to do the job right... he made a decision that kinda surprised me... he got so scared and frustrated with his results, that he basically sold all his equipment on craigslist and left photography. The poor kid was that traumatized.

Now I could be cruel and say "good riddance to bad rubbish", but that was not my intent at all. My goal was to have him come back and talk about their experience and say "yeah, its a lot harder than I thought...", but it never happened.

You know, ignorance is bliss and it is uber-easy to talk about something even if you have no real clue about it, here on the net. Also because it is not your a$$ on the line, you can encourage the poor person and help him make a total fool of himself to his friends and family. You can encourage him to basically ruin *all* memories, all pictures for the bride and groom.

This I also say... not every couple is photography aware before the day of their wedding. There are people out there that say "we simply don't care about the quality of the shots, as long as I can see some stuff from the day, we are happy". There is also a 100% chance that these very same people later on in life regret thinking that. I have not met a married couple who were screwed over by a poor wedding photographer years later not wish they had nicer shots of their most special day... not once.

And that has happened here on this VERY forum that our newbie wanna-be wedding photographer went through this very same thing. He then went and him and his cousin take about 1200 useless and blurry photographs, then lose his memory cards (he said they were stolen), then miraculously find the cards in his bag a few days later, and come back and admit that he screwed up the entire day *big time* for the bride and groom and as far as I know, never showed up here again after that.

If there is ONE lesson to be learned from this, it's that photography is fun, it can be easy at some levels and people think that if the low end stuff is easy, well heck weddings must be as well.

Sorry, but not wedding photography. In no other form of photography are you forced to be extremely knowledgeable about photography and the intricate workings of your camera. In no other form of photography will you be forced to take pics of still, slow and fast moving subjects in the brightest and darkest of locations. No other form of photography where the number of subjects goes from potentially one to hundreds. No other form where you must be able to capture the moment THE FIRST TIME, because there are no second chances. No other form of photography that will physically cause pain and hurt someone if you do not do it right the first time. All this happens in ONE DAY.

I have seen several ladies cry because they screwed up and used a family member to take the pics instead of getting someone who knew what they were doing.

Is this what *YOU* really are suggesting the OP do? Really???

Food for thought, people. Peace.

 

[rbraden]

Jerry,
Glad to see you are still around (even thought lurking now), and have finally realized that, yes, you do piss people off :mrgreen:

 

[c.cloudwalker]

You know, ignorance is bliss and it is uber-easy to talk about something even if you have no real clue about it, here on the net.

Must come from experience.

"I say it time and again... wedding photography is the most demanding form of any photography out there." What other types of photography have you done exactly?

Why am I not surprised you would come back to blast some poor guy whose situation you know nothing about? Not to mention his niece's situation. Maybe she doesn't have the $4,000+ you charge, maybe she doesn't care to spend this kind of money on photos some of us couldn't care less about, maybe she's seen your work and decided it wasn't worth the money...

I don't see a single question about that in your post. Of course not. With your infinite wisdom, you have decided there is only one way to do this, one way to think about this. YOUR WAY... or the highway. Do you even know what a UK wedding is like?

I don't. Never been to one. But no worry because your way is the way. :lmao:

 

[rbraden]

I am about to pi$$ off a lot of people.

"OMG, I love the advice all the people who have little real experience or knowledge about weddings are giving."

(people such as you, I'm guessing, I don't recall any links to your extensive wedding galleries, or your wedding photography website).

"the OP is not even experienced with the most rudimentary functions of his own camera"

(Where was that said, and why in your infinite wisdom did you think that was an issue?)

"Sorry to say, but unless he does something *really* smart like get together a few friends and family and split the cost of a real good and experienced photographer or get very aggressive with his studies in photography, spend some serious cash and learning time with some proper equipment, the results will be mediocre at best."

(Not all photogs. have an unlimited supply of money, as you seem to, and not all brides and grooms have an unlimited supply of time for the photog to set up a shot (going from the only wedding shot that I know of you have posted here) as your bride and groom had. Some photogs, however do have vision and talent, do you Jerry, or do you simply regurgitate what you've read from Strobist, etc...)

This is not a new story, and it happens ALL THE TIME and the results are ALWAYS the same. The bride and groom, the people who deserve to get the BEST results on THE MOST IMPORTANT DAY OF THEIR LIVES... get screwed over.

(Blind generalization, ALL THE TIME, really?)

"I say it time and again... wedding photography is the most demanding form of any photography out there. Not only **must** your knowledge have to be way beyond the basics of photography, your equipment had better be pro level or damn close. Sorry, no excuses and no exceptions to this club, I am sad to say."

(I agree that it is probably the most demanding form of photography, but it is not an elitist club for only people who have pro level or damn close equipment, Judge Jerry, cause many of the most popular and relevant wedding photogs out there don't use half the $hit you claim to)

"I never mentioned this anywhere, but last year, I got down and dirty with a true wanna-be on another forum and he showed me his "stuff". To be kind, it was pure crap, but him being clueless thought he was king-$hit.

As fortune would have it, he was local so I invited him to assist me at an engagement session. In an E-session one has about 2 hours to pull out about 150 images of which at least 50 have to be killer for the engaged couple. Easy-peasy, right? The stress level is about 1/10th but time is a factor.

I am not going to go into details, but just based on his experience of trying to participate and seeing what it takes in real life to do the job right... he made a decision that kinda surprised me... he got so scared and frustrated with his results, that he basically sold all his equipment on craigslist and left photography. The poor kid was that traumatized."

(You should be proud)

I have seen several ladies cry because they screwed up and used a family member to take the pics instead of getting someone who knew what they were doing.

(I'm sure you have)

Jerry, sorry to have been so tough, because you do have some viable knowledge, and advice, however, you show absolutely no compassion, and even less willingness to help a fellow photographer.
My 2 cents.

 

[c.cloudwalker]

^^^^^ :lmao:

That is why he hides on another forum where no one seems to know enough about photography to know what a fraud he is...

 

[rbraden]

^^^^^ :lmao:

That is why he hides on another forum where no one seems to know enough about photography to know what a fraud he is...

I don't know that I'd say that, Jerry has some relevant knowledge (but prolly not nearly as much real world experience as he lets on that he does). The thing is, you truly get nowhere by flaming people from the get go with no knowledge of their talent or vision (and he is a king of that), and ain't we all here to help each other in the first place?
BTW, wasn't he one of the first proponents of "The Pact"?
I also didn't mean to instigate a thread jack.
Alwat, take the time to do you homework, rent, beg, borrow a backup body and a couple fast lenses, look at what some of the "hot" wedding photogs are doing (Jasmine Starr, Crash Taylor, David Ziser, and a plethora of others), get the required shots and some "signature" ones, and enjoy yourself. I think with the right attitude and some homework, you'll be ok (won't be easy, but you'll be ok).

 

[ralphh]

Seriously? Advertising photography services on a photography forum rather than a bridal one? That seemed like it was a good investment of your time?

I hope your photography is better thought out than the targeting of your adverting.... :er: