Tee
Been spending a lot of time on here!
- Joined
- Mar 26, 2010
- Messages
- 1,954
- Reaction score
- 625
- Location
- South central PA
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
We all know how it starts. Maybe your sister is getting married, or your cousin, or your hairstylist. Hey, you've got yourself one of them fancy schmancy camera thingys and honestly, how hard can it be, right? This is a story told time and time again. This is my story (with a few images)....
The Background
I've been best friends with J for 25 years. We were college roommates. We were straight up bros. Last year he and his girlfriend decided to make it official and he asked me if I would photograph his wedding. Now...in many TPF threads regarding being asked to shoot a wedding for the first time there's usually some sort of guilt trip put on the person with a camera. I always respond telling them to man up and just say no. I followed my advice and told J "absolutely not" but if he wanted an opinion on hiring a photographer I would be happy to help. Shockingly, there was no animosity, no guilt trip, no pleading on bended knees. I knew my skill level. I was not going to ruin their day. This conversation took place over a year ago and it was a one time request and life went on. We were still BFF's. Fast forward. I had been traveling on a work assignment all summer long and did not communicate much with friends and family. When I came back in September I caught up with J to see how the wedding plans were coming along. They just had a baby so their focus was on that (she also has a son) and with money being tight they were truly doing this on the cheap. I razzed him about finding a photographer on Craigslist and because the wedding ceremony was going to be so small (immediate family only) that her brother was going to take the photos. They were going to have a larger reception the following day for friends and extended family. It was then I realized that the brother shouldn't have to spend time taking photos when he should be enjoying the ceremony. I was the one who brought it up. I would swing by, be unobtrusive but capture the ceremony. Sounds so easy, right? I mean, I've shot models outdoors. What could possibly be so different?
The Gear
Being on TPF has been good for a few things. The monthly "I have to shoot a wedding in 2 weeks, what settings should I use?" are classics but nestled in between the snark is valuable advice. Two of everything. Backups for the backups. Don't shoot it if you're not confident of your skills, etc. I took stock of my gear. I had 1 Nikon D700, the trinity lenses, 28mm, 50mm, 85mm and an SB-910. I was better equipped than most. I also had monolights, modifiers, and a portable battery pack with an extra battery. In the gear department I truly felt I was suited up. I was using the same gear that pro's use. The one problem...I only had one of each. I went and looked at lens rentals. I wanted to get at least one more D700. I could use body for the zooms and the other for the primes. Then I get called away on a work trip. When I get back, I only had 1 week until the wedding. Life was crazy. I did not have time to get another body. Was I about to be introduced to Murphy and his famous Laws? The one thing I made sure I had a lot of was batteries and CF cards. Don't skimp on those. I went with three 8 packs of AA's and six 16gb memory cards which would give me a little over 3,600 exposures in RAW format. I knew there was no way I was gonna max that. I'm not enrolled in the school of spray-n-pray but I wanted backup in case I hard a card failure. After all...they don't want fancy images....maybe I'm over thinking this?
Preparation
It does not matter how many times the bride and groom doing a wedding on the cheap say, "We're not looking for anything special. We just want images of our day." Deep down inside places we don't talk about we all know this not to be true. They're hoping for rock star photos. So even though J and K fed me that same line (and to some degree, I knew they were being sincere) my goal was to go above and beyond their expectations. I went and searched every TPF wedding thread, combed the FM forums for posing and thoughts of the busniess, and wrote posing checklists. I got the address of the river side ceremony for a recon. I tried to leave no surprises. Would I have time to set up monolights for wedding formals? Would I be able to switch lenses on the fly? OMG...how am I gonna carry the lenses? I only have a backpack. I can't be slinging that around every time. I ended up getting a shoulder bag. I practiced reaching in blindly and swapping lenses. I memorized which place each lens size was going to be. Was I ready?
The Wedding Day...and a big, bright sun
If you didn't know this, every great plan fails upon first contact. I showed up to the river 30 minutes before everyone else. Neither J or K wanted getting ready shots. This truly was a small family wedding. I went and looked through my camera at the wedding location sizing up angles, determining lens choice and where the sun was falling. Oh crap! The sun is blazing! This can't be possible. I drove by the previous day at the same time and the light looked amazing. And then it dawned on me. The wedding was pushed up 30 minutes. *facepalm*
The cars pulled up. Everyone got out and suddenly I realize this thing is happening. Like now, happening. No hanging out and socializing. No pre-ceremony champagne toast. They all start walking to the river side and I'm snapping along the way, not letting on that I'm about to crap a log cabin. The sun was very harsh. Like, "I'm about to fubar this up, harsh". J and K position themselves so the sun isn't in their eyes when they look at each other or the minister. This means, the sun was at their backs. "Great", I moan thinking about back lighting and if I could get my monolights out and shove it right in their faces, I'd be golden. But such does not happen. It was so quiet. There were leaves on the ground. Every time I took a step it sounded like I was stepping on mousetraps. I was trying to be quiet. Yet, I couldn't find the right angle to get a good shot without elbowing Grandma Agnes in the kidneys. Here's what I came up with;
Not the best but I thought the back lighting worked in this position. I knew I had to get the following shots: bride and groom, any family members doing readings, candid's (getting mom wiping a tear away), the ring exchange and the kiss. The kiss! How am I gonna get that in this sun? The whole time I'm listening to the minister talk so I could hear when the ring exchange, vows, and kiss were gonna happen. During that time I was snapping away at family members but secretly trying to wrangle my way into position for the kiss and ring exchange. I figured I could miss the candid's but if I miss "the kiss", I'm off this years Christmas card list and for years after. Like I said, the sun was harsh. I went to the other side and this is what the sun looked like on J and K:
Too harsh but the ring exchange was about to happen. I had no time to move.
I captured this one and stepped on a million moustraps (leaves) to get back to where I was at for the first shot being back lighted and caught the kiss:
Had I stayed where I was, I would've blown out the face. A pro could've done it. I'm still figuring it out. I needed to play it safe. Still, I think the sun accentuating the bodies works (at least I keep telling myself that).
Back to the posing thing
This was one area I thought was gonna be decent at. I have posed models before. Yeah....about that. It's one thing to have a models sole attention and take your time to shoot. It's another when you're faced with competing demands from a crying newborn, parents, and a dinner to get to that's 35 minutes away. I had 10 minutes and I wanted to get varying shots. Remember how I wrote down posing shots? I might as well spent my time learning Mandarin. Here's my first shot:
I failed to turn the bodies away from the camera and thus capturing a full on pose. Not the most flattering. When I got home and loaded the images and saw the posing, my neighbors could hear the thud of me banging my head on my desk. How about a cliche shot of the out of focus couple/ in focus bouquet? Check!
Oh...and by the way. All the shots were at ISO 1600. Not by choice but because my mental checklist of always double checking ISO decided to take a vacation.
The Post Wedding Dinner
Time to really crank up the ISO. This room was so dark, we were issued miner's lanterns. Kidding....slightly. I broke out the trusty SB-910 and figured, what the heck. They only wanted photos of the wedding so everything else was bonus. I cranked the ISO up to 6400 a few times but mostly stayed between 1600 and 3200. Still, I was worried about how much noise I would capture. A few from the dinner;
Reviewing the wedding taken on a cellphone. ISO 6400
A toast for the happy couple at ISO 3200
Father and sons having some fun at ISO 1600
A little tiramisu? Yes, please.
The reception in the next post below....
The Background
I've been best friends with J for 25 years. We were college roommates. We were straight up bros. Last year he and his girlfriend decided to make it official and he asked me if I would photograph his wedding. Now...in many TPF threads regarding being asked to shoot a wedding for the first time there's usually some sort of guilt trip put on the person with a camera. I always respond telling them to man up and just say no. I followed my advice and told J "absolutely not" but if he wanted an opinion on hiring a photographer I would be happy to help. Shockingly, there was no animosity, no guilt trip, no pleading on bended knees. I knew my skill level. I was not going to ruin their day. This conversation took place over a year ago and it was a one time request and life went on. We were still BFF's. Fast forward. I had been traveling on a work assignment all summer long and did not communicate much with friends and family. When I came back in September I caught up with J to see how the wedding plans were coming along. They just had a baby so their focus was on that (she also has a son) and with money being tight they were truly doing this on the cheap. I razzed him about finding a photographer on Craigslist and because the wedding ceremony was going to be so small (immediate family only) that her brother was going to take the photos. They were going to have a larger reception the following day for friends and extended family. It was then I realized that the brother shouldn't have to spend time taking photos when he should be enjoying the ceremony. I was the one who brought it up. I would swing by, be unobtrusive but capture the ceremony. Sounds so easy, right? I mean, I've shot models outdoors. What could possibly be so different?
The Gear
Being on TPF has been good for a few things. The monthly "I have to shoot a wedding in 2 weeks, what settings should I use?" are classics but nestled in between the snark is valuable advice. Two of everything. Backups for the backups. Don't shoot it if you're not confident of your skills, etc. I took stock of my gear. I had 1 Nikon D700, the trinity lenses, 28mm, 50mm, 85mm and an SB-910. I was better equipped than most. I also had monolights, modifiers, and a portable battery pack with an extra battery. In the gear department I truly felt I was suited up. I was using the same gear that pro's use. The one problem...I only had one of each. I went and looked at lens rentals. I wanted to get at least one more D700. I could use body for the zooms and the other for the primes. Then I get called away on a work trip. When I get back, I only had 1 week until the wedding. Life was crazy. I did not have time to get another body. Was I about to be introduced to Murphy and his famous Laws? The one thing I made sure I had a lot of was batteries and CF cards. Don't skimp on those. I went with three 8 packs of AA's and six 16gb memory cards which would give me a little over 3,600 exposures in RAW format. I knew there was no way I was gonna max that. I'm not enrolled in the school of spray-n-pray but I wanted backup in case I hard a card failure. After all...they don't want fancy images....maybe I'm over thinking this?
Preparation
It does not matter how many times the bride and groom doing a wedding on the cheap say, "We're not looking for anything special. We just want images of our day." Deep down inside places we don't talk about we all know this not to be true. They're hoping for rock star photos. So even though J and K fed me that same line (and to some degree, I knew they were being sincere) my goal was to go above and beyond their expectations. I went and searched every TPF wedding thread, combed the FM forums for posing and thoughts of the busniess, and wrote posing checklists. I got the address of the river side ceremony for a recon. I tried to leave no surprises. Would I have time to set up monolights for wedding formals? Would I be able to switch lenses on the fly? OMG...how am I gonna carry the lenses? I only have a backpack. I can't be slinging that around every time. I ended up getting a shoulder bag. I practiced reaching in blindly and swapping lenses. I memorized which place each lens size was going to be. Was I ready?
The Wedding Day...and a big, bright sun
If you didn't know this, every great plan fails upon first contact. I showed up to the river 30 minutes before everyone else. Neither J or K wanted getting ready shots. This truly was a small family wedding. I went and looked through my camera at the wedding location sizing up angles, determining lens choice and where the sun was falling. Oh crap! The sun is blazing! This can't be possible. I drove by the previous day at the same time and the light looked amazing. And then it dawned on me. The wedding was pushed up 30 minutes. *facepalm*
The cars pulled up. Everyone got out and suddenly I realize this thing is happening. Like now, happening. No hanging out and socializing. No pre-ceremony champagne toast. They all start walking to the river side and I'm snapping along the way, not letting on that I'm about to crap a log cabin. The sun was very harsh. Like, "I'm about to fubar this up, harsh". J and K position themselves so the sun isn't in their eyes when they look at each other or the minister. This means, the sun was at their backs. "Great", I moan thinking about back lighting and if I could get my monolights out and shove it right in their faces, I'd be golden. But such does not happen. It was so quiet. There were leaves on the ground. Every time I took a step it sounded like I was stepping on mousetraps. I was trying to be quiet. Yet, I couldn't find the right angle to get a good shot without elbowing Grandma Agnes in the kidneys. Here's what I came up with;
Not the best but I thought the back lighting worked in this position. I knew I had to get the following shots: bride and groom, any family members doing readings, candid's (getting mom wiping a tear away), the ring exchange and the kiss. The kiss! How am I gonna get that in this sun? The whole time I'm listening to the minister talk so I could hear when the ring exchange, vows, and kiss were gonna happen. During that time I was snapping away at family members but secretly trying to wrangle my way into position for the kiss and ring exchange. I figured I could miss the candid's but if I miss "the kiss", I'm off this years Christmas card list and for years after. Like I said, the sun was harsh. I went to the other side and this is what the sun looked like on J and K:
Too harsh but the ring exchange was about to happen. I had no time to move.
I captured this one and stepped on a million moustraps (leaves) to get back to where I was at for the first shot being back lighted and caught the kiss:
Had I stayed where I was, I would've blown out the face. A pro could've done it. I'm still figuring it out. I needed to play it safe. Still, I think the sun accentuating the bodies works (at least I keep telling myself that).
Back to the posing thing
This was one area I thought was gonna be decent at. I have posed models before. Yeah....about that. It's one thing to have a models sole attention and take your time to shoot. It's another when you're faced with competing demands from a crying newborn, parents, and a dinner to get to that's 35 minutes away. I had 10 minutes and I wanted to get varying shots. Remember how I wrote down posing shots? I might as well spent my time learning Mandarin. Here's my first shot:
I failed to turn the bodies away from the camera and thus capturing a full on pose. Not the most flattering. When I got home and loaded the images and saw the posing, my neighbors could hear the thud of me banging my head on my desk. How about a cliche shot of the out of focus couple/ in focus bouquet? Check!
Oh...and by the way. All the shots were at ISO 1600. Not by choice but because my mental checklist of always double checking ISO decided to take a vacation.
The Post Wedding Dinner
Time to really crank up the ISO. This room was so dark, we were issued miner's lanterns. Kidding....slightly. I broke out the trusty SB-910 and figured, what the heck. They only wanted photos of the wedding so everything else was bonus. I cranked the ISO up to 6400 a few times but mostly stayed between 1600 and 3200. Still, I was worried about how much noise I would capture. A few from the dinner;
Reviewing the wedding taken on a cellphone. ISO 6400
A toast for the happy couple at ISO 3200
Father and sons having some fun at ISO 1600
A little tiramisu? Yes, please.
The reception in the next post below....
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