Taking pics at a friends wedding?

[Jenbirds777]

First of all.... I am NOT a professional. No intentions of becoming one, either. Just throwing that out there. So I don't want all these "Before you step into wedding photography..."

A friend asked me to take pictures at her wedding. She has seen my pictures on facebook and likes my work...I've never done a wedding or anything like that - mostly just pictures of modeling friends, random things, friends siblings/kids etc, animals, outdoors, nature, etc...

I made it clear that I am in no way experienced with weddings or groups for that matter, but she said that's okay - they just don't have money for a photographer. So, I agreed, and I know she knows I'm no pro and I'm not trying to be, but I still want to do a great job. Since this has come up several months ago I have read countless books on wedding photography/digital photography/flashes etc etc etc.

I will be using my Canon 40d and my father (way more experienced than I but not a pro, either) will be along with one, as well. And yes, I know quite a bit about aperature, shutter speed, ISO, etc.

NOW, my questions...

-Which lenses would be best? We have a 50mm, 35-80mm, 28-105mm, 24-85mm, and 75-300mm.

-The wedding will be outdoors...(this in itself scares me) and I have just one, 200E speedlight flash, however, I have very little experience with it. So, should I spend the next few weeks using it and figuring it out, or go without it?

I'm planning on just putting everything on a CD when we're done...is this the best way, or would something else work better?

I've been reading as much as I can, but any other tips would be GREATLY appreciated!

Thank you!

[A man]

Don't stress it, just relax and take.pics when you feel you got a good shot. A CD is the cheapest way of doing it, but also a old fashion album would be cool and unique in a way

[Ara57]

Outdoors in daylight is easier for the novice wedding shooter than inside a dark church. You should be able to use a moderate or low ISO and still keep your shutter speed high enough to avoid blur. Your 50mm will be great for portraits and coverage from a small distance away. The 24-85 is a good general purpose lens, (I used one quite often on a Nikon film camera) but it not very wide on a crop sensor. I am thinking that you may miss having a wider angle lens, I use a 17-50 a lot in wedding and reception coverage. Your flash will help some in the daylight if you are close enough, or if you only need a bit of fill to lift shadows and add catchlights in the eyes.

Reading about wedding photography is a great start. Also look at several different wedding photographers' sites to get ideas and see what you should be covering. I would suggest a lot of practice with your flash during the same kind of light you expect during the wedding. Practice balancing subject exposure with bg lighting in particular, and practice posing people for the formals. Get some friends or family to help out here. If you can dress one model in white and another in black, that will help you learn to get good exposures, but always skew in favor of the dress. Shadows that are too dark on a black tux are not as objectionable as having blown highlights on the white dress!

Here is a good site for first time wedding shooters:

http://www.rokkorfiles.com/Wedding101-page1.html

Good luck.

[Mark]

Some ideas - (I'm not a pro either, but these are the ideas I had after reading your post)

Divide up the work. If one of you shoots the guests, the other concentrates on the bride, groom and immediate family. If one of you does the ceremony, the other does the celebrations. That kind of thing. Then neither of you will be rushing around like a headless chicken chasing everything.

I never use flash unless I absolutely have to, so I'm not going to be advising on that. If you have time before the wedding, have a look at Joe McNally's site. He's a master with lighting, so you might get some good hints from that. If you decide not to use it, then you'll want to shoot either in full sun or full shade, but try and avoid mixing them up because the dynamic range will throw your camera for a loop and you'll have a merry time trying to fix it in post. Don't shoot people who are looking into the sun, because they'll squint, either consciously or not.

Take several of the lenses to be safe. The 50 on a crop body like the 40d could make for a nice portrait lens, but if it's a bright day and you want to shoot it wide open you might need an ND filter on it if everything's outside. The wide zooms will be good for group shots. The 75-300 could be nice for getting shots of the celebrations from a distance (i.e. candidly). 28-105 and 24-85 are similar ranges so you probably won't need them both unless you have a particularly good reason for carrying both.

What I would absolutely recommend is shooting RAW. Use a memory card with a decent capacity (or use a normal one and carry a lot of spares). RAW is important because it gives you more room for recovering highlight details, bringing out shadow details, and generally is better for correcting excessively over-or-under-exposed shots. It can also save you if you get your white balance setting wrong.

Carry a spare battery, at least one, or two if your current one is weak. You'll probably be taking a lot of shots.

Think of anything that could go wrong and come up with a fix for it (example: memory card gets corrupted, something goes wrong with camera, it rains, etc).

As your friend understands that you're not a professional, you'll hopefully be able to enjoy shooting the wedding. I've not done it before, but I'm told that it can be a lot of fun or a lot of stress depending on how you go about it!

[Fred]

Whilst you acknowledge that you are not a professional that is no reason not to be professional in your approach. The scenario divides into the following areas :

1) Kit - as you already have a reasonable kit it is simply a question of selecting the best lens and my preference is to use the 24-85 mm; I have a 24-120mm lens for my Nikon and it covers around 90% of my images.

As a thought I would suggest you visit the venues in advance and take some test shots - if only to satisfy yourself that there will be enough light and confirm precisely what lenses are needed.

2) Planning - There is so much involved in weddings that it is best to be ready for as much as possible. In my experience the exchange of rings is THE most important part of a wedding and you need to be close enough to capture this once-in-a-lifetime moment. That needs a talk with the person conducting the service to let him know what YOU want and seek guidance on what HE will allow in order not to disturb the solemnity of the ceremony

3) To do list - check with the bride and groom beforehand PRECISELY what photographs they want. Liaise with the best man beforehand so that after the ceremony he can ensure that the groups (posing with the bride / groom / bride & groom) are assembled and photographed. The photographer needs to concentrate on taking the photographs whilst the best man needs to concentrate on making sure the correct groups are assembled in the right sequence and at the right time.

4) After the formal pictures are taken simply take informal pictures of the reception and the departure on honeymoon taking as many as you want.

Once the wedding is completed then produce your CD with all the images (formal and informal) and pass to the couple so that they can select the 20 or so images that will form their Wedding Album; they may want this on CD or they may want a formal Wedding Album but this can be discussed after the event.

It is important to realise that on the day the bride and groom will be so involved in the event that they will unable to have any impact on what happens therefore it is vital to have everything agreed before the day so that the happy couple can concentrate on being hosts and you can concentrate on the photography.

I hope this guidance helps but enjoy the day - enjoy the experience; Good Luck

[Hot Shot]

Alright. I've a friend been working professionally as Wedding Photographer in Greenville. You can contact via his website, I hope he'll help you to choose right lenses, cameras etc for your friend's wedding photography.

I think it will be better also as he's professional.