Wedding Photography

[desertstrike]

To kit kat lover, thanks for ur contribution.

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let me first reply to the num of useless replies here:

Being a public forum, doesn't promote people's queries makes me wonder about the usefullness of a public forum, having said that, i wun dismiss the fact that kentwong81, rashkae and octarine put in a very good effort to explain this fact, i appreciate that, and i would like to memtion that, i am nor the main, nor the secondary photographer, however just wanna learn something here, but to no avail. Just needed a few good tips, but none rendered.

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Kei1309: i seriously have no f**king idea why u post all the rubbish in my thread. If u have the basic net courtesy, go create ur own thread and boast how good ur equipment is. And let me repeat here, i am not paid so dun point finger and said YOU! And how bad the other photographer is and how bad the other videographer is, does not correlate to me. So saved your useless comment to yourself, thanks!

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Having said all that, i believe a lot of ppl asking about info here gets all these type of replies from the "thought they are seniors or expert" people giving "senior or expert replies". But nonetheless, there are still helpful ppl ard. Thanks to the helpful people.

 

[desertstrike]

Maybe they are not being paid, and could be friends of the couple? Doing a favor for the couple?

exactly! i really dun understand the "unfriendliness" here, i just wanna learn something to help do the couple a better favour!

and i thought this is a newbie forum... or is this forum used for newbie to just say "hi, i am a new user of what and what..." thread!

 

[PurpleGlass]

hi guys, which of my lens is more suitable for wedding photography in church? Anything that i would need to look out for?

my lens are:
1. 18-105mm
2. 35mm f1.8
3. 10-24mm
4. 70-300mm vr

I am using D90 with SB700, thanks!

If i will be in your shoes.. i would most probably bring the ffg.

35mm - group shots
10-22mm - shot of the place and venue and wide scenes
70-300mm - bride / groom portraits

If you will be shooting alone I would suggest perhaps you bring a friend to carry your SB on a tall stand with trigger whenever you need. Not necessary to carry all the time but in case some spots in the area that shadows are really harsh you can always use it. If there is no one there to help out just put it in a corner and just move it as you go.

Timing is very important. I suppose you have a copy of the wedding itinerary

Some few impt. things in my opinion.

1. Cover the bride / groom preparation
2. Bride and groom portrait sessions
3. Grooms men and Brides Maid portrait sessions
4. Family portraits
5. Random Shots of key guests / VIP
6. The wedding itself (walking on the isle, vows, etc etc.)
7. Most important thing is DETAILS.. you might want to consider shooting the dress, flowers, some creative shots on the details that will bring back the memory or perhaps represent the actual day.

Hope these few tips helps out as they work on us. Good luck on you shoot and have fun as its suppose to be fun. The aura of the people in the wedding is priceless.

Regards

 

[desertstrike]

If i will be in your shoes.. i would most probably bring the ffg.

35mm - group shots
10-22mm - shot of the place and venue and wide scenes
70-300mm - bride / groom portraits

If you will be shooting alone I would suggest perhaps you bring a friend to carry your SB on a tall stand with trigger whenever you need. Not necessary to carry all the time but in case some spots in the area that shadows are really harsh you can always use it. If there is no one there to help out just put it in a corner and just move it as you go.

Timing is very important. I suppose you have a copy of the wedding itinerary

Some few impt. things in my opinion.

1. Cover the bride / groom preparation
2. Bride and groom portrait sessions
3. Grooms men and Brides Maid portrait sessions
4. Family portraits
5. Random Shots of key guests / VIP
6. The wedding itself (walking on the isle, vows, etc etc.)
7. Most important thing is DETAILS.. you might want to consider shooting the dress, flowers, some creative shots on the details that will bring back the memory or perhaps represent the actual day.

Hope these few tips helps out as they work on us. Good luck on you shoot and have fun as its suppose to be fun. The aura of the people in the wedding is priceless.

Regards

Thanks for the tip! Wonderful! Er, What happens if the guest who gets right up to the front and block eveything? Do u encounter this?

 

[Octarine]

To kit kat lover, thanks for ur contribution.
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let me first reply to the num of useless replies here:[...]

With 900+ posts it is hard to consider you being a newbie. Since Kopitiam postings don't count you must have spent already a lot of time here. That's the baseline assumption people will use when looking at your posting and your details. If this impression is wrong (by whatever reason), please spend a few more lines to explain your situation. It helps to avoid misunderstandings.
The replies here are not unfriendly and a few of your remarks are uncalled for. But as I mentioned: you are not the first one asking this question and we have seen many cases of newbies having their camera for 3months+ and wanting to make money with wedding photography. Other threads revealed their newbie shots and we were torn apart between crying and laughing and feeling pity for the first clients. Maybe this had some influence on the answers given here. Another point to note is that many newbies come around asking for the Magic Formula For Situation ABC, The Magic Lens For Occasion XYZ .. etc. Your initial post is not far from that.
Now that you have made your position clear I guess we can focus on the photographic aspects of your questions. If you know the location already you could go and recce the place. With the schedule in mind you could try out different positions, see how the light falls, check the focal length required. Maybe you could also ask to have the lights switched on for a couple of minutes to evaluate the lighting conditions (White Balance!). Keep your setup as simple as possible, no experiments with off-shoe flash if you have not done it before. Remember there is no 2nd chance. Read up and try out metering and exposure settings / compensation for dresses, overblown white dress of the bride is a common issue. But also black suits of the gentlemen can pose some difficulties. Once I attended a Malay wedding where they had dark brown chairs instead of a sofa, combined with dark purple background. The couple had a different style, but it was also a challenge for the camera and flash to get the exposure right.

 

[catchlights]

to desertstrike,

#1, wedding photography is actually not for newbie, especially church weddings, you have not control over the situation, and you have to familiar with the sequent of the holy matrimony, else you will caught off guard and unable react immediately.

#2, church wedding is unlike photo outing, you can't try this lens that lens this setting that setting, you need to competent about your photography knowledge and skills, just stick to a set up which is most familiar to you, I doubt you have time to switch lenses unless it is during sermon, but most speakers dislike anyone moving around and taking photos during his/her speech.

#3, you can't learn to shoot weddings by asking for tips, reading forum post, books etc without hands on experience. since you are not the main, go and have fun, don't commit yourself too much. Remember: no expectation = no disappointment.

#4 since you are not the main, always keep an eye for where you stand and where you shoot, stay out of the way, and line of sight of the main photographer, we know you want to help your friend but please don't ruin their wedding photos shot by the main photographer.

#5, please take all the suggestion given with open a heart and mind,
if you are ready, people will give you what you need.
if you are not, you will have the most honest suggestion given to you.

 

[kei1309]

dear desertstrike, if you want to take it as an insult, i can't stop you.

but read carefully. i'm not blasting you, nor am i talking about your skill.

i'm advising you on how you should behave and react to some situations. and above all, conduct yourself with professionalism; even though you're not paid, your acceptance to help out already marks you as one of the people involved in their big day.

no one else will know you're not paid except the people who requested your services. so if you make one single mistake, everyone will still come after/criticize you.

if you still do not have an open heart to understand why i posted that, and if you still see it as rubbish and boasting, then i've got nothing else to say.

in any eventuality, good luck

and take any experience of the job bearing in mind to understand any mistakes made, and any factors that contributed to your success. this will help you to fine tune yourself. maybe next time you'll be offering paid wedding photography services.

 

[desertstrike]

With 900+ posts it is hard to consider you being a newbie. Since Kopitiam postings don't count you must have spent already a lot of time here. That's the baseline assumption people will use when looking at your posting and your details. If this impression is wrong (by whatever reason), please spend a few more lines to explain your situation. It helps to avoid misunderstandings.
The replies here are not unfriendly and a few of your remarks are uncalled for. But as I mentioned: you are not the first one asking this question and we have seen many cases of newbies having their camera for 3months+ and wanting to make money with wedding photography. Other threads revealed their newbie shots and we were torn apart between crying and laughing and feeling pity for the first clients. Maybe this had some influence on the answers given here. Another point to note is that many newbies come around asking for the Magic Formula For Situation ABC, The Magic Lens For Occasion XYZ .. etc. Your initial post is not far from that.
Now that you have made your position clear I guess we can focus on the photographic aspects of your questions. If you know the location already you could go and recce the place. With the schedule in mind you could try out different positions, see how the light falls, check the focal length required. Maybe you could also ask to have the lights switched on for a couple of minutes to evaluate the lighting conditions (White Balance!). Keep your setup as simple as possible, no experiments with off-shoe flash if you have not done it before. Remember there is no 2nd chance. Read up and try out metering and exposure settings / compensation for dresses, overblown white dress of the bride is a common issue. But also black suits of the gentlemen can pose some difficulties. Once I attended a Malay wedding where they had dark brown chairs instead of a sofa, combined with dark purple background. The couple had a different style, but it was also a challenge for the camera and flash to get the exposure right.

ok, understand that, actually, i already went site recce, went through the procedure, coordinated sequence, just wanted some last minute checks etc etc...

yah, u can say that, not exactly a newbie in photography, but i consider myself quite a newbie in wedding shoots, not to make enemy here, but the replies are always assumptions, predictions, prejudiced relating to photography and making money even without asking the situation, the minute i ask about this, and i was branded like a cheat? that was something that i was not happy about, i was just trying to help the couple who are tight on budget.

but anyway, i am using raw, so white balance should not be v impt, i am more of a landscape/wildlife person, so not v familiar with external flash, i noticed that some of the shots using flash still gets blurry, i am quite sure, i am not too far, such that it is out of the range of the flash, not so why this is so, before this, i could get the exposure quite ok without flash, but using flash on this got me rather confused...

 

[desertstrike]

to desertstrike,

#1, wedding photography is actually not for newbie, especially church weddings, you have not control over the situation, and you have to familiar with the sequent of the holy matrimony, else you will caught off guard and unable react immediately.

#2, church wedding is unlike photo outing, you can't try this lens that lens this setting that setting, you need to competent about your photography knowledge and skills, just stick to a set up which is most familiar to you, I doubt you have time to switch lenses unless it is during sermon, but most speakers dislike anyone moving around and taking photos during his/her speech.

#3, you can't learn to shoot weddings by asking for tips, reading forum post, books etc without hands on experience. since you are not the main, go and have fun, don't commit yourself too much. Remember: no expectation = no disappointment.

#4 since you are not the main, always keep an eye for where you stand and where you shoot, stay out of the way, and line of sight of the main photographer, we know you want to help your friend but please don't ruin their wedding photos shot by the main photographer.

#5, please take all the suggestion given with open a heart and mind,
if you are ready, people will give you what you need.
if you are not, you will have the most honest suggestion given to you.

ok, understand that, just wanna be better

 

[desertstrike]

dear desertstrike, if you want to take it as an insult, i can't stop you.

but read carefully. i'm not blasting you, nor am i talking about your skill.

i'm advising you on how you should behave and react to some situations. and above all, conduct yourself with professionalism; even though you're not paid, your acceptance to help out already marks you as one of the people involved in their big day.

no one else will know you're not paid except the people who requested your services. so if you make one single mistake, everyone will still come after/criticize you.

if you still do not have an open heart to understand why i posted that, and if you still see it as rubbish and boasting, then i've got nothing else to say.

in any eventuality, good luck

and take any experience of the job bearing in mind to understand any mistakes made, and any factors that contributed to your success. this will help you to fine tune yourself. maybe next time you'll be offering paid wedding photography services.

hi, yah, maybe my replies were too over, my apology to that. But please understand that, i merely ask a question and ppl just assume this and assume that... which is quite unfair and annoying...

ok, i agree that the guest might not know that we are professionals, this is something that i am concerned of all these while... they might even feel weird if i were to take pictures of them... and i can't possibly tell each and everyone of them that i am the photographer....

perhaps i will think again when rendering help to take up such assignments again.

 

[daredevil123]

Just try your best and shoot but remember to always give way to the official main photog. Always keep an eye out on where he/she is and never fight for space, and never stand in the view of his/her camera. Never shoot when he/she is shooting. When he/she lowers the cam, or moves away, then you shoot. Never flash when he/she is shooting. This is basic etiquette to the bride and groom. You do not want to spoil their paid pictures.

Best is if you shoot candid scenes away from the main photog, preferably with a longer fast lens without flash.

 

[kei1309]

hi, yah, maybe my replies were too over, my apology to that. But please understand that, i merely ask a question and ppl just assume this and assume that... which is quite unfair and annoying...

ok, i agree that the guest might not know that we are professionals, this is something that i am concerned of all these while... they might even feel weird if i were to take pictures of them... and i can't possibly tell each and everyone of them that i am the photographer....

perhaps i will think again when rendering help to take up such assignments again.

Be confident bro! The worst that u can do is to go in all nervous.

You've done your homework, all u need to do is to remember what u learned and know. The more nervous you are, the chances of making a mistake is higher. And once u exude confidence, people will place their trust in you to do your job.

 

[kentwong81]

Now I know that you are not the main photographer and you are not getting pay to shoot as well. However, wedding photography is a very serious and with huge responsibility job, whether you are paid or not, must always be professional and able to deliver, because it is a once-in-a-life-time event for the wedding couple. Everytime I go shooting a wedding, I treat it as my own wedding day and try my best to prevent anything to spoilt it.

Although you have done those preparations before, you will still be caught off the guard during the wedding day. That's when you are required to be very very familiar with your camera and flash settings, which enable you to react, find out the root cause and adjust the setting swiftly so that you can get a sharp and correct exposed picture quickly before missing out the great moment under every lighting situation. Or I should say you have not more than 5 seconds to change to a correct settings. Hence, you should bring your most-often-used camera gears. Last time I had a chance to rent a Nikon D3S at a price much lower than a D700 for a wedding shoot but I rejected it and rented the D700 instead because I was not familiar with the button layouts and function map of D3S.

Also when you work together with a main photographer, you will lose out some favourite spots to the main photographer. Please do not fight the favourite spots with the main photographer or block his/her shoots. You can try to bring a tele lens, like 85mm or 135mm lens to stand further and capture some of the candid shots which the main photographer cannot cover when he/she is focus shooting on other things.

 

[desertstrike]

Now I know that you are not the main photographer and you are not getting pay to shoot as well. However, wedding photography is a very serious and with huge responsibility job, whether you are paid or not, must always be professional and able to deliver, because it is a once-in-a-life-time event for the wedding couple. Everytime I go shooting a wedding, I treat it as my own wedding day and try my best to prevent anything to spoilt it.

Although you have done those preparations before, you will still be caught off the guard during the wedding day. That's when you are required to be very very familiar with your camera and flash settings, which enable you to react, find out the root cause and adjust the setting swiftly so that you can get a sharp and correct exposed picture quickly before missing out the great moment under every lighting situation. Or I should say you have not more than 5 seconds to change to a correct settings. Hence, you should bring your most-often-used camera gears. Last time I had a chance to rent a Nikon D3S at a price much lower than a D700 for a wedding shoot but I rejected it and rented the D700 instead because I was not familiar with the button layouts and function map of D3S.

Also when you work together with a main photographer, you will lose out some favourite spots to the main photographer. Please do not fight the favourite spots with the main photographer or block his/her shoots. You can try to bring a tele lens, like 85mm or 135mm lens to stand further and capture some of the candid shots which the main photographer cannot cover when he/she is focus shooting on other things.

hmm... true, regarding the ppl/guest blocking, how u handle? get more infront of them, or just ask them to excuse?

 

[desertstrike]

Be confident bro! The worst that u can do is to go in all nervous.

You've done your homework, all u need to do is to remember what u learned and know. The more nervous you are, the chances of making a mistake is higher. And once u exude confidence, people will place their trust in you to do your job.

hey thanks

btw, how u handle the ppl who always like to ask question and question ur judgement on the actual day?

 

[desertstrike]

Just try your best and shoot but remember to always give way to the official main photog. Always keep an eye out on where he/she is and never fight for space, and never stand in the view of his/her camera. Never shoot when he/she is shooting. When he/she lowers the cam, or moves away, then you shoot. Never flash when he/she is shooting. This is basic etiquette to the bride and groom. You do not want to spoil their paid pictures.

Best is if you shoot candid scenes away from the main photog, preferably with a longer fast lens without flash.

yup, actually we do coordinate where to stand and position for the various parts of the events.

 

[PurpleGlass]

oh yah one more thing.. shoot a lot. as in A LOT.

Good luck again and relax have fun. weddings are fun and happy precious moments.

Capture it

Cheerios.

 

[kei1309]

hey thanks

btw, how u handle the ppl who always like to ask question and question ur judgement on the actual day?

i don't do weddings. i only get arrowed to cover company events (which seriously is a pain in the neck). but one of the questions would be "hey can i see can i see?"

if you're shooting portraits, use an 85mm. because if the guest is fat and you use a wide angle... :bsmilie: be prepared to run as she rolls after you

 

[desertstrike]

i don't do weddings. i only get arrowed to cover company events (which seriously is a pain in the neck). but one of the questions would be "hey can i see can i see?"

if you're shooting portraits, use an 85mm. because if the guest is fat and you use a wide angle... :bsmilie: be prepared to run as she rolls after you

haha, how do u managed if there is a couple whose height difference quite big? how to keep both face in focus? i tried smaller aperture but need to increase iso...

 

[desertstrike]

oh yah one more thing.. shoot a lot. as in A LOT.

Good luck again and relax have fun. weddings are fun and happy precious moments.

Capture it

Cheerios.

Thanks PurpleGlass!