Diving into 2 wedding this year. Help!!!!!!!

Hi guys, been a while. Somehow friends and family are passing the word around about my photography and much to my surprise I have been asked to perform the wedding photographer for 2 weddings. I am really excited and quite confident that it will go quite well. I am keeping the prices down to a low, as this is my first and have explained to my clients my limitations with professional equipment and a not having any scouts. I am going to shoot the wedding with my K5 and 16-50 sdm as my primary camera with at least 6 or so 8G sandisk memory cards. As a back up camera i have my old trusty K10 and i intend to buy a zoom to mount on this camera for any closeups. Question 1. What do people think about the 55-300 pentax. It is cheaper than the sdm but cant afford to splash out for that one. Question 2. I won't be using a flash so intend on using the 16-50 at low f stop and high iso. As a general rule what are the basic indoor and outdoor settings i should be using for this shoot. I know it is a bit of a stupid question, depending on the light of the church etc, but I was leaning toward ISO 400 to 800 or higher if required indoors at f2.8 - 4 aiming at 1/150 to 200 sec, and iso 100- 200 outdoors at f4-6, aiming at again a similar shutter speed. Any thoughts greatly appreciated! Any little tips out there will sure help

Matt - depends on when these 2 weddings are... If it's a couple of months away, I'd suggest going to the church/registry office where the weddings will take place. With any luck, there might be a ceremony taking place on the day, so (with the bride and groom's permission) take a few shots as an "add-on" to their own photographer (with his blessing, of course!). I done a few shots like this for a friend. They were all taken when the attendees were all "stood down" after the formal poses. Everybody was in a more relaxed and natural pose, and I was pleased with the outdoor shots. The indoor shots were not all that pleasing to me, as I hadn't previously got the chance to pre-assess the lighting conditions, hence the indoor shots had a tungsten hue. I managed to correct them using PSE though, to try to minimise the green hue.

You really should scout the venue, you can really take advantage and learn about the angles and potential light sources or problems which will give you time to think about solutions. I have found the DA* 50mm - 135mm a really good lens for weddings and if you pair this with the DA* 16mm - 50mm on another camera body you will be able to cover virtually all aspects of the event. without teaching you to suck eggs think about the time of day and plan for a bright sunny day and overcast day. Planning in relation to weddings is the key.

I do not shoot weddings, but I do shoot in my local school hall and at f2.8 I am up at ISO 800 on my K7, I shoot on manual taking a reading as the lighting is constant and usually end up at 80th to 100th on the shutter - I would be lost without the 50-135 SDM lens! Nothing else comes close, I have a Tamron 70-300 though not as good as the Pentax 55-300 the long end f5.6 is just stretching the ISO too far.

If I was using the K5 I would be happy to go to ISO 1000, however on the K10 I would not go above ISO 600 for this due to high levels of noise, especially in low light areas.

As Fletcher states, go scout the church, take test shots on the K5 and K10, take a gray card, set and note your white balance setting (this will save a lot of playing about with your RAW files later).

Remember that SRS Microsystems has a Pentax Hiring service which would allow you to use a 50-135 for £50 for 3 days!

May I ask why no flash? Yes not for the wedding service but later, if the day is bright you may well have a problem with shadow and contrast, defused flash might make a big difference to any out side shots.

Again, to reiterate:
1) use RAW+ and pay very close attention to white balance (use a gray card if you can), it will make all the difference during your work flow later.
2) Lable all your cards with numbers, pre-format in camera before the day.
3) Also remember the old Irish proverb written by Murphy: "Two spare batteries will not be enough"! (you can always take the charger if you have just one extra battery.
4) Oh, and scout the indoor venus before the day, or get there really early on the day, if you are not also covering the bride before hand.
5) Also, it is good to discuss with teh bride, teh type of shots she wants before hand - get some wedding magazenes for ideas, take cuttings.

Lastly, good luck and have fun.

It depends on the venue, but I think 1/150th or higher at f/2.8 is going to be unlikely indoors for an ISO below 3200. If it's an old church, they are deceptively gloomy. I think flash is a must.

Agree with you there. I think I exaggerated on that statement about the shutter speeds. Quite confident though that the k5 noise reduction performance at high ISO and the low f stop on the 16-50 will perform well in these churches without the need for a flash. As you have all kindly said, think a quick scout to the church prior is of high priority. ,Anyway doubt is, however, on the zoom lens . Are there any major performance issues between the 50-200 Smc and the 55-300. There is quite a price difference between the two, and if there isn't major performance issues I may go for the 50-200 and not worry about the extra 100 focal length.