OMG First wedding shoot!

Word of mouth has got around since i did a decent job photographing my mates band and some gigs, can i shoot a wedding? I have never even considered doing a wedding but am happy to give it a go. I have pretty much the equipment I need. Thing is, I never really use flash. But research has shown that I may need to use some sort of bounce flash to balance out shadows and stuff. Direct flash is wrong apparently, too harsh. I will be taking a digi camera for reportage shots so i can bung it on high iso(Nikon D70)and not use flash with that.
I have also 35mm and 6x6 and 6x7 for some shots. 35mm I will use a 135mm f2.5 for portraits. the 6x6 is a Yashicamat 124G. so thats my 50mm lens sorted, and the Pentax 6x7 has a 45mm wide-angle perfect for quality group shots. My flashgun is a bit ancient but fully manual and will work with all three cameras. I just need some advice on which way to point it, when and what exposure to compensate for. Bouncing off a low ceiling, i'm told, is distance and a quarter. I have heard of bouncing flash from behind in a room, and at 45 degrees to subject. this is where i get a bit lost. any pointers would helpful.

First of all I think you need to ditch all the camera except the digital SLR. There is no way you will survive the mayhem of a wedding with all that lot to contend with.

Look for a book on wedding photography, learn how to use fill in flash outdoors (not bounce flash, no ceilings outdoors!) and then practice controlling groups of people who are there to chat, drink and be merry....

Long way to go yet I think, but it sounds like you have the basic skills and just need to adapt them to the requirements of a wedding.

Having only ever done one wedding I'm not sure I can offer fantastic advice but my main thoughts are as follows:

Make sure you have a plan of what pics you want to take if you are going to do any 'formal' shots as opposed to candids, and agree it with the wedding couple so you're sure you're taking the pictures they want;

I found it really useful to have an assistant who corralled everybody ready for the pictures enabling me to concentrate on taking the pictures;

Scout the venue beforehand - I even got some contextual pics which made it into the wedding album on the day before when I was scouting the place;

If you are planning to take pics outside, have a back-up indoor plan - and find out how long you can stay in the venue. For the wedding I was doing, it absolutely sheeted down, so the pictures were done indoors, but there was another wedding on the way so I only had about 10 minutes...

I agree with John about the mayhem of a wedding. I used my K-7 with 16-50mm lens and a flashgun, and that was it. Main additional kit requirement was spare batteries!

Otherwise make sure you're batteries are charged and fire away. The wedding I did was for a good friend who (to save money) had a small wedding where every wedding guest had an 'extra duty' - i.e. one made the cake, one did the dress, one did the flowers, one was the DJ... etc. I was the photographer. Suffice to say I am certainly not in any hurry to do one again (never again). My friend was very happy though

Hope that helps

Regards

Mat W

Totally agree with John, as an X wedding photographer you'll be to busy trying to sort out cameras instead of concentrating on the job in hand, use a diffuser on the flash, go to the library and get some books on Wedding photography, Wedding etiquette and group photography, take a chill pill before you go it will wreck your nerves.

Jack.

Thanks for your advice so far. My digi only has the crappy in-built flash, that's why i was gonna use t'other cameras. I don't wanna spend all my hard earned on a dedicated speedlight just yet. could I not use a sensor to trigger my old sunpak. I remember Jessops used to do like a little block sensor with a lead. It was triggered by flash. Or even some sort of hotshoe pc adapter?

or none of the above and go with what I know, ie no flash.

If it is a sunny day and some women have large brimmed hats (which they do) then you will need to tell them to keep their heads up, and you need a flash or they will look like the lone ranger with a mask. (Shadow on the eyes). Don't let the men put their hands over the family jewels as nothing looks worse. 1,2,3. people use portrait. 4 plus people use landscape. NOW GO GET A BOOK TO LEARN THE OTHER 2,000,000. THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW. CHEERS Vic.

Ok, good advice so far. what's a good starting point for fill in flash using a fully manual set-up. 1/2 power, 1/4 power. Half power is one stop down isnt it? or am I thinking of something else? My flashgun is an old Sunpak MX130 unit. Simple and had a swivel head.

PS. Although J.R. says ditch all but your DSLR it is a good idea to have a spare camera of some sort. When I did wedding photography, I had in my kit spare camera, spare (extra) film, lenses, BATTERIES, flashgun, and even in the car I carried a spare tripod. You don't need to use them all but anything can break down at any time. I was called out of retirement to do a friends wedding last November and I still carried my K10 as well as my K7 with a variety of lenses and flashguns. I even had a young student taking extra informal shots to fill in the ones that I missed. Another good thing to have is TWO large umbrellas, one for the bride and one for your kit. (If you don't like our English weather, wait a minute) CHEERS Vic.

Yeah right, the wedding is in the middle of June, so it'll probably snow! I have two tripods - a Benbo massive thing and a Manfrotto xprob190 with 322rc2 head, got a manfrotto monopod lying around somewhere. 4 cameras should be enough. batteries - 12AA's for 99p from the 99p shop. bargain! contemplating a vivitar 283 as backup flash. You can pick em up quite cheap nowadays.

Got the time schedule through and there is a rehearsal two days prior. They want mostly reportage style with just a few formal shots. Got one book out from the library - Contemporary Wedding Photography. better get planning...

hello,


yes you will definitely do that. and i think snow wedding is more good than others. i also like that.



good luck!!


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Hi

I'd suggest the best flash you can afford with diffuser, a spare one as backup and a power pack. If you haven't got the power pack the re-charge time will be far too long and you'll miss shots. I'm no wedding photographer but have to do group shots quite often, controlling the subjects is a nightmare

John

Depends on how much flash power you need and if you can up the ISO a bit higher to reduce the flash power.
To speed up the recharge time I've been thinking about these batteries.
link
You can't get them in the EU, at least I haven't found a shop here that does.

If you decide to get a flashgun in the future, the Metz 48 is significantly more powerful than the Pentax 360 (GN 48 vs GN 36) and also significantly cheaper (£150 vs £250-300)

Those are numbers you get at the longest zoom, the difference is slightly less when they both use the same zoom setting still the metz 48 is more powerful but not significantly.
I mean at 35mm 25GN vs 29GN isn't even 1/3th of a stop.
Here you've some numbers link

The Metz48 certainly has the potential to reach further.

Just to let you know the wedding was a success. The pics came out brilliantly and I didn't bother using flash after all.