Wedding Advice

Hi Guys

Time is fast running out before my first semi professional wedding shoot which is on the 31st. I have to say that I'm feeling a little nervous and wondered if any more experienced among you have any pearls of wisdom for me?

The History
The couple I'm shooting contacted local camera clubs looking for a creative talented photographer who would "like" to shoot their wedding to enhance their portfolio. I've been looking to do just that and try and get a wedding under my belt to move into a semi-professional role... It seemed like and perfect match and I got in touch (as did lots of others), we met and they liked my photos and chose me. I made them aware that I'm not a pro and this would be my fist wedding and they were happy with that, I wanted to make sure there were no misconceptions. I'm getting paid, but only a small amount compared to market rates.

Plan for the Day
They are getting married in a registry office then on to a room in the local town hall for reception. There is a lovely formal park (Jephson park in Leamington) where we'll be taking pictures in-between. Rough Itinerary for the day is :

- 10:00-11:00 Pictures of the bride doing makeup in local salon
- 11:00-12:00 Groom and best man getting ready
- 12:00-13:00 Bride getting dressed
- 14:00-15:00 Ceremony in register office
- 15:30-16:30 Photo's in Park
- 16:40 Onwards reception, speeches, wedding breakfast etc
- 21:00 Collapse in a big heap with a beer!

My Girlfriend (a fantastic amateur photographer) is with me all day as a second shooter

Equipment
We Have already :
- K5 Body, K-R Body, FA43, FA70, DA35, Sigma 10-20mm, DA 55-300
- 10 New 16Gb cards purchased for the day, 2 new K5 Batteries (Already have two chargers)
- Vanguard tripod
And I've hired from SRS:
- K5IIs, DA*16-50, DA*50-135

The general idea is that we'll have the two K5s between us and the K-R as a backup. I have a manual flash gun (Yongnuo YN560ii) but don't intend to use it, relying on high ISO of the K5 and fast glass. They are less interested in formal shots and want more of the reportage style, non posed shots.

My Preparation
We've had a number of meetings with the couple and got a reasonable idea of what they want, I've been to all main locations at the appropriate time of day to checkout shooting opportunities and light and I've checked what and where we are allowed to shoot in the register office. My GF and I did a pre-weeding shoot with the couple a few days ago so that we could get comfortable with each other and they seemed to like the shots (I'll post a few bellow). I've also been reading everything I can from pro wedding guys I like...

I'm starting to wonder what I've missed in terms of preparation or equipment, so any pointers would me massively appreciated..

Thanks in advance

Andy

You have signed contacts and insurance?

Don't do weddings but that would be my very first act.

Hi Mike

Yes, have contract and insurance. Forgot to put that on the post

A TTL flashgun might be useful unless you are very familiar with the Yongnuo. It's all very well relying on available light but there might be shots where you want to use flash, plus you'll most likely need fill flash for some of the outdoor shots too.

That's good then

Seems like rather a lot of lenses as well, from what I see on other forums wedding photographers seem to go as light as possible on the lens front. Personally I would take the 2 K-5s, one with the 16-50mm, the other with the 50-135mm and stick the 43mm on the K-r (just in case).

As I said though, I don't do weddings (have been asked a few times) so you are a braver man than I .... good luck with it.

I'd agree with Mike re lenses. I did one wedding as second shooter and only used one lens, a Sigma 24-60 f2.8, and was never tempted to change lenses. Mind you, I was never tempted to do another wedding either.....

The main photographer only had two lenses (both zooms) as far as I recall.

I can do about thirty in a good year.

K20d with 16-45, 85mm f1.4 Opteka and Pentax F 50 f1.7, Pentax AF400t with Quantum battery pack, a couple of memory cards, all with suitable backup.

P-ttl flashes are to be avoided at all costs because the pre-flash firework display makes people blink.

Three Bowens studio flash heads plus the rest, for indoors because it will rain.

Avoid overshooting at all costs, you can't edit it all and they will get bored looking at the pics and miss the good ones. 50 to 100 quality pictures of key moments are what is required.

Shoot RAW+JPEG (lo-res) so that you can quickly upload the jpegs to your web site for them to view.

What are they getting for free, some albums can cost £1000 to you!

A few tips we have learned shooting friends weddings that might help!

Sychronise clocks on all cameras!

Take red bull / chocolate bars / bananas etc. as well as nurofen!

White needle and thread, just in case! White umbrella or 2 if you have them!

Know your flash kit well!

Take a spare shirt, you might need it!

Take more than one copy of the list of shots you have to get and give them to ushers / 2nd shooter etc and get them to help as you will not know who everyone is!

Sure there are more but that'll help a bit!

Mike, You're spot on with that my plan was to leave the 16-50 & 50-135 on for most of the day and just have then have the FA43,77 ready for the evening if needed for the extra bit if speed if needed. Also as a backup for the two main lenses of course.

I have considered the flash gun, I'm pretty familiar with the Yongnuo, but don't use it a lot in my photography. I also didn't want to add a piece of equipment into the mix that I'm not completely familiar with either. Hmmm, might have to ponder that one

Some of the images from the Pre-wedding shoot :

Ken, that's great advice thank you. Over shooting is definitely a problem for me, although I do tend to be quite selective in which shots I give to the client. More of a comfort blanket for me I guess My arrangement with them is just to provide digital images and an online gallery. I've said that I can arrange albums and prints if they wish to pay for them.

Unlocker: your tips made me smile, perhaps Red Bull might be the best one yet... Given I'll probably be shooting for 10 hours+ thats spot on.

Thank you

I can see that from the 10x16mb cards

The shots look fine to me apart from maybe the squished nose in 4 is a bit offputting but I'm probably just nit picking .. or should it be nose picking?

I do like to be prepared lol

I wish you luck with this; don't do any weddings, people, animals, trees, plants, buildings, .....etc. myself, so I admire your bravery.

Only thing I can suggest is a Plan B in case of rain. Is there a venue you can use instead of the park?

Hi Andy

Some good advice from members far more experienced than I with wedding photography but I will add one bit of advice.

I have only been "The Photographer" at one wedding and thought it had gone reasonably well - most of what I had planned worked as expected and a decent album was produced and the happy couple appeared to be delighted with it.

I then found out a couple of weeks later that the bride's mother was absolutely livid a she only appeared in one shot of a crowd of friends and family.

I was totally mystified by this as I had loads of shots of the bride and groom with their parents.

I then discovered - and nobody had bothered to point it out to me - that her father had re-married and that was her step-mother!!!!!

So my tip - make sute there are no significant guests that you are unaware of - good luck

Carl

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