Wedding Advice

Excellent tip Carl, will remember that one lol

Hi Andy

Looking at the kit you have available my best advice would be:

- Put the lens you will use the most on the K-5IIs body; I would say the DA*16-50 or the DA*50-135 (personal choice)

- Ditch all the other lenses you have listed and take the K-5 with the one out of the two above that you have chosen not to put on the K-5IIs

I'm going to shout with the next tip, so please excuse me:

- MAKE 100% CERTAIN YOU HAVE PROPERLY CALIBRATED THE AF ON YOUR CAMERAS FOR EACH OF THE LENSES YOU WILL USE. For weddings it is critical to get accurate focus (this can be difficult with the K-5 mk1, especially in poor light, which you are likely to get in a lot of wedding venues). Poor focus accuracy will make your images look amateur if it happens, as it did to me with the K-5 on one wedding shoot. You will find the K-5IIs a lot more accurate and reliable at focussing, especially with SDM lenses, so bear this in mind for any shots in lower light levels.

- Try to avoid using flash if you can - don't be afraid to take the K-5's up to 3200 ISO if you need to. If you have to use flash I tend to agree with you on the Youngnuo, sometimes manual flash is easier to get a subtle effect and you will only want it to 'fill in' a little as anything more can look flat and unnatural

- Use auto ISO, especially indoors, so you can react quickly to changing light without having to think about making manual camera adjustments. You risk missing that magic shot if you're fiddling with the camera. I usually set mine to a max of 3200 or 1600 ISO depending on how much light the venue has.

- Be aware of backgrounds at all times and if necessary use the widest aperture you can to blur out distractions (I'm not too sure about the background in your last pre-wedding shot above). Bear in mind the previous point about AF accuracy when using wide apertures

I know a lot of this will be meat and drink to you so ignore anything that's irrelevant, but hopefully some of it will be helpful.

Cheers
David

Hi David

Thank you for such great advice and taking the time to post. I hear what you're saying about backgrounds, it's something I have to be careful off

In your experience, when shooting indoors with low light as described above what shutter speed can you work acceptably to. I realise it will be different depending on the focal length but, what will you not drop below ?

many thanks

Andy

It depends very much on the lens and as you have mentioned, the focal length. I can hand-hold with no issues down to around 1/15 or 1/10 of a second, but the real point is not how well you can hold the camera still but how you can avoid blur in the subjects. People will be moving around, even a slight head movement can ruin a shot so I usually aim for 1/50 or 1/60 minimum and ideally work to 1/80 or 1/125.

Regards
David

Sone good advice already, i would add you take some drinks for the b & g during the formals and park session, they will love you for it. Can of deodorant its amazing how sweaty you get during wedding shoots and finally a towel ti wipe the sweat away

finally enjoy and have fun then all your subjects will relax also.

Hi,
First of all- good luck with it.
I'm 100% amateur but have shot two friends weddings and am doing a third friends wedding at Christmas.Here's some photos from one of the weddings I did.

Here would be some of my advice (repeating a bit of what others said):

I know they want more informal photos but get the most important group photos before ye leave the reg office (or outside it, better light) because later on it can be hard to get all the people together.

Have a bottle of water for yourself- thirsty work.
Wear comfortable clothes & have a light rain jacket nearby.

Before and after the ceremony is good chance to get casual/candid people photos.
Are ye going somewhere afterwards to get photos of the couple. What if it rains, do you have a backup location?

Agree on a cut off time!

Know what's the slowest shutter speed and highest ISO you can work with.

Figure out where you’re going to stand during the ceremony, so you can get shots of the couple, crowd etc. Ask the priest if you can move around during the ceremony, if he says yes they don’t feel shy to move around.

If they have a mass booklet ask them for one beforehand so you know how long the ceremony will be, what’s happening. During a quiet bit go to the back of the reg office and get some photos up the aisle of the couple etc.

Use continuous burst for people walking up the aisle & the kiss.

Do a google search ‘wedding location & wedding photography’, presuming that there’s photos available from other photographers who have shot there you might get some good ideas. (I copied a photo setting & couple posing from a photographer I know; asked him beforehand and he didn’t mind).

Don’t forget you’re the photographer so, to some extent, you can control stuff. E.g. after the ceremony you can tell family, bridesmaids etc. to stand at alter for group shots.

Make a list of shots to get and print them out or put them on your phone- e.g. rings on table, what people to photograph, her flowers etc.

Know who the bridesmaids and best man are in case you can’t find someone for a photo you can ask them to help you-

Equipment:

I shot without flash and it worked ok. A friend of mine is a pro and doesn't use flash.

I had a K-7 and borrowed another body from a friend. I think it's essential to have two bodies at the ready so you don't lost time changing lenses.

I had a 17-50 f2.8 lens, which was good for in the church and at the reception, a 30mm f1.4 lens which was great for 1 reception where the light was very bad. Also a 100mm f2.8, great for the reception as I could get portraits from a distance. I also have a 70-200 f2.8 (expensive, very big and heavy but good zoom. I didn’t use this much at all), a bit during the reception to get the audience close up.

Mostly I'd have two bodies on me with short and long lens and the other lenses in a bag safely behing the bar/reception.
As others said 7 lenses are a lot, but then again there's 2 of ye.

I have a Slingshot backpack but didn't use it much. I have a BlackRapid strap which i find handy.

At the reception it takes a while for people to relax, start to mingle. I was worried at first cos everyone was just sitting down, but that changed after a while.

BACK UP the photos on location!

Couple didn't ask for it but as a 'bonus' for them I printed off about 100 or so photos (go 5*7 instead of 4*6) and bought a nice box to put them in and gave it to them as a suprise. For the other couple I made a photobook.

Small thing- if giving them a cd with the photos rename the images- e.g. reception 1 instead of img4073.jpg

I would have liked to print a photo of them on the cd cover but didn't get around to that.

I printed off a card with a photo of them and sent it to them on their anniversary.

Cheers,
Pa.

Those are super. Looks like you're going to do well at this!

(I used to walk through that part of the park on my way to work!)

Thank you to everyone that took time out to post some excellent tips, especially David and Patrick who've been especially generous with their time and advice. As always, the Pentax community on this forum have come up trumps

Getting close now and I think I'm ready, actually starting to look forward to it.

I'll let you all know how I get on and if I survive

Many many thanks

Andy

Thanks Will, fingers crossed !

Good luck Andy, as you will need it.

Good advice from Fritz... just get some lowdown on the politics, you'll be amazed to find that some people will not stand other people...not forgetting the extended step family - these tend to stretch the group photos out quite a lot....

Don't forget the photographer is the designated victim, something goes off plan, blame the photographer....

I found it easy to interact with the friends, ushers who helped me as I was working alone most of the time..

Fingers crossed for good weather

Excellent advice above, to which I’d add you need to rope in at least one designated member from each family to ‘heard the sheep’ for formal photos.

Echo David’s comments re focus calibration above. Pentax’s don’t detect faces in DSLR mode, so can frustratingly back focus in group shots all too easily. Take the 10s to confirm focus and review some test shots whilst the group is assembled.

Faster glass for lower light also means a narrower depth of focus field to play with, so focus becomes more critical in lower light. So whilst it’s good to have the fast lenses, successfully using them on a moving target becomes more difficult.

I’d suggest a shot list you actively tick off, to ensure you do have them all, and to ensure you have identified the key people. Often if they look old, shoot em

Also have some signature moves you can pull out for that one or two times during the day where you get to put some creative flair into the day, and not just shoot portraits. Try to know ahead of time where you need to be, and when you can get a moment to stage cake shots/floral shots and seating placements etc during any down time.

And great comments te sustinance for yourself. Keep that energy up and stay positive, regardless of how the day is going. Good luck and well done.

Oh, and charge your batteries ahead of time, format your cards in camera and make sure you have the tripod attachment on the camera so you don’t forget it

+1 on having somebody to organise the formal groups -herding cats is good training.

And based on a recent experience taking pictures at a registry office wedding; try to spy out the venue in advance and if possible speak to the people conduct the ceremony because they may have rules about photographers. I was lucky because the lady concerned told me to do whatever I needed to do, she would press on regardless. This meant that I could stand behind here and get some nice pictures of the bride and groom plus the assembled congregation in the background.