What lenses for a wedding??

I'll be doing a family wedding in a few months time and was wondering what lenses i should take with me.

I am taking the K10 and the K20 and was thinking of just taking along 2 lenses, my DA*16-50 and FA 50 1.4.
Do you think that would be sufficient or do i need something a little longer.
Any recommendations and what would be the ultimate lens to have, a limited maybe : but which one :

The wedding is indoors which would include the church and the reception.

Thanks in advance

if I may jump on this bandwagon, I too have been roped into doing a family wedding and will be most interested to see any suggestions here.

My kit for such a task would be:


K10D + DA* 16-50 F2.8 + 360 Flash
K20D + DA* 50-135 F2.8 + 360 Flash

K20D with the longer lens as it gives extra reach with a little cropping due to the slightly higher resolution.

Would be better if you had flashes that rotated as well for portrait orientation shots. You many also want to look into a diffuser on each of the flashes.

A direct diffuser for the wide lens so you can still use the wide end of the flash zoom and something like a bubble tube for the tele lens:

https://www.pentaxuser.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=7865

Now all you need is a few good places to stand at the wedding...

I did a wedding for a friend a couple of months ago and shot with one lens on a K10D. This was a Sigma 17-70 2.8-4 and I found the extra length to be very usefull for individual portraits as I don't like getting too close to my subjects and also the subject has a bit more of their own space. I found that these focal lengths siuted me and I felt comfortable with not having to change lenses. Just my opinion mind, others will say use a fast prime for the low light but I found that I managed to focus pretty much 100% although I did have a nifty 50 just in case.

Harry

Not exactly the same, but I covered a family party (90th birthday) and I mainly used the DA* 50-135, my reasoning for this was that the objective was to get candids, may being shot at about the 70-90mm mark. However, I did need to use the flash for many shots, which was OK as I could use bounce flash where we were.

I did notice that the white balance was off in many of my shots and needed correcting.

I would suggest, if you know where the wedding is to visit the venu so that you can guage what the available light is going to be. One point I noted, even at f2.8, my sharpness ratio dropped due to focus latitude! Shame I didn't think about pushing the ISO up

The other lens I used was my Sigma 18-200, but that was only for the full group shot at 18mm and even then I needed to stitch two photos together to get the full group!

If I had the DA* 16-50, I would have taken that and my DA* 50-135. The other lens I have used at parties in the past is my KA 50m 1.4 with good results.

Just one point to note, at a receint wedding I went to one of the essential tools the official photographers had was a little step ladder!

those two lenses will cover 90% of what you need.
your now famous 100mm macro needs to tag along for portrait duty as well.

a macro shot of the ring and maybe a reflection in wine glass or a droplet of water on the wine glass....

Thanks for all the useful tips.
The 50-135 was on my list as a bring along and i am strongly leaning in that direction. I only wanted 2 lenses along to completely eliminate lens changes. One lens on the K10 + 360flash and one on the K20 + 360flash
I do have one lumiquest softbox diffuser.

But i would have to take the FA501.4, its too good to leave at home.

The step ladder sounds like a useful idea, afterall i am a bit of a squirt

Don i like your creative idea with the macro and i think i will do a bit of practice with that.
But i could be tempting fate by taking the macro along, i could end up chasing church mice and other critters around all night. Old habits are hard to break

Sound advice. If you can, do a recce of the location(s) in advance, you never know what you might notice to inspire you to take some extra piece of kit.

I've found myself in the same boat as you Clarky!

Original plan was 2x K10s + DA*16-50 & DA*50-135, we have one flash, need another.

Then I bought a 43mm Limited fairly cheaply 'just to see what the fuss is about' and realised that if we want to pursue this more professionally, there is definately more quality to get from the primes! So bought the 31mm, and picking up the 77mm tonight!

As we may both be shooting, I think a K20 may be on its way as well keeping the 31mm and the 77mm permanently attached to the K10s with the K20 swapping both the DA*s. Trouble is, seem to be spending so much, could have quite easily paid for the photographer and sat back and watched!

The biggest problem I feel won't be the lens choice (we both have a good quality selection!), but technique and expectations! Because we are the ones with the 'proper' cameras.

Now we have all the kit, going to spend as much time as possible over the next 2 months learning how to use it! The main problem is, the vast majority of our photography so far hasn't included any people in it. (Well apart from those running in and out of court rooms )

I do wish you well, just beginning to realise how unprepared I really am!

you're welcome Clarky.
good luck.

for the cerimony (light permitting...ie flash ok and/or available light good) and the reception: I'd put the 50-135 on the k10.

the 16-50 on the k20. (live view + wide angle + manual exposure+second curtian sync on the flash will make for some amazing trailing sync blurs on the dance shots). but have the 50 and 100 mm's in a hip pack along with mem cards and batteries for fast access!

for bad light, and or the park, and or formal portraits, I'd use the primes.

ps, i forgo the ladder and use some heayduty plywood boxes that do triple duty.... travel cases for gear, stepping stools for vertically challenged me, posing boxes/stools for subjects.

my thinking is "If it ain't got more than one use....I ain't lugging it."

It all depends on how 'creative' you're intending to be.

Many years ago in my film days I did a couple of weddings for friends. Nothing fancy, just the standard groups and a few nice poses of the couple and close family.

I knew a lot less than I do now (which still isn't much).

However, they all turned out fine (I was very proud of the results, AAMOF, especially considering how terrified I was at the outset), and one of the single biggest contributors to the fact that they looked like proper wedding photos rather than snaps taken by a guest was simply down to the following fact:

If you're the official guy, no one gets in the way, and they look at you not someone else. Of if they're looking at each other, you get them as you want them, not at the funny angle that's inevitable if you're there as a spectator.

also my experience with the 50mm macro lens is this: the af on a macro will go slower and hunt more, than a comparable fast prime). so it's best to use manual focus, if you're good at focussing in low light.

if not, do tests to find out how good your lens works in the dark.
let me know that works for you, as I'm seriously looking at grabbing the 100mm macro next week.

I use manual, but my better half prefers af

I shot my first (and probably last) wedding a couple of weeks ago and found I used just 3 lenses; the DA 18-55 (as I don't have any other wide-normal zoom), the FA 43 and the FA 77 (both very useful for indoor shots and a few "nicer" portraits) - I'm sure something like the FA 50 would have covered the duties of the two Limiteds just as well though. Interestingly, although I took my flash I found it stayed untouched in the camera bag for the whole day (along with the 12-24 and the macro) - this is probably down to my shooting style and preference for natural light though so your mileage may vary.

Very few shots were posed and I ended up with about 250 "keepers" that the newlyweds were very happy with so it all turned out fine in the end.

18-55



43



And yes, I did straighten the horizons / apply some cropping / sharpen a little / tweak the white balance before giving them a set "ready to print". This actually took considerably longer than the actual shoot on the day!

I did a comparison test with the 100 macro and the af501.4 and the macro definately hunts more in darker conditions, but you would expect that.
I would prefer AF or should i say my old eyeballs would

Hello Clarky,

I am absolutely no expert on the matter, and I have only once taken semi-serious photographs at a wedding, with rather decend results, but I wasn't the main photographer so no personal advice there. I do read a lot though, and I have here this really interesting article about wedding photography by a very famous guy, Brett Harkness, you might want to check his website out, this guy is a serious pro, and makes a lot of money on the business!

So here is his guide to wedding gear. He is a C***n guy, so I'll try my best to substitute all the lenses with proper Pentax gear!

Canon:
- 15mm Fish eye (Outdoor shots of the church, group shots, before and after the ceremony - Expose for the sky -2 EV and fill in flash...)
- 17-35mm f2.8
- 24-70mm f2.8
- 70-200mm f2.8
- 50mm f1.2
- 50mm f2.5 Macro.

So this is what I think could become in Pentax gear.

- 10-17mm fisheye / 10-20mm sigma
- DA*16-50mm f2.8
- DA* 50-135mm f2.8
- FA50mm f1.4 (Performs as well as the canon f1.2... at least according to a pentaxian biased opinion!!! )
- 50mm / 100mm / 90mm Tamron macro (for detail shots of the rings, shoes, accessories, food, anything you want)

Also included in the gear:
2 bodies + possible backup
2 Flashes always attached to the 2 cameras
card reader / portable storage device (do not format the cards if you need to reuse them because they are much harder to retrieve possible lost images)
ladder
reflector
white towels (for shots in the fields around, the bride won't get dirty and they'd work as reflectors as well)
an assistant for the duration of the wedding
water (cause you'll run around like crazy!)



This is the gear that was "suggested" in the article, I think it makes quite a lot of sense, aparts from the fact that with your 2 DA* lenses you cover all the range you need. If you can't reach the 200mm telephoto, then attach the 50-135 to the K20 and crop if needed!

I would think that if you had access to them, the 3 ldt lenses would provide a whole lot of quality, and at the price of walking about a bit more, they would certainly outperform the zooms. I am currently trying to buy a 31mm, but I tried the 43 and 77 and they are both amazing.

I hope this helps, its obviously not my own advice, but if you want I can help you find a copy of the -very interesting - article.

Cheeers,

Nathan