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God help me please
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hi, i am a beginner and have to shoot my wife’s friends wedding in a couple of weeks i have a canon eos1000d a flash gun and i am going to buy a lens i already have a 18-55 lens that came with the camera can anyone give me any tips on the wedding shots i should take, what setting i should have the camera on ect ect please help god i am sounding really desperate now. but i am again HELP.
I havent got any equipment advice for you but i would say if you are being paid for this, you had better speak to them to see what sort of photos they want. Personally I like the usual formal ones, but lots of shots wehre i didnt know i was being photographed , even if doing silly things. In one of my photos, my photographer caught me hitching up my dress. It was a strapless and every now and then i would grab the top of the bodice with both my hands and hike it up when i thought no one was looking. Classic……..
Then he caught me again larking around. I was wtih my friends and hitched up my dress and was doing a sort of can can lol. I didnt even know he was around. I look back at them and laugh and remember all that
If you’re doing this as the official wedding photographer, than there are a number of things you need – insurance, public liability cover, professional indemnity cover, two camera bodies, spare camera batteries, loads of flash batteries, and some good lenses – 24-70mm /f2.8, 70-200mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.8, lots and lots of memory cards. You will want to have enough gear to capture as much as possible.
Ask the couple what shots they want. What formal images they want, who they must have in the photos, etc.
Make sure you visit the church and also reception venues and plan where is best to take photos. Also, make sure that you have permission to actually shoot there. I believe that some churches can be a bit strict on photography during the ceremony.
Most importantly, get everything down in a written legal contract. That can save you a lot of hassle, and also doesn’t leave anyone open to action later on.
Best of luck with it.
Check out the All Things Photography (ATP.com).
If you look at the menu on the left-hand side of the magazine, you will see a section covering Weddings.
I would also recommend that you check out some professional photographers websites to see the approach they take.
Bring a helper along!!!thanks for all your help guys…… will look up those sites… hopefully all will go ok…… :D
Just one little problem I came up against lately. Dont shoot all on to one memory card, use multiple cards. My main camera takes 2 memory cards and you can shoot on to both – a mirror copy. I always do this and 3 weeks ago one card failed. I can see the images on the back screen and all look well but they just wont load on to the PC – there are only half and bits of the images coming across. Even now I can see them perfectly on camera but are corrupt on PC. Tried recovery and had a few others look at them but still no result. Its all fine because I have a second set but I’d still like to know what went wrong with the duplicate set. Its not the camera either.
So ……… use many cards and use duplicate cards or a backup HD if your camera allows. I’m sure this is a most unusual problem and this is the only time I’ve seen it in the 7 years I’m using digital and I only use good, well known brand cards.
Best of luck with this.
I’ve done a few friends weddings and had one bad experience. This was in th etime before digital. I was using a camera I wasn’t familiar with and my flash failed. The weather was crap, so I had to use a lot of indoor low light settings. Fortunately my friend had given his camera to another buddy and there were a few mates taking snapshots. So they got a good feel for the day.
Not to spook you but for some brides it is THE biggest day of their lives and one they want everything to be perfect on. It is important that you are confident about what you are doing. Most people have been so stressed for the months leading up to the big day, that they are nice and relaxed once the day is underway. You can play an important roll in this. Don’t make a habit of showing people the images on the camera screen or you will miss other “moments”
If you’ve not done this before, go to a wedding before the big day. Go to the registry office if you can’t find a church wedding. Offer to send people a couple of prints if they will pose for a few shots. If they agree, start posing them and start shooting.
There are so many wedding pix on the web you should have lots of ideas, however the day goes so fast and you need to be one step ahead. To a degree you will need to choreograph what happens. This is particularly hard with group shots so find friends of the couple that know all guests
Talk to the bride and groom. They should have some bridal mags, if not, ask them to look for images and styles the like. Do they like B+W, or what I call HELLO magazine shots (you know those contrived shots that are full of rose petals and teeth!!). Do they want fromal or informal poses. Depending on the location of ceremony and reception there may be time to go to a nice location for 30 mins while the other guests settle in at the hotel. In my family, most people dissappear to the pub after any ceremony and don’t show again till after midnight. so you might want to do group shots at church,
Make a plan for the day
1. Bride and family getting ready. If there’s time Groom getting ready?
2. Flowers, Shoes(?) rings, wedding car.
3. Bridal party before going into church
4. Bride walking aisle and handover to groom (watch for change of light as you move indoors)
5. Ceremony. talk to priest well in advance to see if what he will accept in his house!!
6. Signing of registrar by Bride, groom, witnesses and priest. Don’t be afraid to stop them before or after each signing and get them to pose the shot.
7. Walking the aisle(again watch lighting as you exit church)
8. Bride and groom being congratulated at door of church – be fast here cos mother of bride and groom are among first out and are most important to capture
9. This is a good time to get relaxed shots of people chatting and laughing outside
10. Posed shots of the new couple and group shots – vital that this is decided upon with bride and groom in advance of the day. Most hotels have a small garden with an arch/trellis for photographs. Is there a beach /forest/big country house/park etc nearby?? Have a wet weather contingency, does the hotel have a nice drawing room with big armchairs and fireplace? if so do they use flourescent lighting or not. etc etc etc
11. Before the guests enter for dinner, pose some shots cutting the cake
12. Throughout the day keep an eye on pageboy/flowergirl, Great Aunt Maud or whoever. Again the bride/groom/bridesmaids etc should be able to tip you off as to who’s who.Most of all, have fun yourself. Don’t accept champagne first thing in the morning. have a sandwich in your car, you may be working from 9am till 6pm
Plenty of batteries and memory cards. research a power point at the church/hotel in case you need to charge up. Try not to loose anythingYou might need to have a monopod/tripod??
Hope this helps
Sean
Thanks Sean for your reply, some great tips. You went to a lot of bother writing that out – as did all the rest of the people I appreciate the effort. i am trying to practice as much as i can very nervous about doing it. I bought a new lens the other day a sigma 70-300mm F4-5.6 APO DG MACRO don’t know if this will be any good. Again thanks to you all for your tips, i will try and post some of the shots after the wedding.
it a steep learning curve and hard work, weddings are not for beginners im afraid …. good luck!
i understand that but she asked me and is fully aware i never done this before, but we all have to start somewhere Joe.
well, how did you get on? has the wedding happened yet? do we get to see the results? :)
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