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Wedding photography equipment
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Hello, I’m looking for a bit of advice as I have recently been asked to do the wedding photography for two friends. I have not shoot at weddings before, I usually do a bit of landscape and event photography with a basic kit as I have just recently developed my life and passion for the art. I currently have a NIkon D90 with the 18-105mm kit lens and the nikon SB-700 flash. I am in the market for a new lens now but I am not sure which is best to get that will work well for wedding shots. I have about €600 to spend. Any advice on which you think would be best for me? Thanks in advance :)
I’m going to disappoint you but 600 is not going to get you any good lens. The other thing – one lens is not going to do the job. You can get something like 18-200 which will fall into your 600 budget but it is going to be a very dark lens and you’re not going to get any decent results if any. One camera, one lens, one of everything ?? Forget about it. You need double of everything when shooting a wedding. What if your camera, lens or flash fails ? at least borrow more equipment from a friend.
70-200 2.8 is a great lens to do weddings. there is few others but way above 600Well, it depends on if the nature of the wedding shoot, is a professional gig, one for friends but still a paying one, or simply one as a favour for friends, with no money changing hands. Also, much will depend on expectations of the photography from the day, whether professional results are expected, or if simply some formal images to complement other more informal images are all that is required. Basically, the sliding scale from fully professional to simply an informal gig.
The above will dictate your approach. For example, if a fully professional paying gig, then it would be unacceptable to turn up without the right gear for the job, as well as backup, should any of your equipment fail. Whereas on the other hand, it would hardly make sense to go and spend cold, hard cash on a lot of equipment, for a gig you are just doing as a favour, and for which the bride and groom have no expectations.
If you decide you do need more gear, then you have the option to buy it outright, rent it, or perhaps simply borrow it for the day should you have accomodating friends. I don’t shoot weddings, nor have any intention to do so, but most photographers seem to do so with a fast wide angle zoom, something like a 17-55 f2.8 or 24-70 f2.8 for your D90. This is often the lens for wedding photographers, with a fast prime, and a fast telephoto zoom, bringing up the rear, for those shots where you need something faster, or something longer. Flash unit is another pre-requisite, for which your SB-700 should prove useful.
Whatever you do choose, or decide you need, you should be familiar with how to use it. Having great kit and being unable to use it, will not get you the shot on the day, so just be mindful of that, with whatever you choose.
Good luck with it all, and to be honest, if you feel you are in over your head, don’t be afraid to back out. Shooting weddings is not for everyone, nor does everyone have the variety of skills, photographic and otherwise, for it.
By the way, €600 will give you several options for wide angle zooms, if that is all you decide you need. The Tamron 17-50, Nikon 17-55, and Sigma 17-50 would all be lenses I would consider in this range, although to fit your budget you may have to consider buying used, or in the case of the Nikon 17-55 be a little lucky too, as most go for amounts above your budget.
Oh, and disregard all the above, if it is a documentary style shoot you had in mind, where all you may need is your D90 and a fast prime.
tranceman wrote:
I’m going to disappoint you but 600 is not going to get you any good lens. The other thing – one lens is not going to do the job. You can get something like 18-200 which will fall into your 600 budget but it is going to be a very dark lens and you’re not going to get any decent results if any. One camera, one lens, one of everything ?? Forget about it. You need double of everything when shooting a wedding. What if your camera, lens or flash fails ? at least borrow more equipment from a friend.
70-200 2.8 is a great lens to do weddings. there is few others but way above 600I would strongly disagree with this advice, sorry. 600 is plenty enough to get some good glass, you just have to know what you’re looking for. Buy used, you could manage a tamron 17-50 2.8 [non-VC] and an older version [push-pull] 80-200mm 2.8 – I had both, sold both only last week! For just over your budget. Only reason I sold was because I’m going FX, other than that I’d have kept both. Excellent lenses, more than good enough for weddings once you know what you’re doing.
If I were you, I would get a 50mm f1.4 (I use 50mm f1.4 in the last 6weddings and never change a lenses since) this my advice.everyone have a different styles of shooting a wedding.
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