Advice for Wedding Digital Photography

[HckySo]

You've been a photog's asst. since you were 13? Do you work for free or for a parent?

When I was 13 people just couldn't get over the idea of a young kid doing things so I got a lot of business in pretty much anything I wanted to do. I was a freelance DJ and web designer and this local photographer (who was my basketball coach at the time) was really interested in my work and hired me to be his part time assistant as well as his full time video editor.

Weddings are an extremely easy business (to get into) but it's also an extremely competitive and stressful business if you aren't experienced.

If you want to shoot a wedding with an XTi that's fine, as long as you have some kicking lenses and some serious lighting equipment to go along with it. A lot of people with the same camera as you will be there, it's an extremely popular camera among wedding goers so you should have a lot of self confidence and remain assertive.

 

[santa]

my thoughts

I never take anything slower than 2.8 to any wedding. The 17-55 f2.8 IS is a wonderful lens and I think it's a must have for anyone using a crop body to shoot weddings with. Flash is critical also, even when shooting outside. A bride lit by the sun in a bright white gown will cause all manner of grief in terms of exposure without fill flash. Learn to use AV fill flash for outdoor. Indoor flash is often critical obviously. Look at a simple system like a "betterbounce" card (easily made yourself) to help diffuse on-camera flash. I use a Digital Camera Battery for fast flash recharge but failing that, be sure to have plenty of batteries. My second shooter has standing rules to shoot pre-ceremony with one set of batteries and then prior to the ceremony to change out the batteries for a new set, and then dump them out for a third set after the ceremony. I use 8gig cards but 2 or 4 gigs would suffice and not cause the problem that a bad 8gig might if it was corrupted. Change out cards before the ceremony if there is any question about capacity.
I think the ideal second lens is the 70-200 f2.8 IS. That's what I use. A simple 50 f1.4 is a great addition for speed when needed and very useful in low light particularly if flash is not allowed during the ceremony.
Be sure to have a backup camera and a backup flash. I do often bring a cheap zoom as a backup lens. Lens failure is relatively rare but dropping something can kill things.
A tripod is a must. Formals with a tripod will allow slower shutter speeds and more depth of field to ensure sharpness from front to back in a large group. Off camera flash ability from an STE2 or the canon cord is very, very helpful with groups and formals. Formals with on-board flash are a horrible thing.
Sounds like you plan to shoot raw and deliver jpg. Right on the money there. Shoot raw without question. I have Aperture and Lightroom and never use Aperture anymore.
Failing the 70-200 (forget the f4 version) I'd look at a 135 f2 or something similar.
People deride P mode, buy my second shooter uses it frequently, particularly when using flash, and while it's limiting in some ways, a solid 1/60 f4 will nearly always work reasonably well for indoor flash. Be very careful about shooting vertical with flash indoors. Shadows on walls from the side lit flash are really horrible. If there is no wall nearby you can get away with it if you must but I prefer to shoot horizontal nearly all the time and crop to vertical. Dunno if that's feasible with your camera but I'd bet so. 90% of wedding images are 8x10 or smaller and in the early days of digital I was tickled pink with 8x10's from 2mp cameras. Still have several such oldies on my walls. Your best loved images will all be about emotional content, not technical excellence, sharpness or noise-free qualities.

 

[Padaung]

Your best loved images will all be about emotional content, not technical excellence, sharpness or noise-free qualities.

I'll second that. The customer will choosing/buying based only on the content, only if a fellow photographer is looking at the images will the technical aspect really be criticised. The technical side does matter as it makes the image look great; if an image suffers technically then it is more likely to look bad even to an untrained eye. However a perfect technical image that is boring to look at, forget it.

 

[NeXTCube]

Don't panic

I'm not a professional photographer, but I've shot a number of weddings as either the "candids/backup" shooter or the "main" shooter. More than once because the person who was PAID to show up...didn't.

Some good remarks about gear (basically, get the best stuff you can afford to rent/buy). I had a lens die in the middle of a wedding a couple of years ago so I can say from experience that it DOES happen!

My advice is this: don't panic.

Some other things to help avoid panic - get a list of posed shots that the B&G want beforehand (Bride with parents, bride with bridesmaids, etc.). Figure about 5 minutes per posed picture (to be safe) and see if they've left enough time between the ceremony (which WILL run long!) and the reception (people are probably hungry!) to fit them all in. Prioritize the list so the important stuff gets done first. During the posed shots you're in charge so don't be afraid to be bossy! The rest of the time, well, like others have said, stay out of the way as much as possible. Also find out what kind of shots they want from the reception, or from the bride's preparations before the ceremony? Attend the wedding rehearsal if you can; it'll give you a chance to scope out the ceremony location and figure out where the best spots to stand are. Show up early.

Things will go wrong. You will get frustrated. They will get frustrated. Don't forget that you are the professional - even if you're not, you are. Don't badmouth the B&G, their guests or the other people in the wedding (at least not around them). Don't complain no matter how badly you may want to.

And don't panic.

 

[kitki83]

Does anyone recommend any good photography books aside from websites?

 

[ocbaud]

Some good remarks about gear (basically, get the best stuff you can afford to rent/buy). I had a lens die in the middle of a wedding a couple of years ago so I can say from experience that it DOES happen!

my 70-200 f/2.8 started going out on me on the last wedding i did. the internal focusing movement was screwing up. it will focus fine in landscape but when you turn the camera for a portrait, the lens will stick around infinity and when it does move it sticks and isn't smooth.

i'm waiting till after i get back from my vacation to send it into nikon for repair

 

[stagi]

I have been shooting wedding for about 10 years and my quick advice is to first focus on learning photography and creating a style for yourself and how you like to work. Then worry about the gear and technical part.

I think the most important thing is to learn the fundamentals of photography and find out what you really love about photography. Once you know your equipment then just have fun and shoot what you love to shoot.

 

[MacNoobie]

Personally after working with a wedding photog I wouldn't shoot a wedding with anything less then:

2 bodies
2 sets of batteries for each body
several 1GB-2GB cards (in case one takes a crap u wont loose the entire wedding)
a portable backup solution for the shots like the Epson P3000-P5000 viewers (just a way to back up)

a decent off camera flash system such as the Qflash T5dR and battery (or two - Turbo batts)
wireless flash triggers (like PocketWizards or SkyPorts)


Everyones got their own style and opinion some people think that covering the big day with the spiffy new rebel or d40 kits they bought instantly makes them a wedding photog, you WILL fail. Another point is to try and shoot family and friend weddings as maybe a guest and let the pro they hired shoot.. shoot! dont be the one to shoot their reception/cake cutting/formals yourself.

POSE PEOPLE!!!!!! When you do formals you're going to have to arrange people so YOU and YOU alone are often forced with telling people how to stand and where (think triangles and tallest at the back to shortest at the front). Get comfortable with shooting portraits of friends and family first BEFORE thinking you can pose a group of 20-30 people+

Shoot in RAW mode when possible I say this because you can always go back and correct for white balance issues, errors that JPEG might not be forgiving on. Correct every shot as best you can and give the bride & groom a CD filled with the shots with your info. Remember YOU own the copyrights to the images YOU'VE shot so if they want high res jpegs so they can go to wallyworld (walmart) and print em out on their own then they need to pay extra for copyright buyout.

CONTRACT!!!!!!!! I cant stress this enough make sure you have a legally binding contract with limits of liability on it as to what you can and cannot guarrenty. I've seen some bridezilla's and bridezilla moms come back at wedding photogs over a bride being "done" with formals and the photog never got to shoot any, months later the brides mom tried to sue him and he had the contract with that stuff.

Beyond that its up to you where you go I suggest developing a style and look before attempting wedding photos.

 

[Rotary8]

this is just me but I'd be embarrassed if I got paid to shoot a wedding with $500 worth of gear. Recently I've seen lots of guests at weddings showing up with DSLRs because they primarily shoot pics of their family/kids and the majority of them have XTi's, D60s, D80s and I've brought my D300 w/17-55 2.8 lens as a guest before.

Take no offense to what I said, because that's just me. I've only seen a wedding photographer with a D80 and a knockoff speedlight once. She had a kit lens and shot with her flash every single time. That's just poor gear and no skill and thankfully for me and another friend of the grooms' (who had a 5D) we saved his wedding from being scorched.

 

[compuwar]

CONTRACT!!!!!!!! I cant stress this enough make sure you have a legally binding contract with limits of liability on it as to what you can and cannot guarrenty. I've seen some bridezilla's and bridezilla moms come back at wedding photogs over a bride being "done" with formals and the photog never got to shoot any, months later the brides mom tried to sue him and he had the contract with that stuff.

Beyond that its up to you where you go I suggest developing a style and look before attempting wedding photos.

Along with contract- gear insurance, liability insurance and E&O insurance. Often your insurance will tell you what must be in your contracts.