Second Shot a Wedding...Here's What I Learned:

[BK553]

I decided to write down the things I learned from my experience, figured I'd share it and hopefully help someone considering doing a wedding without being ready for it.

(1) Bring food and a bottle of water. Once the fun starts, it doesn't stop.
(2) Your lens is just never fast enough. Your ISO never goes high enough, Your shutter speed is always too slow, and people who are motionless will move the second you click the shutter.
(3) Inside, the battle between keeping the shutter speed high enough, the depth of field deep enough, and the noise low enough is relentless, and will drive you insane. Getting out of the Cathedral and into sunlight was like a small miracle.
(4)Shoot a lot. Like a ton. I filled 2 8GB CF cards and two 8GB SD cards, and still wished I had shot more.
(5)My "Keeper" rate varied wildly, some shots I thought would be great turned out terrible, and some that I thought were garbage turned out the best. Keep everything until you get to a computer.
(6)White balance in a party room with $5,000 worth of moving, flashing, multi-colored lights on the ceiling is impossible.
(7)Knowing what's about to happen next is invaluable.
(8)Getting people to pose and move the way you want is hard. Smart people want to know why, and dumb people don't get the directions. You may have to just trick them into doing what you want.
(9)I have a lot to learn.
(10)I'm ready to do it again. The photog I worked with gave me some great advice, and we got all the shots we needed.

Photos here, comments appreciated as always.

[Jim Bryant]

You captured some really nice moments.

[funcrunch]

Originally Posted by BK553

(6)White balance in a party room with $5,000 worth of moving, flashing, multi-colored lights on the ceiling is impossible.

I deal with this in concert photography all the time, and it is indeed a pain. I used to just set to AWB, shoot in RAW and fix in Lightroom, but now I'm using a gray card which can streamline post-processing considerably. Though still easier in constant lighting obviously...

[knixpix]

Wow what an amazing place to get married! Beautiful pictures!

[Jack Skunk]

"You may have to just trick them into doing what you want"

This is my favorite advice about shooting people ever. Its very true; I do it every day shooting confused tourists.

Also nice shots. That looks like a hell of a wedding. I love the reportage style that I've seen in a lot of wedding photos these days.

[zona5101]

nice recap, nice images - is there a linen-like texture on your web pics? It looks too linear to be noise...

[BK553]

No, the linear noise is what happens when i underexpose at all with my 7D. I'm thinking of sending it in for repair, it's becoming a real problem. It's a known problem.

[smithwilson011]

Such a nice things that you have learn in this wedding. Thanks for sharing a great experience with us.