Gear from my first wedding...

[superduperwesman]

Here's what I brought:

Wedding #1 - Gear Shot by superduperwesman, on Flickr

[graciousness]

So how did your first wedding go? I did wonder how that went......! Hope it did go well, if not, at least ok for you.....

[zona5101]

I really like how you tagged the items for identify and whether you used the item or not (on flickr link). You said you weren't super happy but I bet your stuff was great.

I find the more weddings I shoot, the less gear I bring. I guess in the beginning you want to be over-prepared.

But yeah, from the look of his flickr site, I'm sure he did just fine.

[superduperwesman]

Originally Posted by graciousness

So how did your first wedding go? I did wonder how that went......! Hope it did go well, if not, at least ok for you.....

It was a really dark venue which made things hard inside.

I setup my studio strobes which helped but when doing all my test shots the people weren't there. When people were actually in there seats they were very close to the party at the front which meant that the observers heads were casting a shadow on the back of the bride.

As mentioned, the chairs were very close to the wedding party who was nosed into the corner which made access hard, possible view points hard and added more shadows.

I guess I should have know from the floor plan:
http://digital-photography-school.co...513-post3.html
but it was really really tight trying to move around and get ceremony pics. I guess in my mind it wasn't that tight on the floor plan but it was!

At my wedding we had a rehearsal and practiced everything. Like a idiot I assumed that they had discussed / practiced a few things.... nope... or they forgot. The couples came blowing down the aisle millimeters apart so I never even got a picture of the one couple coming down the aisle. My flash didn't even have a chance to recycle fast enough.

Like a total idiot I also left my ISO up around 500 for the outdoor shots. I mean it's not the end of the world but I can see the grain and I'm not a big fan it.

We discussed formal photo locations prior and agreed that we'd do them outside. Everyone would tough out the cold (it was great the weekend before and the weekend after but the day of the wedding it was approx -5 degC) but everyone couldn't handle it very long and wanted / needed to call it quits before I was really ready.

I was roasting the entire day even when outside.

We tried to do some formals inside when we got back to the hotel but I have to admit that I was a little stressed at this point so my mind was totally straight. Also, the entire hotel was really dark (I didn't scout any other near by indoor locations because we said we'd do it outside) but I haven't lite large groups before so it was a little tough.... some people are over exposed while others are very shadowed. I played around and can get it decent with local brush adjustments in lightroom but I hate fixing something in post that should have been done right from the get go.

That being said I also wish I would have placed people better both inside and out. Once I got looking at the photos on my computer I couldn't help but see how much the composition could have been improved by moving him her and her there or here... why didn't I notice this at the time!!!

I also borrowed my buddies camera as a spare and was also hoping to primarily use my 70-200 on it... thankfully I never needed it because he left it in a custom shooting mode for fish tank photography but by the time I realized this I didn't have time to figure out how to get out of it.... why would you not try out the camera before the wedding day!!!???

For whatever reason I decided to squat while taking a lot of the photos... I took around 1800 photos and must have squatted for at least 1/3... (i normally sit at a desk all day) but as a result of my 500+ squats I couldn't walk for the next two days without some major pain.

I'm going to start editing the photos tonight and I think I have enough that they'll be happy with but I don't think it'll be my finest work.

I knew it'd be tough but it was much much harder then I thought.

[graciousness]

Thank you, thank you for coming back and sharing your experience. So many people will benefit from what you have shared and hope that they gain insight on how it really is to shoot weddings.

I definitely jot down some notes from your post on my own - I have my own first wedding to do in a couple of weeks! Now that I've just written "a couple of weeks" I just realised shoot, I have only a couple of weeks! I think it's time I be crapping bricks in my pants now....

Unfortunately for me, the wedding is in another state at a private place so no way for me to pre-check until the day before the wedding. At least I have videos of the place and mentally mapped out where and when I shoot and it's in open space.

The only thing I am worried about is the group shot as there are 60 people I have to fit in a frame and I don't have wide angle lens. I am beginning to seriously think of climbing the roof to get the shot. I'm sure my toddler will love that.

I am sure you will feel better once you start editing - sometimes things are better once you actually start doing post processing. Don't forget that if you need help with editing, come back here and have people help you!

I hope you post some photos of the day as we'd love to see them

Many thanks again and don't forget to rest your eyes whlst working on the photos.

Cheers,

Grace

[ccting]

Wow, nice to hear that you have floor plan. The plan is too small for me to see, so, did you mark where you should put your lighting equipment etc etc? Are you shooting alone?

Leaving ISO 500 outdooors: I see how videos on some experts using ISO 400 on D3X outdoors ... I believe "higher shutter speed" solve many issues and it can be a good tradeoff of small noise. I don't know what will Gra... comments.. I think ISO 500 is not a very bad idea. But it raises some questions
a) The faster shutter speed does not guarantee the sharpness. Sometimes, the faster the blurrer the images for some lens (according to my secondary sources e.g. Nikon 70-200 VR 1)
b) Why do we need shutter speed higher than 1/250s?

For me, I think ISO 500 is too low for me for indoors when the widest aperture = f/6.3. I came to use ISO 1600 on D70, unless u have f/2.8 lens..


D70, adequate ambient background at ISO 1600, Dark Huge Hall, on-camera bounce back flash, very old Tamron 18-200mm f/7.1, 200mm, broken SB600. Image taken from my seat as I could not move around..



I confuse and confuse..

[graciousness]

Originally Posted by ccting

Wow, nice to hear that you have floor plan. The plan is too small for me to see, so, did you mark where you should put your lighting equipment etc etc? Are you shooting alone?

Leaving ISO 500 outdooors: I see how videos on some experts using ISO 400 on D3X outdoors ... I believe "higher shutter speed" solve many issues and it can be a good tradeoff of small noise. I don't know what will Gra... comments.. I think ISO 500 is not a very bad idea. But it raises some questions
a) The faster shutter speed does not guarantee the sharpness. Sometimes, the faster the blurrer the images for some lens (according to my secondary sources e.g. Nikon 70-200 VR 1)
b) Why do we need shutter speed higher than 1/250s?

For me, I think ISO 500 is too low for me for indoors when the widest aperture = f/6.3. I came to use ISO 1600 on D70, unless u have f/2.8 lens..


I confuse and confuse..

Now why would you need to use high ISO OUTDOORS if you don't need to? If it's a regular, bright day, ISO 500 is just simply overkill unless it's in a really shady area.

If you are going to use fast shutter speeds for outdoors to reduce ambient light, now why would you use high ISO to bring up exposure on the photo? That's just undoing what your fast shutter speed is for. Your suggestion just simply doesn't make sense to me, or I completely didn't understand what you were on about.

Your point (a) is pointless. If you don't focus your camera properly, photos will be blurry regardless of any speed. It's actually the reverse of what you are suggesting, and that is if you don't use fast enough shutter speed to capture motion that photos get blurrier. If you use really fast shutter speed, the only downside to that is cutting down ambient light which makes photos darker; this is where you bring in other settings and other light sources.

Your point (b) needs to be practiced if you want to understand it. For example, if you are shooting against a backlit subject (i.e. person is standing behind the sun or camera is facing the sun and subject is facing camera), then you use fast shutter speed over 1/250 to cut down on that ultra bright light to get some details from your backlit object. Another instance is if you are trying to capture somethign that is moving really damn fast, well, you need faster shutter speed.

Can't comment on anything else you wrote because they are irrelevant to this subject matter of the thread and/or pointless. Including the image.

Cheers,

Grace

The fact that you've analyzed your photos and recognized the flaws says a lot about your photography. My guess is that you are your worst critic, and the couple will be very happy with the photos you produced.

As photographers, we always have visions of all the beautiful shots that we'll take at a wedding, like those we've seen in others' portfolio. The truth is, we take a lot of good photos, a few excellent photos, and only a couple "WOW!" photos that make it into the portfolio.

And from personal experience, the "WOW!" photos usually aren't planned.

[superduperwesman]

Well I sat down this morning and edited a few:

Untitled by superduperwesman, on Flickr


Untitled by superduperwesman, on Flickr


Untitled by superduperwesman, on Flickr


Untitled by superduperwesman, on Flickr