Wedding Photography

[Pasq]

this is a well timed thread!

my niece's friend asked me to shoot her wedding this coming May. mostly, they wanted to save some money. i said i would as an unpaid backup to the hired photographer. i explained i just started photographing and couldn't promise 1 good shot.

they agreed, thankfully.

[SinnedCBU]

These are great tips, i have been asked by a friend to be her wedding photographer. The event is going to be later this year, this gives me ample time to prepare and all this tips are helpful. I've been saving up for a 50mm 1.4 lens to get good portraits. this would be my 1st time, but I am also trying to convince her to get a professional photographer and I'd be the backup.

[sastio]

Originally Posted by Saralonde

Battery: Sterlingtek I use this for my 400D. Works great, as good as Canon.

Flash: Sigma EF-500 DG Super bought this for my son's XT.
Canon Speedlite 580EX II Flash
Canon Speedlite 430EX Flash I own this one and I'm very happy with it.

thank you so much for the tips, it is very useful for me
coz next month i will be a photographer on my friend wedding

[Nicole]

I can across a link to this free e-book (Wedding Photography) on DIYPhotography.net today

[i_luv_ph0tos]

Thanks for collecting all those data.. It is very nice to have a lot of hardworking moderators!

[Matthias099]

I don't remember if anyone already posted this link but you can download tons of eBooks from wowio.com. The are free and have many titles about photography (digital, wedding, portrait, etc.).

[lobodrl]

thanx for tis post.the links are very useful Thanx again.

[Matthew James Norman]

Thanks to everyone who has posted a link or some other helpful advice.

I have four weddings to attend this year, the first being my brither's in June. The photographer he has booked has spent the last six years or so as an assistant so this will be her first job as official photographer. My brother has asked me if I would mind taking my camera along as well, not that I'm any good and he rates my pics, but just in case the ones the woman he's hired don't work out very well. Even if I capture only a few good moments throughout the day at least that's a few more shots he has.

[a.saliga]

So months after posting to this thread I've finally shot my first wedding. It was my best friend's wedding, but it wasn't one of those "friend's wedding" nightmare stories. I was paid nicely, so it was good...

Here is what I have learned from my experience this past weekend and also a bit about how I went about it all. So here are my scattered thoughts as they come to me.

I went into this as a second photographer. A great relief for my first wedding. I shot the details and candid shots, while the primary photographer shot the formal photos. My gear was my Canon XTi, Canon 28-105mm f/3.5-4.5, Canon 50mm f/1.8, two 4GB compact flash cards, three batteries, and a tripod. I scouted out the location the day before (during the rehearsal) and planned my shots. I took around 700 shots and deleted about 100 of them right after uploading to my computer. This almost filled up both of my memory cards, so more memory is on the list to buy. I didn't even use up one battery, but I hardly used my flash. I found that I used the 50mm a lot because it is so much faster and the light was so scarce in the church. Also, I realize I need a wide angle lens. With the 1.6x crop factor of my camera the 28mm just wasn't cutting it in some of those tight rooms. I used my on camera flash for a handful of shots and they gave me harsh shadows even when I turned down my flash exposure compensation. Some type of addon to bounce of diffuse the flash is needed if you are using on camera. A monopod would have been ery useful. I wish I would have taken more initiative in gather people to get shots. I would have taken more close ups, and more detailed shots. I wish I would have been able to take more creative shots too, but I was concerned with getting what I needed.

So to sum it up...
-I needed more memory.
-I needed a monopod.
-I needed a wide angle lens.
-I needed a flash diffuser, bounce flash, or hot-shoe mounted flash.
-I should have put more thought into some shots to gain creativeity.
-I should have taken charge and asked people to pose for photos.

[Cindy Venter]

it's so ironic..
i was ask by somebody here in angola to shoot their wedding in a month.
and was just surfing the internet for some tips. waht a great site this is.
its nervous to know that you have to shoot somebodies most important day and it may all come out blanks. but this is what i want to go into here. and i have to do it a first time. if i don't try i will never start having experience.
so i just have to prepare and drink that morning and confedance pill!!