shooting first wedding with d90...help/tips from anyone knowledgable?

[petitours]

A client at the hair salon I work at has asked me to take photos for her wedding in February in Tofino, BC. It will be her second wedding, and very small (around 11 people). I am confident in the photos I have taken for fun but have never had a paid, professional job before and am quite a bit more nervous since now there is the pressure to perform.

Right now I have a Nikon d90, 50mm f/1.8, and 18-105 zoom which goes down to I believe f/4.5. No flash to speak of except for the on-camera. I don't have any money to buy new equipment either. The wedding will be outdoors if weather permits, and reception inside. I don't want to crank up my ISO and have all the photos grainy but I don't want photos to have tacky flash either.

Are there any special tips/tricks to shooting indoors without flash, or even using on-camera flash, or any inexpensive equipment I can buy that will help?

They have given me this list of photos...any other suggestions?

Groom before the ceremony.
Bride and the attendants getting hair done and getting dressed.
Bride's wedding gown hanging in a window.
Bride & groom's rings on bride's wedding shoes.
Bride walking downstairs and along the boardwalk walking towards groom.
Groom's face when he first sees me.
Saying our vows.
Our first kiss as a married couple.
All the women.
All the men.
Just the wedding party.
Many shots of bride & groom on our own after the ceremony.
Bride barefoot on the sand with the surf behind.
Bride & groom face to face showing bride's rings.
Bride & groom writing in the sand.
Bride & groom returning to the suite after the photos on the beach.
Toasts.
The dining room table.
Unposed photos of guests at the reception.
Cutting the cake.

Thanks a bunch to anyone who has any advice.

[petitours]

ALSO, tips with shooting under a grey/white sky? as that will probably end up being the case for the wedding day...

[Nik0nator]

What I would suggest is to buy some wedding magazines and take a look at some of the shots inside you get a feel for other photographers style and what kinds of layouts are popular. Find some wedding photographers sites and go through their galleries to see the kinds of shots they take, how they use the scenario etc. Find out the location and go there with some friends and use them as placeholders to practice the shots and then you can perfect before the date what you should change. You can also consider renting equipment, get a price and approach your client and tell her that you wanted to get some more equipment to help and you would like to share the cost of the equipment. You're sharing the cost 50/50 and if she wants the best shots of her wedding I don't see why she would refuse. If she does refuse then consider getting the equipment because a Wedding is serious there is no do over. You should also have a second camera with you most pros do like I said it's a one time only event and if your camera is screwed for whatever reason you don't want to deal with that pressure.

[scootermcq]

Um, yeah.... you will not be able to do 95% of the reception venues I have been in without flash.... You also need some time with it to ensure you know how to use it to get the best results.

Lots of memory.... spare batteries (flash & camera) and a back up of everything in your bag (camera, lens, flash etc. etc)

Thank God it is small, and hopefully not a bad place to learn, but I really hope for you it is not a FWIGTEW

[scootermcq]

Wedding Photography

Should also have included this link....

[Sterling]

Not a wedding expert, but with regard to raising your ISO, I would set auto ISO properly with a reasonable minimum shutter speed and let the ISO go nice and high if it needs to. No sense having noise-free images that are all blurred from too slow of a shutter speed.

For the grey/white sky, I'd say to concentrate on minimizing it in the shots.Keep the horizon high in the frame if possible. And make sure you are getting exposure readings from your subjects and not the sky. Shooting against a bright white sky will tend to underexpose your subjects if you're not careful.

[inkista]

Find a friend who shoots Nikon and see if they'll let you borrow a speedlight flash unit. The on-board is going to suck for what you want to do. Otherwise, crank up the ISO and invest in some noise-reduction software.

You could also try renting a flash, but given how long it takes to learn to use one, I don't think that's going to work with a low budget. You could also, possibly, consider getting a really cheap 3rd-party flash with iTTL capability, but then you're fighting reliability, poor build quality, and shipping to/from China.

If you do manage to get your hands on a speedlight (external flash unit), my recommendation would be to read Neil van Niekerk's book on on-camera-flash for wedding photography, or go through his Flash Photography Techniques website.

[autofocus]

I don't know how it will be possible to shoot a wedding without a flash...if you haven't already figured that out by what's already been said. You just can't depend on all your shots being next to a nice bright window, and a fast lens, albeit nice, can only go so far in a dark room...so figure out how you're going to get a flash (an do so in enough time to learn how to use it) And not to mention that shooting a wedding without redundant equipment is very risky. You can always assume that if things are going to fail IT WILL HAPPEN AT THE WRONG TIME! Please don't take this the wrong way, but you may want to reconsider or arrange to assist someone with more knowledge and equipment.

[Indigo November]

You have already gotten a lot a good advice here, and I have never shot a wedding, so I won't offer any more advice. But I do have one thing to add regarding inkista's post (which is great advice BTW ).

Anyhoo, I should get on with it, shouldn't I?
Upping the ISO and removing noise later is a very good idea. But don't waste any money on noise-reduction software.
You can get Noiseware Community Edition free. Imagenomic - Noiseware

Originally Posted by inkista

Find a friend who shoots Nikon and see if they'll let you borrow a speedlight flash unit. The on-board is going to suck for what you want to do. Otherwise, crank up the ISO and invest in some noise-reduction software.

[candleman]

not any family group photos at all? Typically you do those straight after the Ceremony.
the B&G chat to guests for 15 minutes as the file out the church, then you start shooting family groups before they all dissapear.

Dont forget:
details of the dress, shoes, cufflinks etc etc
father handing over the bride
best man/paige boy/ring bearer handing rings over to the celebrant
signing of the register
crowds reaction after the announcement
recesional & tossing of confetti/petals
the cake
mock cake cutting
the table lists (normally displayed at the door)
table details


shoot the tables before guests get there and start making a mess with food & drink.

I'd suggest finding an Sb600/700/800/900 and learnining how to use it.
Neil Van Niekerks blog is the best TTL resource I could point you to for that. (See Inkistas link above)