Wedding photography need advice.


acbidua

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Apr 18, 2012
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I guys, need some advice on this. On the comming wedding of my brother i will be 2nd shooter. Im newbie on this hobby. I want to capture the big day. My equipment is canon 600D with 18-135 wide angle zoom lens. Thats all i got since no budget for other accesories. Any tips/advise from the experts. Thanks in advance. :)
 

I am sure many reading this will be asking you to use the search feature and find those answers before posting here... :p

Nevertheless, here's my take. 600d is good enough and 18-135 should give you sufficient coverage for different type of pictures. Couple of things to note if I am using the equipment that you are having (I assume you are not shooting auto or program mode):

1. open your aperture as wide as possible especially indoor (i reckon it is the actual wedding day we are talking about and not the pre-wedding outdoor shoot).
2. you will need higher ISO for indoor depending on the lighting condition. I believe anything 800 and above might be needed to get a reasonable good picture.
3. pop-up your built-in flash but I doubt it would give you the effects that you want. I would use it as fill in light for table to table shots. Other candid and spontaneous pics, I would just avoid the flash but more on higher iso.
4. watch out for white balance as it depends greatly on the lighting in different restaurants and function rooms. In short, play around with the different WB mode if AWB is giving you weird color as you preview the pics.
5. oh... all the above is on the assumption you are using aperture priority mode or av. If you are using shutter priority or manual mode, I pretty much say practice, practice, practice before trying. It is a little bit more challenging unless you are very familiar with knowing what settings to change under different situation.

the above 5 pointers are more or less the basic technical setting that would work given what you have on hand...

As for other things to note, this is normally what I would do.

1. Do not irritate the main photographer... don't block, don't distract him, don't be a part of his picture.
2. Do not have to focus on what the main photographer is shooting. In fact, try to find some good frames that he is not focusing on.. surprises sometimes are in little corners.
3. You are a family member. You know more people that the photographer. Take more pictures of them because your brother and sister-in-law will be delighted and better associated with those familiar faces you are able to captured.
4. Candid pictures of children always bring joy, so do not forget them.
5. Haha.. this one is a no brainer... look up what other professional wedding photographers are capturing to get inspiration on the kind of pictures you want...

ok la.. 10 pointers ... should be enough and I believe many other members here would be offering their pointers and advice ...

Btw .. i am no pro. It has been a while since i cover my last wedding assignment. Age is catching up and actual day wedding assignment is very tiring - not to mention the amount of pre-event efforts being taken into consideration. I am keeping to shooting just 1 per year... :).

Wishing you an enjoyable shoot at your brother's big day! More importantly, enjoy the wedding and be a part of your brother's joyful event. I am sure he would want that too.


Daniel
 

Thanks daniel. Well of course Before i post i already did my homework. :) the difference is they have the right gear and i dont have. Being a second shooter i already know not to annoy the main shooter. I want to maximise my equipment on this event. Im planning to use Av mode since im still slow on manual mode-i sometime forgot to look on the light meter on manual mode :) .

Thanks a lot daniel 10pts is good enough for a newbie like me. But if someone will add some other points, will be glad. :) thanks a lot. :)
 

Btw do i need to shoot RAW? Or JPEG is enough since i have no knowledge yet on photoshop or editing a pics.
 

get a flash.
and lots of batteries

shoot raw + Jpg,
and lots of memory cards
give them jpg, keep the raw for a few years time till you have the knowledge and software than you start do editing

keep it simple.
 

acbidua said:
Btw do i need to shoot RAW? Or JPEG is enough since i have no knowledge yet on photoshop or editing a pics.

If you can't edit photos, then there is little point in shooting RAW. Just stick to jpeg.
 

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Think better try out your built in flash before event. Parts of your flash maybe blocked by your lens resulting in ugly shadows. May have to borrow a speed light.
 

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:) the difference is they have the right gear and i dont have. Being a second shooter i already know not to annoy the main shooter. I want to maximise my equipment on this event. Im planning to use Av mode since im still slow on manual mode-i sometime forgot to look on the light meter on manual mode :)

The difference IS... you think its about the gear.

No, its raw talent polished into skills via sickening hard work - week after week for years. Do you have that?

Second Shooter is a job title for a photographer hired by another photographer. He is a sub-contractor providing his skills and work for return of pay and salary. He follows code of ethics within the pro scene and is regarded by his peers as a respected artisan.

Friends and family members with a camera hobby shooting for fun and enjoyment are not second shooter, not third, not six, not even 27th shooter. They are friends and family.

In the professional wedding industry, they are referred to as Uncle Bobs behind their backs.

The fact is that majority of the wedding pros hate these kind of situation, for valid good reasons. Its not personal. Its just the situation.

Many avid hobbyists like you want to shoot without affecting the Pros, we understand and thank you. But the fact is, you still hinder, slow, and make things difficult for the pro and the wedding couple - whether they tell you or not. Of course they won't for courtesy sake.

That said, I recommend this ebook first recommended by our moderator Catchlights to go to the library and borrow, but I found the free download version.

Have fun and enjoy your brother's wedding. Hopefully you will put down the camera and be brother at the wedding instead of playing with cameras.

You most probably will still insist though, as many had before you. Still, good luck.
 

The difference IS... you think its about the gear.

No, its raw talent polished into skills via sickening hard work - week after week for years. Do you have that?

Second Shooter is a job title for a photographer hired by another photographer. He is a sub-contractor providing his skills and work for return of pay and salary. He follows code of ethics within the pro scene and is regarded by his peers as a respected artisan.

Friends and family members with a camera hobby shooting for fun and enjoyment are not second shooter, not third, not six, not even 27th shooter. They are friends and family.

In the professional wedding industry, they are referred to as Uncle Bobs behind their backs.

The fact is that majority of the wedding pros hate these kind of situation, for valid good reasons. Its not personal. Its just the situation.

Many avid hobbyists like you want to shoot without affecting the Pros, we understand and thank you. But the fact is, you still hinder, slow, and make things difficult for the pro and the wedding couple - whether they tell you or not. Of course they won't for courtesy sake.

That said, I recommend this ebook first recommended by our moderator Catchlights to go to the library and borrow, but I found the free download version.

Have fun and enjoy your brother's wedding. Hopefully you will put down the camera and be brother at the wedding instead of playing with cameras.

You most probably will still insist though, as many had before you. Still, good luck.

While you have every basis to be annoyed by amateur spare shooters, don't be so hard on him, he may have been arrowed. I bought a DSLR few weeks before my cousin-in-law's wedding (for my amateur shooting enjoyment) and my mother-in-law expected (more like arrowed! hahaha) me to shoot for him as a cheap free "spare" shooter.

Advantages: No structure in my shooting, while the Pros are shooting the important parts (march in ) i can shoot the expressions of my relatives. my images (while of course nowhere as good), are free...or if you factor in my angpow giving, i am "paying" for the "privilege" too.

Some tips you might need: kit lens is nowhere wide open enough to shoot in the lesser light. Budget wise, if you have $100 to spare (almost as much as ang pow for your dinner) get an inexpensive 50mm F1.8 and practice abit before the actual day. Cheap and good but at F1.8 the DOF is really very thin so you could cheat by setting center-focus for the AF point. Then you can snipe your way through the wedding. Boring but works.

Just shoot Jpeg will do unless you have someone who can process RAW for you.

Most importantly I found that I could get my relatives their 'value' from the pros when I gave the pros precedence. This meant that I :
a :: told my relatives the pros are hired and the relatives should always look at the pro for direction and for priority in camera-snaps
b :: did not use a flash which may trigger off slaved flashes from the pros (only used onboard to overpower backlight when they marched in from bright noonday outdoors during the lunch reception)
c :: got out of the way / did not block the pros in my effort to get a shot.
d :: shot at cross-fire angles to the pros so that I could literally get a different perspective.

Hope that helps !
 

@JasonB : i was thinking already that you are a pro that who had a bad experience with "Uncle Bob" sorry not to mention but the main photographer was a close friend of my brother who offer to shoot on wedding day, paid or unpaid i still treat him as the main photographer. Well if i do not use my camera its no use to travel miles away and not getting any memorable moment. :) well anyway as a newbie thanks for the advise.

@shizuma : thanks a lot, u saved me. :)

Since i have no budget for additional equipmnt. I'll stick to my kit lens. :)
 

acbidua said:
@JasonB : i was thinking already that you are a pro that who had a bad experience with "Uncle Bob" sorry not to mention but the main photographer was a close friend of my brother who offer to shoot on wedding day, paid or unpaid i still treat him as the main photographer. Well if i do not use my camera its no use to travel miles away and not getting any memorable moment. :) well anyway as a newbie thanks for the advise.

@shizuma : thanks a lot, u saved me. :)

Since i have no budget for additional equipmnt. I'll stick to my kit lens. :)

We all had our bad expreince with uncle bob, but we just simply get over it.
#1, is not my uncle.
#2, is not our wedding.
#3, it is not our lost.

We are not the ome who ask uncle bob to shoot anyway.
Tomorrow or next week we will have another wedding for us to shoot. We just move on.
 

For this post/inquiry, i just need some advice out of my kit lens. If someone has a previous problem with 2nd shooter/uncle bob or whatever it is, please do not treat all amature or newbie thesame. I promise i will not get in the way with the pro photographer, and besides its my bros wed i dont want to ruin it. Im a friendly guy, i dont see any problem with other shooter. I just sit on ine corner to get some candid shots and change to other corner if the angle is not good. I think candid shots is more fun. Cheers :)
 

acbidua said:
For this post/inquiry, i just need some advice out of my kit lens. If someone has a previous problem with 2nd shooter/uncle bob or whatever it is, please do not treat all amature or newbie thesame. I promise i will not get in the way with the pro photographer, and besides its my bros wed i dont want to ruin it. Im a friendly guy, i dont see any problem with other shooter. I just sit on ine corner to get some candid shots and change to other corner if the angle is not good. I think candid shots is more fun. Cheers :)
if you are asking is your gear good enough? Yes it is good enough.
I use D70 plus kit lens shoot many paid wedding asignments. Your gears are more advance than what I use before. So what is the problem now?
 

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No problem with me. Am just a newbie who seeks some advice/tips from a pro like you. Cheers :)
 

Since i have no budget for additional equipmnt. I'll stick to my kit lens.

Not to be callous but have you considered buying a 50mm F1.8 on the BnS section and selling it after the wedding? There will be no real cost incurred if you sell it at the price you got it (you might even make a $10 profit to set off your transport expense incurred in buying the lens) and it's less troublesome than renting a lens.

In any case with your kit lens you would probably have to shoot at the wide end and use aperture select for the widest aperture, if not using flash.
It may get blurry during the march-in if there is not a lot of light, you might want to use a tripod (if you don't have budget for that can try using a stand or a box, i am being serious. i have even used a dustbin as support on street shooting before...)

hope that helps
 

Even if you have no knowledge on Photoshop or any other digital processing software, I am sure you will gradually pick up at least one software in the not so faraway future. This is the digital era after all. Besides, there is much fun in knowing how to post-process the pictures.

I would normally shoot RAW. In your case, you might want to do RAW+JPEG as recommended by Catchlghts. Keep the RAW for future use since storage is relatively affordable these days. I did it right from day one when I used a digital SLR and till today, I would still retrieve the RAW file try out different post-processing methods. The fact is RAW is like negatives during film days. They retain the originality of your image. So keep it if you have enough storage capacity on your hard drives.

Btw do i need to shoot RAW? Or JPEG is enough since i have no knowledge yet on photoshop or editing a pics.
 

I doubt you would be an Uncle Bob since this is your brother's wedding. Furthermore, with digital SLR being so easily available (even top end model), I would be surprise if relatives and guest would not turn up with their own gear - each hoping to capture a bit of the memory for keepsake, posting on blogs, facebooks and other social media platforms.

For this post/inquiry, i just need some advice out of my kit lens. If someone has a previous problem with 2nd shooter/uncle bob or whatever it is, please do not treat all amature or newbie thesame. I promise i will not get in the way with the pro photographer, and besides its my bros wed i dont want to ruin it. Im a friendly guy, i dont see any problem with other shooter. I just sit on ine corner to get some candid shots and change to other corner if the angle is not good. I think candid shots is more fun. Cheers :)
 

Its a very good idea to get a flashgun. Cheaper ones like nissin di622 or yongnuo something, with diffuser cap. Point flash upwards to your respective shooting orientation. My starting point will be M mode: f5.6, shutter 1/60, iso 800 maybe. Then just fire away like point and shoot camera.
 

If really cant get flash, maybe can borrow from main shooter if compatible and has extra. If not, use Av on biggest aperture and higher usable iso. IS on the lens helps a lot, dont worry.
 

I supported getting a flash, at least 1 more battery and lots of Memory cards.
I can't recommend always using biggest aperture for whole events, but be on the lookout and getting very familiar with your camera switch and knobs, when to set biggest and when smaller.