Wedding photography

[art2d2]

Hi all,

Appreciate if I can get some pointers. One of my friend is asking my help to take around 7-10 rolls on his wedding day in August. This will cover the morning session of fetching the bride to the church, "tea offering" session, lunch reception and finally the dinner celebration.

Will be using a SLR for the event. Haven't actually done a whole day event like this before. :dunno: Any recommendations on :-

1. What films to use.
2. Basic exposure settings for indoors (with flash of course).
3. Tips on taking good group shots.
4. Any other tips ?

Thanks.

 

[ckiang]

Originally posted by art2d2
Hi all,

Appreciate if I can get some pointers. One of my friend is asking my help to take around 7-10 rolls on his wedding day in August. This will cover the morning session of fetching the bride to the church, "tea offering" session, lunch reception and finally the dinner celebration.

Will be using a SLR for the event. Haven't actually done a whole day event like this before. :dunno: Any recommendations on :-

1. What films to use.
2. Basic exposure settings for indoors (with flash of course).
3. Tips on taking good group shots.
4. Any other tips ?

Thanks.

1. Use Fuji Press 800 or NPH 400 for all the indoor shots. I used to use NPH, but find Press 800 gives me a better balance between the ambient and flash lighting, giving a more natural result.
2. If you can, meter for the indoors then fill flash with bounced flash (white card + ceiling). If cannot, use a shutter speed/aperture combo which is as close to ambient as possible, then let the flash do the rest.
3. Group shots - wide angle, mid aperture (f/5.6 - 8).



Regards
CK

 

[art2d2]

Thanks. :gbounce: Anyone else have any tips to share ?

 

[skf]

use rechargeable batteries for your flash..

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by art2d2
Thanks. :gbounce: Anyone else have any tips to share ?

If the church has a high ceiling, (steepe?) then don't bother bouncing off the ceiling (or you can try, go there sometime before the actual wedding and check the place out). You may want to try use a diffuser instead.

Also...buy 1-2 extra rolls. You never know when you might need them.

And....eat before you go, shooting is hungry business.

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by skf
use rechargeable batteries for your flash..

And bring EXTRA, charged, (or tested) batteries.

Never assume that the pair you charged or bought (alkalis) will be enough!

 

[art2d2]

Hi Zoomer,

Thanks for the tips.Yup, will definately eat first.. experience from my own wedding . I think the church celling will be high, so like u say might not be useful if I bounce it... but will defusing the flash will make the light softer and the photos a bit underexpose ?

What I'm afraid is that mostly in older churches indoor lighting is not very good, probably need to do a site visit first. But unfortunately the location is in KL, so probably I will not have any chance of visiting the place before the event.

 

[Trevor_Tan]

Well, not much of a tips here but from my 1 and only experience, I can tell you is a very tiring day. Apart from the bride and groom, you will be the next most busy person around (unless there is a person with video cam then he will be more worst off).
Also control your flim usage. You will get too carried away (like what I did) and taken too much shots, But it will be even worst if you miss the good ones. So the best bet is to discuss with the bride and groom on what, when and how much to take. Esp during tea sessions. If you take a shot on every tea offered and every ang bao or gift received you could easily taken at least 5 pix per set.
Flash is really a need here esp if indoor light condition is not good. If ceiling is too high or had funny colours bounce off a white card is also good way. Also note your flash recharge time, if you find it too long for your needs maybe you can find a battery pack/booster (don't know what it really call and not sure if all flash got it) that will shorten the recharge time.
Lastly, get some one (better if is a relative or good friend of the bride / groom to do crowd control) cos it some time too hard to gather people to do a group pictures.

 

[excentrique]

1)a wide angle len will be good for table to table shoot. Don't expect to have too much space to stand back.

2)7rolls definately not enough. At LEAST 10 rolls for full day. Rechargable battery is extremely important especially when you keep flashing your flash in crucial moment. It's embrassing and reputation tarnishing if your flash light fails to recycle in time for important shots.

3)Avoid outdoor shoot at 11- 2pm (If there is). Direct sunlight is far too hot and gives the bride and groom a hard time trying to keep themself tidy,clean and comfortable. They will squint their eyes at direct sunlight too.

4)Tie an extending white cardboard (approximately 3 inches protruding out of the flashlight) at the top with a rubber band for shots requiring you to do a bounce at a very dark ceiling or ceiling which are above 4 meters high. If you kiasi, just have the white board on irregardless whether is it a high/low dark ceiling.

5)Please test out your lightings , shoot and print, and famililarise with your equipment prior the wedding.

 

[Belle&Sebastain]

i second the the wide angle lens for the dinner. once we had a wedding shoot at Fatty Wongs at the badmintion Hall at Geylang. The tables are so tightly packed that the photographer had to switched between his wide angle and 50mm lens for several table shots

 

[qhelix]

Originally posted by excentrique

5)Please test out your lightings , shoot and print, and famililarise with your equipment prior the wedding.

I'm just wondering how do you do that if you're using SLR? Unless you're referring to going there a few days earlier, shoot and develope the film and see the results, but wont the actual day's lighting be different? If that's the case how will you know the best settings if you can't see the results on the spot?

 

[excentrique]

Originally posted by qhelix

I'm just wondering how do you do that if you're using SLR? Unless you're referring to going there a few days earlier, shoot and develope the film and see the results, but wont the actual day's lighting be different? If that's the case how will you know the best settings if you can't see the results on the spot?

Well you can test your lightings out at situation which you might expect can happen during the wedding. For example find a place where there is high ceiling around the housing estate shopping malls at night (outside Tampine DBS bank building for e.g) Get a friend model to model for you while you shoot him/her at different distances, room, outdoor, conditions. Record down the setting you set for each shot and see the results of the prints. What kind of lighting would you expect from indoor or outdoor. For e.g outdoor, I will worry for things like silloutte, poor lighting, harsh lightings due to weather. Indoor, I would worry about shooting black object (e.g hair) against a dark background, or white (gown) against a white background (wall) etc.. These are things which you can test out without needing to go to the actual locations. This will give yo better understanding of how to deal with difficult situations.

 

[art2d2]

Originally posted by excentrique



Well you can test your lightings out at situation which you might expect can happen during the wedding. For example find a place where there is high ceiling around the housing estate shopping malls at night (outside Tampine DBS bank building for e.g) Get a friend model to model for you while you shoot him/her at different distances, room, outdoor, conditions. Record down the setting you set for each shot and see the results of the prints. What kind of lighting would you expect from indoor or outdoor. For e.g outdoor, I will worry for things like silloutte, poor lighting, harsh lightings due to weather. Indoor, I would worry about shooting black object (e.g hair) against a dark background, or white (gown) against a white background (wall) etc.. These are things which you can test out without needing to go to the actual locations. This will give yo better understanding of how to deal with difficult situations.

thanks excentrique. yes I was thinking of testing a roll doing all the similar indoor shots before the actual day itself. Now that most of you have mention, I think my main concern is the flash shots, which I think will involve at least 70% of the time.

 

[Zoomer]

Originally posted by art2d2


thanks excentrique. yes I was thinking of testing a roll doing all the similar indoor shots before the actual day itself. Now that most of you have mention, I think my main concern is the flash shots, which I think will involve at least 70% of the time.

If that's the case, bring at least 3 sets of batteries. 2 sets with recharger may not make it. (don't use alkalis, voltage drop is too much)

Don't forget to check your camera batt level, too.

 

[rueyloon]

plan the equipment you want to bring and what bag you want to put them in.

bad planing means you carry a super heavy bag, which will restrict your movement.

 

[tsdh]

I'm not experience in wedding photography, but couple of months back, my friend asked me to take pictures of his wedding.
At the mid of the ceremony, the film inside my camera finished (just after the bride inserting the ring), need time to rewind and reload with a new film and I will lost the next moment. Luckily I brought two bodies loaded with films inside my bag in the back of function room, I rushed to get my bag, but I still lost a few moments. Then I saw a big smile of a friend next to me who use a digicam with 1Gb microdrive.
Would like to know; does a wedding photographer always carry more than one camera bodies?
or always looking at the frame counter?

 

[skf]

Originally posted by tsdh
.....
Would like to know; does a wedding photographer always carry more than one camera bodies?
or always looking at the frame counter?

Both.
extra equipment - 100% spare equipment - lens, body, flash

keep an eye on the frame counter - so that you know when you are about to reach the end of the roll. Try to time it so that you are not caught when an important event occurs.

In the situation where you are left with a few frames and something is about to happen, either finish the frames quickly or change to a new roll. DOn't stinge on the last few frames or you may miss an important event.

====

Check if the restaurant has dry ice effect for the bridal couple 's march-in. If yes, you may want to switch to manual focus for that part - the SLR 's autofocusing mechanism may "hunt" and you may lose the march-in shots...

 

[excentrique]

If you have a digital camera, it's also good to use it as a backup. Two camera bodies are fabulous, but I would use the 2nd camera with a digital camera. It's lighter.

Remember, less weight is always better as you want a 35mm for it's mobility. Apart from it, carrying the whole day ard with so many equipments and not fully untilising it is silly and tiring. I would just use a fixed wide angle lens for everything. Normally is sufficient because you need to move ard anyway. I use a 25mm len for most of my shoot.

Here's my guideling equipments:
1)flashlight with white card board
2)1 camera body with 25mm len
3)1 digital camera or fairly good idiot proof for backup
4) rechargeable batteries.
5)films, light meter, reflector (*reflector and lightmeter optional)

 

[art2d2]

Ok, I will be bringing my Canon A40 for backup for my Nikon SLR.

Another thing, is it advisable to use warm up filters like 81A/B as will mostly be taking shots of faces with flash ?

 

[excentrique]

Originally posted by art2d2
Ok, I will be bringing my Canon A40 for backup for my Nikon SLR.

Another thing, is it advisable to use warm up filters like 81A/B as will mostly be taking shots of faces with flash ?

It's really up to you. I don't really use filters. As long you are comfortable with it, then bring loh. Please do a test too with your filter when shooting wif flashlight too. This will determine you need to bring or not.