Wedding Photography for a noob

[enotoarts]

I have had a couple contact me to photograph their wedding. They are on a budget and I have never photographed a wedding however they are aware of this and are basing their decision to hire me off my un-wedding work (portraits) and price.
I am giving them a 40% discount off what I have worked out to be a good price for me to photograph a wedding.
I have researched wedding contracts and have put one together by pretty much piecing together other peoples to what I think is ok.
I don't have a second camera so I will probably hire one for the day.
I will get liability insurance before the day
but what else do I need to do?

[kiwi]

Not having any idea of your experience with people photography, who knows ?

[ricktas]

we have only seen one photo (http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?106000-From-my-garden) from you (which you did not go back and thanks those who commented, or answer their questions), not really giving us much to go on as to your ability to undertake this wedding, or your post processing skills

Between now and the wedding date, get as much portraiture practice in as you can, and work on your PP skills. You say you have one camera, but what lenses do you have. Lenses are just as/if not more so, important as the camera for low light situations. Do you have any flash units, are you proficient at using them, and understanding how to adjust the light output from them?

There are a myriad of things that go into getting great wedding photos, you need to be prepared for all of them.

PS, while you are online, perhaps go back to all of your threads and at least thank those who replied/answered your enquiries:

http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?106637-Contracts-for-Portraits
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?106635-Tax-Time
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?105940-New-gear!-well-sort-of-EOS-630 (http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?105940-New-gear%21-well-sort-of-EOS-630)
http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showthread.php?99959-Wireless-Elinchrom-D-Lite-4-Triggering-help

[Kym]

I've done a couple of weddings for friends on a budget.
They were very - whew!! But its really not something for inexperienced people.
Ideally being an assistant / 2nd tog a few times first helps.
If you don't have a 2nd camera - hire one! If something goes wrong you need a backup.
Take a notebook and make safe copies of the images during the day.

Do a lot of planning with the couple... use this as a guide! http://www.ausphotography.net.au/forum/showlibrary.php?title=Genre:Wedding_Photography_Check-list

Think about what happens if you get it wrong? Seriously!! There is no 2nd chance with weddings.

[enotoarts]

sorry to ricktas, I don't get much of a chance to come on very often and forget that I have posted things, I have gone back and made more posts.

I am planning on hiring a second camera and I would like to purchase a 24-70mm lens before the day. I currently own canon 24-105mm f/4 which I would be selling to get the 24-70mm just because it goes to f2.8 instead of f4. I also have a canon 16-35mm f/2.8, canon 50mm f/1.4, canon 100mm f/2.8 L IS USM, lens baby composer pro w edge 80, double glass optic & single glass optic, speedlight 580EXII. obviously I wouldn't be taking all of them, I would probably just take the 24-70/105mm (depending), 16-35mm, and either the 50mm 1.4 or the lens baby with edge80 optic or double glass optic, the speedlight, my laptop to periodically back up to. I am not confident in my speedlight skills and will definatly need practice before then. I have the speedlight handbook which I have been reading like the bible and it is helping but will definatly need some hands on practice.

The shot guide kym put up is great, I think I might have to print that one out. I've have just ordered myself a big backpack to put everything into to take with me, the lowerpro vertex 200, although I think I might have to work out a little before I put that badboy on my back loaded!

[I @ M]

but what else do I need to do?

Practice ---- lots.


I am not confident in my speedlight skills and will definatly need practice before then. I have the speedlight handbook which I have been reading like the bible and it is helping but will definatly need some hands on practice.

And assuming you do lots of practice with the camera and then with your flash, if the wedding is about 12 months away I reckon you should be pretty well set.

[enotoarts]

wedding's in october :o

[patrickv]

I have noticed that another thing to get experience in something a bit similar to a wedding is to photograph social events. Unlike studio work (I'm guessing your portraits may be studio or at least somewhat controlled), in a regular social venue you don't have control on what is happening, the environment, and usually the challenge of low light. Not only you refine your technical skills, but you also learn a lot about the social experience of photographing lots of groups of people you don't know, you figure out the anti-blink techniques such as all close your eyes and open them at three, and so on.

I have also noticed that a fast recycling speedlight helps a lot since you can go click click click and keep the pic where everyone looks good at the same time. For that a technique I use is to have a powerful flash, and use high ISO at the same time so it's mostly a fill-in thatfires only at a fraction of its full power.

Flash is hard but it's so interesting! It also gets you in the habit to go full manual ...
Have fun I wish you the best

[enotoarts]

I think I'll have to track down a party and take some photos! thanks for your help.

[gary]

I think you will also need a 70-200mm lens so you can stand back a little
and not be in people's faces so to speak.
I have done a couple of weddings and 24-70 and 70-200 covers most situations.
You have a pretty good lens line up already so may be instead of selling the 24-105 lens
and buying the 24-70 look at buying or hiring a 70-200 f2.8.

[enotoarts]

Update for wedding information. The ceremony will be in a big church but will only have 50-60 guests so will not be filled up. They don't want to see how empty the church will be so I will be getting closer to the front then I though I could. The day is starting early and the ceremony will be finished by midday, however they want to have a photo session at the beach immediately afterward. ie. Beach + Noon + white dress = oh no. I think there will be multiple trips to the beach in my immediate future.

[ice]

That really depends... i've seen some absolutely GORGEOUS wedding photography in midday sun on the beach that are shot high key (dress over exposed etc), that work so well. My advice would be to make sure you have filters ready- a UV and a good quality CPL will help you retain that colour in the sky and the water.

[Telby]

I hope it goes well for you

[Shelley]

When walking into a room, check the light straight away and think about how you will work it to get the shots, you need to be quick, especially when doing the bride getting ready etc. , often you can meter for the light and set your settings straight away when walking in to a room and do minor adjustments as you go. check your histogram as go, so you can adjust your flash or setting in the camera. Always, notice what your camera is doing in the viewfinder, if the shutter speed is slow etc. Moving from inside to outside - check your settings straight away and be prepared for that - they move fast, whereas in reality they don't, but when your shooting time is of essence, it goes so fast.

Also, have plenty of water for yourself to drink, chuck some nut bars or something in your bag as well. I often have fruit as well - as I tend to forget to drink and eat and then I get massive headache when I go home. I have an assistant when doing events, not necessarily a photographer - someone to co-ordinate people, get the shots happening for me, help with the gear etc. My hubby even did this once, but he kept telling me how to do things, lol and didn't realise that for people stuff I run on nervous energy.

All the best and practise, practise and then keep practising.

[habro]

LOTS of memory cards. My first wedding I spent half the reception (when they were eating) trying to find photos to delete so I had room for dancing/speech photos. You mentioned you're bringing your laptop to 'periodically backup'... I think you overestimate how much down-time you'll have on your first wedding...

[William]

:) You will probably do one , Then want to give up , I've done 5 , No more !! The stress is to much for me , And the money does'nt matter It's a one off thing , If you screw it your done , No second chance , Luckily mine all turned out OK , Good luck and get all your gear prepared before hand , All the back up's as said before , If you want me for a wedding $5000 min now :D

[enotoarts]

Thanks everyone, all your comments are very helpful. I am going to practice as much as I can before then. The backing up should hopefully not be too much of an issue, It usually takes about 3 minutes to back up a card onto my laptop and the laptop turns on in about 2. I'm sure I'll be able to take 5 minutes every so often, I'll have to take bathroom breaks occasionally too (maybe I can multitask). I have also been looking at the little backup machines you can buy to backup on the run, although these can be quite $$$.

[patrickv]

I remember once using two cards and a laptop, it worked pretty well (wasn't a wedding). Basically I had the laptop in a corner of the room, plugged into AC. When a card got practically full, I'd change the card for the empty one, continue shooting, and when I had a minute I could just slip the card in the laptop, and click on transfer. Once the second card was full, I had already finished the transfer from the first one a while ago so it was ready to use. 16G cards are fast to fill when I shoot action in raw format!!

[habro]

I'm just wary that this is a wedding, not a nothing party. What if someone steals the laptop? It happens. And that's the ONLY place you'll have your images? Or will it be purely a 'back-up' because you have enough cards that you don't need to overwrite images? If it's the latter of the two, you're fine. If it's the former, you're asking for trouble.

[William]

And when I was talking "Backup", I was meaning Camera's , Flash, Cards and Batteries , Not just backing up the images on the fly , You will need at least two of everything

[patrickv]

I remember once using two cards and a laptop, it worked pretty well (wasn't a wedding). Basically I had the laptop in a corner of the room, plugged into AC. When a card got practically full, I'd change the card for the empty one, continue shooting, and when I had a minute I could just slip the card in the laptop, and click on transfer. Once the second card was full, I had already finished the transfer from the first one a while ago so it was ready to use. 16G cards are fast to fill when I shoot action in raw format!!
Just ignore that silly post. A wedding only happens once. It's a bad idea. In that specific case, I did it as a "backup plan" because I had forgotten my memory card collection at home and I only had the two memory cards that were already in the cameras. I wouldn't recommend it if you can avoid it.

Myself (and other people) recommend to have enough memory cards to store everything and always keep them with you. Some wedding photographers even have a special pouch that goes under their clothes for memory cards. Gear can be replaced, a given wedding is something that happens once. An even better option is to have a camera that has two card slots, and as you fill these memory card pairs, put one in your own pocket, and give the other one to someone you trust to keep the backup.

Also, as a general rule, never format a memory card that contains anything important without having its data in at least two different physical locations. A nice option is cloud storage backup. There is some software that will sync your hard disk on some secure facility on the net, which is at a different place than your home.

Wish you all the best.