[madaway]

thanks

[westmill]

OK ! Because Pentax doesnt do distance flash reconition, flash is hard work. Flash is also important.
You need a good powerful gun and one that uses auto as well as Pttl. Auto would be more reliable. Metz recomended here.
The only place you may struggle is if its a church wedding and your told flash not allowed.
Here... sumit like a fast 50mm might be a get out of jail free card since I doubt the KR quality would be too ace at just 1600 ISO.
This is where better cameras and faster lenses come into play. I prefer to use a camera with good ISO ability than fast lenses.
Fast lenses create there own problems with shallow DOF. At the end of the day people have been taking wedding pics long
before digital came to be. Not too many photographers would use film faster than 400 ASA and many used a single prime lens
on medium format. In comparison, your kit makes it easy with a good flash. Make sure you shoot in RAW too. That will give more
scope for correcting images. Above all things.... remain calm and relaxed.
The important things are shutter speed and aprature. Check constantly !!!!!!

[Todd Adamson]

In the interest of probably adding nothing at all to this thread (LOL), I'll just say I've shot plenty of weddings, professionally and with good results, without using a flash. Some venues don't allow it, and some couples tell me specifically they don't want it.

[Ash]

Yep. You're right Todd. An experienced photog can make it happen. That's not the case here. I wouldn't do a wedding without a good flash or two in my bag - even if I never use it.

[geru2000]

If you're on a budget why not rent a lens or two? I've used Camera Lens Rental in the past, their prices are reasonable and their service is second to none. You could look at a Pentax 28-70mm f/2.8 FA* AL a 4 day rental with waiver damage is less than $60.00 or even the Pentax 50-135mm f/2.8 ED (IF) SDM smcP-DA with damage waiver is just $44.00 for 4 day rental. Both of these lenses have better IQ and are faster than the kit lens. You should be able to capture some pretty nice shots with either.
You can also rent the Pentax AF540FGZ Flash for 4 days at a cost of $17.00. Don't forget that shipping has to be added to those prices.

[lonoise]

While I've been browsing this forum for quite a few months now as a pentaxian, this thread actually made me register and throw in my 2p for whatever it's worth.

I think we sometimes get lost in technology race and forget what we used shoot with. Give me a K-r 8 years ago and I would be one ecstatic camera owner. A lot of photographers have shown that equipment doesn't matter as much as what you do with it. But enough of the generalisations.

K-r for weddings? Absolutely, why not. Your sony will be great as back up there.
To repeat a couple of people up there. A fast manual lens would do you nicely. 50mm with 1.6 crop gives you a nice portrait lens there.
Grab a slave strobe with umbrella or softbox on ebay and use it for posed photos.

You don't need a spectacular budget. I'm a firm believer of buying second hand and will stick to it while selling my ols equipment.

One major advice is: practice, practice, practice.
I would truly recommend going to the extremes of asking friends and neighbours about weddings and then politely inviting yourself as a free photographer (working alongside the professional one). As long as you do it in a discreet way most people will be happy to have additional source of photos (maybe apart from the pro guy).
It will also give you a chance to experience wedding environment and see what setting work for you best.

God knows, maybe you'll go to a shoot and discover some weird unknown technique that will allow you to shoot gerat photos with kit lens and built in flash. You never know.

I'll leave you with a link to wedding shoot done with k-r:
Pentax K-R – 1st wedding in Fernbrook | in my mind's eye

[madaway]

Thank you for the information, I am currently thinking of getting the tamrom 18 -250 lens to cover most aspects of the wedding so change of lens will be kept to a minimum, and using AV as my main mode,please can you explain the 1.6 crop don't really understand. slave strobe? so do you think i will need a flash for inside shots, wedding is at a golf club, so no church shots to be had, Great photo's by the way, if i can emulate that quality i will be truly happy.

[lonoise]

with regards to crop.

a typo there. k-r actually has 1.5 crop. to simplify it, it means that you have to multiply the focal length of any lens by 1.5 to get the 35mm equivalent. So, your 50mm would be an equivalent of 75mm on 35mm camera.

strobes are great, but as in pm, reading a bit first would be great.

here's a good link:
Strobist: Lighting 101

and some examples of use of them outside:
An Introduction to Outdoor Flash Photography