[TYOsborn]

Hi!

I'm excited. My niece wants me to shoot her wedding. I've never done one. I would like to get a flash before her wedding next weekend. I have a K200. I know there are several posts in the forum about flashes, but I'd like to know what would be best for a beginner. Maybe some suggestions on a good lens as well. What I have so far is listed in my tag line. I'm planning on taking some shots of her getting ready for the wedding. The actual wedding will be outside. Any helpful hints on shooting the wedding would be great as well.

Thanks so much!

[kenyee]

are you the only photog or a secondary?
If you're the only one, I'd just suggest to your niece that they find a primary. I was second once and it's a lot harder than it looks. You also need a 16-50/2.8 lens because your others aren't fast enough except for the 70-200.
the AF540 is probably the simplest thing to use because the camera will automatically adjust for your focal length.

[Wheatfield]

This is probably the wrong thing to say and the wrong way to say it, but if you haven't shot a wedding before, don't cut your teeth on a family wedding.
It's not worth the inevitable family strife that this entails.

[Classvino]

This is probably the wrong thing to say and the wrong way to say it, but if you haven't shot a wedding before, don't cut your teeth on a family wedding.
It's not worth the inevitable family strife that this entails.

AMEN ! (I speak from experience.)

Despite my warnings and before-the-fact disclaimers, there were still bad vibes after I gave them the pics.

In hindsight, (and 30 or 40 weddings later as a second shooter) I wouldn't have paid much for them either. (Not that that was the issue... I didn't charge them anything - and they still complained... though refusing can also generate bad vibes sometimes too...)

Jamie

[Venturi]

The thing with weddings - aside from the bridezilla aspect - is that it doesn't matter how good of a shooter you are. If you have never shot a wedding you honestly have no freakin clue how to shoot one or what to expect.

I suspect you'll disregard the following - I did as do most people on 1st wedding advice - but for the record...

I shot two weddings last year, that's two more than I should have to be perfectly honest. Both times there were two of us shooting and both times we did pull it off ... but barely.

Weddings are out of control. At best they are a live demonstration of the chaos principle. It doesn't matter how well planned, how well rehearsed, how many weddings the official has performed. As soon as you mix highly strung, excited people you get chaos. Nothing happens "on schedule" and if you're not 100% on your game you're going to miss something "critical". And being on game means knowing what is supposed to happen when and also knowing your equipment like you were born with it.

If you're agreeing to shoot this wedding because otherwise they wouldn't have a photographer then my 1st suggestion is to offer to at least split the cost of a pro as your wedding gift and maybe see if they'll let you "stand in" with them.

Like I said at the start I've done 2 weddings - and if I'm lucky I'll never shoot one again.

[TYOsborn]

Thanks for everyone's comments. It's my niece's wedding and I will be the only shooter. It's the "they won't have one if I don't" deal. I do realize the conflict it could cause, but I'm sure they realize I'm not a professional and hopefully don't expect the pics to be as such, but I, of course, hope they will be. So with that being said, I need to get a 16-50/2.8 and an AF540?

Thanks again and all that pray... say a prayer for me!

[mi2nc]

TY-let us know how it turns out...

[mattdm]

For what it's worth, my wife and I had a very low-key wedding and asked a two of our friends to take pictures. Both were skilled amateur photographers who hadn't shot a wedding before. We got some very beautiful images we're really happy with. Few of them look like stereotypical pro wedding shots, but that's not what we were looking for anyway. It was also outdoors, so it wasn't the dim, cavernous church nightmare lighting scenario.

I think the primary thing is to talk very clearly with your niece about expectations, and I think it can be okay.

That said, yeah, get the AF540FGZ or the Metz 58 AF-1. Do you have the possibility of borrowing a second camera body for the event? It'd be sad for some glitch to ruin everything.

I won't say don't shoot but I will say look on the net and get a shot sheet. Find out what people your neice wants included in the shots and have someone other than you round them up at the proper time. At the wedding check off the shots as you complete them. Take control of the situation. You are the director for the formals. Weddings aren't all that bad. They're hectic and a lot of work. But overall a good experience.

I always bring 2 cameras and usually have my fastest 70-210 on my digital. For a flash I use a handle mount Pentax af400t. I can pop it off and put it several feet to one side or the other as I see fit.

[Wheatfield]

Well, if your gonna do it.......

Don't try to cover every little thing that happens. You can't do it. No one can.
The major stuff:

Any prebridal stuff. Old school we shot the pinning on of coursages and prebridal portraits while the bride was fresh.
I still think this is the best idea for when to do the bridal portraits.

Getting into the Limo, getting out of the Limo.

You want to stake out a spot towards the front of the church, right behind the parents if you can. I prefer to shoot from the left side of the aisle so that the bride isn't right on top of me when she goes by with daddy.

Get shots of the groom and his entourage prior to the ceremony. Typical clutch and grin stuff, nothing fancy.

Processional: Don't go stupid with the pictures. A couple of seconds or more between shots. Make sure the flash is kept in the shorter end of recycling times.
Don't even think of chimping.
Once the bride and daddy are past, get into the aisle and travel backwards. If you can manage it, there is always a bit of happiness at this point, you want to photograph it, so move quickly. There is always kisses and tears at this moment.
It's magic, and one of the most important pictures, since it's "the last time we hugged our little girl before she got married".
This is important to people.
If it's a big church sit a little farther back, but not more than about 3 rows from the front. This is where the action is.

If you have a second body and a telephoto lens, it should be on a tripod at the back of the church with the ISO cranked a bit.
Take some shots with it of the ceremony itself.
Don't try to do this if you only have one body and are using a shoe mount flash. You don't have time and you risk dropping something or breaking something, either way, it ends the day for you.
If I can, I'll use the tripod mounted camera for everything up to the kiss, otherwise it's important to get the ring exchange and the kiss.
I like a longer lens for this, but use what you have.
I used to take a couple of pictures of everyone involved in the register signing, now I just shoot one each of the BM & MOH while they are actually signing, a couple of the priest, and a couple each of the B&G.
They really want to be standing next to their new SO while this is going on, even if you have to tell them this is what they want.

You'll get an opportunity to shoot some pictures of the newly married couple and their combined entourage after the signing. Take a few close ups og the B&G (verticals) and then back off and take a few shots of the entire group (one of the few times you'll have the camera horizontal during the entire day.
After that, back off and let the congregation have at it. You go to the back of the congregation and photograph the recessional.
I always take the first opportunity that I get, right after they are out the doors of the room to congratulate them and get a big kiss from the bride.
At that point they are so emotional they'll kiss anyone.

After that it's candids, into the Limo and off to the portraits.

Have fun.

[George Lama]

A few more tidbits -

• I love weddings and approach them as a theatre production - a play for which I received the Playbill for and can't wait to see it unfold. Don't assume you know what's going on in the wedding. Ask them to put it in writing for you. Tell them if things change, they need to let you know as well. Find out about any special things going on. The last thing you want to find out at the last minute is that they decided to do something cute and you missed it because you weren't prepared for it.
• Shot sheets are great, however, you need to ask them what they want first. Hold off on the shot sheets until they get back to you. The one time I used a shot-sheet with a bride/groom, they just about checked everything on that page, even though later they refused to take many of them because it was 90 degrees indoors. If they ask, I give them a short one, mostly with family combos.
• Related to the previous, with the exception of group shots, many of the shots you find in said sheets are for *you* to want to take. Bride/groom don't need to be asked if they want a "exchanging rings" shot, or "the first kiss" shot, etc.
• Can't stress enough the importance of getting someone to help you coordinate the group shots. You might know most people, but I'm sure some will be new. You don't want to be worrying about who's who. I typically ask the bride to pick someone who will know people, then I can concentrate on my work.

As far as the photography goes -

• Always be prepared just in case. Extra memory cards in pocket, extra batteries for the flash, fully charged camera, etc.
• Whatever new gear you buy, you need time to become familiar with it, specially a flash unit you've never played with. Give yourself time to do so.
• Be careful with group shots - you will always have one or two attention deficit people who insist on looking away or down a fraction of a second before you press the shutter. Always check the shot and look for blinkers and drunks.
• Backup your images as you go. Not sure how many shots you plan to take, but don't put all your eggs in one basket. If I have enough cards at hand, I copy (not delete) the photos to my laptop hard drive until I backup the images to some other media (DVD, external drive, etc). Then I clear out the cards once I'm sure all is well.

[kenyee]

Wow...wheatfield put up a great description. Wish I had it when I was 2nd at my brother's wedding when the entire thing seemed like herding cats because no one listened to any of my direction because I was just a relative shooting the wedding...felt like herding cats when I covered parts of the day that the main photog didn't cover :-P

If you're the sole photographer, rent a backup camera from cameralensrentals.com. They're good folks. You can rent the 16-50 and the flash as well. If you do the second camera, put a 50-135 or 70-200/2.8 on it and you should be all set unless you're in horribly dim lighting in which case a 50/1.4 would help. If you're using flash, run the shutter at 1/30th to get more ambient (that was my biggest mistake) and use the flash for fill (if you have no clue what I'm talking about just run the 540 and bounce it as much as possible to get indirect light).

[Wheatfield]

If you're using flash, run the shutter at 1/30th to get more ambient (that was my biggest mistake) and use the flash for fill (if you have no clue what I'm talking about just run the 540 and bounce it as much as possible to get indirect light).

I'm going to disagree with this.
Here's why.
1) Bounce kills flash power in a real hurry and increases recycle times tremendously. You don't want to be waiting for your flash.
2) Bounce flash is all over the place for light quality, and it can be pretty jarring to the viewer of the pictures if they are all over the map regarding light.

On camera direct flash is ugly, but it works.
One thing you will notice with direct flash (and is something I forgot about when I made my original post) is that with the camera vertical, shadows off the side of the subject are inevitable. By rights, you want the flash directly over top of the lens to push the shadows behind the subjects and out of sight.
This means either an off camera flash (Metz hammerhead style, though there are others), or a flash bracket and cabling.
Since this is a one off job on a budget, if you can rent that sort of thing, do so, but make sure you know how to use it, or stay with horizontal camera position.
To do this you will be needing a wider angle lent though since you will want to crop a lot of your shots down to vertical.

[kenyee]

1) Bounce kills flash power in a real hurry and increases recycle times tremendously. You don't want to be waiting for your flash.

Which reminds me...rent a spare battery pack for the AF540 if possible so you can avoid changing batteries at the worst time.

Bounce is a relatively safe noob technique to avoid the "cave look" of direct flash which is why I suggested it. Without bounce, he'd have to use a bracket for direct light but the lighting will be harsher. You can use a lightsphere (another good for noobs thing) w/o the bracket but it eats batteries like there's no tomorrow...

[Wheatfield]

Which reminds me...rent a spare battery pack for the AF540 if possible so you can avoid changing batteries at the worst time.

Bounce is a relatively safe noob technique to avoid the "cave look" of direct flash which is why I suggested it. Without bounce, he'd have to use a bracket for direct light but the lighting will be harsher. You can use a lightsphere (another good for noobs thing) w/o the bracket but it eats batteries like there's no tomorrow...

Without knowing ceiling heights in the venue, recommending bounce to a noob can be a very dangerous thing to do. You get into a church with a 24 foot ceiling height and see how effective your bounce flash is...