[ismaelg]

Hello,

As I have seen, a wedding is 90% photographer, 10% equipment. I don't dare to shoot a wedding as main photographer. I have been second camera in a few thou...
However, I got a call from a friend. Long story made short: I HAVE to photograph a wedding most likely for almost free. No church, all in bride's house, no reception, almost no guests. No budget or time for a wedding, much less a paid photographer.
I'm not used to shoot raw. I shoot JPG most of the time but I'd like to use raw for this. I don't mind the extra time in PP but my Photoshop Elements is very old. Does it make sense to shoot raw, convert to TIFF in the Pentax sw and PP in photoshop? If I convert in the Pentax sw from raw to JPG, will it be the same or very similar to shooting JPG in the first place? Should I just forget about this raw thing and shoot JPG?
I have plenty more questions for later...

Thanks,

[Ash]

Ismael,
Shooting RAW means that some highlight and shadow detail may be retained for PP. Saving adjusted RAW images to JPEG at the highest quality setting should suffice for all intensive purposes. I don't use TIFF at all given its much larger file size with minimal practical benefit.

But shooting JPEG in the first place means you need to get exposure spot on for each of your important shots otherwise risk losing detail that is not recoverable as it would be shooting RAW.

[little laker]

Although shooting in RAW will allow you to pull the exposure a little more it won't save your butt with a badly exposed photo.

It will however allow you to alter the white balance, which can be a real nightmare while shooting in JPG... especially in the mixed lighting you'll most likely encounter.

If you nail the photo there are several programs that'll do a batch edit converting all the photographs to JPG.
Some of them are free, while others offer a trial period.

Good luck with it.

[alohadave]

I HAVE to photograph a wedding most likely for almost free.

You HAVE to?

First of all, if you go changing how you work your pictures just for this wedding, it's going to throw you off. How are you now with exposures in jpeg? If you can get well exposed pictures the way you shoot now, don't try to change it, shoot the way you know.

I would find out exactly what the bride is looking for and do what you can to get what she is looking for. Please stress to her that you aren't a pro at this and the pictures may reflect that (not a dig at you). Since it's a very small affair, you should have some flexibility as far as setting them up so that you have good angles to shoot from.

Additionally, don't try to change your shooting style for the wedding. You know how you work best, and presumably the bride has seen samples of your work.