 Brian Demarco |
HELP amateur photographer asked to do wedding Hello all, I recently found this site while frantically trying to find tips for wedding photography. My cousin has asked me to take pictures of there wedding. He does not have a lot of money and is having a small wedding. I told him I would but am very nervous. I know they are not expecting much but I want to give them something good. I take lots of pictures but never a wedding. It will be at night in a church. Can you please give me any advice or tips. What is a safe all around apeture, shutter, white balance, etc. I have a canon digital rebel, with a flash. But have access to a nikon d70 if need be. Will a camera flash be enough? Do I need studio lights? Lots of questions, little time. thanks a bunch.
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Nicole Kessel |
Hi Brian. Here is a link for you. http://johnlind.tripod.com/wedding/
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Gerald Kraus |
I used to do 2nd weddings & still do parties. All I can tell you is that you should speak to your cousin and his future wife and ask them what type pictures they expect. (ie the church, the family members etc). Since it is a night wedding I would see if you could take some pictures of the inside of the church during the daylight hours & shoot some pictures without flash on a tri-pod. (use the widest wide angle lense in your equipment bag) As far as equipment---a bracket is helpful which keeps the Flash above the camera (this will prevent red-eye for close-up shots) If you intend to shoot close-up use a soft lens filter. (especially for the bride). If you own a battery pack bring it with you for quicker and increased flash responses. And if you don't, bring several sets of new batteries. One more suggestion, if you can before the wedding, try to shoot pictures of the bride & groom in the daylight at a park or whereever there is a good background. In the church, leave the camera on program, leave the white balance on automatic---the camera should adjust for the lighting situation. The Lens of choice should be a small zoom--it will make things easier for you to get some good pictures. Definitely bring an extra camera for back-up. ----Good Luck---I hope some of my suggestions help.
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Kerry L. Walker |
A safe f/stop is around f/5.6 to f/8. It will give you all the DOF you need and should give you plenty of light, assuming you are using a fairly powerful flash (not built-in). If you have a 28mm or 35mm lens, use that. It will give you the angle of coverage of a normal lens on a 35mm camera. If you have a 50mm or longer, use that for the close-ups as it will get you far enough away to eliminate perspective distortion. Use a shutter speed of about 1/30 or so inside. Yes, I know your flash will sync at a faster speed but the slower shutter speed will give you some additional ambient light. As for zooms, I prefer the two I was born with, my feet, but others prefer a zoom lens. It is up to you.
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Brian Demarco |
Thanks guys for the responses. I will surely use your suggestions. Hopefully all will go well.
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x |
Hmmm. I respectfully disagree with Kerry. In dark churches, I shoot at f/1.4 or 1.2 or whatever my lens will allow so I can suck in as much light as possible. Yes, my DOF suffers, but you learn to work with it. Most likely, you wont be able to bounce your flash, and direct flash, is well...yuck, do people still do that????... anyway, open up that lens as wide as you can and splash some fill flash in there. You'll be good to go. But, using my technique, forget about walking down the isle shots or anything. For that, do what Kerry suggests, btu you need some big time flash power for that.
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