 Jamara M. Wakefield |
Wedding Photography I will be shooting my first Wedding in June. Does any one have any suggestion on what type of equipment I should use or invest in for this type of work.
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
Indoor wedding or outdoor? What equipment do you have? Are they going to be buying wall portraits, smaller enlargements, or albums?
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Jamara M. Wakefield |
The wedding party will be about 10 ushers and bridesmaids, indoor, I already have a minolta and a nikon basic SLR
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Jeff S. Kennedy |
No lenses or flashes? Are you doing formals? If so, before or after the wedding and where (inside or out)? I ask all these questions because there are a lot of variables involved. I could easily just give you a list of all my equipment but I doubt you have $20k you want to invest in this wedding. The more info you can give us about what you have and where you're at knowledgewise the better the advice we can give you.
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Jamara M. Wakefield |
My Nikon is a N60 and my Minolta is a Maxxum 4 They both are pretty much the SLR kits that come with two zoom lenses I also have a TTL shoe mount flash for the both of them. A F Minolta Sunpak and a F Nikon Metz flash. I have assisted a couple of times. I went to Photography school. I have been shooting jobs for 3 years. I know how to expose film and work with available as well as balance the flash and not over do it. This is a small wedding for a couple with not a lot of money. I will be the only photographer. They will be giving me 600 to buy my film process it and create an album. Any additional prints will be at their additional expense. I am not making a profit I just want the experience. I feel like my equipment is modest. BUt I still want to give then the best images That I can. I don't want my modest equipment or my inexperience to hinder theri big day. I want to cover all my bases. Any advice suggestions concerns hints?
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John A. Lind |
Jamara, Is this a "one shot" deal, or are you trying to start up a wedding business? See my "survival guide" for weddings: It's geared for a non-professional who gets roped into the task, but discusses a number of major issues you need to consider. Some of the technical solutions offered are not that appropriate for professionals (lighting in particular) . . . note the underlying technical problems instead. Since you've had some formal training and should know about various types of specialized equipment, identifying and understanding the major technical issues is likely more important. Aside from composition skills (posing formals and working crowds for candids), being able to work well with "strangers" you've never met before and keeping the "business" end of it under control, the single biggest technical issue is lighting: having enough of the right kind. On a very tight budget, I recommend setting equipment priority to: That said, I agree with Jeff that the capital investment to outfit a professional wedding photographer starts at about $10k or so . . . and goes up from there. Formals are best done using portable studio equipment (e.g., monolights, stands, umbrellas, flash meter etc.). The formals can be done using on-camera flash, but it is difficult at best and results do suffer some from the nature of on-camera lighting which, by necessity, originates from the camera position. -- John
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Liz Novak |
John, The information on your site was very helpful. I'm just getting into wedding photography. I have taken photographs not as the "official" photography and have been told that mine were better than the professionals. I know there is a lot involved and I'm not going into this thinking it will be a piece of cake. Your advice is very practical and helped me think about all the different aspects besides ones I already knew. Liz
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