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My equipment for wedding photography

A friend of mine has asked me to help him with a wedding. He will do the video taping and asked me to do the photography. I have never done wedding photography before and I need some tips on film and equipment. I have a Canon EOS Elan 7E SLR with BP-300 Battery Pack and Canon EF 28-80mm f4/5.6 lens. The pop-up flash has a GN of 43 in feet (ISO 100). I also have a diffusion filter for that lens. I also have a Minolta Maxxum 450si SLR and sigma 28-200 zoom. Then I have a Pentax AF260 SA (GN 85ft/ISO100) dedicated flash for my Pentax P3oT manual Focus SLR as well as a Hanimex flash unit( GN 56ft/ISO 100). I have a 50mm f2 lens, 35-80 f4/5.6, Sigma 70-200 f3.5/4 zoom, 2X kenko teleconverter for my Pentax camera. OK, Lets say I have most of what I need. I have three tripods to.

I need to know how to set up my flash units with a slave sensor each in order for my Elan 7e's pop-up flash to trigger them. What I am really asking is what the distance ratios should be for each flash from the subject to set up a formal portrait shot of bride and groom.

I also need advice on what film to use. What do you think of Kodak Porta Neg Films ? I just need some help. Thanks

Pieter Roelofse
Seattle

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June 02, 2003

I wrote it for non-professionals who are in your situation. (It's not intended as a tutorial for those who want to work weddings professionally.)

Since you state you've never done a wedding before:
Use the KISS principle (Keep It Simple) . . . seriously! There is a *lot* going on with a wedding and you want to pay attention to what's happening around you. The more complex you make the equipment setup, the more likely you will make a mistake with it or miss an important photo opportunity.

Traditional wedding work involves two modes of operation: formal portraiture and photojournalistic (a.k.a. editorial). Aside from knowledge about posing and skill with anticipating and positioning yourself to capture important "decisive moments" your biggest technical issue will be light . . . being able to produce enough of it, being able to control it (direction and quality), and the electronic flash units being able to recover fast enough for the next photograph. Following close behind that is having enough battery power to make it through the entire event. Don't underestimate how much can be required.

Lenses:
Lenses in the 35-105mm focal length range are the most commonly used. Longer focal lengths are difficult to hand hold and control image composition in the viewfinder, not to mention camera shake potential during the exposure itself. Yours are much slower (f/4/5.6) than pros use. You may encounter auto-focus system problems when the lights are turned down low for dancing at the reception. Have a plan for what you will do if that occurs. I cannot help much in that regard; *all* my equipment is manual focus and I have fast lenses to work the low light levels (nothing slower than f/2.8). Not that I shoot them wide open . . . typical apertures are f/5.6 to f/8 depending on distance . . . but so I can see to compose and focus in very low light (lens is held wide open until shutter is released).

I use Kodak's Portra 160 NC for all work with flash. However, the flash gear I use is much more powerful than the average non-professional owns. If you cannot put out enough light to use ISO 160, then Portra 400 should help, but remember it's only 1-1/3 stop faster than 160, and you cannot enlarge it as much before graininess shows in the print. Quite a few clergy and sometimes the bride/groom families will not allow flash during the ceremony. If so, I use Fuji Press 1600 to shoot available light during the ceremony, and have it preloaded in a different camera body specifically to use during that time (I preload gear, make all settings on it, and double-check everything the night before).

Hope this helps some and good luck!

-- John

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June 03, 2003

So many unknown and variables.

Judging from your equipment list, I think you'd better off using your Pentax manual camera with the Pentax AF260 SA dedicated flash as fill light and your Hanimex flash unit on a slave unit as main light. To keep the 2:1 main to fill ratio, put the Hanimex flash to the side about 4 feet from the subject and you shoot at 8 feet from the subject. If you have a sync cord, you can stationed your Hanimex and you can move around with your camera.

Hope this helps.

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June 04, 2003