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View Full Version : Been asked to shoot a wedding-Need help!!


September
10-29-2012, 12:42 AM
Calling all HC's photographers!! My brother is getting married in April, and they've asked me to shoot the wedding. Her sister, whose established as a photographer, will be doing some shots too, but they want her in the pics, so they've asked me to shoot as well, so that we can juggle around and both get into the portraits. I need help on two things:

1) I need recommendations for a good camera I can use, and for lenses and accessories I should get with it. As some of you know, I've been doing all my shooting with a pocket camera. But my mom has agreed to buy me a camera in February, a few months before the wedding so I can 'get used to it'. I would prefer it be one I could use with my wildlife photos, just with different lenses. Or the same lenses. Whatever works. I'm clueless :P


2) I need TIPS!! I've been shooting nature/wildlife, I don't know how to photograph people, especially not people high off the excitement of a wedding, and drunk off champagne! Any and all help is appreciated.


I know I'm probably the worst candidate to shoot their wedding, because I'm practically the definition of an ameutur, but I really think I can do it. I just need help :)

September
10-29-2012, 01:55 AM
After reading through many reviews and sifting through many websites, I think I'm going to go with the Nikon D300s. Opinions?

AliKati
10-29-2012, 02:22 AM
I take it you're familiar with aperture, shutter speed, ISO and depth of field? x

Erin Loves Dwarf Hamsters
10-29-2012, 02:22 AM
What a lucky coincidence I am shooting a wedding next Summer too for my Step-mums brother. :)

From the basics of kit, get a camera you feel suits you dont worry about which is top of the range, which is the most expensive etc just find something you like and will feel comfortable with. You don't need to spend a fortune on the camera body just get a decent one (canon and nikon make the best) then focus your money on lenses! This is where the quality comes in.

For a wedding I would say the best lenses to get are going to be a standard 18-55mm lens (for group shots mostly) and then telephoto lenses for the main event. Something along the lines of a 75-200mm should suffice. Don't be tricked into getting the lenses that cover a massive range of lengths like the 55-300mm lenses as you will lose quality with this, if you want a lens that reaches that far go for a 200-300mm lens. The light wont have to travel so far to get to the sensor with shorter range lenses and so they are better quality that long range lenses.

Depending on what the lighting is like inside the venue on the day you may want to opt for an on camera flash (you can get these for about £6 on ebay) that fits on the camera's hot shoe but if it's well lit inside the venue you probably won't need flash.

The only things I can suggest to you in terms of how to shot the wedding itself is to follow wedding photographers on Flickr or Google+ as they will give you some excellent ideas for framing shots and what to capture. Don't be scared to be artistic, move away from typical angles and make sure you get a lot of candid moments!

If you can afford it maybe take a short course on wedding photography, they do lots online that only take a couple of weeks and cost anything from £20-£40 or buy a DVD on wedding photography.

I'm adding some links bellow that I hope will be useful to you. Good luck! :D

How to shoot a wedding - Lesson 1 (http://www.rokkorfiles.com/Wedding101-page1.html)
Masters of Wedding Photography 2 (http://www.mastersofweddingphotography.com/index.html)
Wedding Photography - a Guide to Photojournalism Invest in Knowledge: Amazon.co.uk: Kerry Morgan: Books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wedding-Photography-Photojournalism-Invest-Knowledge/dp/0956546315/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b)
Masters of Wedding Photography - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mXiXCsRGlM)

muddy_dragon
10-29-2012, 02:54 AM
i strongly recommend looking at tamron lenses. they are my all time favourite lens make (without being too expensive), i loved them when i was still using film cameras when i eventually switched to digital i wasn't pleased with the nikon kit lens that came with my camera and it put me off nikon lenses (I'm told that kit lens' are notoriously rubbish, but it was suffiicent to put me off nikon lenses) so i went and got some digital old trusty tamron lenses and as always they were brilliant!

A word of warning about cannon cameras and non cannon lens' i've been told by cannon users (i use nikon) that if you have a non cannon lens attached the camera has a cut off where you can take a few photos then it will refuse to take any more until you turn it off again. this is apparently to deter people from using non cannon lenses (which are often cheaper). i don't know if this is true for all cannon models but i would check that if you consider cannon.

an upside to cannon (well some friends models) and downside to nikon (well the d80 anyway i can't say about other models) is that if you're happy with manual focus and wish to use old film lenses adapted to your new camera which are often as good as new lenses and a damn sight cheaper or you or others may already own. the nikon d80 atleast does not have an exposure metre and you have to 'guess' light levels, whilst some brands of cannon apparently do.

it depends what you want to do with the camera as to which is best in the end.

September
10-29-2012, 04:54 PM
What a lucky coincidence I am shooting a wedding next Summer too for my Step-mums brother. :)

From the basics of kit, get a camera you feel suits you dont worry about which is top of the range, which is the most expensive etc just find something you like and will feel comfortable with. You don't need to spend a fortune on the camera body just get a decent one (canon and nikon make the best) then focus your money on lenses! This is where the quality comes in.

For a wedding I would say the best lenses to get are going to be a standard 18-55mm lens (for group shots mostly) and then telephoto lenses for the main event. Something along the lines of a 75-200mm should suffice. Don't be tricked into getting the lenses that cover a massive range of lengths like the 55-300mm lenses as you will lose quality with this, if you want a lens that reaches that far go for a 200-300mm lens. The light wont have to travel so far to get to the sensor with shorter range lenses and so they are better quality that long range lenses.

Depending on what the lighting is like inside the venue on the day you may want to opt for an on camera flash (you can get these for about £6 on ebay) that fits on the camera's hot shoe but if it's well lit inside the venue you probably won't need flash.

The only things I can suggest to you in terms of how to shot the wedding itself is to follow wedding photographers on Flickr or Google+ as they will give you some excellent ideas for framing shots and what to capture. Don't be scared to be artistic, move away from typical angles and make sure you get a lot of candid moments!

If you can afford it maybe take a short course on wedding photography, they do lots online that only take a couple of weeks and cost anything from £20-£40 or buy a DVD on wedding photography.

I'm adding some links bellow that I hope will be useful to you. Good luck! :D

How to shoot a wedding - Lesson 1 (http://www.rokkorfiles.com/Wedding101-page1.html)
Masters of Wedding Photography 2 (http://www.mastersofweddingphotography.com/index.html)
Wedding Photography - a Guide to Photojournalism Invest in Knowledge: Amazon.co.uk: Kerry Morgan: Books (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Wedding-Photography-Photojournalism-Invest-Knowledge/dp/0956546315/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_b)
Masters of Wedding Photography - YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2mXiXCsRGlM)

Hooray! I was hoping you'd comment :) Thanks so much for the help :) I'm going to go to some stores and get a 'feel' for some of the bodies before making a final decision. And then of course I'll splurge on lenses ;) Thanks again, I'll go check out those links!

leedsgurl
10-29-2012, 05:04 PM
A word of warning about cannon cameras and non cannon lens' i've been told by cannon users (i use nikon) that if you have a non cannon lens attached the camera has a cut off where you can take a few photos then it will refuse to take any more until you turn it off again. this is apparently to deter people from using non cannon lenses (which are often cheaper). i don't know if this is true for all cannon models but i would check that if you consider cannon.

You've already been given lots of fab advice, so ill just say that this bit about non-Canon lenses is not true. I have, and know people who have Canon cameras and use non-Canon lenses all the time with no problems :)

September
10-29-2012, 08:46 PM
You've already been given lots of fab advice, so ill just say that this bit about non-Canon lenses is not true. I have, and know people who have Canon cameras and use non-Canon lenses all the time with no problems

Thanks for clarifying, however I don't much like Canon. I think I'll stick with Nikon ;) But thank you.

leedsgurl
10-30-2012, 01:26 AM
Hehe :) well I love my Canon, and my wedding photographer used a Canon as well.

Best of luck to you :) maybe get some advice from either photography forums or wedding forums as well?

muddy_dragon
10-30-2012, 02:55 AM
You've already been given lots of fab advice, so ill just say that this bit about non-Canon lenses is not true. I have, and know people who have Canon cameras and use non-Canon lenses all the time with no problems :)

ah must just be that model they've got then. thanks for letting me know :)

September
10-30-2012, 05:50 PM
Hehe :) well I love my Canon, and my wedding photographer used a Canon as well.

Best of luck to you :) maybe get some advice from either photography forums or wedding forums as well?

That's a great idea, thanks! :)