A little advice would be rad...

PontiusPirate · 10-04-2007, 10:38 AM

Ok.
I am shooting my first wedding next March.
Is there any advice you can give a first-timer?

**redbaron** · 10-04-2007, 04:09 PM

practice with low lighting & flash stuff
know your settings
have a spare body/lens setup
have at least two sets of spare batteries (camera & flash)

I don't know, i recently finished my first, and luckily it was pretty low key. I think the portrait stuff (posed) is the hardest. I absolutely loathe being in posed pictures so i'm a jerk about taking them, i like candid stuff a lot better. So what i did was got people to pose and took multiple shots, and in my experience, the ones "between" the actual pictures turned out best because the couple relaxed a bit.

PontiusPirate · 10-11-2007, 03:44 PM

I'm really not to scared about the portraits...we'll see though.
Thanks for the advice.

Seems as though...
one wedding is turning into three!
Gah.

RipVanWinkle · 10-11-2007, 04:41 PM

It depends on what style they want.

I was an assistant wedding photographer for a few years. All schedules are different, but this was typically the order of stuff

Heres what I'd do for the pre-ceremony stuff.

Get there as the ladies get there. Start with shots of these types of things:
The dress (hanging up)
The shoes (before they're on the brides feet)
flowers that are laying around
shots of the girls getting ready doing hair and makeup and such

(leave while they get dressed)

Then go to the guys. Take pictures of them getting ready and goofing around. Sometime during the course of things, the guys will get their flowers pinned to their tuxes...get pictures of that.

Go back to the girls and get these pics:
(usually) the mom tying the dress
the bride in her dress
All the bridesmaids reactions

make sure the guys are put away and take the girls OUTSIDE.

Get pictures of all the bridesmaids/prominent ladies (mom/grandma) with the bride individually. Then, line them up and try different angles. Try stuff like getting all the boquets in a row and getting a side shot of them or something.

Then do the same with the guys. Look for some fun stuff to do (try looking up different guy-poses and such). It will depend on the personality of the guys, but typical 'fun' stuff includes: all the guys in sunglasses, a picture of all the guys jumping in mid-air, them making goofy poses...

In between these things, make sure you get some 'detail' shots. Stuff like the sanctuary and decorations and a few of the outside of the building/church the ceremony is in.

...I'll continue this later... I gotta go

RipVanWinkle · 10-12-2007, 08:39 AM

During the Ceremony...

Depending on if its outdoor or indoor it will make a big difference on quality. By that I mean, a dimly lit indoor setting requires much better equipment (fast flashes, fast lenses), and outdoor, a fast lens isn't as crucial (fast lens = wide max aperture = $$).

I'm going to assume its indoor. Most places will only (if at all) allow flash during the procession. After that, you usually have to turn it off. Then you can turn it back on at the recessional (as they leave)

As people are getting ready to come in, go with the guys and take a few of them waiting to walk in. Typically they do first, then you can run to where the girls are about to come in. Take pictures of them mingling.

Then run and get a good spot close to the back so you can see the bridal party walking in.

USE A FLASH and make sure it has FRESH BATTERIES! Hopefully your flash and cameras writing speed can keep up, but try and get a picture or two of every person walking in.

This includes: Ushers ecorting family
guys walking with girls
ring-bearers/flower girls

Then, get ready...Here comes the bride. Take as many as possible.

Get a few of her and the dad walking in
Get a few of them walking down the aisle after they have passed you.
-shoot one of these with the camera almost on the ground.

Usually the flash is turned off at this point.

From here, your equipment is pretty important. Even really good lenses in a dark room will be hard to get good shots. Use a higher ISO and a tripod.
Take some of these:

A wide angle shot of the whole room
(if the place has a balcony its better to do that up there)
If you've got a decent zoom, go to the sides of the room and get groups of people
(look for things like bridesmaids looking at eachother and crying, or groomsmen looking at eachother and grinning)

Try to get some good shots of the main things during the ceremony

Usually the unity candle is the signal that the end is near.

Then comes the kiss
sometimes They'll let you use a flash for that.

Then get ready, the recessional happens really fast.

After the recessional, go to the hall or room where the bridal party is congregating. Take lots of pictures of people crying/laughing/hugging/reminiscing

Usually you wait for the guests to start leaving for the reception.

Bring the bridal party in the sanctuary

Get some of the bridesmaids on stage with bride
Bridesmaids on stage with groom
Guys on stage with groom
guys on stage with bride
...all the important shots (I can expand if you want, but its a pretty long list)
And lots of family shots (each family individually and then together)

and coming next....reception....

ApparentlyNothing · 10-14-2007, 09:55 PM

I just got asked to do my first wedding this December, so this thread is invaluable to me as well. The only thing that scares me is my lack of really high quality gear. I've only got a Canon Rebel XT with the kit 18-55mm lens and an extra 75-300mm lens. Flash is something I don't have much experience with, let alone I only have the flash that's on my camera. I'm hoping to maybe be able to borrow some lenses and a flash maybe, but I'm not sure. Luckily it's a pretty small, low-key wedding and they're friends of mine.

Let's talk pricing. I don't know if this is an issue with you, Chelsea, but if not, then I apologize for hijacking your thread. How much is a good amount to ask for? I don't want to be a jerk and ask for way more than my friends are willing to pay, but I also don't want to be taken advantage of or to undervalue my time and talent.

**redbaron** · 10-17-2007, 11:00 AM

the one I did was cheap by wedding photography standards. I did the whole wedding & reception, post processed everything, built some galleries so they could select which images to deal with (since the processed images are 5-10mb minimum, gallery just makes it faster/easier, plus 10mp on a computer doesn't fit on the screen anyway). They're getting all of the stuff with no restrictions/watermarks/etc and I think i'm charging $300

I think i was supposed to spend 10 hours on it total per our agreement but i'm a perfectionist and i'm sure it was somewhere between 15-18. Doesn't really matter, i wanted it to turn out nice and they are my friends so I don't mind. It's still a good deal for them, and the experience was valuable on its own.