Got My Second Job

[darklord]

Just got my second job shooting a small private wedding in a community hall. My main gear will be the 1Ds2 + 24-70 f2.8L + 580EXII.


I've never been to that community hall and my guess is that it is one of the newer ones with windows on the sides. My concern is that the faces will be well lit on one side and there will be shadows on the other. I plan on bouncing flashes with a diffuser up the ceiling or up at an angel to the sides. But if the ceiling is too high, I might need to aim the flash on the right at the subject. Any other suggestions?


Also, I don't have any gel, never used any before, do I need to worry about it in a community hall situation and perhaps some outdoor shots as well? Thanks.

[TucsonTRD]

I think the first thing you should do is go to the community hall to see for yourself what you have to work with. You should see if you can observe the rehearsal so you can prepare for how the action will unfold.

[Sean Setters]

I think the first thing you should do is go to the community hall to see for yourself what you have to work with. You should see if you can observe the rehearsal so you can prepare for how the action will unfold.
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That's very good advice. I always try to scope out the location I'll be shooting in before D-day.

[darklord]

I think the first thing you should do is go to the community hall to see for yourself what you have to work with. You should see if you can observe the rehearsal so you can prepare for how the action will unfold.
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That's very good advice. I always try to scope out the location I'll be shooting in before D-day.
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Thanks for the advice, however, it is a small private ceremony so there'll be no rehearsal. The community hall is far away at an hour drive, two hours return trip for my house. Not that I don't want to do a good job but I just have to operate on the premise of site unseen this time.

[Sean Setters]

I think the first thing you should do is go to the community hall to see for yourself what you have to work with. You should see if you can observe the rehearsal so you can prepare for how the action will unfold.
<div style="CLEAR: both"]</div>

That's very good advice. I always try to scope out the location I'll be shooting in before D-day.
<div style="CLEAR: both"]</div>

Thanks for the advice, however, it is a small private ceremony so there'll be no rehearsal. The community hall is far away at an hour drive, two hours return trip for my house. Not that I don't want to do a good job but I just have to operate on the premise of site unseen this time.
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I was going to shoot a wedding under similar circumstances where I didn't have access to the chapel before the ceremony. However, I was able to "borrow" a local church for about an hour while no one was there (very nice preacher) and was able to practice shooting under [what I thought might be] similar circumstances. It wasn't exact, but it gave me a better idea of the obstacles I'd have to overcome.

[peety3]

Thanks for the advice, however, it is a small private ceremony so there'll be no rehearsal. The community hall is far away at an hour drive, two hours return trip for my house. Not that I don't want to do a good job but I just have to operate on the premise of site unseen this time.
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http://www.lensrentals.com/news/2010.07.25/fwigtew-and-other-first-wedding-acronymss - I see NIVDAR already, with possibilities of IEFT, and a likelihood of HINAP. Honestly, if the job isn't worth preparing for (correctly), the job isn't worthwhile in my opinion.


Once you have at least a hundred weddings under your belt, have a decent array of fast primes, external lights, and triggers you know well, you can get away with NIVDAR. I just got married two weeks ago, and my photographer came out 1.5 hours earlier than when we wanted him to start so he could figure out his approaches, but I'd told him ahead of time "outdoor ceremony, posed family shots on the lawyn, indoor lunch with glass-window doors at one end of the room which could make lighting real difficult, then some photos of us in hallways and outside on bikes, finishing with a two-hour sail on a historic skipjack sailboat." (Plus we told him which movie to go watch so he could see the venue...)

[neuroanatomist]

The community hall is far away at an hour drive, two hours return trip for my house. Not that I don't want to do a good job...

Sorry, and I'm not trying to offend, but in this case, it does sound like you don't want to do a good job. Now, if you don't have access to the location because it's restricted (private site, whatever), that's one thing. Even in those cases, you might at least be able to arrange a look (I'd think the bride/groom got to have a look at the location before they paid for it).


If you don't want to make a ~2 hour drive because it's too much trouble, then I'd say you're not doing the best job you can. I understand that time is money (and so is gas), which is why location scouting should be rolled into what you're charging for the wedding, or intentionally left out to keep prices low and build a business reputation. If the latter is your goal (which it should be, if you want to make money at this), then you should know that showing up sight unseen is a recipe for disaster, especially if you don't have a lot of experience (and once you have that experience, you'll know better than to show up sight unseen - don't let your second - or any - wedding be the one that teaches you to never forget that lesson).

[darklord]

Thanks for all these replies. To make it clear, I'm a guy with a regular day job trying to pick up photography as a hobby. To this couple, it is between me and Uncle Bob holding a point and shoot with a pop up flash, and I'm sure Uncle Bob will be shooting beside me as well on that day. For the price they are paying me and after gas and batteries, working in Macdonald's is a more profitable proposition. Of course that won't absolve me of anything if disaster happens but it is what it is. If not for nothing, you've all convinced me the importance of scouting and planning, for that I thank you all.


I'll be there 90 minutes early on that day to check out the lighting of the hall and plan the spots where formals should be taken. My backup gear is the T2i+70-200 f2.8 IS+430 EXII, and five batteries between the two set of gears.


With my limited experience, my plan is to play the percentage, take as many shots and in as many different settings as possible. Also, I plan to shadow the bride and include her in most if not all of the shots and hope that by the end a handful of the shots will be keepers for this couple to remember this day by. And I hope I can also add some shots to my portfolio from this gig as well.


This the "plan" I come up, it's simple but we all have to start somewhere. If you have advice to help a rookie like me plan that is within my ability, I'm all ears, thanks.

[nickds7]

Just got my second job shooting a small private wedding in a community hall. My main gear will be the 1Ds2 + 24-70 f2.8L + 580EXII.


I've never been to that community hall and my guess is that it is one of the newer ones with windows on the sides. My concern is that the faces will be well lit on one side and there will be shadows on the other. I plan on bouncing flashes with a diffuser up the ceiling or up at an angel to the sides. But if the ceiling is too high, I might need to aim the flash on the right at the subject. Any other suggestions?


Also, I don't have any gel, never used any before, do I need to worry about it in a community hall situation and perhaps some outdoor shots as well? Thanks.

The lighting on one side of the face issue, will depend on the time of day aka suns position relative to the windows. I'm not sure on how to fix that issue, other than avoid it. Perhaps a stationary flash opposite of the windows, facing the same angle as the window light hitting the subjects.

No gel should be needed for most outdoor shots. I'd experiment with your indoor shots with gels, as color temp isn't always the same for every florescent and everyincandescent.

[peety3]

Just got my second job shooting a small private wedding in a community hall. My main gear will be the [snip].

It's not about the equipment. What's your spare camera? What's your spare lens? How many CF cards do you have? How many batteries do you have?

I've never been to that community hall and my guess is that it is one of the newer ones with windows on the sides. My concern is that the faces will be well lit on one side and there will be shadows on the other. I plan on bouncing flashes with a diffuser up the ceiling or up at an angel to the sides. But if the ceiling is too high, I might need to aim the flash on the right at the subject. Any other suggestions?

With all due respect, until you see the venue during the relative same time/light, how/why do you have a lighting plan?


I go into events with my lights and triggers every time. I take the modifiers that I might be able to use given the nature of the event - for weddings, umbrellas are too dangerous, snoots/gobos/etc. are too restrictive for the incredibly rapid pace. I evaluate what I have, and add light where I need.


That said, I work from a "play book": one (or several grouped) flash as fill, one (or several grouped) flash as main with ambient as fill, or three flashes in a semi-typical portrait all-artificial light scenario. I'll consider working with one of my go-to methods, or decide if I want to go off-script. Last wedding, I went with two remote flashes from the ends of the dance floor and on the side where all of the tables were. I couldn't shoot the candids, but I had tremendous success on the dance floor and head table, which was all that really mattered.

Also, I don't have any gel, never used any before, do I need to worry about it in a community hall situation and perhaps some outdoor shots as well? Thanks.
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If you don't know how to work with gels, you either need to learn before or simply skip it. I only skip the gel when I have &gt;5600K ambient (i.e. cloudy/shady) and feel that cloudy/shady WB gives me a reasonable base using ambient light.