Wedding-photography tips - Share yours

[Tom Wertman]

GREAT POINT!! Photographers are often left off of the guest list. Sometimes on purpose and sometimes by mistake. It's a long day so have something handy to eat when you can.

[Tom Wertman]

So, how did the wedding go and when are we going to see some pics for C&C?


Tom

[Sheiky]

I'm sorry I haven't replied earlier on some replies. I have been very busy the last 2 weeks. Also the fact that I still need to use Internet Explorer to use TDP doesn't really help and so this thread got lower and lower on the list.


Anyway thanks for the replies so far and I promise I will adjust the list to your commentary ASAP! I will also probably add some of mine, since now I have "some" weddingphotography experience []

So, how did the wedding go and when are we going to see some pics for C&C?

Well to be honest...it was absolutely exhausting, but very much fun to do! I'm very pleased with the results so far. Only looked through the 1980 files so far....48.7GB!! [:P] I will start on them soon and well I think I could share some with you guys as well. But before I'm at that stage it might take a while. Another week or so.


Now I have to go to bed. I will return to this thread ASAP to read and reply more intensily. Thanks for the effort you all putt in so far,


Jan

[Sheiky]

Alright, here comes the update as promised. I will edit the list while reading everything and replying.


Richard thanks for the tips you gave. However it shows how different traditions are, since there is more than 1 of the photomoments you mentioned which doesn't happen where I live. I did use the list though.

Basically, you want to make sure that when they look back at this photo album, many years from now, that they will have their wedding documented from start to finish.


No pressure here!

That's a good one and it is exactly the way me and brother shot the wedding. Journalist style. Capturing the entire day.

<span style="COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"]<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"]White Balance: Don't use AWB!

Since I wasn't too comfortable with manual white-balance. I used manual white-balance (presets) for the indoor shots and auto for the outdoors stuff using a grey card as reference in post processing. By the way, thanks for the great tips!

<span style="COLOR: #000000; FONT-SIZE: 9pt"]<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"]Your 5D II rocks so bump that ISO. Motion blur kills an image faster than high ISO noise ever will. Do not be afraid of 1600 and even 3200 if necessary. Don't let those shutter speeds fall too low.

I used ISO 1600 max. That's about where I want to go. I must say that when I see the photo's... I'm quite impressed by the high-ISO performance [] And also for shots where you're sure you're not going to makereally big prints of...high iso isn't a problem. I must admit that even with my 5D I'm still anxious to bump the ISO. I must also say that with a flash ISO 1600 is not nearly as bad as with ambient light for some reason.


Great tips Mark, they are added to the list [Y]

Apparently it is really easy to get caught up in the moment and not notice that it looks like a tree is coming right out of the brides head. [img]/emoticons/emotion-1.gif[/img]


Anyways, he took the time to scout our wedding location and pre-select where our formal pictures would be taken, in part, because we wanted a good background.

Thanks for the advice! I actually scouted the place a week before the wedding at approximately the same time so I could see the lighting conditions. Angle of the sun etc. Great tip!


Ps: I know for sure you're not a complete amateur []

Definitely get photos of the obvious that every wedding photographer shouldcapture but stay aware of the not so obvious

Thanks for the advice Denise! Also thanks for the kind words [:$]

Bring some food that can be eaten quickly.
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A simple, but very good tip! Thanks Nate. In the rush we sometimes forget the simple things like having to eat occasionally [] Good one [Y]


Again, thank you all for submissing all your great tips. I hope I edited the list correctly and I didn't forget something. If so please ring a bell [] Also new tips are still welcome for others to enjoy later on [Y]

[Sheiky]

Alright...now the best part:


As you might have noticed I replied somewhat later than I wanted to. To be honest I was very very busy the last few days before the wedding. Last minute updates and checks.


I now have had the wedding and I must say I enjoyed it to the fullest! It was a great wedding. Pictures and a more thoroughly story will follow when I have sorted everything []


There are a few things that I encountered that day.

1. Even though I had a list and good advice thanks to you guys. We missed some shots in the rush. No big deal, we have the most important ones, but still. You can prepare that good, but still forget things etc.
2. Flash gels worked amazing! Best purchase I made so far! Truly they helped a lot. In the morning when I had to shoot the bride getting ready in the smallest kitchen you can imagine they were very helpful. It might look light in a room, don't be fooled []
3. We had to make thank you cards. So we printed 150 prints at a local camera store. We were in a tight scheme so I called if they could deliver earlier or later that day. They told they could do it earlier so we could be on time at the reception. So far so good, since when we came at the printer they suddenly knew nothing about my call...grrr I was pissed!! I had spoken to the guy like 15 minutes before we got there and it was no big deal if he told me to come later. Anyway I was with my brother and so we were late at the reception. The printer got more trouble and needed to cut etc...it took like 20 minutes longer than planned. Therefor we missed the cutting of the cake which was actually very disappointing to us.
4. Splitting up was a better idea so at least one of us could have been there. However it wasn't possible for us at the time.
5. My legs and back began to hurt halfway the day. My brother went home after dinner so I had to shoot the evening myself and my legs and back didn't really help me with that. My motivation was low... [:P] Luckily my girlfriend was very enthusiastic and since we were indoors I could manually set the camera and flash and my girlfriend shot about 80% of the shots that evening. And they are great!
6. Actually they are very good. I think she has some shots that I as a man never could have made. It might sound stupid, but it is true. For some reason a man with a big camera/lens/flash combo is more frightening than a woman holding it. For the couple this wasn't a problem since I'm close relative, however for some of the guests it turned out to work better. I'm also not the tiniest (6"6/195cm) so that might have been a bad thing as well.

So... if you have the opportunity...a mix of a woman and a man as photographers will probably work the best.


Anyway I will post some pictures later on. Bottom line is that I really enjoyed it and I was nervous, but as far as we are...the couple is very very happy with the results so far. Luckily []


Also having 1 of us shooting with a wide-angle lens and one of us with a tele-zoom was a great idea. One focusses on the close-ups and one on the entire package. A good combination.


Thanks again,


Jan