HELP! Shooting my first wedding tomorrow!!!

[PixelReaper]

Hey everyone!

Any advice on gear or general pointers for shooting my first wedding tomorow? Luckily, the bride was on a super low budget so she is not expecting much from me as I am working pro bono (it's her wedding gift). I am an enthusiastic amateur photographer (not my main line of work), but I have started to get a couple of of jobs in the last month.

I have listed my gear below and I won't be buying anything new since the event is tomorrow.

5D II
35 1.4 L
24-105 L
70-200 2.8 II L
430exII
Tripod


I use LR4, Photoshop 6 beta, and DxO 7 for post work. I plan on using blurb to put a book together for the couple at the end.

I really appreciate and calue any advice from the CR community and thank everyone in advance! I really take pride in my pictures and hope to capture the day well for my friend.

Cheers!

 

[PixelReaper]

... A couple more gear items and details

I also will have my Lowepro fastpack 250 and a CustomSLR strap
I will have 3 CF cards and a battery grip on the 5D with extra batteries.

My wife will also be shooting with a Sony NEX 5n ( I know it's blasphemy! But actually a pretty neat little camera)

 

[PixelReaper]

Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

Hey everyone!

Any advice on gear or general pointers for shooting my first wedding tomorow? Luckily, the bride was on a super low budget so she is not expecting much from me as I am working pro bono (it's her wedding gift). I am an enthusiastic amateur photographer (not my main line of work), but I have started to get a couple of of jobs in the last month.

I have listed my gear below and I won't be buying anything new since the event is tomorrow.

5D II
35 1.4 L
24-105 L
70-200 2.8 II L
430exII
Tripod


I use LR4, Photoshop 6 beta, and DxO 7 for post work. I plan on using blurb to put a book together for the couple at the end.

... A couple more gear items and details

I also will have my Lowepro fastpack 250 and a CustomSLR sling strap
I will have 3 CF cards and a battery grip on the 5D with extra batteries.

My wife will also be shooting with a Sony NEX 5n ( I know it's blasphemy! But actually a pretty neat little camera)

I really appreciate and value any advice from the CR community and thank everyone in advance! I really take pride in my pictures and hope to capture the day well for my

Sorry for double post, I was not sure which category to post under.
Thanks!!

 

[eolson]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

I recently shot my first wedding as well and found the following:

-Lenses that are f/4 or slower are all but useless indoors without flash
- Having a "shot list" is very helpful and keeps things on track
- Wide angle shots of the reception are great and really capture the feel of the room
- You can never have enough CF cards, i went through 25+ gigs for mine

thoughts on your gear:

- the 5DII should be good, you may have some issues focusing in low light depending on the venue
- 35 1.4 will be a god send
- the 24-105 will need flash as will the 70-200
- tripod might just weigh you down, might want to consider leaving it behind unless you have an assistant or something to help carry stuff

best of luck!

 

[dericcainphoto]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

I am a wedding photographer and I have a similar setup. I would shoot mRAW, so that you do not have to worry about filing up cards too quickly. You can print a 20x30 with great quality out of mRAW. Shoot as much outside as possible, if the weather permits. For your portraits, use the 70-200mm 90% of the time. You cannot beat the look of the 70-200mm on a full-frame camera.

 

[EYEONE]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

I had some thoughts.

5D II - Perfect
35 1.4 L - Again perfect. For everything but the actual ceremony (assuming you can't get close) I'd use this. I've used a 35L for 90% of a wedding before.
24-105 L - I'd still take it but you probably won't use it
70-200 2.8 II L - Perfect for the ceremony if you get stuck in the back.
430exII - Not sure I'd use a flash.
Tripod - Shouldn't need it.

Also, I'd take another camera that you can mount EF lenses on. Even if it's just a Rebel it'd help. You could put a second lens on it, or use it incase your 5D fails for some reason.

 

[PixelReaper]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

I recently shot my first wedding as well and found the following:

-Lenses that are f/4 or slower are all but useless indoors without flash
- Having a "shot list" is very helpful and keeps things on track
- Wide angle shots of the reception are great and really capture the feel of the room
- You can never have enough CF cards, i went through 25+ gigs for mine

thoughts on your gear:

- the 5DII should be good, you may have some issues focusing in low light depending on the venue
- 35 1.4 will be a god send
- the 24-105 will need flash as will the 70-200
- tripod might just weigh you down, might want to consider leaving it behind unless you have an assistant or something to help carry stuff

best of luck!

Thanks for sharing! I think the list is a great idea.

I bought a 32gb 400x card to go with the 2 16gb 600x CF cards I already had so hopefully no storage issues. The 24-105 will only be for outside wide angle shots of the couple and ceremony. I think the 35 will be glued on after dark!

 

[prestonpalmer]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

You are going to love the 35 1.4! That's a great wedding lens! The 24-105 works pretty well too so long as it has a little assistance from a flash. Don't be afraid to push the 5D2 to 3200ISO. Its better to get a crisp wedding photo with some noise rather than motion blur. Most the noise can be mitigated in LR during post processing. If space is an issue mRAW will produce a high enough quality image for 99% of wedding uses.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[PixelReaper]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

I am a wedding photographer and I have a similar setup. I would shoot mRAW, so that you do not have to worry about filing up cards too quickly. You can print a 20x30 with great quality out of mRAW. Shoot as much outside as possible, if the weather permits. For your portraits, use the 70-200mm 90% of the time. You cannot beat the look of the 70-200mm on a full-frame camera.

Agreed about the 70-200 / 5d combo! It rocks and I will use it for almost all my portraits and ceremony shots. Hopefully the 32gb card will be ok for standard raw but thanks for the idea.

 

[PixelReaper]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

I had some thoughts.

5D II - Perfect
35 1.4 L - Again perfect. For everything but the actual ceremony (assuming you can't get close) I'd use this. I've used a 35L for 90% of a wedding before.
24-105 L - I'd still take it but you probably won't use it
70-200 2.8 II L - Perfect for the ceremony if you get stuck in the back.
430exII - Not sure I'd use a flash.
Tripod - Shouldn't need it.

Also, I'd take another camera that you can mount EF lenses on. Even if it's just a Rebel it'd help. You could put a second lens on it, or use it incase your 5D fails for some reason.

Thanks for positive feedback on the gear. 6 months ago I was shooting with a 350D and a nifty fifty. Then I fell down a rabbit hole!!! Amazed my wife hasn't left me!

I am going to try and convince a buddy who also shoots a 5d2 to let me borrow it in case of disaster! Hopefully won't need it

 

[yellowkamper]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

I did my first Wedding in the mid 1960s then up till the early 2000 and like all photographers of that time we used a medium format camera. Bronica , Hasselblad, Rollie with just one lens a standard 75mm f2.8 and 8 rolls of 120 film 12 exposures.
Why do todays wedding photographers have to carry 5 lenses and take 2000 pictures, how many of those pictures get into the Brides album, how many hours are spent at the computer sorting them all out. We perfected our technique with leaf shutters and shooting with both eyes open every shot was perfect no shut eye pictures of the bride.
Use a standard lens and perhaps a wide for a group inside, Have two bodies the same and two flash guns, spare batterys. Concentrate on the posing of the people not on how many lenses you can use, be able to adjust your camera and flash with out looking at them so you can do it in the dark if need be.

 

[PixelReaper]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

You are going to love the 35 1.4! That's a great wedding lens! The 24-105 works pretty well too so long as it has a little assistance from a flash. Don't be afraid to push the 5D2 to 3200ISO. Its better to get a crisp wedding photo with some noise rather than motion blur. Most the noise can be mitigated in LR during post processing. If space is an issue mRAW will produce a high enough quality image for 99% of wedding uses.

Let us know how it goes!

Thanks for the reply! I do love the 35!! I almost look for poorly lit environments for an excuse to shoot with it.

Agreed on the 3200 ISO. Between LR and DxO most of the noise can be eliminated, where as adobe has yet figured out how to fix motion blur ;D

 

[Lloyd]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

I was in the same position recently, but was doing a video as they had just enough funds to hire a professional photographer, but also wanted a video. My advise is to get to the event early enough so you are familiar with the layout and can plan your movement to capture the event without disturbing the ceremony. Look out for all trip hazards. You may want to use your wife as a model to test lighting and range. In my case, the minute the audience was seated and just before the minister and groom entered, they lowered the lights. There went my exposure settings. You also want to have time to organize your equiptment. Talk to the bride and her mom to see what is important to them. For example they may want photos in the dressing room which may require you to get there even earlier. Talk to the minister/officiant to make sure he/she has no restrictions. If you did not go to the rehearsal get someone who did give you a run through. In my case their was a professional photographer so I made sure to coordinate with him in advance to make sure I did not get in his way. I set up a video camera in the balcony for a fixed shot and used a dslr on a tripod on the side 5-10 rows back. I would not have used a tripod for stills.

 

[vuilang]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

You gears are very good.. just focus on technique.. but MOST important OF ALL:

BE THERE EARLY....

 

[JR]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

You gears are very good.. just focus on technique.. but MOST important OF ALL:

BE THERE EARLY....

So funny! My photographer was late to my wedding, but that is a different story! Just found your comment funny!

 

[agierke]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

if you are going to be doing weddings more in the future i would advise you to stay away from larger capacity CF cards. 16GB+ scares me....

i shoot on 8GB cards only with the mRAW on a Mrk2. i take 10x 8GB cards with me to a wedding and generally use up 4 to 5 of them. the reason behind this is that i dont want too much of any part of the day on a single card in the case something bad happens to it or it is lost. losing a part of the day vs losing half the day can be the difference between "i can recover" and complete disaster.

weddings can be murder on your gear as well. be prepared for your new shiny stuff to get dinged and worn looking. 1 wedding wont be too bad...but 30+ weddings a year and you just cant avoid it.

 

[KyleSTL]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

I became an unexpected wedding photographer this past weekend. A very close friend of my wife's got married and did not have a photographer (it was a simple reception, as they had the ceremony a couple weeks earlier abroad) and asked if I could take pictures of the family and during the event (I had my 30D and all my gear with me, luckily). I do not envy wedding photographers, it was certainly not something I'm accustomed to, or talented at. I think I did a decent job, though. Hopefully they are happy with the results.

 

[Mike Ca]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

Your equipment sounds fine.

First thing to remember is things happen quickly at weddings and there is usually no opportunity for a do over.

You need to know where you are allowed to take pictures from during the ceremony and make sure you are in the best location for each part of the ceremony. Most venues do not allow flash during the ceremony, so you are going to need to use high ISO. Some venues allow flash during the bridal procession, but if you haven't practiced doing flash under those conditions before, I would forget it and just use high ISO.

Most venues restrict the time after the ceremony for group photos with 30-45 minutes being typical. Make sure you know how much time you have. When taking large group photos, it is important to make sure the people are spaced far enough apart so no one is hidden behind someone else.

 

[VishVR]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

I did my first Wedding in the mid 1960s then up till the early 2000 and like all photographers of that time we used a medium format camera. Bronica , Hasselblad, Rollie with just one lens a standard 75mm f2.8 and 8 rolls of 120 film 12 exposures.
Why do todays wedding photographers have to carry 5 lenses and take 2000 pictures, how many of those pictures get into the Brides album, how many hours are spent at the computer sorting them all out. We perfected our technique with leaf shutters and shooting with both eyes open every shot was perfect no shut eye pictures of the bride.
Use a standard lens and perhaps a wide for a group inside, Have two bodies the same and two flash guns, spare batterys. Concentrate on the posing of the people not on how many lenses you can use, be able to adjust your camera and flash with out looking at them so you can do it in the dark if need be.

According to Darwin, my ancestors used to hop around trees and beat their chests for entertainment. Thank god, I don't have to do that anymore.

 

[nikkito]

Re: Gear / shooting recomendations for first wedding tomorrow!!

You gears are very good.. just focus on technique.. but MOST important OF ALL:

BE THERE EARLY....

Haha I had to laugh when reading this ;D