Mу cousin һаѕ qυеѕtіοחеԁ mе tο bе tһе official photographer fοr һеr wedding. I һаνе һаԁ mу slr fοr a few months аחԁ I аm חοt a skilled photographer. It іѕ a һοחеѕtƖу casual wedding ѕο I don’t rесkοח tһеу wіƖƖ want professional standard, bυt саח уου give mе аחу advice ѕο I саח improve mу skills before tһеіr wedding, (next feb). I һаνе a book tһаt I һаνе bееח reading bυt іf уου саח suggest anything еƖѕе іt wіƖƖ bе much appreciated.
Tags: casual wedding, cousin, professional standard, skilled photographer, slr
Here is a excellent link for first time wedding shooters, but it assumes you are already an advanced amateur with knowledge of how to build exposure and compose a photo:
http://www.rokkorfiles.com/Wedding101-page1.html
Even a casual wedding is their huge day and hopefully a once in their lifetime event which deserves to be captured as well as a huge fancy affair. You really need to have a sit down with the B&G and clarify to them that shooting weddings is not a beginner’s venture, and that your work will be substandard to either a wedding pro’s or a more seasoned amateur. Also as event photographer you will be working all day. You will not be visiting the family or joining the festivities as the family member that you are, you will be responsible for recording them. If they still persist you do it, that is up to you. If you choose to go ahead, here are a few pointers on the areas to concentrate your do:
Lighting. You will need to get a excellent flash and diffuser and learn how to use them. You need to visit the venue at the same time of day and observe the natural lighting. Take subjects for some do shots. Be sure to try some without a flash. Flash is usually not allowable during the ceremony and vows. Plot on shooting from a tripod during the still moments. But use as high of an ISO as you need to reduce blur. Noise can be dealt with in post processing, blur is forever.
Check your settings. Check your settings. Check your settings. Did I say "CHECK YOUR SETTINGS!?!?!???!!!" Don’t forget to set your ISO and WB according to the conditions. If you are comfortable with RAW, by all means shoot in RAW or RAW + Jpeg. Here is a right horror tale. Recently a young woman contacted me to question my help in rescuing her wedding pictures. A friend of hers shot her wedding as a favor, and shot them all on VGA setting at low resolution. She basically had a bunch of pixelated snapshots. Nothing at all can be done to help in a situation like that. So shoot at high resolution and check your settings throughout the day. Chimp the histogram for exposure periodically.
Posing. Look at professional wedding photographer sites and study the posing and arrangement, both of individuals and small groups and the wedding party. Note that bodies are turned at angles, joints are bent and/or relaxed, hands and feet are not chopped off, and full length portraits include the entire body and dress train, veil etc. Leave some room around the people to allow for different size prints. Shoot horizontally for groups of more than two. Take more than one shot of each grouping, the larger the group the more shots you will need to avoid blinks. Take control of the "formals". Get yours first to make sure everyone is looking at your camera. *Tell* your subjects to look at only your lens when you are snapping, then allow the other guests a turn for an instant. Too much of this pleased snapping can really slow things down, so go quickly from one group to another, and have a family member do the roundup for you.
Details. Get shots of the cake, rings, flowers, special touches. They are an vital part of the wedding.
Candids. A candid shot can also be directed. It is perfectly OK to question people to look at you, or elsewhere, or to lean closer together etc. Avoid shooting people who are intake(except it is a kid making a mess or swiping icing from the cake), and even talking can make the face look amusing in a still photo. Look for those touching moments, especially between the B&G and their family, and between elderly and kids. Get a few extra shots of the oldsters. You never know, sometimes wedding photos are the last images one has of their grandparent or aunts and uncles.
Be aware of the event program, what special things they are doing and be in place and ready. These might include lighting of unity candles, sand pouring ceremony, special readings and/or music selections, first kiss (a MUST GET event) receiving line, introduction of couple at reception, first dances, both the B&G and the parent/child, cake cutting, garter toss, toasts, dollar dance (shudder) the send off with bubbles, rice, sparklers, birdseed or whatever etc etc etc.
Get a backup camera of some sort, even if it is a P&S or film camera. Cameras can and do fail, you need to be able to go seamlessly to plot B. Have lots of batteries and memory or film. Keep all memory cards on your person, and stop shooting before completely filling the card. Shooting all the way to a card’s room can cause corrupt minutes. Never delete images on site, wait and delete the rejects from your computer after they are DL’ed and backed up on CD or DVD. Wear comfortable shoes. Eat beforehand and stay hydrated. Stay cool and project yourself as relaxed and confident, it will help your subjects relax and the day will go smoother.
Excellent luck. I hope the day goes well and everyone is pleased with the photographic outcome. Best wishes
Fantastic angles.
They contrast with the mood and the lighting.
i reckon your best bet is too go out and take some "pretend" shots (that is what i call them) go out around the time of day the wedding is going to be at and start playing around with your camera. varying the ISO, the type (the name escapes me aptly now but its where you go Sunny, Shady, At home, ect) and all of that stuff and changed angles and lighting and so on. once you see what comes out the best you know what to do use on the wedding day and won’t have to freak out that day you know? excellent luck!!!
Since you say you’re not a skilled photographer, I seriously reckon you need to back out of it. Whatever happens at a wedding only happens once–and a more veteran photographer should do the job instead. Wedding photography can be quite tough–and if you don’t do a "excellent" job, she will not be pleased at all at you for a long, long time.
You’d say the same thing if she questions you to do the catering for all the guests if all you can do is cook for yourself (and your family).
Get a timeline of what they plot to do at the wedding, write it down as a checklist, and make sure you get all the key moments.
1. Can you get into the rooms where the bride is preparing? Shots of the bride, bridesmaids, mother of the bride before the wedding are fantastic.
2. Groom and groomsmen preparing
3. Ceremony - especially the kiss and rings! Get a accurate-up of their hands wearing the rings afterwards
4. Accurate-up of signing the marriage certificate
5. The cake before cutting, and cutting the cake and feeding it to each other
6. Group shot of the wedding party with family. Pull them out of the festivities to do this in a nice area.
7. Father of the bride often dances with the bride; likewise groom and his mother
8. The gift table
9. Throwing the bouquet
10. Throwing the garter
11. Afterwards get as many shots as you can of their friends and family
12. Their car, if it’s decorated for the wedding
You’ll be busy and exhausted.
Make sure you have extra batteries on hand and extra memory cards. Take many shots of the same thing to increase your odds of success.
Excellent luck!
First off….do makes perfect. Question the couple to take some "do" photos that could be used as date photos. Next, most all brides will go to their hair stylist a couple months before the wedding to do a do run for the huge day. Use this to your benefit….. get some more do shots of her and use them as her marriage photos. Get a couple of books on posing and lighting techniques. Author Bill Hurter is very informative.
Once you get to the huge day…..stay cool and focused. Don’t forget about the small details. It is very simple to get wrapped up in the overall composition of the photo and you can overlook small objects that will interfere with the tone of the photo. Such as a person or vehicle in the background, Excellent luck and play around with that camera!