Apparently while drunk I agreed to take photos at a friends wedding, I have no memory of that and have never done such a thing and I am terrified! Does anyone do wedding photo's as I would like either some advise and or to come along on a shoot. I would happily stay out the way or help, what ever is required. Any help or advise would be much appreciated.
I have a Canon 400d, a Canon 10-22 lens, a 24-105 L series lens, a tripod and some cider...
I can probably borrow a decent flash and the wedding is in August. I am not 100% certain the cider will help but it's good to know I have it.

Any advise on generic settings, action shots, group shots, ANYTHING!
HELP!!!!
:)

Hehe - well done :D

If you ply me with cider, I can google some good wedding pics for you, then we can see if we can photoshop some faces from your photo's onto those - whaddya recon? :thumbsup:

I have some evil Cornish cider from a farmer near Lostwithiel called Keith... It's evil mind, you need to do the pics first cos you may be blind after!
:)

Eh up neeeeeeeeek :) .. I dont know the things you do when your drunk ..lol.
Your welcome to tag along with me on a wedding .. but I prefer red wine not cider :D
drop us an email if you want :)

Hi - another really good idea would be to trawl the net!! look at other wedding photographers websites as many as you possiably can. then just choose what you like and try to recreate them with your own style.

Most important thing at a wedding is YOU need to be incontrol - even if you dont feel like you are just then you need to make sure you have the apperence of being in control otherwise its quite likely you will be more than frustrated as little to noone will listen what your asking for.

FAIL.

Anyone asking for advice on how to shoot a wedding after agreeing to shoot it is in for a big shock and is probably going to ruin it!

Remember, this is the Bride and Groom's big-day... do you wanna be responsible for some dodgy pictures that they're meant to 'treasure' for the rest of their life?

If you really wanna do it:

E-mail as many local photographers and beg to follow them on their weddings, as their assistant (offering to simply carry their bags for free helps). Simply knowing the way weddings work, and what is expected from the 'tog is the hardest thing.

Rent/borrow a pair (one will break sometime in the day) of decent bodies - 20/30/40/50D or better would be ideal - 5D's would be mint.

Rent/borrow some faster glass - f/2.8 lenses at a minimum with IS would be advantageous. You'll need a standard zoom (your 24-105 isn't long or wide enough) and a zoom to be able to cover 17-200mm at least.

You don't need flash if your glass is fast enough.

Have a back-up of everything.

Study other photographers and the way they pose, compose and shoot at a wedding.

The hardest thing is not getting the kit, or the experience, it's managing people and being pleasant to people when it's 30 degrees, you're carrying 10kg or equipment on your shoulder, sweating buckets and trying to keep calm when the kids are swarming you to have their photo taken of them pulling stupid faces! :D

Apparently while drunk I agreed to take photos at a friends wedding, I have no memory of that and have never done such a thing and I am terrified! Well you could have a go and very probably make a pigs ear of it and possibly ruin your friendship.
Or you could be man enough to admit to your friends that you are not experienced enough and that you'd hate to let them down and they should hire someone who does know what they are doing.

Rent/borrow some faster glass - f/2.8 lenses at a minimum with IS would be advantageous. You'll need a standard zoom (your 24-105 isn't long or wide enough) and a zoom to be able to cover 17-200mm at least.I've done an entire wedding with just my 24-70mm lens and got absolutely great results. I had a huge bag weighing 13kg+ and all my kit bar one body, one flash and one lens stayed in bag. I'm not a fan of long lens.

I've done an entire wedding with just my 24-70mm lens and got absolutely great results. I had a huge bag weighing 13kg+ and all my kit bar one body, one flash and one lens stayed in bag. I'm not a fan of long lens.Well, it's not a hard and fast rule, but it's certainly going to be helpful.

I've done a whole wedding with an 18-50 before, but I'd rather have a 70-200 on my shoulder, just in case.

They know I have no experience and I am hoping to persuade them to get someone in for the wedding shots and then I will happily go to the reception and snap anything that moves :D I am quite aware that it's their wedding and how important it is so in the mean time I am going to try and arm myself with as much info as possible, even if it's just going to be used to point out what a bad idea it is.
:)

I was once asked to do wedding photos for a friend. Fortunately they managed to find a professional to do the job instead. It would have been bloody awful, I have near to no experience and not enough equipment. Its a different thing to have taken the odd nice shot of people at a wedding to actually doing the whole lot I think.

having said that another friend of mine had their friend do all their shots with a reasonably expensive point n click. The photos weren't pro quality by any means but looked ok to the untrained eye. I guess it depends how important it all is to your friends.

neeeeeek I did my mates wedding last October - similar situatuon - they were on a really tight budget so me doing the photos for free was a huge favour. I was dead nervous, only had a 18-55mm lens and one body. I made it clear to my mate that I would do my best but at the end of the day they would get what they got from me - no promises.
The day was stressful, but the photos were good, my mate loved them and loads of people commented on them (positively).
I'd be happy to lend you a book I got on wedding photography, show you the photos I took and give you advice on what I learned on the day. Why not come along to the photo meet at the end of February and we could have a chat in the pub afterwards??

you can have all the gear and no idea. What you need first is confidence that you know what you are doing and being able to do it under pressure.

I am doing my first wedding next year but its gonig to be me and the sister of the groom covering it. I only agreed to do it if there was another tog there. I am going purely to get the feel of it. I am confident i can do the wedding justice. You may call that cocky but from my experience i know what i am capable of.

If you dont feel confident in both yourself and equipment dont bother. There is no point hiring equipment if you are not used to where the controls are and how to steady a larger lens. If using flash, so you know how to fill light, or are you just blast away?

a pre visit is essential and if you have the chance a pre wedding shoot will give you an idea of how they interact, it will also mean they are comfortable with you and dont look nervous in their pictures on the day.

you need to survey the ceremony area (church, registry office), questions like where can you shoot from, the lighting, natural or can you use flash? If natural do you know what kind of light you will have the time of day at the venue at that time of year!? The reception is another matter as do you know how long they want you taking pictures for, important shots like the first dance, the cake cutting have to be planned to a point, you only get one chance at these shots.

there is so much more to consider!

I've done an entire wedding with just my 24-70mm lens and got absolutely great results. I had a huge bag weighing 13kg+ and all my kit bar one body, one flash and one lens stayed in bag. I'm not a fan of long lens.

I think it really depends on your style... I have 2 cameras at weddings 20D and a 5D I stick a F2.8 28-70 L on the 5D and and F2.8 70-200 L IS on the 20D which translates to 112-320 on the 20D. And I have an external flash on both. I also occasionally use my F2.8 17-35 L when needed.

I would recommend 2 bodies and having at least 1 backup lens that covers most of the range... I normally take my Sigma 28-300 just in case... and I have had a lens break mid wedding before.

I would definately recommend plenty of memory card capacity as if you shoot RAW you soon eat up the GB.

Its a bit nerve racking the first time but it gets easier.

a pre visit is essential and if you have the chance a pre wedding shoot will give you an idea of how they interact, it will also mean they are comfortable with you and dont look nervous in their pictures on the day.

you need to survey the ceremony area (church, registry office), questions like where can you shoot from, the lighting, natural or can you use flash? If natural do you know what kind of light you will have the time of day at the venue at that time of year!? The reception is another matter as do you know how long they want you taking pictures for, important shots like the first dance, the cake cutting have to be planned to a point, you only get one chance at these shots.

These 2 points are very important... know the people and the place... with a good rapport it is so much easier. We also get timelines for the day from all our clients so that we can plan where we will be and when... knowing where the sun will be, what time the subset it, if it is a full moon etc all can be used to your advantage. The more organised you are the easier it is to just focus on taking pictures.

I think it really depends on your style... I have 2 cameras at weddings 20D and a 5D I stick a F2.8 28-70 L on the 5D and and F2.8 70-200 L IS on the 20D which translates to 112-320 on the 20D. And I have an external flash on both. I also occasionally use my F2.8 17-35 L when needed.

I would recommend 2 bodies and having at least 1 backup lens that covers most of the range... I normally take my Sigma 28-300 just in case... and I have had a lens break mid wedding before. As I said I had a bag full of kit. But a 24-70mm was all the focal length needed for that job and the next one too come to think of it I tried a another body with a 70-200 on but wasn't bothered by using it.
I'm simply not a fan of long lens, so I can get away with it.


I would definately recommend plenty of memory card capacity as if you shoot RAW you soon eat up the GB.
Or unload cards though day. I keep a laptop with me and download to two HDS as I go along. On a long day 9am - 2am I've used 30G of space - I also shoot RAW+JPEG which is a bit bulky.

Or unload cards though day. I keep a laptop with me and download to two HDS as I go along. On a long day 9am - 2am I've used 30G of space - I also shoot RAW+JPEG which is a bit bulky.Memory cards are well below £20 these days, I'd just buy some more. Taking a leptop as well, to back-up the memory cards when you get chance, is a good idea.

One tip I've learnt, is NEVER delete photos in camera. It's too easy to either delete the wrong one, or delete all of them!

Try www.squidgeyem.com. they do excellent pics.

BEST ADVICE I CAN GIVE YOU IS-

learn to keep your gob shut when you have had a sherry or two,
its two peoples big day and if you turn up and cock it up then you cant turn the clock back can you.
ive done many weddings myself and to be honest i dont enjoy it !
weddings are not just about being able to take a decent snap of a group of people, thats only half of it, you have to have a natural ability to control people who generally dont want to be controled, they probably have had a drink or two themselves and just want to please themselves. you need to be firm but polite whilst having a laugh and a joke at the same time. a good wedding snapper always has a hard job on his hands, he just makes it look easy!
if i were you i would make my apologies now and save face or you could be brave and tell em you will do it for next to nothing and see what turns out, dont let them think your an experienced wedding snapper just because you own a nice pro looking slr camera,

good luck !

I shall point them to this thread! If that don't put them off nothing will.
:)

Memory cards are well below £20 these days, I'd just buy some more. Taking a leptop as well, to back-up the memory cards when you get chance, is a good idea.It's for backing up to two HDs that's important, as memory cards can be lost so easily, being so small.
It wasn't so long ago that I paid £250 for 4G, now I buy 8Gs for £40!

One tip I've learnt, is NEVER delete photos in camera. It's too easy to either delete the wrong one, or delete all of them!I never delete in camera for those very same reasons, plus unless you are running out of memory, why even waste time doing it.

Hi Neeeeeeeeek

I have recently photographed my first wedding, it was as a favour to the bride and groom as they wanted a low budget wedding, i took almost 650 photo's during the day and night and out of those i narrowed them down to 120 quite quickly. There are a lot of useful hints above and trust me you will need to think about each and every one before the wedding takes place.

I could go on for quite some time about what i would do differently if i would do it again, the main thing is things happen so fast, you need to be in the right position to capture the shot at the right time. The main thing i learnt was you need to know your camera inside out, as you litterally have about 5 sec most to fiddle around with it otherwise you will not capture the moment.

Prior to the wedding i met with the bride and groom and first of all outlined that obviously this was my first wedding and that there expectations shouldn't be too high, i then planned the wedding in terms of from the point i got there to the point i leave, this enabled me to map out what pictures and ideas i had around the venues and times that they specified. It is very important to find out what style of photo's they prefer and for them to think of what shots they want of who, like family, close friends etc. Once i found out all the details i then went and scoped out all the venues and took light reading with my camera and flash, i tried to link this to the time of day i was going to get the right light levels etc, once i had got these i marked them down and took them with me on the day of the wedding.

Like other people have said, look at other photographers websites for ideas and compositions etc as this will give you the experience you lack, i made a list of what photo's were to be taken and when, but of course you have to just go with the flow and snap away should interesting spontaneous shots arise.

i only had one camera, but i must say that changing the lens mid ceremony was very hard to do, and if you can borrow another camera i would, just so you can set it up to close ups etc and not have to fiddle around during the ceremony!!

Another help is asking the bride and groom if there is someone who can orgainse people, so then you can delegate to them what shots you want next and of who as this will save you time and the hassle and mean no one is missed off!!

Majke sure you have lots of patience during the day as other s have mentioned as it can be quite stressful organising and making sure people do what you say but in a polite friendly manner! My cheeks were aching afterwards from all the smiling i did lol.

Don't discount any pictures as on your viewfinder you may miss a good shot, do all that when you get home in the editing process.

As i say i coulod go on forever, so i will stop right now, if u want any help, or any further advice PM me, i'm not the best photographer but i have done what you are going to do!

Lots of good advice there - the key thing being preparation and then more preparation.

Another help is asking the bride and groom if there is someone who can orgainse people, so then you can delegate to them what shots you want next and of who as this will save you time and the hassle and mean no one is missed off!! Traditionally, the Best Man's job is do the organising of peeps on the day and he should also be able to help marshall people when you do any group shots.

Get the ushers on your side too. It's usually difficult to find one person who knows both families but if you get an usher from each side to help dig Uncle Jim out of the bar and find Aunt Ethel then it lets you concentrate on the pictures instead of herding the sheep!

I see a fair bit of advice about memory cards up there too - personally I never buy anything bigger than 2GB. Shooting RAW I get about 120 images per card and typically get thru about 5 or 6 cards at a wedding. Losing a card or having one go down is bad but at least its only 1/6 of the total. I also get totally anal about which cards are clean, which I've used and where I've put them. My cards are numbered and I religiously use then from 1 upwards or downwards from 8 or 9 or whatever I've taken with me.

One more bit of advice I would offer - take loads and loads of AA batteries with you if your flashgun takes them. I use 4 guns on remote sensors and gorillapod them around to give me better lighting. With fresh batteries they will recycle in 1 to 2 seconds, but after 30 or so flashes, this starts to extend to 5 to 8 seconds. The batteries are considered to be beyond practical use when the recycle time is 40 to 50 seconds, but in reality, even 10 seconds is too long.
Ask a bride and groom to hang on whilst your flashgun recycles - hold that pose - just a bit longer - no not yet, just a bit longer - they get fed up and so will you.
Look at a clock with a second hand and watch 10 seconds - asking people to hold a pose on their wedding day for this long is just not on. As soon as your flashes are taking 5 seconds to recycle, take the batteries out and put new ones in.
I have a couple of tupperware type boxes, each a differrent colour, and at the start of the day, one is full of fresh batteries and the other is empty. As the day goes on, the empty one gets filled and the full one gets emptied. I have hundreds of part used AA batteries at home which get used in remote controls, clocks, all sorts of things, but they won't do for a flashgun at this stage.

rob-s why on earth are you not using high capacity rechargeable batteries?!? your wasting so much money using non-rechargeable. They also last a very long time! I am yet to change my flashgun batteries during a wedding! I know rechargeable batteries did not used to be suitable but they have come a long way in the last few years and are now fantastic!
something to seriously consider!

regards

Amanda

rob-s why on earth are you not using high capacity rechargeable batteries?!? your wasting so much money using non-rechargeable. They also last a very long time! I am yet to change my flashgun batteries during a wedding! I know rechargeable batteries did not used to be suitable but they have come a long way in the last few years and are now fantastic!
something to seriously consider!

regards

Amanda

I agree. I recently got one of these:

http://www.batterylogic.co.uk/technoline/technoline-i-charger.asp

And it's amazing what a 'Refresh' cycle can do to even old rechargables.

I've never not used rechargables - and I use external flashes at weddings a lot.

I am using rechargeables - I have 4 sets of 2700mAh NiMH batteries and they are put in first - when they start to slow down they are replaced by Duracells.

I did a wedding last weekend and have taken 24 used Duracells out of my gadget bag and the 16 rechargeables are now recharged.

I admit the batteries are not flat when I take them out, they have just started to slow down on their recycle times enough to frustrate me and the wedding guests

I am using rechargeables - I have 4 sets of 2700mAh NiMH batteries and they are put in first - when they start to slow down they are replaced by Duracells.

I did a wedding last weekend and have taken 24 used Duracells out of my gadget bag and the 16 rechargeables are now recharged.

I admit the batteries are not flat when I take them out, they have just started to slow down on their recycle times enough to frustrate me and the wedding guestsGet one of the chargers that does a 'Refresh' cycle for any old batteries, it's amazing to see that your old batteries that were previously about as powerful as a fart, turn out to be rated at 2,900MaH after 6 days of Refreshing!

Also, I use the 'Discharge' cycle whenever I charge my batteries - this ensures that the Memory Effect is kept to a minimum and my batteries are also in tip-top condition - and can safely be fast-charged in 15 minutes during a lull in the wedding (usually get mine on fast-charge during the meal) if needs be.

£40 well spent, because it means that I never really have to buy anymore rechargables.

:)

I am now in the market for a "refresh" charger. Cheers for the advice mattsando.

neeeeeeeeeek, have a read of this tread. http://www.sheffieldforum.co.uk/showthread.php?p=1758287#post1758287

I went through a similar kind of thing back in 2006. Some interesting points to say the least.

As long as the bride and groom are aware it's your first wedding and their are OK with that, then i wouldn't worry, just have fun.

if you can, go to the rehersal takes notes of where every one is going to be, where you can be. This gets rid of the guess work of where you can shoot from. It also means the father/priest and the bride and groom know where you are gonig to be and take some shots as well to see if you will have the correct DOF etc for each shot.

this is not always available if you are doing it for people you dont know but you are in an ideal position to maximise on your shots!

hello neeeeeek i say just do it. Research into wedding photography and get ur head around it. There's always going to be a first for everything. Make this your first. I can assure you, everyone is daunted at their first wedding photo shoot, its a big thing, so many people to pay attention to. Take the positive advice people have put on this post, learn from it and look at other peoples wedding examples to get ideas of what people look for.

neeeeeeeeeek,
I hope I have spelt your name right.
Why not come to The Three Cranes next Thursday at about 20:00 hrs. and chat with some people, who are more experienced than you, about your plight.

Barry

Just thought I'd put my 2 pence worth in!

I've done a few weddings and quite honestly don't enjoy doing them. However, I am a commercial & pr photographer who chats to non living objects all day!!! (the products...not the wife). I't can be stressful, getting people into a picture when all they want to do is drink and enjoy themselves. The happy couple may say that they understand youre not a pro, but thats no help when they dont get much of a memory of the day. If you can attend a few weddings with a pro before hand to get experience then all the better. a lot of whats been said is good advice tho.

Firstly i would ask how much they are spending on the wedding, weddings are not cheap at the best of times. Photo's are a way of bringing back that certain point in time. I would sugest a professional. Try this website leadingimagery.com his name is Andy Hibberd and is a member of the British Institute of professional photographers, you'll be able to contact him through his website.

Hope this helps.