My first wedding - as a favor

met

So in a few weeks I'm shooting a wedding as a favor to a couple friends that couldn't find a photographer. I've shot some pics as a guest at my cousin's wedding, but that's about it. I made it very clear to her that I was merely an enthusiast (and a new one at that) in the field of photography and I would do the best I could for her, but was by no means a professional. She was fine with it and I think at that point just almost desperate to have anyone do them. I'm pretty nervous about it because the last thing you want to do is screw up someone's wedding pictures.

Any advice or suggestions going in is much appreciated.

Qarik

met wrote:

So in a few weeks I'm shooting a wedding as a favor to a couple friends that couldn't find a photographer. I've shot some pics as a guest at my cousin's wedding, but that's about it. I made it very clear to her that I was merely an enthusiast (and a new one at that) in the field of photography and I would do the best I could for her, but was by no means a professional. She was fine with it and I think at that point just almost desperate to have anyone do them. I'm pretty nervous about it because the last thing you want to do is screw up someone's wedding pictures.

Any advice or suggestions going in is much appreciated.

where is scott? oh heck..I will post for him

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=83750

Also I took a look at your cousin's wedding pictures. On the plus side they are well exposed and in focus. Every once in a while they are compositionally interesting as well. I would suggest culling the set though..there are many shots in a row that are very similar. On the down side there is not much in the way of detail shots, artistic shots, fun shots...just basic document the event type shots.

Agnieszka

I hope you know what you got yourself into

Keep checking the back of your camera.
Keep checking your settings.
Have enough cards & batteries ready.
Look at other photographers blogs to get some ideas.

Good luck!! :lurk

Swartzy

My motto: Shoot and pray :D:D:D:D.....honestly though...study up on using your flash...how to mix flash with ambient when flash is allowed. Check your histogram and expose to the right...especially when shooting higher ISO's. Could go on for hours....read the links...read the forums...immerse yourself and LEARN your camera inside and out. Good luck.

met

Qarik wrote:

where is scott? oh heck..I will post for him

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=83750

Also I took a look at your cousin's wedding pictures. On the plus side they are well exposed and in focus. Every once in a while they are compositionally interesting as well. I would suggest culling the set though..there are many shots in a row that are very similar. On the down side there is not much in the way of detail shots, artistic shots, fun shots...just basic document the event type shots.

Thanks for taking a look at them and the link. I'll definitely go through and read that thread. I was kind of the event coordinator for my cousin's wedding, so unfortunately I wasn't able to really photograph as much as I would have liked to get the fun stuff because I was too busy dealing with vendors, etc. You're right, I didn't sift through any of them - just threw them all up which probably isn't very professional. I'll definitely plan on making a shot list to catch all the detail shots and be more selective about what I give them.

Thanks everyone for the tips!

met

I started reading Scott's thread. Thanks for all the info. There's so much good stuff in there, maybe it should be stickied.

Scott_Quier

Qarik wrote:

where is scott? oh heck..I will post for him

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=83750

Also I took a look at your cousin's wedding pictures. On the plus side they are well exposed and in focus. Every once in a while they are compositionally interesting as well. I would suggest culling the set though..there are many shots in a row that are very similar. On the down side there is not much in the way of detail shots, artistic shots, fun shots...just basic document the event type shots.

Contrary to popular myth, I don't live on-line!

You can see the link in my siggy!

met wrote:

I started reading Scott's thread. Thanks for all the info. There's so much good stuff in there, maybe it should be stickied.

It is stickied - check out the Wedding Photography Resources sticky at the top of the forum. My little contribution is listed there as well...

Oh, and Angie's comment about knowing what you are getting yourself in for is very much spot-on. While there's nothing really difficult about shooting a wedding, doing it right, getting all the "required" shots while, at the same time not upsetting anyone and being flexible - now there's the trick!

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask - lots of folks here more than willing to help as they can.

rileypv

same here next friday im only 17 and am totaly screwed all i have is an xsi with kit lens and a 75- 300 efs and just ordered the speed light 430 II i think it was im nervous.crycry:cry

marikris

Haha if you guys were in Houston, I'd gladly help you. Better 2 newbs than 1, right?

Scott_Quier

rileypv wrote:

same here next friday im only 17 and am totaly screwed all i have is an xsi with kit lens and a 75- 300 efs and just ordered the speed light 430 II i think it was im nervous.crycry:cry

I fear you may be in trouble. I just hope you know how to use your equipment and that the wedding is outdoors. If you can, rent the EF-S 17-55 f/2.8 IS (check out borrowlenes.com). It will extremely difficult to work indoors with the lens you have.

Art Scott

I'll hold a prayer vigile for the 2 of shooting your first weddings as the main shootist........................:D:D:D

What else can I dodunno???

GOOD LUCK!!thumb

tijoseph

Don't be scared. you told the bride you were an "enthusiast", your doing it for free! It's a great learning experience for you. You will have a good time, some of your pictures will be great, others not so, but it doesn't really matter.

Just get a little practice in and check out some of the info others have been mentioning.

I bet the bride loves the pictures.

Good luck!

met

Well it was a long and exhausting day yesterday, but I made it through it. Thanks everyone for your advice. I had a few issues at times, but I just tried not to let it show and project confidence. I've processed some of the "Getting Ready" shots, but still have a long way to go in going through everything. Here are a couple from the first bunch.

C&C welcome.

1.




2. Bride and her twin




3.



4.

Scott_Quier

Looks to be a very good start. I think your clients are going to be quite pleased!!

Kinkajou

Yeah! Nice job I think that this is a very good start. Congrats!

printergirl

Awesome pics. I think you did great.

It just kills me when I read about someone doing a favor in shooting a wedding for free and then having the bride complain (not in your case, obviously, but I've heard others say it). When I got married 20 years ago we were dirt poor. We couldn't have afforded a photographer at all, since we paid for the whole thing ourselves and were just going to rely on copies of whatever our families were able to take.

Luckily I had a friend, who was just starting to dabble in photography at that time, offer to shoot pics for us for free. We were very grateful. She did it on a point and shoot (which was probably top of the line for P&S back then) and we were very happy and grateful with what she was able to do (she had never shot a wedding before).

I would have been falling all over myself with joy for pictures like what you did above!

bdcolen

met wrote:

So in a few weeks I'm shooting a wedding as a favor to a couple friends that couldn't find a photographer. I've shot some pics as a guest at my cousin's wedding, but that's about it. I made it very clear to her that I was merely an enthusiast (and a new one at that) in the field of photography and I would do the best I could for her, but was by no means a professional. She was fine with it and I think at that point just almost desperate to have anyone do them. I'm pretty nervous about it because the last thing you want to do is screw up someone's wedding pictures.

Any advice or suggestions going in is much appreciated.

Having looked at some of the wedding photos on your site, I'd say that your friends area going to get much more than she's paying for. The best thing you can do is take a deep breath, relax, and remember that you are shooting a story. As is the case with any story, you need an opening, a middle, and an end. You need to remember who the main characters are, and keep most of them focus on them; record their interactions with the rest of the people in the story. You need the little details - like the red shoes you so nicely captured in one of your wedding galleries, the bride's rings, etc. - and you need the sweeping overviews, that remind us where we are and what's going on. Also, remember that while you are creating a document of the wedding, you also want to concentrate on doing everything you can to see to it that that document is made up of the best individual photos you are capable of producing - frame, frame, frame.

Good luck!

:ivar

happysmileylady

bdcolen wrote:

Having looked at some of the wedding photos on your site, I'd say that your friends area going to get much more than she's paying for. The best thing you can do is take a deep breath, relax, and remember that you are shooting a story. As is the case with any story, you need an opening, a middle, and an end. You need to remember who the main characters are, and keep most of them focus on them; record their interactions with the rest of the people in the story. You need the little details - like the red shoes you so nicely captured in one of your wedding galleries, the bride's rings, etc. - and you need the sweeping overviews, that remind us where we are and what's going on. Also, remember that while you are creating a document of the wedding, you also want to concentrate on doing everything you can to see to it that that document is made up of the best individual photos you are capable of producing - frame, frame, frame.

Good luck!

:ivar

OT for this thread, but I have to say that THIS is why I lurk so much here. It's posts like this that give me the reminders I need and help me to to learn the most. That makes total sense, but not something I ever put together in my head....that's it's more than just documentation of the day, but telling the STORY of the day. Thank you

met

Thanks everyone for the feedback and bd for all the great advice.

Here are a few more of the B&G and Wedding Party that I got processed. C&C welcome.

It was so bright out and I was struggling a little with it, but I muddled through.

1.



2.


3. Our version of American Gothic.



4. I don't like how shadowed his face is, but I'm not sure how to fix it.


5.


6.


7.

Kinkajou

Wow, this is great for a first wedding! Mine is in two weeks... I hope I do this well first time out...

Some nice, creative things happening here! Some images look a little yellow to me - could be processing, could be my terrible monitor...?

I'm sure they are going to be very happy with these.

met

It's processing. Every example image that she sent me of what she liked had very yellow processing. I tried to mix it up and give her some variety, but I think it works for some of them.