Wedding Tomorrow

blackwaterstudio

Hey guys, shooting my first wedding tomorrow. Its my best friends wedding and I'm doing it for a wedding gift. I just borrowed a 24-70L so that'll be my main lens. My take my 135L just in case. I'll be using my 20D, 24-70L, 135L and Sigma super 500 flash with an omni bounce on it.

Anything else I should be taking? Both batterys for the camera are charged and ready to go. Got extra battery's for the flash. Only one 2gig card as my other Sandisk took a dump (1 year old, however Sandisk is sending me a brand new one)

I do plan to shoot RAW which will cut down on my shots as I only have the one 2gig card so I'm gonna have to be careful with my shots. I thought about shooting jpg whch will give me over 500 shots, but no control like with RAW.

Anything else I should bring? Do? Just little nervous at this point

Shay Stephens

blackwaterstudio wrote:

I do plan to shoot RAW which will cut down on my shots as I only have the one 2gig card so I'm gonna have to be careful with my shots. I thought about shooting jpg whch will give me over 500 shots, but no control like with RAW.

I would shoot jpg, only having 2gigs to work with is going to be too limiting and you will run out before the day is through. In this case, I don't think RAW is going to be as big a benefit as gross shot count is going to be.

Use all the experience you have gained up till now to do the best you know how to do. This is not a time to experiment and try things you have never done before. Shoot the way you normally do.

Other than that, have a good time, and best wishes to the bride & groom :-)

I hope the cake is tasty

p.s. bring a water bottle, dehydration is a big risk and it saps your mental powers to be creative. Toss in a snack or two also for the same reason. And bring a lens cloth to clean your lens. Fingers have a funny way of finding the lens at a wedding. Have backups of whatever you can muster.

ziggy53

If the wedding is tomorrow, hopefully that means the rehearsal is today. Shoot the rehearsal like it was the wedding and use it as practice. Chimp often to make sure you are getting what you want, because you probably won't have time to check much during the actual wedding. Adjust the wedding shots by what you discover during the rehearsal. (Like Shay says, don't try anything new, just make sure you are getting the best from what you know and have available.)

If this is not a familiar church, ask questions to find the best places to stand and any special customs.

I would surely suggest another CF card, both for additional storage and for a backup.

I would shoot JPEG for most everything except the critical shots and ambient light shots.

Try to remain as calm as possible with a "take charge" attitude. If you are the "official" photographer, act like it, with a light but positive/assertive attitude.

Make a shot list of all the critical shots, and keep a couple of copies with you so one is always handy. Check stuff off as it is done. Shots with more people generally need more versions to choose from. Shoot no less than 1/2 the number of people, so if there are 12 people in a shot, shoot 6 images or more. (Sometimes you find a group that requires less, but sometimes more.)

If you don't have an assistant, recruit somebody to help with posings and attire. You will be concentrating on the mechanics of the shot, so it helps to have "another set of eyes" looking for things other than what you are doing.

If your flash uses AA sized batteries, buy some plain old alkalines as well, just in case.

Take another camera, just in case. Even a simple digicam can be used if used wisely.

Relax and have some fun at the reception. This is your best friend after all.

Good luck,

ziggy53

FatNakedGuy

bro... 2gb isn't going to be enough. Do yourself a huge favor and go buy something larger NOW!

Also, rent a 2nd camera body as a backup on this very important day that you won't be able to reshoot (don't ask me how I know this..) OK, I'll tell you... Last weekend I was shooting a big music awards event in SoCal with my wonderful Canon Mk2n. Never had an issue with it through 70,000 images. About 1/2 way through the event I started noticing everything looking soft through the viewfinder. I adjusted the dipole (or whatever that thing is called) and no luck. Took both the main battery and the backup battery out of the camera for a couple minutes and put them back in, no luck.. Finally turned manual focus on the lens and was able to get the shots in focus the rest of the night (what a pain). After taking the camera to Canon the next Monday I found out the focus ring (whatever that is) had a meltdown.

So lesson learned. Have a 2nd everything for those important events no matter how good you think your equipment is.

Jeffro

blackwaterstudio wrote:

Hey guys, shooting my first wedding tomorrow. Its my best friends wedding and I'm doing it for a wedding gift....

I can't wait to see how it went. Hope it was a success!

blackwaterstudio

Pictures are posted in the people section. Let me know what you think

Jeffro

blackwaterstudio wrote:

Pictures are posted in the people section. Let me know what you think

I coldn't find a PEOPLE section maybe I should have had my glasses on

ziggy53

Jeffro wrote:

I coldn't find a PEOPLE section maybe I should have had my glasses on

I'll help you out:

http://www.dgrin.com/showthread.php?t=32178