My first wedding

wellman

Well, technically my second, since I'm married.

I had the pleasure of shooting my first wedding a few weeks ago. The B&G were friends, which was good (established relationship) and bad (extra pressure). I'm pretty happy with these results for a first outing, and they are too.

Lessons learned:

• I really needed a 200mm lens for shots from the back of the church. I was able to make 105mm work with a fair bit of cropping, but getting in closer would have been much better.
• I completely underestimated the developing load. My wife and I team-shot the event, which left me with >850 photos to work through. I'm using Lightroom, which was a lifesaver. However, I'd prefer a new computer with extra horses before I attempted anything so enormous again. Waiting on software is bad.
• I would do only the formals the B&G explicity asked for the next time around. I got everyone out of the sanctuary 30 minutes after the ceremony ended, but I lived 4 hours in those 30 minutes.
• I need to learn about fill flash, and probably off-camera lighting, for formals. I compensated with high ISO and IS, but more light would have been better.
• Pros who charge thousands are worth every penny. I have a whole new appreciation for the craft. I got some decent shots, but I was humbled.

A few of my favorites follow. C&C welcome.

#1


#2


#3


#4


#5


#6


#7


#8

saurora

Nice job!!! Looks like your bride was almost giddy with happiness....she has a great smile which probably makes the shots even better! Congrats for surviving the experience....question is "would you do another?"

Seneca

Number #3 is my favorite...I've done that one a couple of times. Often...the groom is weary of it...but I promised that they will not see each other.Good job.

Stormdancing

You did a wonderful job! Nice conversions on the B&W.

urbanaries

Wow, you did a great job! These have a very photojournalistic feel to them, and certainly portray an exuberant bride and wonderful time.

#3, #5 and #8 are my favorites. Wonderful moments you've captured here, I'm sure they will be very pleased!

wellman

saurora wrote:

Nice job!!! Looks like your bride was almost giddy with happiness....she has a great smile which probably makes the shots even better! Congrats for surviving the experience....question is "would you do another?"

Thanks! Yes, I'd do another. I need some time to save money for some longer glass and a new machine, though.

wellman

Seneca wrote:

Number #3 is my favorite...I've done that one a couple of times. Often...the groom is weary of it...but I promised that they will not see each other.Good job.

Thanks! That was their idea, and it turned out great. The darkness behind her white dress contrasts nicely with the brighter colors behind his tux. I hope I get the chance to use this shot again.

wellman

Stormdancing wrote:

You did a wonderful job! Nice conversions on the B&W.

Thanks! Lightroom has a neat little grayscale tool that allows you to grab any part of the photo and change the intensity of that color channel. Some shadow issues that intefered with the B&W were a snap with that little tool.

wellman

urbanaries wrote:

Wow, you did a great job! These have a very photojournalistic feel to them, and certainly portray an exuberant bride and wonderful time.

#3, #5 and #8 are my favorites. Wonderful moments you've captured here, I'm sure they will be very pleased!

Wow, thanks Lynne!

bsvirginian

I'd also add that you did a great job. Thanks for the stated understanding of the value of wedding photographers. those not in the business can never understand the time we put in "after the fact". Believe me that the anquish of the event does dissapate the more weddings you do. Good observation concerning longer lens and fill flash. bsvirginian

Mrs F

These are great! I really like your style. You captured beautiful expressions in all of these.

urbanaries

bsvirginian wrote:

I'd also add that you did a great job. Thanks for the stated understanding of the value of wedding photographers. those not in the business can never understand the time we put in "after the fact". Believe me that the anquish of the event does dissapate the more weddings you do. Good observation concerning longer lens and fill flash. bsvirginian

this is great reassurance for all of us dipping our toes in the wedding photography world. Thanks Bob!!!

wellman

bsvirginian wrote:

I'd also add that you did a great job. Thanks for the stated understanding of the value of wedding photographers. those not in the business can never understand the time we put in "after the fact". Believe me that the anquish of the event does dissapate the more weddings you do. Good observation concerning longer lens and fill flash. bsvirginian

Thank you very much for the kind words. I also echo Lynne's thoughts concerning the anguish.

wellman

Mrs F wrote:

These are great! I really like your style. You captured beautiful expressions in all of these.

Thanks! My style is still in development. One key for me in getting good shots was having my wife help out. It helps to have someone else corralling the people while I'm clicking away. She also took all the "bride getting ready" photos, which was great!

I'm passing on all these compliments to her as well. You folks know how to make a couple feel good!

wellman

One note of follow up... As a gift to the B&G, my wife and I ordered a book from Mpix - a new offering for them. It came in today, and I'm mostly impressed. The binding and paper quality are good. My pages are all black (except for the photos of course), and I don't see any roller marks or the like. The color and exposure all look good to me, and I'm picky.

My main complaint is that the images look somewhat noisy. The ISO 100 shots look just as noisy as the ISO 1600 shots, so it must be something with the downsampling or the printing. It's not bad, just more than I would have expected. I'd certainly use them again. I'm sure better quality is out there, but for $50 this would be hard to beat.

DavidS

Great job. Wonderful shots. I love the composition on them.