wedding photography

[djsoy]

hey all just joined the forum!

anyways, my friend has asked me shoot their parents 2nd wedding. well i've been doing photography as a hobby for a couple years, on and off.
http://djsoy.deviantart.com/gallery

this will be my 2nd wedding project. the first wedding i did was with a nikon n80 B&w film w/ external flash. pictures came out great.

well, i was thinking about purchasing a canon 20d in the near future. so with this chance to shoot a wedding, they want me to rent equipment for the occasion. www.calumetphoto.com from their rental section.

im excited that i get to rent the camera that i want to purchase and hope you guys can let me know what i might need, tips for low light conditions, when to use flash whenever its necessary and all that jazz.

Canon 20d (not sure if i should rent the battery grip or extra battery)
LExar 2 GB CF card
15 mm f/2.8
24-70mm f/2.8
70-200mm f/2.8
550 ex flash (not sure to get the battery pack)

thats about it. let me know your thoughts about what i am renting. thanks a lot!

alex

[MattyB]

have you toyed with a new canon DSLR before?
might be wise to get some practice up your sleeve.

i think the equipment you've listed to rent is fine, but i doubt you'll need the 70-200mm f2.8
also, possibly getting 2x 1gig cards, just incase... if only having one, and it stuffs up, you're kinda screwed. having 2, you can slot in the other and take half as many photos, but still have photos to share.

i'm guessing, having done a wedding before, you'll know when and where, and to ask the priest or 'head dude' if you can use the flash, and where you can go.
if you're the 1 professional photographer, you'll more than likely be expected to organise the shots after the signing of the papers, before the reception.

as for lighting conditions, you'll have to play that one by ear. - is it outdoor or in-door?
churches are usually fairly dim lit, keep the shutter speeds above 1/200, and the ISO no higher than 800, and you should be right..

my only consern, said again - is, if you're THE professional photographer there, and you're using the camera for the first time. - good bloody luck. haha

i won't warn you against doing the wedding, as i've been warned many times not to, but i always do. just practise, toy with it, and if something works well, stick to it. don't sacrifice much needed family shots by thinking "well, this works well, but maybe if i switch from Av to Tv, and bring this down a little" - you're only going to create problems.

good luck, be sure to show us the results :)

PS: if you're familiar with RAW, and all the processing that comes with it, i suggest shooting mainly in RAW, then if you accidentally mis-calculate the exposure, colours, flash, whatever - your chances of saving the photo from the scrap bin will be muchly higher.

[MattyB]

oh, and welcome to the forum!! you'll love it here, i know i do.

[djsoy]

thanks for the reply, i've used a canon digital rebel but i haven't had the chance to toy around with a 20d.

The wedding is all indoors with low light. so you think the 20d will not be a good choice to use for this assignment? that was the cheapest dslr they have to rent on their site. any pointers on this 20d?

alex

[piku]

20D is a good choice. I think you got the lenses covered. As Matty said above, going w/ multiple 1GB CF cards might be better, and a safer practice... don't put all your eggs in one basket pretty much. Maybe a tripod as well.

[Jon]

Dunno about the fisheye. You'll probably get more use out of the 16-35 UWA zoom (which isn't that UWA on a 20D, but then what's FF fisheye is just bad spherical aberration on a 20D).

The 20D should do well. If you get the extra battery pack, you'll be buying a bit of insurance against overshooting. I'm not sold on the grip, but that's me - lots of other people swear by it. Depends on what you're used to, I think.

I assume you're planning on shooting JPEG, in which case the 2 GB should be plenty of room. If you want to post-process (color correction, sharpening, contrsast & saturation control), figure on having another gig or so JIC. There are a number of RAW processing utilities out besides Canon's if the camera doesn't include it. Pixmantec's Raw Shooter Essentials is good and free.

If you can get the gear long enough to do some practice (at the venue or similar location) beforehand, you might want to consider getting a second flash and play with wireless E-TTL. It's not a no-brainer, but it's fairly straightforward once you work your way through.

If the site doesn't allow flash during the ceremony, you might want/need to bring a good tripod along. Check with the official in charge on this and consider whether to add a faster lens to the list for that part of things. You can usually use flash for "set-up" shots, however.

[Harry Settle]

Keep the fish-eye only if you are sure you are going to do some artsy stuff, go with a nice wide angle. Other than that the 24-70(2.8) and the 70-200(2.8) will cover most everything. Spend some money on a decent tripod and three way head. (I love my Bogen 3021 legs, very sturdy and not expensive) At least 4 1 gig CF cards.

[tim]

I wouldn't recommend doing anything serious without a couple of months using it. Shoot everything: sports, theatre, portraits, etc, to get used to using the camera in a hurry. I can use my camera blindfolded (except for the viewfinder), but I still miss an occasional shot because i'm too slow changing settings.

[Harry Settle]

I agree with Tim. When I first got my 10D and found out how different it was from my old A-1, I used to practice shooting cars comming towards me and going away, then did the same thing with people on the sidewalk. This gave me a good idea of how the camera would focus with moving subjects. Then there was trying to get decent flash pictures. Practice, practice, practice.