Shooting a wedding with my 20D

[mmmphotography]

I am shooting a friends reception, I will be renting some lenses since I don't own any. Can someone suggest which would be the best to use?
It's a night reception, she wants mostly candids.

[MALI]

10-22
24-70
70-200

[coreypolis]

for fun or are you being paid?

[mmmphotography]

For fun, she already had her destination wedding , this is just a party, so she didn't want to hire a professional. I am just getting into wedding photography, I have been following around a professional but was using her equipment. So I thought I would rent a lense or two for this event.

[sblais]

When is the wedding?

[mmmphotography]

Next March

[sblais]

What lenses were you comfortable with when you followed the pro?

I personally don't recommend taking new equipment at the event. At least, you may have time to rent the lenses before the wedding to get familiar with them. Weight, how the lens handles are still very important parameters to take into consideration and they can affect your performance during the event.

But at least, if it's for fun, then we won't start bashing you too hard ;)!

[mmmphotography]

Yes, I agree, I was going to rent some this weekend to test.
I don't really understand the lense lingo. Can someone give me a quick rundown?
Yes, at least it's for fun, they don't expect too much of me but I would love to wow them!

[sblais]

If you don't understand the lens parameters, I suggest that you read a lot on this forum about the technical aspects of photography. You need to understand exposure, flash photography, crop factors, etc.

Since you're shooting mostly at the reception, you need an external flash unit as receptions are always very dark.

What equipment do you have so far? What body, flash, memory cards, etc do you have? That can help us helping you with some pointers (on general photography, not on lenses only).

[jamiewexler]

For basic party pics where you will almost certainly need a flash, why not just use your kit lens. Or something basic like a 28-105 f3.5-4.5 (less than $200 used, and a great general purpose lens) that you can buy and keep and use after the event. I rarely ever shoot at wide apertures when I'm using a flash at a reception - usually staying between f4 and f5.6 for DOF reasons. Honestly, I'd be more worried about having a good external flash.

[mmmphotography]

I don't have much, I have the 20D with the 18-55mm lense. I was planning on renting the 580EX and then an extra lense or two. I have a 1 GB memory card and was planning on getting at least another 1GB.

What is the difference b/w shooting in RAW and JPEG?

[sblais]

the 20D is already better than my XT bodies (usability wise, not picture quality wise) ;). Shooting RAW allows you to set the white balance afterwards easily and without any image degradation. It's a lossless compression vs JPEG which is a lossy compression. RAW has my vote.

What do you mean by the lens lingo? Do you want us to define aperture, focal lengths, IS and whatnot?

[sblais]

You'll also want to read this (http://www.photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=171657) over and over for successful flash photography.

[mmmphotography]

Yes please! Can you define all those, or at least tell me what this means? 70-200 2.8 AF. And I didn't understand any of "I rarely ever shoot at wide apertures when I'm using a flash at a reception - usually staying between f4 and f5.6 for DOF reasons"

[mmmphotography]

Also, where can I read and learn about this
how shutter speed affects exposure and motion blur, how aperture affects exposure and depth-of-field, and how the ISO setting affects exposure and digital noise.

[tim]

I would strongly suggest you get an "introduction to photography" type book before you do this. Luckiy you have plenty of time to prepare :) You really have to know what apertures and shutter speeds are, and how they relate to what you're trying to do in your photo.

[jamiewexler]

Yes please! Can you define all those, or at least tell me what this means? 70-200 2.8 AF. And I didn't understand any of "I rarely ever shoot at wide apertures when I'm using a flash at a reception - usually staying between f4 and f5.6 for DOF reasons"

No harm in that, we all had to start somewhere! The terms in the above posts are some of the basics of photography, with literally books written about them. Start with some reading (http://photography.about.com/od/basics/Basic_Photography.htm), experiment, read some more, and soon you'll be throwing out confusing terms too! :)

For the party, I recommend shooting in P mode all night at ISO 400 with your 18-55 and a rented 580ex. Learn how to use the Flash Exposure Compensation function of the 550ex. I usually keep it bumped up around +2/3. Above all, have fun!

PS - you might just want to buy yourself a Canon 50mm f1.8 lens. It's a great starter lens for learning about apertures and depth of field (DOF)!

[sapearl]

Your 18-55 will take care of your candid and informal group shots - those are basic solid pix to take at a reception.

If you want to "stand off" and do (stealth) telephoto candids, then one other zoom will do the trick. I shoot FF, so am not really up on good lens for a crop body. But I would go with Jamie's suggestion of the 28 - 105, his advice is better than mine in these matters ;) . Between those 2 lenses, you're really covered. And ditto for everything that Jamie said about the flash. The strobe is absolutely critical for that situation.

Contrary to what some seem to believe, you really do NOT need a trunk load of lenses and other equipment to shoot a reception. Concentrate on the people and your craft - don't get hung up on the gear. - Stu

[Tish]

Before you do anything else, please go get this book:

http://www.amazon.com/Understanding-Exposure-Photographs-Digital-Updated/dp/0817463003/sr=8-1/qid=1164830789/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/102-6245941-8692945?ie=UTF8&s=books

If you don't understand the basics such how your aperture controls your DOF, you won't get the pictures you're expecting, and there's so much more in books like these than we can teach you in this thread. Rummage around in the other forums and search on terms related to your questions--there's a ton of information available here, but you'll need to spend some time studying & shooting on your own before you'll feel confident about shooting at this reception.

Lens choice at this point isn't important if you don't have a grasp of the basics & how your camera works. I promise you that if you learn these things, you'll get great pictures no matter what lens you use! :D

[mmmphotography]

Thanks everyone! This is all such great advice, I have a lot of learning to do!

Jamie, thanks for clarifying and also for the recommendations!

[sapearl]

I would also suggest doing a LOT of shooting between now and March. Any birthday parties between now and then? Family gatherings? Volunteer school functions?

Along with the excellent reading that has been recommended here, the instant feedback of DOING these things will be invaluable. And as you compose your shots, you'll get a better sense for what you want in a second lens for the job. We can make all the hardware suggestions we want, but they may in no way match your actual shooting style.

[sblais]

I would recommend purchasing this book (http://http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.amazon.com%2FUnderstandi ng-Exposure-Photographs-Digital-Updated%2Fdp%2F0817463003%2Fsr%3D1-1%2Fqid%3D1162514439%3Fie%3DUTF8%26s%3Dbooks%26tag 2%3Dheadphonerevi-20&tag=headphonerevi-20&linkCode=ur2&camp=1789&creative=9325) to learn the basic technical skills about photography. It will answer most of the questions you have in better ways than we could here.

We can still give you an overview if you find it necessary.

[sblais]

Missed the second page of comments since my last post... sorry about the duplicate post on the "Understanding exposure" book.

[GertS]

I have a 1 GB memory card and was planning on getting at least another 1GB.

What is the difference b/w shooting in RAW and JPEG?

Raw files are the "direct" image of the sensor in a lostless compression. Jpeg does lose information depending on the compression factor.

Raw files are about 8-10 MB of a 8 mega pixel sensor, like the 20D has, so you need much more memory cards. The buffer of the camera is smaller for raw files too.

Jpeg, the camera does the "processing" for you, whereas at raw it's your job to get the most of the image, but it's worth. A raw converter is included at the camera, get the latest from the Canon website. They did "some" improvements. :)

But the good side of raw is
- you can adjust white balance easily depending on all situation, important if you have mixed lights with different colour temperatures
- you can sharpen the picture as much as you need
- you can correct exposure much better than with Jpegs (so easy in comparison to Jpeg)
- playing with contrast, saturation, modifying colour channels, ok you can do it with Jpeg too, but not so easy.
- you can create different files of a raw file without damaging the raw file, as you can "reset" it to the origins
- a lot more things

If you have Photoshop Elements 3, or CS or CS2 you can process the raw files with these. DPP is included at your camera, but get the latest version.

I'm shooting raw only with exactly one exception, when sensor cleaning. :lol:

When converting the raw files I create first 16bit Tiffs and do the final adjustments in PS and convert the Tiffs later to JPeg. Warning: memory demanding!!!

I have less work shooting raw than shooting jpeg, with better results.

The only disadvantage I found is more space and more time needed for writing / reading. But I have 14 GB in cards + 80 GB portable HD and this lasts a while.

[GertS]

Regarding raw I forgot to mention:

If you are using your camera in auto mode, the green square, raw is not offered. Go for P until you have more experience and know the advantages of Tv, Av and M.

Check the forums for more information, they are a great source. In case of questions, just ask.