A couple thoughts about my first wedding

[Adam B.]

Bring a change of clothing; I couched down to my camera bag and ripped the front of my pants from the zipper to the right knee. How embarassing! This was a loose fitting pair of Dockers, very comfortable (and even more so after). Spent most of the receiption with my shirt untucked and my fanny pack covering my stuff in the front. The only good part of this was it provided some cooling, the receiption hall was very warm.

Get a Battery pack for my flash; I ran out of flash during the best man's toast. I had plenty of spare rechargable batteries, however it's a pain to change them quickly, and I missed the shots.

Focus; Practice man. focus for very low light receiption halls. My auto focus missed and hunted a lot. My manual focusing skills were just as bad. By the time I had got my focus the shot was missed.

Having said the above, I did have a good time and got most of the important shots. I took about 800 shots, after my first chop I've got about 600 images to play with.

I now see the reasons for the high cost of Wedding photog's!!! You all deserve it. This will be my last free wedding, and I don't care who asks! I'll post some pictures as soon as I'm done with my editing.

Thanks to this group!!! You help me out a lot.:)

[jbstudios]

sorry but you made me giggle about having to wear a fanny pack. i would have my husband run and get me clothes i swear =)

its a lot of work isnt it? no more free ones for me either.

jb

[arizona85224]

funny stuff about ripping your pants. At my sisters wedding she had a photopragher, but I shot the whole thing as well and they are not very easy to do as I learned myself. Have fun editing the pic's.

[LeesaB]

we wear suits..so, if a pair of pants rip...we can just button up...but a change is smart...because you never know what will happen...

I am in the market for a few more suits anyways..tax savings too...I don't buy versace' but I do like a nice suit for weddings...dark, pin striped...

[xandria]

I've taken extra socks with me (for when it's snowy or wet) but never an extra change of full clothes. OMG that would be horrifying!!! I will absolutely have extra clothes in the van from now on. :)

[picturecrazy]

Sorry to hear about the pants ripping. yikes!

As for the battery problem... isn't that why you have two bodies? In a case like that, throw one body away and get the shot with the other? Getting a poor shot and cropping or exposure fixing is better than no shot!

[Grace]

i would have never thought to take extra clothing...LOL! i am sorry that happened! it is funny though :)

[coreypolis]

I always bring an extra set of clothes. I ripped my shirt ina few places one time, though I think it was at the end of the night at just let it go.

I agree with the flash pack, one shoot with a quantum pack and I was sold. lasts all day, charges fast, reycles fast. well worth the fee ($10 to rent) and the extra weight

post some images when you get them done

[Adam B.]

Live and learn, that's my motto. If I don't learn something new everyday, I'm dead. I made a lot of mistakes that day, hopefully I'll remember and correct them the next time. I hope the next time will be a long time in coming.

[98photo]

[quote=picturecrazy;2643976]As for the battery problem... isn't that why you have two bodies? In a case like that, throw one body away and get the shot with the other? quote]


I wish I had that type of disposable income!! ;)

[gateruner]

The worst part is behind you Adam. It is a lot of work but now you are done with the first, time to get another unless it is just not your bag. For me the first time is always the hardest and the more I do something the easier and more comfortable it becomes.

[tony fanning]

Nice story about the pants- my first wedding, the sole came off my shoe!!! I take a spare now.

[Adam B.]

CC always welcome.

[Nic V]

I'd be tempted to crop the first image, the dress hanging to the side of the bride is a little distracting. here's a rough crop to show you what I mean. I love the image though, the bride looks happy and relaxed.
also is it possible to photoshop the person behind the couple in the second shot? I say is it, as hubby does all the pp on our weddings, I'm still very much a novice and I don't know how eas it would be.

[Adam B.]

Thanks, I wasn't to sure about the crop. I like your crop much better.

I think cloning out the priestess would be very time consuming and very hard to do right. Really not worth it for me. If I was being paid for this I might do it, but, I'm not so I won't. This sounds bad I know, but, it's the truth.

Thanks again.

[slappy sam]

Yeah cropping out the person in the bottom photo would be quite difficult.

[italianfemmy]

I agree that it might be difficult, but it would be a great learning experience to do it. You might not be getting paid by the B&G to do the work but you will be rewarding yourself with the knowledge of how to do it faster and better when someone is paying you and that will definitely pay itself off.

Just my $.02

[Nic V]

I agree that it might be difficult, but it would be a great learning experience to do it. You might not be getting paid by the B&G to do the work but you will be rewarding yourself with the knowledge of how to do it faster and better when someone is paying you and that will definitely pay itself off.

Just my $.02

I agree, especially as you haven't been paid, it doesn't ,matter if you do a good job or not. there's no pressure on you to take the person out and it would be great practise. sorry I can't give you any clues on how to do it:oops:

[Adam B.]

It does matter if I do a good job or not. I think this picture captures the moment well.

While my PS skill always need some improvement, I'm not going to devote any time to editing this image, unless one day I have a few hours to kill and no other shots to edit (which is very unlikely).

Thanks for the imput!

[Nic V]

Adam
I'd seen the mike and I thought that it was a video camera! that puts a different light on the picture. Now I have to say that I would leave it in. Before I thoutght it was a staged shot that was unfortunate to catch someone in the background. My apologies. Great shot!

[_Jo_]

Yeah cropping out the person in the bottom photo would be quite difficult.

How's this?

[_Jo_]

The above was just a 2 min edit. If you were to do it properly it would be neater but it just gives you an idea as to how the image would look without the background distraction. (and I lightened it just a tad).

[Adam B.]

Thanks Jo.

[elfy]

I did my first wedding last week (my uncle's girlfriend's daughter). I just made sure to tell them that it was my first and not to expect anything out of this world and they were fine with that, which took some of the pressure off. If I was to give any tips I'd say, to make sure you are prepared. Talk to the couple beforehand and get to know the type of shots they would like and how they wan the day to pan out. As has been said, take plenty of batteries and also, extra memory cards. I had a 1GB card and that is nowhere near enough if you are going to shoot in RAW, which I'd recommend. Luckily I had my laptop with me so I could dump the pics once the card was full. This was a bit of a pain though and I really had to plan when I was going to do this as it took about 15 minutes a time. Unfortunately I don't have two camera bodies so I was shooting with my XT only but I did have my girlfriend running around with her digital P+S capturing guests arriving and suchlike.

[Adam B.]

Yeah, 1 gb is nowhere near enough. I had 6 2gb cards and 2 1gb cards.

[Tmosley]

I would definetly agree that a quantum turbo is crucial,

i hate it when your looking at your images and flash fires, no fire, flash fires, no fire, and usually when it doesnt fire its the shot that you wanted, lol

[_Jo_]

Thanks Jo.

Your welcome :)

[chloeosmom]

in the mirror shot, and it may have been purely accident, In the mirror behind here is a second person, woudnt it be cool if it was the groom, or her mother and grandmother and have her looking off to stage right (to the right of the pic as we see it), it would be a neat geration pic.
B

[Adam B.]

That's Grandma. I saw the shot and took it. Most of the shots I took that day were PJ style shots. I only did about 30 minutes of semi-posed B&G and family groups. That's what the family wanted, and that's what the family got.

I just got word today, B&G love the pictures I took and are very happy. Which in turn made me very happy.

Thanks to all.