1st wedding coming up, few questions

[Whirlwind]

Hey everyone! I've just spent 2 hours reading through some of the stuff in this forum, the pictures are amazing and the information and discussion is top rate. I have my first wedding coming up at the end of July and I have a few questions. Firstly, its a friends wedding, outdoors at her dad's house, I'm charging but VERY little in exchange for the right to display any and all of the photos on my website (which in hindsight I realize I could probably do anyways, I would own the right to the shots, but I had already given her a price, so whatever) and besides, its my first time!!

My main question is about the gear. I'll be shooting with two 5d's, one with a 24-70 f2.8L and a 580EXII on a bracket, and the other with a 70-200 F2.8L IS (and maybe a 580EXII on that one too). Of course I'm also going to need several cards, several batteries, maybe a polarizing filter (outdoors, good idea to have?) and I may want my 17-40 F4L with me. This may seem like a stupid question, but how am I going to carry all this stuff? I'm big, young, and in shape, so handling the weight isn't a problem, its more of a logistics question. I'll probably have a lowepro stealth d400 shoulder bag with me. Do you guys normally have all that stuff with you? How do you cary it all? What do you find most comfortable (or alternatively what didn't work)?

Besides the stuff i just mentioned, is there any gear I should make sure I have with me? Anything I might have forgotten there, or anything I might be likely to forget? I work at a camera store, so I can borrow just about anything, which is how I'll have a second 5D for the wedding. :D

Next question: read somewhere on here that someone only uses flash with a second curtain sinc. Can anyone breifly explain the difference in the pictures using first or second curtain. A demonstration would be even more helpful obviously.

Any tips or tricks? I'm feeling a little nervous just because this is my first wedding, but I'm reasonably comfortable with my gear, both the bride and groom are very easy to work with, and I'll have the chance to scout the location this week or next week, so overall I'm fairly confident all things considdered. I'd just like all the help I can get.

oh, one random one. If I get myself into a low light situation indoors, what's the slowest shutter speed you would recomend for candid individual or group photos lit with the flash? If I'm trying to keep the background reasonably bright, I just want to know my limits so I'm not going with trial and error.

thanks in advance for your help everyone!

-Adrian

[DStanic]

oh, one random one. If I get myself into a low light situation indoors, what's the slowest shutter speed you would recomend for candid individual or group photos lit with the flash? If I'm trying to keep the background reasonably bright, I just want to know my limits so I'm not going with trial and error.


The general rule with hand-held shots are to keep the shutter speed the same as the focal length you are using. For example, if you are shooting at 50mm you will want to shoot at 1/50. 200mm 1/200sec and so on. Generally I try to keep it at 1/60 or higher, that's about the lowest I can hold it steady handheld. If you are shooting with a crop camera such as a 40D or XTi you will need to multiply the crop factor (0.6x) and add that to the number. So if you shot at 100mm you would multiple 0.6x100+100mm= 1/160sec. The 5D is full frame so there is no crop factor to worry about.

If you are shooting in very low light and can't keep the shutter speed up you can either bump up the ISO (the 5D has very low noise at high ISO so don't be afraid to use it). Or what I would do is set it to manual, dial in the shutter speed you need, set it to a moderate ISO for less noise, and the flash will compensate for the light you need. :)

[Whirlwind]

Thanks for the reply, that's what I figured. In theory though, if I'm confident I can hold the camera steady at 1/30th and my subject really isn't moving then there's no reason that won't work right? I'm pretty sure I'd rather use ISO1600 than a really slow shutter speed anyways, so it should be a mute point, just thought I'd ask.

-Adrian