Beach wedding advice

[smirak]

I will be shooting a wedding on the beach this weekend for my sister. The price was right (she didn't want to hire anyone because she's cheap like me). I don't have the money to get a "fast" lens, will only be shooting with the eq I already have...XTi, 28-135 IS lens, 18-55 "kit" lens, 70-300 lens, 420 ex flash (need to upgrade and can't decide between 580, 430, or promaster 7500 edf). It was recommended to rent a lens for the wedding, but there is nowhere local, and nowhere that I can get one from before I leave for the beach.

Thanks for any and all advice.

Kevin

[tonylong]

Well, your big challenge will be lighting. Your lenses should work fine if the wedding is in the daytime. But the sunlight (if it's a sunny day) will pose problems and your flash will be your friend.

I'd suggest that you rig your flash with a makeshift bounce card (use a rubber band to secure a white paper/card around the back of the flash "hood" with the flash head pointed up) then do some practice shooting outdoors with the type of lighting/orientation to the sun that you will be facing in the wedding.

I'm not sure of the capabilities of your 420, but you want to experiment with Flash Exposure Compensation to modify the brightness of the flash.

Your camera will probably get the best results in Manual (to avoid unexpected shifts in exposure as you make slight changes in shooting directions) but whatever mode you're in you have to watch out when changing your shooting directions so that you properly expose the background and use your flash as fill. Plus, I'd avoid shooting toward the sun unless you want either a sillouette effect or, say, fill-lighting the couple with a setting sun behind them.

Good luck! Do some practice/test shooting and you will increase your chances of "photographic survival"!

[smirak]

Tony,

Thanks for the advice. As soon as the lens gets here (hurry up UPS guy) on Wed, I'll get the wife to do some test shots...Also, we have until Sat for the wedding and we'll be going down on Thursday (weather should be about the same), so we have a couple of days to do some "test shooting" as well.

I am about to pull the trigger on a new flash, but can't decide if I want to spend the extra money to get promaster 7500 edf, speedlight 430 ex (not ex ii) or the speedlight 580 ex ii. The 420 is OK, but its recycle time is like 2 months...

Thanks again,
Kevin

[Jpatten]

I did something similar, I shot at my sister's beach wedding. I have an XT, the 18-55 kit lens, and a Sigma 70-300. While she had a professional Photographer, she wanted me to take shots as well.
It was a mostly overcast day and rather windy
We were shooting on the south-end of Tybee Island.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/jraypatten/sets/72157607311091234/
Thats a few of my better ones I think.

[tim]

Before my first wedding I did six months preparation, and spent thousands of dollars on equipment, but I was wanting to do a good job.

The problem with photographing people on a beach is usually very harsh light, causing a huge difference in dynamic range. You have a couple of options:
1) Expose for the background, and use flash to light the people. Downside is a 420EX might not keep up if you shoot rapidly, a 580EX will take a CP-E4 battery pack (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/498738-REG/Canon_1947B001_Compact_Battery_Pack_CP_E4.html/BI/2312/KBID/3114) which makes a huge difference.
2) Shoot in P mode with the 420EX as fill.

During beach portraits it depends where the sun is. I had to shoot at the beach in harsh harsh midday sun last weekend. I used an assistant with an off-camera flash shooting into an umbrella to help fill the shadows, as the sun was only lighting one side of their face. The exposure was the same on the faces as the background, so that part was ok.

In your case I suggest you use option 2 above during the ceremony, and option 1 during the portraits. Take the formal photos in the evening if you can.

[smirak]

Thanks Tim for the advice.

Due to best buy and their pricing error I am the proud owner of a new 580exii. So, that changes things a bit. Don't have an assistant to help, so not sure about using the 420 now but could probably use it as a slave in the future.


Kevin

[tim]

The 420 can be your backup, I wouldn't suggest you try master/slave, it doesn't work in bright light - I had it fail last weekend, so I switched to radio triggers. I would suggest you see if you can buy or borrow a battery pack though, they are really handy when it's bright. Also beware a flash can overhead just by being in the sun, it happened to someone recently, there's a thread in the lighting forum. It just wouldn't fire until it cooled down. Keep the spare flash out of the sun, just in case.

[smirak]

Thanks Tim...didn't even think about a battery pack for the flash...around how much do they cost. What's the purpose of the battery pack? Extra "power", extra shots, etc...?

Thanks,
Kevin

[tim]

The battery pack lets the battery charge more quickly, 2 seconds instead of 7 seconds. It doesn't alter the brightness of the flash.