I need some fast Wedding photography advice pls

[piccaboo]

A freind of mine has asked me to take the photoes of her early morning small (9 people in total) wedding on the beach( 6 0r 7am), followed by breakfast in a room full of windows and a view of beach. She understands I am a beginner! First time for a wedding too!

I am useing my Canon 450D with 18-55 IS, 55-250IS Lenses.
I plan to purchase a 430 speedlight this week,( and learn it fast) Is there anything else I may need, like a reflector? and a diffuser? and would a 50mm prime come in handy? Could someone help me with the bare minimun requirement I may need for this one off wedding?

ALSO----Would someone kindly give me some tips for shooting in ( assumed) bright beach light on the beach and in the resturant with windows.

Should I shoot in P? or AV? I'm not fully confident to shoot in M(On this particular day).
Thanks in advance

Nic

[bigtruck1369]

Thought I'd just step in and say something before the wolves set upon, and trust me, they will...


I'm no wedding photographer, in fact, that's why I'm lurking on here, reading, trying to learn as much as possible. That's my suggestion to you, read. As much as you can. Read the threads here, and in other sections. Try to learn as much as you can about exposure, lighting, composition, and practice practice practice. Go to strobist.com to read more about lighting. Try other pages as well. Buy your flash NOW and practice with it as much as you can. Get every bit of trigger time you can before the wedding hits.


Seeing as you'll be out there so early in the morning, you should have great light, not super bright harsh light. But maybe it's different on the beach, that's how it is in the cornfields around here!

You don't have to use the manual setting that day, but if you honestly think you couldn't if you had to, you're probably not ready...

[PeaceFire]

My advice is to be careful not to blow out the sky. Whatever settings you choose (honestly, I only ever shoot in full manual and have NO idea how the other settings work, which is something I'm working on) just make sure your sky isn't white the whole time. Your foreground (the beach and rocks and ceremony) may be a touch darker as a result, but that can all be fixed in PP. A white sky cannot. And the one regret I have from my first beach wedding was not realizing this and having such a white sky.

To figure out what will work best, go down to the location at the time you will be shooting and take notes on camera settings and lighting. If you have someone who will wear white for you while you do this you can also figure out the best settings to make sure you don't blow out the wedding dress, too, as that's always a challenge in such a bright situation.

And I will be the last person to knock someone else for trying as I did the same thing for my wedding since I was on a $3,000 budget. As long as the B&G understand that you are not a pro and they are taking a risk with their pictures then go for it and have fun. Make a list of shots you want to get (there are some great Flickr communities for inspiration) and maybe rent another body for the day in case your camera malfunctions or something. And since this seems like a laid back affair, ask the B&G if they would be OK recreating parts of the ceremony afterward in case you miss something to help take the pressure off a bit. You may not need to, but it's nice to know the option is there.

[piccaboo]

lol, I know the wolves will have something to say, I am expecting that -I'm fully armed :)

Thanks Truck...I will go out tomorrow and purchase my flash and practice! Is it the usuall though to use flash on the beach even with nice light? Or perhaps a bit of both? Thanks for the site too, will read read read.
Thanks Peacefire..some great advice there! I'm heading over this weekend to check things out and take a few pics, I will concentrate on not blowing the highlights. Yes, exposure is my main concern!! Great tip about recreating some of it, If need be.
Should I also get a reflector & diffuser? and a 50mm?

[harroz]

haha, don't worry you wont get ripped apart and shredded from one part of your living room to the other;-). mostly the wolves dislike someone saying "starting a wedding business, got a 300d and a couple of lenses that i brought last friday, will this be ok?". you're just wanting to help someone so you'll get great responses I'm sure. I myself might get hounded for saying this, but you know if I was in a similar position I'd put the camera on P, put your flash on ttl, and shoot it in raw, at the end of the day composition is what is going to make your images, it'll make or break em, so instead of spending your thinking on what settings to have your camera on, use it to get the composition right. the rest should be able to be fixed in post. the reason i say this is because you say you're a beginner, and weddings can be stressful to shoot, so the less you have to muddle your brain with the better, your mind will be going full bore, don't worry about that though, just take it in your stride and have fun and stay focussed.

My mum says to me "make sure you get one beautiful shot of the bride and groom, if you do this they'll be happy" so there you go:)

[tim]

Easy. If the sky's bright behind them set the camera to Tv, 1/200th, EC on +1, FEC on +1, metering on evaluative, and shoot away. Even better set it to full manual - meter the background so it's exposed well, then flash on FEC+1 to light the people. If the sun's behind you no problem, P mode, EC+1, FEC 0.

Use the same setup for any backlit scenario. You don't need another other than a flash and your current equipment. You might be better off renting a 580EX II and a CP-E4 battery pack, because this is one time you might want more power. The CP-E4 will reduce your flash recharge time from 7s to 2s, give or take.

Form will be along to be grumpy soon ;)

[form]

For a beach wedding I think it would be fun to try out a large reflector and have an assistant hold it to fill the shadows on the b&g's faces while exposing for the highlights. I don't have an assistant to do that with, unfortunately.

[jblaschke]

I will go out tomorrow and purchase my flash and practice! Is it the usuall though to use flash on the beach even with nice light?

Make a bounce card for your flash. For early morning beach shooting, the light should be fantastic. If you need to use the flash, it'll be to fill in shadows, so you don't want it blasting the subjects face on. Attach the card to the flash and point it away from the subject. The light bouncing off the card should fill in/soften shadows nicely. But you might not even need to do that. Beach light in the mornings and evenings can be incredible.

[tim]

For a beach wedding I think it would be fun to try out a large reflector and have an assistant hold it to fill the shadows on the b&g's faces while exposing for the highlights. I don't have an assistant to do that with, unfortunately.

Reflectors in sunlight blind people. Go try it with a sheet of white paper and a friend, then imagine how much worse it'd be with a big silver reflector.

[piccaboo]

Thanks everyone, some great tips here!! Harroz, yep I was intending to go with P and flash on ttl, :) Though I know I will get creative once I find the right light and know how much time i have to play with.
Thanks Tim, great advice in which i will use. Form!-Unfortunatly no assistant here either....though I'm looking into getting one in the near future as i need one for the small home studio intend on setting up.
JBlashchke- I just found how to make one out of a ciggerette pkt ;)...Though i will upgrade it with carboard this week and see how we go- thankyou!!

I found this on ebay, would someone here pls give me your oppinion on it? Is it suitable? Its cheap and its a one off wedding for now, other than this I plan to focus on portraits.
Would this suit what I need it for?

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/Camera-Digital-E-TTL-Auto-Flash-Unit-DSLR-Canon-450D-G9_W0QQitemZ130295193394QQcmdZViewItemQQptZAU_Came ras_Photographic_Accessories?hash=item130295193394&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A1%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

P.s So far I have escaped the wolves only to find genuin help! Thanks for that :)
Nic

[form]

I have suspected that (reflector blinding) otherwise I might've brought one out at the vegas sign a few weeks ago. I guess the only good solution is a scrim held overhead by an assistant and another holding an umbrella/softbox strobe to give them controlled light that keeps up with the sun.

Or else just work with the sun...

[PeaceFire]

I'm no pro on flashes, but that one seems pretty decent. I figure as long as it go flash and make light it works. You can use bounce cards or diffusers to get the right effect. Though, honestly, I don't think you'll use a flash much on the beach that early in the morning. The beach just after sunrise is GORGEOUS as-is.

[piccaboo]

Thanks Peacefire...Going on what lighting equiptment u DO have, U know enough!

Think I might grab it for that price!