need help with wedding picture

[gail]

I got a wedding coming up very shorty. and need to know what to do.
when I got them all together and shoot like when there is 5 are more in the photo what part are person do i point the center foucsing point at? When I do this like if I just got two in the shot I focus on between them and it never come out right. One will be in focus and the other out of foucs.

So what do I need to do to get a nice sharp cripst shot? and to where they will both be in focus. thanks would appreciate any help on this.

Can someone help me as to what settings I need to use?
Thanks Gali,

Please, I don't mind at all you good photograpers steping in and telling me what I'm donig wrong. I would love to here some of you all's storys.
The do's and don'ts So come one let a poor girl is sick. So I need yall all plaease. Love Gail,

[Panza]

You should try a smaller apperture (larger F-number) to increase depth of field. If that brings your shutter speed down, so you can't hand-hold use a tripod. If you absolutely have to use a flash (last resort) bounch it of the celing or something.

[cactusclay]

Try to get them to stand next to each other, so they are both the same distance from you. Use fill flash and smaller aparatures, but get your flash off the camera if possible. Focus on the eyes.

[gail]

thanks ya ll for the help. So smaller aperture is like 5.6 with the canon 75-300 IS are does it go the other way? and going up to 8.0 is going higher right? so I need to keep it down smaller?

And that will give me a good clear crisp shot of them? I want to get in there and get up to where I can see the pores on their skin lol. I would really love them to be that clear, sharp, look.

[cactusclay]

large apature would be like 2.8, smaller number, larger opening. the smallest apature on your lens would probably be f22. If you shoot at f11that should do the trick, it sort of depends on whether you are doing fill flash or using the flash because it's dark, in the latter case you will have to use your flash guide number to determine what apature and how far your flash will reach.

[cactusclay]

I would do some practice with that lens and see how far your depth of field is when doing portraits at different apatures.

[robertwgross]

Gail, first of all tell us what kind of camera you are trying to use.

Next, tell us the lens that you are trying to use for this.

Next, are you trying to shoot with external flash, built-in flash, or no flash?

If you are trying to avoid camera shake, then you may be using a tripod, correct?

---Bob Gross---

[gail]

I will be using the DRebel
and for the lens I really haven't decided yet.

I have 3 lenses ---------

18-55 kits lens, then the 50mm 1.8 and 75-300 IS.

and yes I do have an external flash speedlite 420EX

and I was not planning on using tripod cause I will be moving around a lot but should I ?

[tim]

I don't mean to offend you, but if you're asking questions about aperture this close to a wedding you're not qualified to be the main photographer for such an important day. I'm about to do my first soon, I believe I can control my camera very well, understand the important theory, have good equipment, i'm reading 2h+ per day about wedding photography, looking at pictures for ideas, and i'm still not sure i'm qualified to be the main photographer for a wedding.

Given what i've said, you can take or leave my advice below, but here's a few thoughts for you:
- Use a tripod unless you have a good reason not too. For formals i'd be suprised if you didn't, for candids i'd be suprised if you did.
- Aim for perhaps F8 and at least 1/50th for formals, preferably faster, unless you're trying to achieve a particular effect.
- Take 3-5 photos of big groups, that way if someone's blinking you can piece a single good photo together from the best of the other parts.
- I'd single point focus on the middle person. Remember, the closer you are to them, the greater the variation in the distance to each person, and you risk getting out of focus people because of depth of field problems. An extreme example is if you're 1m away and the group's 4 meters wide, using a fisheye lens, you're 1 meter from the centre person and about 2.3 meters (guess) from the edge person. That's a DOF problem, though it's an extreme, artificial example.
- Buy at least one general photography book and one wedding phophotography book before the wedding, read them a couple of times each, and practice, practice.
- Practice shots with a dark suited person (like the groom) with a white dressed person (like the bride). Vary how much of the frame the brides dress takes up from about 10% to 70%. Exposure compensation is your friend here.
- Look at lots of wedding photos.

Hope that helps.

[DocFrankenstein]

I second tim's opinion about not being qualified... Wedding is a serious thing

[gail]

I don't mean to offend you, but if you're asking questions about aperture this close to a wedding you're not qualified to be the main photographer for such an important day. I'm about to do my first soon, I believe I can control my camera very well, understand the important theory, have good equipment, i'm reading 2h+ per day about wedding photography, looking at pictures for ideas, and i'm still not sure i'm qualified to be the main photographer for a wedding.

Given what i've said, you can take or leave my advice below, but here's a few thoughts for you:
- Use a tripod unless you have a good reason not too. For formals i'd be suprised if you didn't, for candids i'd be suprised if you did.
- Aim for perhaps F8 and at least 1/50th for formals, preferably faster, unless you're trying to achieve a particular effect.
- Take 3-5 photos of big groups, that way if someone's blinking you can piece a single good photo together from the best of the other parts.
- I'd single point focus on the middle person. Remember, the closer you are to them, the greater the variation in the distance to each person, and you risk getting out of focus people because of depth of field problems. An extreme example is if you're 1m away and the group's 4 meters wide, using a fisheye lens, you're 1 meter from the centre person and about 2.3 meters (guess) from the edge person. That's a DOF problem, though it's an extreme, artificial example.
- Buy at least one general photography book and one wedding phophotography book before the wedding, read them a couple of times each, and practice, practice.
- Practice shots with a dark suited person (like the groom) with a white dressed person (like the bride). Vary how much of the frame the brides dress takes up from about 10% to 70%. Exposure compensation is your friend here.
- Look at lots of wedding photos.

Hope that helps.

Hi Tim

I'm not offend in know way by you. I know I'm no professional by all means.
But he has no one else to take the pic's that is a pro. without paying lots of money which we don't have. This is just a small wedding nothing fancy.

I made sure to tell him this is just take it as they are pic's I know this is a very special day and it can't be redone. So he knows all that. But he ask me to do them and I couldn't say no. But I appreciate your help. :-)

And I truly understand what your saying. I told him though to have a back up camera there if nothing but a point and shoot. I'm sure there will be plenty of people their that will have film cameras. So maybe out of all of us they will get some pretty decent photos for keepsakes.

But again thanks for your help and I will take your advice. Thats why I ask this forum for help I know most of you are experienced.

And will be right up front with me and maybe throw in a few tips for me to follow. And Congrats, on the wedding your shooting I know they will be awesome photos coming from you. I have always admired your photos.

[gail]

large apature would be like 2.8, smaller number, larger opening. the smallest apature on your lens would probably be f22. If you shoot at f11that should do the trick, it sort of depends on whether you are doing fill flash or using the flash because it's dark, in the latter case you will have to use your flash guide number to determine what apature and how far your flash will reach.

thanks cactusclay, I always get it back-wards lol I mostly shoot in P mode I'm still learning the M modes. So when shooting this wedding I thought I would try and learn the apature to try and get some better pic's.

I did do a test the other day and when playing around with the apature seems that I got sharper pic's as I changed the apature to smaller number.
so guess the best thing I could do being I'm not experienced is stay with auto are the p mode,

[tim]

Best of luck gail, do try and get yourself a wedding photography book if you can, it should help :)

[GerryDavid]

You may want to take 3 pictures of single/couples and more for larger groups. I would take a pic for each person in the group, starting at 3, up to 6.

Perhaps shoot in raw so you can fix the pictures up a bit more if the exposure isnt perfect. The black suits may be underexposed due to the smaller latitude of digital, so the shadow/highlights tool in ps cs may become your best friend. :0)

Make a list up of what the client wants and use it as a checklist while there.

Get them to set time aside just for the pictures. an hour to 3, depending how many pics are involved and how many differnt groups there is. And perhaps even pick a photogetic location for the family to go to for the pictures. This way friends and other people wont be walkign around in the background and getting on your nerves.

My boss prefered to shoot with the sun behind the people, that way thier not squinting. Pick a shaded area so you dont have to worry about lens flare.

Talk to the pastor/priest before the wedding. Some churches dont allow flashes. Boodog even found one that doesnt allow cameras except for family.

And just have fun. :0) Bring extra batteries, memory cards, and if you can a 2nd camera body, even if its film. If you have to use film probably bring some 100 and 400 film for different situations. Nice thing about medium format is you can change film backs in mid roll and keep shooting, then switch back and continue where you left off. With 35mm you have to waste the rest of the roll or if your camera doesnt put the film leeder back into the roll advance to where you left off, but this can be risky and damage the pics youve already taken.

[GerryDavid]

Oh, and the good thing about using a tripod is you can leave your camera whwen you go to the group to get them to pose the way you want and talk to them. if youve already focused youd ont have to worry about that again.

And if you have lots of memory, perhaps bracket some shots. Im not sure how fast your camera can do the 3 shots in a row. It also means more pictures to sort through later on.

Are you planning on doing a wedding album, wedding book, or just offer prints, or handing over the "negatives"?

[gail]

Best of luck gail, do try and get yourself a wedding photography book if you can, it should help :)

Thank you Tim, I think all will go well. and if not hey, I can say I gave it my best shot. And it's my son's wedding so he want be that mad if they don't come out just prefect. He will understand to where others would not.

[gail]

Are you planning on doing a wedding album, wedding book, or just offer prints, or handing over the "negatives"?

Yes I'm planning on doing a wedding album for them and also putting them on disk and a photo video also thought that would be nice.

I have one I did for my son with all his baby pic's to now photos, on DVD and it has been enjoyment for us all. I still today sit and watch it and cry lol.

I thought that would be a nice gift for them. I did one of my daughters wedding on DVD and she has enjoyed it so much, more than the photos that were taken. she just pops the DVD in and shows it to all her friends.

She don't have to go dragging all the photo albums out she has them all on DVD. Thanks for all your advice I will take it in concretions. And by the way you have a really nice photo gallery some really neat photos you have there.

I enjoyed looking, love the little critters pic's squirrels so cute. :-)

Thanks again for your advice and help. :grin: :grin:

[GerryDavid]

What software do you use for the DVD? Ive tried some out but the free ones usually have a glitch here or there that would prevent me from using it for a wedding.

I have yet to find a wedding album in this part of Ontario that I would consider using for a client. Theres no real leather ones for one thing. Then the other ones I dont really like how they look, the way the pictures go into it. Perhaps im missing something, hehe.

I think Ill focus on the wedding books that are the newer style. It wont be the only option but I think it will be more fun.

[gail]

What software do you use for the DVD?

ProShow Gold It's a very nice little program. I have tried most of them and ended up sticking with Pro-Show check it out I think it was like $29.95.
Back when I purchase it, I've had it for a few years.

heres the link

http://www.photodex.com/downloads/trials.html

[Paul Gerrard]

Just checked your web portfolio, if you shoot the wedding like you have arranged your portfolio then you dont need to be to stressed out, some fantastic images,im sure youll do fine, The only problem with professional wedding photography is you need to know the standard templates ie Full length picture of the Bride, MOB&FOB,MOG&FOG, Bridesmaids, a decent book will tell you all these things,

Dont get to hung up with the camera in M mode, if you have never used M then this wedding might not be the place to change.

You have an natural ability to take good pictures, just hope the weathers good and you dont have to shoot to much inside.

Either way your 420EX should cope fairly well.

Dont let the photography get in the way.

have a great day........

[Harry Settle]

Something else you may have going for you. If it is a small wedding, then it will probably be a little more relaxed. Hopefully easier on the photographers nerves.

Have fun.

[PhotosGuy]

For the groups, you might consider shooting a burst of 3 in case (HAHA! They will!) someone blinks. ;-)
For sure shoot RAW. Take lots of CF cards, too.

[gail]

Just checked your web portfolio, if you shoot the wedding like you have arranged your portfolio then you dont need to be to stressed out, some fantastic images,im sure youll do fine, The only problem with professional wedding photography is you need to know the standard templates ie Full length picture of the Bride, MOB&FOB,MOG&FOG, Bridesmaids, a decent book will tell you all these things,

Dont get to hung up with the camera in M mode, if you have never used M then this wedding might not be the place to change.

You have an natural ability to take good pictures, just hope the weathers good and you dont have to shoot to much inside.

Either way your 420EX should cope fairly well.

Dont let the photography get in the way.

have a great day........

Hi Paul thanks for the nice comments. I surely try my best. I will follow your suggestions and take some full length shots. And to I have been doing a lot of reading on the net, and some books from library. Trying to get as much info as possible. I hope all goes well but again thanks for your help.

Very kind of you to help me out I appreciate it much. :grin: :grin:

[gail]

Something else you may have going for you. If it is a small wedding, then it will probably be a little more relaxed. Hopefully easier on the photographers nerves.

Have fun.

thanks harry
the only thing I'm doing the wedding, I have got to go early that morning and set up the wedding, and also taking the pic's so it's going to be a very nerve re-ck day for me probably. But I will try and make the best of it.
So I will be a very busy lady that day and by the end of the day I will be one tired mama, ha ha. :grin:

[gail]

For the groups, you might consider shooting a burst of 3 in case (HAHA! They will!) someone blinks. ;-)
For sure shoot RAW. Take lots of CF cards, too.

thanks photosguy I was planning on doing that I do that most of the time anyway to make sure I get one good shot. Yes, It would be bad to get only one and someone in the group have their eyes closed lol.

So if I shoot raw how many cards would you suggest taking? I have 2 256mb and was thinking of buying a 1gig just for the wedding day.

[GerryDavid]

It depends how many pictures you want to take and how big your raw files are on average. I dont know about the 300d but the 350d raw is 7mb's I think, so lets assume the 300d is 6mb's. Assuming you take 3 pictures of each shot, and say 80 poses youd like to get *made up number* thats 80 * 3 * 6 = 1.44gb's. Plus you would want candid shots. Sounds like youd want two 1gb cards.

[gail]

It depends how many pictures you want to take and how big your raw files are on average. I dont know about the 300d but the 350d raw is 7mb's I think, so lets assume the 300d is 6mb's. Assuming you take 3 pictures of each shot, and say 80 poses youd like to get *made up number* thats 80 * 3 * 6 = 1.44gb's. Plus you would want candid shots. Sounds like youd want two 1gb cards.


Thanks, Gerry I will probably, be snapping away that day to make sure I get plenty of good shots. So I will probably be buying 2 - 1g's cards to be on the safe side. And then with the 2 - 256mb that I have that should be plenty. :grin:

[GerryDavid]

If you have a notebook pc you could take it with you and empty the cf cards while there, but this may be to much of a newsance *spelling?*. Also if you have an ipod or something like it, some let you transfer the images over to thier internal hard drives, but this can take a while.

If you find yourself running out of space you could always switch to jpg instead of raw and be able tot ake aloooooot more pictures. Then again if you find yourself getting down again you can reduce the quality from jpg fine to jpg normal, assuming the 300d has this option, im not sure if it does.

Oh, and dont forget extra batties just incase, hehe.

[tim]

Hey Gail, i've just got myself up to a total of 4GB of cards for the wedding i'm doing, and i'm definitely going to get another 2GB, maybe another 4GB of memory. Maybe that's overkill but i'd really hate to run out of memory at a wedding. When I asked here and on another forum, people who've done plenty of weddings recommended anywhere between 3GB and 12GB!

I took photos at a belly dancing concert on the weekend with just 2*1GB cards, and it was really annoying to have to look thru the pictures on the camera and delete the crap ones rather than worrying about it later. I also have 3 camera batteries, 4 sets of flash batteries, and i'll take my chargers just in case I run out!

[GerryDavid]

I can see someone using the 12gb's of memory.........if they use a 16-22mp camera, hehe.

The more pictures you take at a wedding, the more weeding out to do and the more post processing to do. And a fraction will make it to the actual album.

I wouldnt want to carry to many cards either, I would be afraid of loosing one and not realize it until its to late. I think the most I would want would be 2 cards.

[gail]

If you have a notebook pc you could take it with you and empty the cf cards while there, but this may be to much of a newsance *spelling?*. Also if you have an ipod or something like it, some let you transfer the images over to thier internal hard drives, but this can take a while.

If you find yourself running out of space you could always switch to jpg instead of raw and be able tot ake aloooooot more pictures. Then again if you find yourself getting down again you can reduce the quality from jpg fine to jpg normal, assuming the 300d has this option, im not sure if it does.

Oh, and dont forget extra batties just incase, hehe.

Yes, it has the option large, medium, small, if I switch from large to medium, I get 70 in large and 119 in medium- format. I'm just wondering how much the quality will change in medium- ? That way I can get 39 more pic's if shooting in med- format. What size print will that make?

Like if they wanted to have an 8 x 10 blowed up would it still be good quality?

but the w/b sure makes a big difference. I did a test shot in jpg then raw.
It was a great deal of change in the while balance.

[tim]

Why buy a nice camera and shoot on anything other than its best quality? Large/Fine JPG is fine, especially if you get the photo right in the camera, less so if you edit it in any way later, I don't think RAW gives you much better quality - just more flexability. I suggest you try different sizes/compression levels yourself and see if you're happy with the quality. Personally I just buy more cards - they're not that expensive.

[GerryDavid]

I was just saying to use different compression levels if she ran out of space. I consider more compressed jpgs better than no pictures at all. :0) I didnt mean to take pictures at a smaller mp size unless you really had to. I can get an ok 8x10 from 3mp but I wouldnt want to try any more. Ive heard of people getting good 8x10's from 1mp but im wondering what thier standard of good is.

Ive never used a dslr before, but I would assume the white ballance of the jpg if set right would look just as good as the white ballance of the raw that was set right.

Raw would be preferable but sometimes you dont have a choice *memory or needing faster write times or bursts of pictures*.

[tim]

True - any picture is better than no picture, in a squeeze. My 3MP P&S camera has given me good 8*10s, so medium/fine might be ok for that, though of course more pixels is always better.

Personally I like to have more than I think I need - someone said take twice as much memory as you think you'll need. I'd like one of those hard disk thingies, but they're pretty expensive.

[gail]

Yes, I like shooting in Large/Fine JPG also. Just seems to me you get what you paid for lol. I will just be buying more cards. Tim, what is this hard disk thingie your specking of? Is it something to transfer your photos on to? And how much are they? My Granddaughter, has a lap top that I was thinking of borrowing for the wedding, so I can transfer my pic off the card.

[tim]

The "hard disk thingy" is a portable storage device with a hard drive and a card reader in it. You put the card into the machine, it copies the card, then you can delete the card and use it again. Have a read of this thread (http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=61953&page=1).

[Claire]

Gail,
I just got back from my friend's wedding and shot RAW. I've used 1.5G and I haven't even bothered about the cake cutting pics, dance and such. Could have taken A LOT more, but was too tired/busy etc. I'd recommend maybe even 3x1Gb cards.

Ok, now I'm off to relax my feet from all the dancing. hehe

[antaine]

Tim, sorry to go slightly off topic - what did you use for your wide group shots? I have the 28-75 as well, but it must be surely too long for say a group of 20 people with a distance of 20 foot?

[tim]

Antaine, i'm about to shoot my first wedding so I can tell you what I have used. What I will use is my 28-75 if it's at all possible, and my kit lens (18-55) if I need wider. I'd rather step back than use the kit lens, but if I have to use it I will. I'd prefer to be on the long end of the 28-75 too.

[antaine]

thanks Tim and good luck - looking foward to seeing how the Tamron handles the day.

[pdrow]

FYI: for anyone planning to download the free trial of the Pro Gold, it will have demo across every slide of your slide show. The only way to get rid of it is to pay the 70.00 for the full copy. I was busily setting one up for my son's graduation. Oh well. Will go a different route.
pam

[tim]

The Tamron will be fine, the issue will be with the person holding it! ;)