banpreso
20th of October 2009 (Tue), 19:13
I covered a friend's wedding 2 weeks ago for free. They did have a paid professional to cover the ceremony, but they had me to supplement the ceremony and cover reception. I've been shooting seriously for about a year, know my camera and gears. I thought I’d post my lessons learned for other first time shooters to read about, maybe it'd be helpful.
I shot with my Rebel xt, 18-55 non is kit lens, 50mm f1.4 and 100mm f2. I also have a 430 ex ii that I purchased just for this shoot. 12 gig of CF memory, spare set of battery and flash, water bottle and snickers bars. I learned a lot about gear preparation from this site, thanks guys! I wasn’t the paid shooter or the only shooter, so I wasn’t as nervous I guess.
Surprise #1: for wedding ceremony, we are only allowed to shoot from the 2nd floor balcony way in the back. Thank God for my 100mm F2 which I originally bought for concert work. That plus the 1.6 crop allowed me some decent half body and 3/4 portraits from that far back. So I think a telephoto is probably necessary in a wedding, something greater than 85mm on crop.
Surprise #2: my Rebel xt, which has never failed me in the past 3 years, failed on me in the middle of the ceremony! The camera just froze, and turning it off and on doesn’t solve the problem. Removing the CF card doesn’t solve the problem either. I was thinking “oh Lord I’m done for… better go borrow my friend’s P&S for the rest of the coverage”. And then, I took out the battery and put it back in, and thank God it did the trick. What’s the saying? Murphy’s law?
Lessons learned:
I tired to write up a plan of the must get shots before the wedding, but due to the lack of experience, I didn’t exactly know what those shots are! And I was pretty nervous and things are going pretty fast paste. First time shooters need a checklist of the must have shots, AND MAKE SURE THOSE SHOTS ARE DOWN SOLID! I took some shots of the family groups, and some are really out of focus. Ugh, I feel so bad! The combination of the sucky 18-55 AF, small LCD on the xt, and my lack of experience, those shots are not useable. I knew my kit lens is the weakest link… and I’ll probably get a constant aperture short zoom down the road, but for the wedding, I didn’t get good shots of some of the must have family groups. My 50mm was too long for group shots, and the 18-55’s AF is really disappointing. I made sure I took at least 2 exposures of every group, and separately AFed the exposures, but ugh! There’re no time machines… Next time I’ll go in with a clear check list of the “must have” shots and “nice to have” shots, and make sure my focus is right on the mark. Maybe error on the caution side and use a small aperture.. or upgrade my short zoom.
Another newbie mistake I made. I was shooting some candied shots in mid noon daylight outside, and I thought to leave my speedlight on for some fill flash. What a mistake that was! I got my shutter stuck at 200 (max sync speed) and couldn’t figure out why, and that was way too long for mid noon California sun at iso 100. Some shots are blown, but thank God not all, and thank God I shot in RAW, so I could recover most of the shots. Or else I’m really screwed. I didn’t even realize the flash problem until later. Cuz I was shooting in full manual, and I remember dialing in the shutter to be faster, to only have it come out at 200 while taking the exposure. Ugh, should’ve learned my equipment better.
I also learned wedding photography is really tiring and physically demanding. Lugging the gear around all day, standing a lot, wearing black in the sun, etc etc. It was smart to bring that bottle of water.
All in all it wasn’t so bad, I shot about 700+ pics, and will present the couple with about 350 shots after pp, a mix of mediocre and good. It was a really sharp learning curve tho! I wouldn’t recommend anyone to start shooting wedding photography solo for the first gig! And I also wouldn’t recommend anyone trying this without the minimum required amount of gear.
I don’t know if I want to do this again, if I do, I know I’ll need some new gears (another 40D + 17-55 f2.8 at least), and I don’t want to spend any more money on gears unless I know I can turn it into a profit…
I shot with my Rebel xt, 18-55 non is kit lens, 50mm f1.4 and 100mm f2. I also have a 430 ex ii that I purchased just for this shoot. 12 gig of CF memory, spare set of battery and flash, water bottle and snickers bars. I learned a lot about gear preparation from this site, thanks guys! I wasn’t the paid shooter or the only shooter, so I wasn’t as nervous I guess.
Surprise #1: for wedding ceremony, we are only allowed to shoot from the 2nd floor balcony way in the back. Thank God for my 100mm F2 which I originally bought for concert work. That plus the 1.6 crop allowed me some decent half body and 3/4 portraits from that far back. So I think a telephoto is probably necessary in a wedding, something greater than 85mm on crop.
Surprise #2: my Rebel xt, which has never failed me in the past 3 years, failed on me in the middle of the ceremony! The camera just froze, and turning it off and on doesn’t solve the problem. Removing the CF card doesn’t solve the problem either. I was thinking “oh Lord I’m done for… better go borrow my friend’s P&S for the rest of the coverage”. And then, I took out the battery and put it back in, and thank God it did the trick. What’s the saying? Murphy’s law?
Lessons learned:
I tired to write up a plan of the must get shots before the wedding, but due to the lack of experience, I didn’t exactly know what those shots are! And I was pretty nervous and things are going pretty fast paste. First time shooters need a checklist of the must have shots, AND MAKE SURE THOSE SHOTS ARE DOWN SOLID! I took some shots of the family groups, and some are really out of focus. Ugh, I feel so bad! The combination of the sucky 18-55 AF, small LCD on the xt, and my lack of experience, those shots are not useable. I knew my kit lens is the weakest link… and I’ll probably get a constant aperture short zoom down the road, but for the wedding, I didn’t get good shots of some of the must have family groups. My 50mm was too long for group shots, and the 18-55’s AF is really disappointing. I made sure I took at least 2 exposures of every group, and separately AFed the exposures, but ugh! There’re no time machines… Next time I’ll go in with a clear check list of the “must have” shots and “nice to have” shots, and make sure my focus is right on the mark. Maybe error on the caution side and use a small aperture.. or upgrade my short zoom.
Another newbie mistake I made. I was shooting some candied shots in mid noon daylight outside, and I thought to leave my speedlight on for some fill flash. What a mistake that was! I got my shutter stuck at 200 (max sync speed) and couldn’t figure out why, and that was way too long for mid noon California sun at iso 100. Some shots are blown, but thank God not all, and thank God I shot in RAW, so I could recover most of the shots. Or else I’m really screwed. I didn’t even realize the flash problem until later. Cuz I was shooting in full manual, and I remember dialing in the shutter to be faster, to only have it come out at 200 while taking the exposure. Ugh, should’ve learned my equipment better.
I also learned wedding photography is really tiring and physically demanding. Lugging the gear around all day, standing a lot, wearing black in the sun, etc etc. It was smart to bring that bottle of water.
All in all it wasn’t so bad, I shot about 700+ pics, and will present the couple with about 350 shots after pp, a mix of mediocre and good. It was a really sharp learning curve tho! I wouldn’t recommend anyone to start shooting wedding photography solo for the first gig! And I also wouldn’t recommend anyone trying this without the minimum required amount of gear.
I don’t know if I want to do this again, if I do, I know I’ll need some new gears (another 40D + 17-55 f2.8 at least), and I don’t want to spend any more money on gears unless I know I can turn it into a profit…