My equipement good enough - Wedding Related

[KevNJ]

I have a wedding this saturday for a friend of mine. First "event" with taking photos. Was wondering if my current setup would be good enough. Im doing it for fun. Going as a guest. Just thought I would take alot of pictures, so I hope to anyways.

Was thinking of order the 50m 1.8 from b&h. I live close enough to them to get it next day even when I pay for the slowest shipping. Guess Im lucky there, save money and get it sooner then expected. As I just jinx myself. haha

Should I order anything ?

Was thinking of the Tonkina 12-24, and the 50m 1.8. But are they needed with my current setup ? Save and get something down the road?

I have 5 more weddings to attend as a guest between now and Nov.

[AjP]

I have prety much the same settings and did several wedding, it is OK but for me personaly not enough, I'm aiming more toward at least this set to be ready for almost any condition
16-35 2.8L
24-70 2.8L
70-200 2.8L

may be few remote controls flashes, second body.....


IMHO

[su719]

Not sure what camera you have, but if you have the kit 18-55 and the 50 1.8 you should be ok for a first attempt. Do you have an external flash? If not the Sigma 500 Super DG would be a good pickup too since weddings are notoriously badly lit.

[KevNJ]

Not getting paid or any of that stuff. Im going as a guest its a good friend of mine. Just thought it would be nice to send her a little photo album in a week or 2 of the pictures I took.

The stuff Im using is in my sig as far as flashes and lenses.

[CyberPet]

90% of the time I've used my Tamron 28-75/2.8 for weddings and maybe 2% the kit (for the wide angle) and the rest with the tele (80-200/2.8 L). Load up on memory cards and batteries and have a diffuser on the flash. Mind the hands (don't crop out body parts that might be important) and have a ball! :)

[KevNJ]

Thanks for the tip. I have a 4gig microdrive. I dont plan on taking to many pictures as for the girl Im taking said I better having dancing shoes on. So maybe 100-200 pictures or so. Guess what I have no will do then.

[lime]

I think you're OK with the 20D+28-135IS+flash w/omni.
Learn how to use your flash.

Here's some pics from a recent wedding, I went as a guest, using a 10D+28-135IS+550EX (lightshere II for rehearsal/omni for reception). I used the 135L 2.0 for some of the shots in the rehearsal dinner & ceremony.

Camera settings are mostly Manual, CFn4-3 (I also have the CFn for only ext flash AF assists/fires), Flash ETTL, IS ON.

http://www.pbase.com/eflime/carla_robert&page=all

Emil

[KevNJ]

Thanks for sharing Lime! Great pictures. I like the timeline presentation. Had one of those for my cousins wedding. Alot of Ohhs and Ahhh and laughs with them. Think Ill be fine for the wedding. Ill save the money for atleast another week. Thanks again.

[tim]

Given you're not the wedding photographer it doesn't matter what equipment you have. If you get the 1.8 lens make sure you test it and play with it as much as you can before you go - people often buy stuff, take lots of photos, then find something wrong and that they're wasted.

Also don't get in the way or in the shots of the real photographer, and if you plan to do much shooting have a quick word with him beforehand about what you're doing, if they mind, that sort of thing. This thread (http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/topic/250886) could be interesting to you.

[Merle]

Looking at the equipment you have listed at the bottom of your post. I would suggest getting a good off camera light source. I would suggest the canon speedlite 550 EX or the 580 EX. I have been photographing weddings for 32 years and I can promise you I would rather go with out a few extra fancy lenses then to go with out a good off camera flash. By off camera I mean NOT BUILT into the camera. For my on camera flash I use a Strobaframe bracket system.
For my formals and Wedding Portraits I use my studio lights. My suggestion if you are going to start shooting weddings and other events, start by investing in lighting ;) :) :D

Good Shooting to ya !!
Merle

[KevNJ]

Looking at the equipment you have listed at the bottom of your post. I would suggest getting a good off camera light source. I would suggest the canon speedlite 550 EX or the 580 EX. I have been photographing weddings for 32 years and I can promise you I would rather go with out a few extra fancy lenses then to go with out a good off camera flash. By off camera I mean NOT BUILT into the camera. For my on camera flash I use a Strobaframe bracket system.
For my formals and Wedding Portraits I use my studio lights. My suggestion if you are going to start shooting weddings and other events, start by investing in lighting ;) :) :D

Good Shooting to ya !!
Merle

I have a 580ex Speedlight already. Im confused. Do you mean an extra one and run the 580ex on my camera as a master and the other as a slave ?

[Merle]

No! My mistake. I did not see the 580 speedlite in the original post as I said my mistake. Looks like you are set to photograph yur first wedding /event no need to puchase any additional equipment until you see a spacific need. Have a good time and let us see some of the work by posting some of the wedding pictures.
;) :) :D

Good shooting to you !!
Merle

[markubig]

Hi Kev -

I was a guest at this wedding (http://www.photo.net/photodb/folder?folder_id=495908). All the shots were taken with my 20D, Tamron 28-75, and 550ex on a stroboflip vh2000. I had my 50/1.8 and kit lenses w/ me, but i never took them out. You can get plenty of shots out of your 28-135. another friend of mine had his 20D at this wedding and kept the 28-135 on the whole day and his shots came out as good as mine did.

My advice would be to not buy anything right now. Go to the wedding, have fun, take some shots . . . and decide afterward what you honestly think you were missing. You never know . . you might just have everything you would want to use for the remaining weddings.

Happy shooting!