Wedding photography - Newbie

[tim]

After some practice, I take 4-6 hours to produce proofs of a wedding if I take around 800 shots. To produce prints i'll further refine them and give each large image a good amount of time. To produce 100 6x4 prints last night took me about three hours processing.

[Harry Settle]

[quote=snapshot9670]

You'd think. But for some reason, I've got this nervousness about the whole thing. It's a healthy feeling (I think). I guess the concerns wandering my mind are that this requires soooo much more know-how...as far as lighting, lenses, positions, where to take'em for photos, and etc.

I'm sure once I do a wedding (on my own or otherwise), that'll it'll all come back to me and I'll feel comfortable.

Keep y'all posted!

Snapshot

True, but, remember that all stress isn't bad. It takes a certain level of stress to get you out of bed in the morning. Think of what that "nervousness" would be if you were truly a newbie. More like sheer terror.

Trust me, because of the years you've had being able to sit back and watch the weddings unfold, you know the routine. Once the formals are out of the way, everything, and I mean absolutely everything, is a candid.

[kampphoto]

I have to agree that doing photography is alot easier the videography for weddings. Currently my company provides both services but we definatly lean towards the photography alot more. The thought of having to digitize footage... then sit and try to find that shot you wanted to put in that spot... then creating all the titles... and then creating some cheesy effects... then rendering and watching the whole the 15 times to make sure it's absolutly perfect and you didn't miss anything... then out putting DVD and VHS copies... Ewwwww...

Now don't get me wrong I love shooting and editing video (I also work for the largest media company in Canada - Canwest Media Works) but the post production on pictures is much much much less time consuming and the profit per hour of work is much higher. Well now time to get ready... we are actually shooting a wedding video tonight as well as doing the pictures...

Cheers!

[dengli]

I often work with a videographer doing weddings. I'm much more comfortable shootoing video of the wedding using multiple cameras than can be spliced and edited later. Stills photography is much more demanding on the day . You need to know your equipment inside out as most of your energy and concentration should go on organising the groups and poses, considering lighting, backgrounds, exposure, white balance, depth of field and so on.

I personally wouldn't touch video post processing for the reasons already given in the post - synchronising, adding music, transitions, effects etc etc etc. Stills are another matter. It is more demanding in terms of materials and resources (paper,ink, preview and final albums, pages, adhesives, mounts) but post processing time is much less.

[PIXI_666]

Hiya!

The first wedding i did, i had no idea what i was doing, but on the day it all just came to me! I did some research on the internet, i looked at a few shots to see some idea's and then off i went - perfect!

All that i did to learn more (A lot of weddings from the famiyl came up in this year) was that i would watch the photographer's of these weddings, saw how they interacted with people etc. and then asked the Bride about what packages they gave them, also looked at the album's etc.

People think i am wedding crazy, but in actual fact i am photography crazy and because Wedding's are one of the main sources of income for photographer's i figured id start with that and work my way up! I am not professional at this, and i am only starting out in weddings, but just from word of mouth i have 4 weddings in 2006 already booked from September this year!

Look at some websites (Photographers wedding websites) and just see how they have things set up, what they use, packages etc. just involve yourself in wedding photography for a few nights per week to get a more of an idea.

I tell ya what...wedding videography i can understand would be very tedious! Now i know photography is the same...but editing...phew leave me out of that one! I can sit there for hours tweaking one photo...but atleast it's not MOVING AROUND!!!! lol your brave for being in the industry, but i have to admit, in MY opinion photography even though it is hard work, has to be easier than video editing!

Del

[snapshot9670]

lol your brave for being in the industry, but i have to admit, in MY opinion photography even though it is hard work, has to be easier than video editing!

I'm hoping it is. I have a family and having to stay out ALL day and night on a Saturday (we tend to stay later too! "we'll be leaving by helicopter and want you to capture that too", and then editing the following week, is such a drain.

Well, this is the first photography forum I've signed up with, and everyone seems to be very helpful. I was totally expecting the video bash sessions.

Thanks everyone!

If there's one thing that I'm getting from the various replies, is that y'all have confirmed the most important thing - more pay for not-as demanding work


PIXI

What lenses do you have in your arsenal?