I studied, I read, I practiced, then I studied some more...

and it still couldn't prepare me for the sheer magnitude of my first twelve hour day shooting a wedding. It's amazing how you can spend time prepping, scouting locations, and practicing with new (and old) equipment only to throw it all out the window and just fly by the seat of your pants to grab the key shots.

I'll be submitting myself to the snake pit later this week for critiques (even though I already know I did a bunch of things wrong), but I also learned a million new things since 9:00 this morning. I just wanted to say thank you to everyone here because without this forum I wouldn't have even stayed afloat today.

Welcome to the world of wedding photography. It's a wonderful, maddening, exhausting and crazy business. I'm looking forward to seeing your results.

I've never done a wedding, but I can't imagine any other photoshoot (within reason) that would be more stressful, yet more fulfilling if done well. Photography aside, you still have the contract end to put together, along with dealing with all the players and personalities.

I always say, a good wedding photographer deserves all the money they make. Same with a good restaurateur, it may look easy, but far from it when putting the pieces together.

Congratulations.

I just did my first wedding last month. And just like you, I had studied and practiced but my level of comfort with shooting a wedding was very low. It's the level of comfort that one has that let's one apply their knowledge without making mistakes. And the catch is that the only way to get a greater comfort level is to keep applying what you've learned (i.e. shoot more weddings).

Can you give us a summary of how the day went and what problems you encountered? What did you plan and what plans did you end up changing? Did you have any great realizations during the day?

How did you like your new 5D (III)?

frugivore wrote in post #14190543
Can you give us a summary of how the day went and what problems you encountered? What did you plan and what plans did you end up changing? Did you have any great realizations during the day?

First off, the wedding was for one of my wife's best friends. We agreed that I would do it for free since I've never done something like this before. I went into it with the mindset that they were paying customers and I truly gave it my all.

I actually began the shooting last weekend. The bride came over to my house to hang out and left the wedding rings with me to shoot over the weekend. It allowed me to experiment with controlled lighting and zero pressure on time so that was nice.

If you made it through all of this then thank you very much for your time.

As for the wedding day, I started the day with getting ready shots (convenient because I was the one transporting the bride to her hair and makeup appointments). These were all fairly basic with mostly the 85 f1.8, 24-105, and the 5D3. I brought her back to her house where I snagged a couple of the Groom and their sons getting ready, as well as a few of the bride and bridesmaids prepping.

Here is where everything went out the window. The couple rented a trolly to transport the bridal party and I had planned to take shots of them on the front steps of a local museum (There are big pillars at the top of the stairs which matched the setup of their reception). Since I'm a complete idiot newbie, I never once thought about the idea that I might need to get a permit. We showed up and got kicked off right away. Turns out they only allow bridal parties on Mondays and you have to pay a $75.00 fee... DOH!!!

I still managed to get a few decent shots at the other two locations I had scouted, but they were very boring, plainly posed, and just not very creative. It's one of those situations where the couple doesn't necessarily care because they just want pictures to remember the day, but I'm really disappointed in myself. Also, my 580EX II really wasn't up to the job of balancing the sun so there are lighting issues aplenty with the shots. I knew the 580 might struggle going in and I should have just rented a vagabond to use with one of my monolights.

Additionally, my wife was in the bridal party and just had surgery last Tuesday. It took extra time moving from spot to spot which really added to the pressure (oh yeah, did I mention the fact that we were already running behind schedule???). It was the first really hot day of the year so everyone was sweating and had short attention spans... all normal wedding day aspects that you don't really appreciate until you are standing there experiencing them. I'm serious, I really did my homework going in but it was totally different being the one holding the camera.

Following the museum debacle we headed to the church. I grabbed a couple more formals inside and then the ceremony started... late of course . It was so dark that I had to use my 70-200 on the 5D3 with the ISO at 12,800. I used the 1D3 with my 24-105 at ISO 3200 and the 580 EX II bounced up high and to the right to get a little direction. The minister was really picture oriented and pretty much demanded that I move everywhere and anywhere to get shots. I tried to be as unobtrusive as possible. I had no choice but to head up front during the vows to get face shots.

I completely screwed up taking an important shot of the bride and groom on a fire truck following the ceremony (camera was still in manual from inside and by the time I checked the LCD it was too late and the moment had passed). The photo is way over-exposed. I made it into a B&W but there is no detail in the dress or groom's jacket (which was white).

After that we headed to the reception. I had my EXD-400's on each side of the dance floor triggered by Cybersync's. The transmitter was velcro'd to my 580EX II and connected by a screw-lock sync cord. For some reason I was having issues with the transmitter not triggering the EXD's every time (even though they had already recycled). Regardless, I got some good candids and captured the happy couple partying with those that love them most. Biggest issue here was focusing in low light on the groom and his family's faces (all dark skinned). The 5D3 performed amazingly even with the f4 of the 24-105. At times I had to time focus for a one to two second lag when prepping shots (keep in mind that I shoot almost exclusively with off-center points). I honestly don't think my 1D3 could have done nearly as well.

So... great realizations??? Eat a big breakfast (which I did thank God). I ate an hour before picking up the bride and didn't eat again (or drink anything) until approx. ten hours later at the reception when the bridal party sat down to eat. I packed snacks in my bag but never had a chance to think about touching them because of the day's pace. Even though I knew my gear well, it still didn't prepare me for the mental and emotional pressure of handling changes as events unfold. This will get better in time, but it's another situation where you read it all the time on these forums and just don't appreciate it until you're in the hot seat.

I know the couple will be happy with the results overall and I firmly believe that I did as good a job (and possibly better as a whole) as another photographer that would have fallen within their budget (few hundred dollars at the most). I learned more through this trial-by-fire than I ever would have imagined possible.

If you made it through all of this then thank you for your time.

cueball wrote in post #14193200
I completely screwed up taking an important shot of the bride and groom on a fire truck following the ceremony (camera was still in manual from inside and by the time I checked the LCD it was too late and the moment had passed). The photo is way over-exposed. I made it into a B&W but there is no detail in the dress or groom's jacket (which was white).

I did make it through that entire post but this was the piece I had a question about. Were you shooting RAW? If you were (and I hope you were!), you still may be able to salvage the shot. If you were able to make a decent B&W out of it, you may be able to do more.

Also, your 580EXII should be able to overpower the sun for small portraits (such as just the bride and groom); how did you shoot that one?

The bride and groom shots did turn out pretty good. The 580 gave me just enough fill to balance the exposure. It was the shots of the entire party that really needed a boost in power.

As to the specific shot, yes I did shoot RAW (always do). It's three or more stops over-exposed so there's really no way to recover the detail in the whites. I'm going to try a color version of it as well just to see what I can do.

I shot my first wedding (for a friend) a few weeks ago. I felt exactly the same way you did and learned a LOT! It was exhausting and stressful. Spent the next week or so post processing the images, which turned out pretty well (to my relief).

Now I'm hooked and can't wait to do another wedding and buy (and rent) more equipment.

cueball wrote in post #14188979
and it still couldn't prepare me for the sheer magnitude of my first twelve hour day shooting a wedding. It's amazing how you can spend time prepping, scouting locations, and practicing with new (and old) equipment only to throw it all out the window and just fly by the seat of your pants to grab the key shots.

I've been photographing weddings for 6 or 7 years, some days that's all I can do to. Of course I do it a heck of a lot better than I did back then, but some days just seem to run away with you just along for the ride.

Some of the key skills you learn are planning, organisation, and staying calm when everything gets crazy busy.

Good thread, I read it all. Thanks for typing your recap. Sounds like you handled it well.

I'm expecting my first wedding to come up later this year. Last weekend, I did an e-shoot and maternity shoot for my cousin - it went pretty well, even though our outdoor session was mostly rained out. They haven't set a date for the wedding yet, but I expect that I'll get the call to do the photography once they have a date and venue lined up.

Fortunately, her standards are somewhat lower than mine, so that takes a little pressure off. And since it's family, I won't feel too annoyed about working hard for no profit, or just expenses.

Thanks for your post. You "pains" read very familiar It's get easier after your first 50 weddings.
Mario

This is a good read. Yes, it's stressful, but it's also exhilarating. We've had one 8h and one 10h wedding, and felt exhausted at the end of both, but in a good way. Our next wedding is 5h long and we can't wait for it to happen. We're interested in how much more relaxed it'll feel in comparison.

I hear ya! Yours sounds more hectic than ours! We just did our first one Saturday. 12 hours of pure everyone-running-2-hours-late, uncooperative-groomsmen, no-time-for-any-of-the-photos-bride-wanted-due-to-spending-2-hours-decorating-flip-flops-in-the-morning-instead-of-getting-ready CHAOS.

Weirdly, we both (hubs and I) can't wait to do another one. But, veterans, please tell me it gets better!

It is a crazy business, and even the best laid plans tend to go awry. My best advice would be to just keep smiling, and never let them see you sweat. It does get better, after 7 years and about 40 weddings I'm finally starting to get the hang of it