1st wedding Lens suggestions

So I'm doing my first wedding tonight as a favor for a friend. The couple is not expecting much and it should be a small wedding. It's a large church however. My question is what lens should I use as primary and backup. I plan on using both of my cameras. Here are my thoughts:

Pair my 5DII with my Tamron 28-75 f/2.8. I have this camera on a flash bracket and will use it primarily.

Pair my 30D with my Canon 50 f/1.4 or 85 f/1.8 for more close-up of depth of fielf photos (mainly without flash).

How does that sound according to my gear list? Also, would you advise using flash as they walk up and down the aisle?

Thanks,

I like the line up. I would keep the 85 on your 30D.

would you advise using flash as they walk up and down the aisle? I would

Thanks scorpio_e!

Sounds like a great plan John! Enjoy and shoot a ton.

I agree with the 85 on your 30D.

Good luck and have fun!

By the way that 24 to 105 is a really nice lens. If you have enough of light,you may want to consider that on the 5D for some extra reach. My wife uses that lens for weddings and I shoot with the primes.

Good luck with the wedding too Have fun

How'd the wedding go?

The wedding went well and I'll try to post some pictures later. I shot the whole thing with my Tamron 28-75 f/2.8 on my 5D II because I didn't want to mess with two cameras at this point. The first thing I noticed is how dark everything was. I was shooting at ISO1600, 1/60-1/125 for virtually everything. Now I know why people recommend the Canon 24-70 f/2.8 for weddings. Although I love the 24-105 f/4, it would not have been fast enough - at least I'd have to use more flash.

My biggest problem was trying to decide when to use flash or not use flash, and adjusting the settings on the camera. I tried manual, then AV (for depth of field stuff), then TV (as they were coming up and down the aisle to get a 1/125 shutter speed) and even P when I didn't have the time or energy to think about all the settings. I can't decide which setting I like best.

Another thing I noticed is that I was having to increase the exposure (especially on "P) almost a full stop to get a "white" dress. Trying to take a picture of the bride in white, and then the groomsmen in black right after sometimes presented a challenge.

I also noticed that my flash was a little bright on some of the shots and it washed out people's faces a bit. Lightroom helps remedy this to some extent.

The Tamron 28-75 missed focus on many photos. I use the center focus and recompose method, usually focusing on the eyes. At f/2.8, only about 60% of the photos were tack sharp. I think I'm going to look at trading it in for the Canon 24-70 f/2.8. I might need to micro-adjust it for my 5DII as well as I loved the Tamron on my 30D. Not so much on the 5D II.

I took over 700 photos worth 20 gigs of raw photos (about 5 hours to download them all). The 5DII sure creates bigger files than the 30D .

Anyway, got to go for now. Oh, and one last thing. My legs were aching at the end of the wedding. To much hard work for this 50 year old .

Thanks for all the great advice from this forum!

^ Don't feel bad about the aching leg. I know 30 year olds that have the same issue and are totally exhausted at the end of a wedding *L*

Glad to hear it went well.

5D + 85
30D + 28-75 taped on 28mm

yep even at 32 after a big wedding you know about it. well done and look forward to your images

John E wrote in post #14454396
I took over 700 photos worth 20 gigs of raw photos (about 5 hours to download them all). The 5DII sure creates bigger files than the 30D

A $20 card reader will really speed that up.

frugivore wrote in post #14462260
A $20 card reader will really speed that up.

Yes, I learned that lesson over the weekend. I was downloading my pictures on an old Picturemate printer. Not only did it take forever but about every 10th picture was corrupted. At first I thought it was the card, then the camera, until someone here suggested the card reader. I changed the reader and everything worked perfectly. Thanks for your advice.

Wow, 5 hours to download 20GB? Crazy. That usually takes my Mac about 3 minutes
Also, you could've pushed your ISO, on your 5D2, much higher than 1600 and really freed up that lens (and your flash). Still, you were doing this as a favor and not for money so it's not like you've probably had a ton of experience shooting high pressure situations, at a rapid pace, in a dark venue!

You can even upload through your 5DII. I can get about 60gigs of RAW images onto my computer in a few minutes using the camera. I keep breaking my card readers and often have to do that, not my preferred method but it works when I need it to!

I've shot many dark weddings with just a 24-105 f/4 and never had a problem. I'd prefer an f/4 L lens over a 2.8 Tammy any day, personally. You may want to give that a try if you ever get a chance in the future. Personally, even without flash at most ceremonies I've never been limited by the 24-105. Receptions are a different story, but I also use flash at receptions so, again, it's not an issue.