What gear would I need?

I'm no professional at this so bear with me...

My cousin is getting married in September, and can't really afford to pay full whack for a pro photographer, so I was thinking I'd offer to take my camera along with me and do my best a getting some shots for her and making her a little album as a present.

Now could some one point me along the lines of what gear I would need? (Looking at renting, not purchasing) Being indoors I know I'm going to need a goo flash and a lens that shoots around f/2 constantly, and I'm thinking I possibly would need a second body as well?

The current gear I have, that I would consider using anyway:

650D Gripped
10 - 22mm
40mm f2.8
24 - 105mm f/4 L

I've also got a 55 - 250 which I would use at a push but I doubt it!

Thanks for any and all input!

EDIT: I forgot to mention, this is also not a full blown wedding in a church, so this will probably make a bit of a difference in what I rent too. It's going to be in a town hall/registry office and obviously the reception is going to be pretty dark as well!

I would rent a full frame camera for better high ISO performance.
Look into renting any of the following
85 1.8
50 1.4
35 f/2
70-200 2.8
24-70 2.8
135 f/2

Listed some cheaper lenses like the 85, 50, and 35 in case cost is a big consideration with the rental price. If you were to buy a 50 1.8, I am sure you could get some good shots with that as well. Will by no means be amazing, but still very very good. Much better than no pictures :P

If it were me, I would go with 24-70 2.8 + 70-200 2.8 for some convenience. I do love primes... but having to switch a lot can be painful :P.

You will also want a flash, preferably a 580EX II or a 600EX. If ceilings are too high however, these will be useless as a bounce flash.

Also, keep in mind some venues will not allow photographers without liability insurance. Now although you will not be the "official professional", it may still become an issue.

These are just my thoughts and suggestions. I am sure others will chime in as well. This is very nice what you are offering to do for them and I am sure they will appreciate it. Good luck! and be sure to share them here for us

Ratjack wrote in post #15853740
I would rent a full frame camera for better high ISO performance.
Look into renting any of the following
85 1.8
50 1.4
35 f/2
70-200 2.8
24-70 2.8
135 f/2

Listed some cheaper lenses like the 85, 50, and 35 in case cost is a big consideration with the rental price. If you were to buy a 50 1.8, I am sure you could get some good shots with that as well. Will by no means be amazing, but still very very good. Much better than no pictures :P

If it were me, I would go with 24-70 2.8 + 70-200 2.8 for some convenience. I do love primes... but having to switch a lot can be painful :P.

You will also want a flash, preferably a 580EX II or a 600EX. If ceilings are too high however, these will be useless as a bounce flash.

Also, keep in mind some venues will not allow photographers without liability insurance. Now although you will not be the "official professional", it may still become an issue.

These are just my thoughts and suggestions. I am sure others will chime in as well. This is very nice what you are offering to do for them and I am sure they will appreciate it. Good luck! and be sure to share them here for us

I had a feeling someone what say rent full frame! Which camera would you go for then? As I'm not accustomed to all the different advantages/disadvantag​es with FF!

Yeah I had my mind set on a 24 - 70 + 70 - 200 so i'm glad I'm thinking along the right lines. (Funnily enough, a friend of my partner has just purchased BOTH of these lenses, so hopefully he'll let me borrow them! )

Oh right, Insurance never actually crossed my mind so I'll be sure to look into that closer to the time, thanks!

Yeah, I thought it was the least I could do! It's a nice little gift for her and her partner as well as getting me some experience, and I don't mind spending a little money to hire some gear either, so I thought why not!


(PS see my edit and see if that has changed anything you already said!)

I would still try to stick with the faster glass like what I had listed. You are going to need it for the dark rooms. Here are some prices I found for a full frame rental and lenses through lensrentals.com.
5D II - $75
6D - $90
5D III - $125


Lenses
70-200 2.8 mark I - $48
70-200 2.8 mark II - $70
24-70 2.8 mark I $53
24-70 2.8 mark II $70

Any full frame will be good. But, before renting one, I would take a 2.8 lens like your 40mm to the location and see if you can take some test shots somehow. See how your camera handles it. If it is just way to noisy and you think you need something that will handle high ISO better, then rent the full frame. Here are some differences.

5D II and 6D have very similar autofocus systems. They both only have 1 cross type af point in the center. This is going to be the point you want to use when using a 2.8 lens. Other points will likely not focus accurately. The 6D will focus better in low light since it is sensitive down to -3 EV and I believe that the 5D 2 is -2EV.

The 5D Mark III has 61 AF points, 41 of which are cross type. So you have a lot more options. For focus -recompose this will not matter much. But for anything in servo, you will want these. The 6D handles noise slightly better than the mark III as well.

I would choose between the 6D and the 5D III. For the price, the 6D would probably work great, BUT if you are wanting to play with a mark III now is the time to check one out for only 30 dollars more.

Hope this helps out a bit more

Edit: Just an example, with my 60D I could shoot up to about 1,000 ISO (and that was in fairly lit conditions) and had quite a bit of noise. But now, with my 5D III, I almost don't even use a flash in my house anymore because the images are still very clean at ISO 12,800 or even 16,000. Here are some good examples of the noise on full frame http://www.dpreview.co​m …iii-low-light-iso-samples. But again, I would try your camera first before the event and see how it works.

Ratjack wrote in post #15853784
I would still try to stick with the faster glass like what I had listed. You are going to need it for the dark rooms. Here are some prices I found for a full frame rental and lenses through lensrentals.com.
5D II - $75
6D - $90
5D III - $125


Lenses
70-200 2.8 mark I - $48
70-200 2.8 mark II - $70
24-70 2.8 mark I $53
24-70 2.8 mark II $70

Any full frame will be good. But, before renting one, I would take a 2.8 lens like your 40mm to the location and see if you can take some test shots somehow. See how your camera handles it. If it is just way to noisy and you think you need something that will handle high ISO better, then rent the full frame. Here are some differences.

5D II and 6D have very similar autofocus systems. They both only have 1 cross type af point in the center. This is going to be the point you want to use when using a 2.8 lens. Other points will likely not focus accurately. The 6D will focus better in low light since it is sensitive down to -3 EV and I believe that the 5D 2 is -2EV.

The 5D Mark III has 61 AF points, 41 of which are cross type. So you have a lot more options. For focus -recompose this will not matter much. But for anything in servo, you will want these. The 6D handles noise slightly better than the mark III as well.

I would choose between the 6D and the 5D III. For the price, the 6D would probably work great, BUT if you are wanting to play with a mark III now is the time to check one out for only 30 dollars more.

Hope this helps out a bit more

I'll try and get up there at some point then, probably will be quite difficult though to be honest as it's fairly busy building, as expected. Police, security etc... are always there.

Yeah I think for the slightly cheaper sum I'll go for the 6D (and probably want to purchase one after!) I have been saying to my parter (to her dismay) I'd like to go FF eventually so maybe a good time to hire and have a play!

I'll probably just go for the mmii in both lenses to be honest, might as well seeing as it's not much more expensive. Just a quick question though, do they hire to the UK? Or is it just the states? As I can't seem to find anything that says other wise, don't worry if not I can source them from elsewhere.

Thanks for the help, it's appreciated!

EDIT: Wow, I think that's all I need to say to that! There is barely any noise at all, even at the high end!

Your gear is fine, but add a flash and a battery pack. If you want to get full frame, great, but it's not necessary. Better using good gear you know than great gear you don't know. Get the flash well in advance, as you'll need to practice. If you can afford to buy, great, Youngnou is a good third party. The battery pack (CP-E4) is super helpful at weddings, but use higher ISO when you're not in direct sun as it reduces flash and battery power required.

Gear will be the least of your problems. Look at the type of photos you want to produce, then pick them apart: lighting, posing, mood and attitude, background, foreground, where's the sun, hands, feet, etc. Write it down, then do something similar as practice before the wedding.

See also, wedding FAQ.

If you're not experienced at this, keep things simple.

Put your 24-105 on your 650 and leave it there all day. Bring along your 10-22 as, on a crop body, you'll need to get wider from time to time.

And Tim is right; you'll need a good flash, by which I simply mean one that supports ETTL, has a decent amount of power, and has a tilt/swivel head. Then learn how to use flash effectively; bouncing as well as balancing flash with ambient.

Don't put your time into sweating the gear, put it into practicing your flash technique as well as planning the day.

Buy yourself a yongnuo 568ex.

A great flash, and if you buy it you obviously will have it afterwards. I'd suggest using
Is plus your existing equipment will be sufficient.

Otherwise you are over complicating it, and will probably end up not knowing your equipment

Brelly wrote in post #15853733
I'm no professional at this so bear with me...

My cousin is getting married in September, and can't really afford to pay full whack for a pro photographer, so I was thinking I'd offer to take my camera along with me and do my best a getting some shots for her and making her a little album as a present.

Now could some one point me along the lines of what gear I would need? (Looking at renting, not purchasing) Being indoors I know I'm going to need a goo flash and a lens that shoots around f/2 constantly, and I'm thinking I possibly would need a second body as well?

The current gear I have, that I would consider using anyway:

650D Gripped
10 - 22mm
40mm f2.8
24 - 105mm f/4 L

I've also got a 55 - 250 which I would use at a push but I doubt it!

Thanks for any and all input!

EDIT: I forgot to mention, this is also not a full blown wedding in a church, so this will probably make a bit of a difference in what I rent too. It's going to be in a town hall/registry office and obviously the reception is going to be pretty dark as well!

Take Tim & Robert's advice.

tim wrote in post #15853914
Your gear is fine, but add a flash and a battery pack. If you want to get full frame, great, but it's not necessary. Better using good gear you know than great gear you don't know. Get the flash well in advance, as you'll need to practice. If you can afford to buy, great, Youngnou is a good third party. The battery pack (CP-E4) is super helpful at weddings, but use higher ISO when you're not in direct sun as it reduces flash and battery power required.

Gear will be the least of your problems. Look at the type of photos you want to produce, then pick them apart: lighting, posing, mood and attitude, background, foreground, where's the sun, hands, feet, etc. Write it down, then do something similar as practice before the wedding.

See also, wedding FAQ.

Peacefield wrote in post #15854125
If you're not experienced at this, keep things simple.

Put your 24-105 on your 650 and leave it there all day. Bring along your 10-22 as, on a crop body, you'll need to get wider from time to time.

And Tim is right; you'll need a good flash, by which I simply mean one that supports ETTL, has a decent amount of power, and has a tilt/swivel head. Then learn how to use flash effectively; bouncing as well as balancing flash with ambient.

Don't put your time into sweating the gear, put it into practicing your flash technique as well as planning the day.

mike_6480 wrote in post #15855561
Buy yourself a yongnuo 568ex.

A great flash, and if you buy it you obviously will have it afterwards. I'd suggest using
Is plus your existing equipment will be sufficient.

Otherwise you are over complicating it, and will probably end up not knowing your equipment

I already have the grip, one of the first things I purchased, can't live with out it now! Yeah sound advice on using gear I already know actually. I think what I might do to begin with is get myself a decent flash, have a play about indoors in some fairly dark rooms, and see what I get, see how far I can push the iso up before it gets too noisy.

But then again...I do want to go full frame at some point so maybe I could just rent a body to go along with my 650D and see how I get to grips with it.

So if I were just going to go for it and buy a flash what would be your recommendation? Money regardless. It's something I've been looking at for ages and would rather just get the best I can now, than buying a lower range one, and then wanting/needing to upgrade some time soon.

Canon 600 range I think is top of the range, but seriously the Youngnou is worth considering. Less features, but all you need, for much less money. Make sure you have a high voltage port though - not sure if Youngnou do that or not. Worth looking into for sure.

Top of the range OEM flashes are great, but may be more than you need. I have four of them 550EX (used to be top of the range), 580, 2xSB900. They take a beating and keep on going, but they're expensive.

Sunpak makes some good quality flashes, too. More expensive than Youngou but less than Canon.

As already said, gear is the least of your worries at your first few weddings, its far more important to have camera skills and knowledge of how to pose people, organise people etc.

Hiring gear is all well and good but any gear you hire for the wedding you are going to have for a very short period of time so wont really have time to get to know it or practice with it ...... far better to have less optimum gear that you know how to use well.

Ah okay great. Thanks for all the input guys, I'll go do a bit of research and see what I like/need and see where that takes me! If anyone has any other ideas as to what I could use, throw them in!

Also, would this be worth considering at all?

http://www.lensesforhi​re.co.uk …dlite-flash-kit-239-p.asp

I think you should add up the costs involved in renting all this gear, time spent figuring out how to sort of use it, and factoring all the posing experience you need.. then the software to process and edit the photos, time and energy spent there.. Creating and getting the album printed..

and then get a few more quotes on a couple hours wedding from a pro photog... might look a bit better if you add up all you are going to invest.

Then discuss with the pro photog some times where you can bring your camera out and take pictures and not be in their way and learn learn learn!!!


Then compare your shots to their shots.

If you find the right pro, they will be worth every penny you paid, plus you will learn a TON and have a huge leap forward.