Wedding photography Advice

Next week I will be at my daughters wedding and want to take photographs. It will start outside early evening until 11 pm. I will be using my 7D 100-400 lens and a 600EXRT flash off camera (2nd person holding flash) I am assuming I will have to under expose for a white dress and again I assume to under expose it will be done with the flash, is this correct.

I would turn you highlight tone priority on which will minimize your ISO setting to 200 instead of 100 but it will help to preserve highlights as well just in case stuff starts to get blown out. I would also recommend to expose more for the skin tone rather the dress. You can always bring down highlights in post-production but if you underexpose the face and bring it up, you start to get weird colors/shadows.

Thanks J, now I have a start. Must admit I am used to photographing animals not people

Are you sure that the 100-400 f4 5.6 is the best lens to use for a wedding?

I think you may wish you had a shorter lens....100-400 is a bit long and maybe a bit slow..take another lens with you so you dont miss out on group shots etc..

I really hope you have a professional capturing this for you. You can either be part of a day or you can photograph it, you generally can't do both. An occasional snap is fine, but you'll want a compact camera for that, not a huge DSLR with a ridiculously long slow lens.

Use a 24-70 or similar, or a fast prime. You'll need positive EC/FEC for a wedding dress else it will look gray. Wedding dresses have both phosphors and reflective material in them so if you expose for the dress the faces will be very underexposed, you need to find a balance. Whether exposure is done with flash or ambient is a choice for each photo.

Given your questions I suggest:
- 24-70 F2.8 or similar
- Shoot RAW
- During the day shoot P mode, set EC to +2/3 (that's two thirds) and FEC to -1. Use ISO100 to 400 to keep your shutter up at at least 1/100th.
- At night use M mode, 1/50th, ISO1600, EC 0, FEC+2/3 (two thirds). Bounce the flash off the walls ceiling.

You'll soon learn that exposure is really the most trivial part of shooting a wedding.

Leave the camera at home and enjoy your daughters wedding in person and not behind a lens.

The last wedding I photographed where the bride's father was taking photos... the only photos I got of him during the ceremony where him checking out his own pictures on the back of the LCD on his camera. Needless to say the bride wasn't too chuffed to see that when she was saying her vows he was more interested in his LCD than her.

I've only come across this working once in all my time shooting weddings. I was a guest and the FOB was a former wedding photographer who photographed the wedding (there was no hired pro at all). He knew what he was doing and enjoyed the ceremony too. The bride's brother gave her away.

My question would be... you've stated what you would like to do but have you asked your daughter what she would like you to do?

I don't have a smaller lens all my lens's are for wild life. Yes my daughter knows I will be taking candid shots (mostly of her and husband). I am not interested in the traditional group staged shots, that's what the paid photog is being paid to do. At my wedding I loaned my camera to a nephew and he got some great candid shots that I value more than the every day wedding staged shots. Such as after my wedding ceremony my wife asked me to hold her bouquet while she adjusted her dress for the official photog and I promptly got down on my knee offering up the bouquet, my nephew got the shot the tog just stood there. That is the type of thing I will be looking for

cdiver2 wrote in post #17705829
I am not interested in the traditional group staged shots, that's what the paid photog is being paid to do.

It used to be. These days, they often run around taking candids, too. A talk with the paid photographer(s) in advance might be a good idea, if only to get everyone's expectations clear.

OhLook wrote in post #17705850
It used to be. These days, they often run around taking candids, too. A talk with the paid photographer(s) in advance might be a good idea, if only to get everyone's expectations clear.

Yep. Times have very much changed. Candid shooting is very much part of most wedding togs shooting these days.

If you are going to do this you really ought to hire a shorter, faster lens.

A long you may get away with during the ceremony... if you were not likely to be up the front or in amongst the guests. I sometimes use a 150-500 for the ceremony but that is when I have to be much further away. It isn't a good lens to use unless you have the freedom to roam (a lot) as it is easy for people to block your shot. The only place people aren't likely to be in the way are the spots the paid tog will shoot from and you'll end up in their way if you do go there.

As for later on... not many reception venues suit the longer focal length you'll have. And you may find you need a two way to communicate with your flash holder as you'll be that far away to get reasonable candids of multiple people in frame... which will mean you don't end up with them being candid anyway.

The best for candid shooting are fast shorter FL lenses. Square peg... round hole otherwise.

I don't mean to be rude, but if you're asking these kinds of questions, you've got too much of an experience gap to comfortably photograph your daughters wedding. I'd call every good, reputable photog in town and find someone who can shoot the event for you, and relax and enjoy your daughters special day.

I love going to weddings and I love photographing them, but for a family member, this last minute, this is just a recipe for disaster if you're responsible for the pictures. My first solo wedding was also for a relative, but i had half a friggin year to prepare, and it was break-neck speed all those six months to get ready for it. I did a decent job, but it took months and months of intense practice and second shooting (unpaid) for real professionals after already having a comfortable command exposure, knowing my cameras, etc.

There is a paid photog. My seating for the ceremony is front isle seat, however plans have changed for the ceremony, bride/daughter has asked me to make the ceremony a video, I will get what I can from my seat.

I am not responsible for the wedding photos the paid photog is, he is the one selling the photos. I would never interfere with what he is doing but I expect the same courtesy back. Unlike a photog at another wedding who was shooting the ceremony on an island on a lake. The tog was on the island with bride, groom and minister I was on the shoreline shooting across the water. When she got her shots she came running across the causeway and along the shore and stood right in front of me blocking my view, there was plenty of room ether side of me .

I understand they are making there living but they are never going to stop guests taking photos and some guests may get a great shot that the professional did not see, live with it, you can not be covering everybody all the time.

In the past if the tog is covering one side of the room I will move to the other side attempting to get shots of a different group of people, I don't think any reasonable person could ask for more than that.

Looking into a shorter lens. If I start ,stop and start again will it be one continues video or 2 separate videos?. If separate videos how do you join them together?

Thanks for all the help guys I am at my wits end going into a new world.

cdiver2 wrote in post #17706941
I am not responsible for the wedding photos the paid photog is, he is the one selling the photos. I would never interfere with what he is doing but I expect the same courtesy back.

I don't think he owes you that courtesy. Reciprocity doesn't apply here. He should be courteous in general, of course, but the two of you have different roles. He's on assignment, which means he's obligated to serve his clients; you're doing something for your own purposes. For instance, if there's just one place to stand to get the best possible shot of some action that will take place only once, let's say it's cake cutting, that spot belongs to him.

cdiver2 wrote in post #17706941
I understand they are making there living but they are never going to stop guests taking photos and some guests may get a great shot that the professional did not see, live with it, you can not be covering everybody all the time.

In the past if the tog is covering one side of the room I will move to the other side attempting to get shots of a different group of people, I don't think any reasonable person could ask for more than that.

here is a thread i started a while back. The article i shared shows a number of examples of shots ruined by guests, and others on POTN showed some of their own.

https://photography-on-the.net …/showthread.php​?t=1303673

consider that you and the main photog are going for the same shot, even from opposite sides of the room, he is set up to catch ambient light and you have your VAL behind you with the flash, you both capture the kiss, or bite of cake, or whatever, at the same time … your flash just ruined the pro's shot. I've seen lots of examples of that very thing.

is this really where you want to be in the lead up to your daughter's wedding?

not meaning to join the pile-on, maybe you like that kind of pressure and distraction, i don't know.

Still photography
New lens
Shooting video
staying out of photographer's way
directing your light guy
your daughter getting married
hanging out with loved ones

again, sorry if this is seen as just joining the pile-on, but those are the things I see you having to consider during the ceremony and reception. Seems like a lot.

as someone who can want to take on too many things at once, i know where you're coming from. Where ever you end up, I hope you make the right decision.