First Wedding

Hello everyone. I have my first wedding coming up and I am nervous lol. I have a question regarding the wedding party. I am aware of a decent size wedding party and I want to make sure I get everyone in focus when doing the large group shots. Any advice? Also any other advice would be helpful regarding weddings as well.

I hate to say it but if you have to ask that question, you better put it on automatic. And it sounds to me like this really is your first wedding and you have not done one as a second shooter to get your feet wet or you would probably not be asking that question.

If you have some time, ask any wedding photographer you can befriend if you can just tag along and carry his/her gear and help out and learn. Shooting weddings is not really about asking some questions on how best to stay in focus for large groups. Things happen way to fast and if you break under pressure, you can have some serious issues down the road.

Use a tripod with a remote shutter release. Once you locked your focus have everyone close their eyes and open on three, when they all open their eyes clock the shutter. Or take more then one shot, sometimes out of a 1/2 dozen you won't get a perfect one and will have to move a head in post.

Kind of agree with you. If you aren't sure how to get everyone in focus in a large group shot, you might have bitten off more than you can chew. Weddings are fast paced and if you aren't focused, you'll definitely miss something. Knowing what settings to use needs to be second nature, because you won't have time to stop and think about it.

If you have a group of friends, take them to the location and practice on them Write down your settings when you get the correct ones so you'll be ready on the big day!

Get a group of your family together and practice group shots.

Take more than one picture.. the more in the group, the more pictures you take to swap out faces/eye blinks.

Can you light a group properly?

Make sure you have managed expectations of what you will give the bride&groom. While I totally understand and get that this may be someones 5th wedding, and they really didn't want to pay someone to take pictures, a pro doesn't need to ask such basic questions, and is worth their pay for equipment (and back ups) and their expertise.

If this is the last event 100yr old Aunt Paige is expected to attend, and your pictures end up blurry/out of focus or don't turn out, how bad will the fall out be? Read thru all the threads on the wedding section.

Carrying bag, light stand and 2nd shooting is a great way to get your feet wet. Please try those before taking on the 1st gig as main shooter.
If one have not learn how to cook, it is not possible to jump in the kitchen and be the head chef, imo.

Group shot, I ask everyone to blink on 2 when I count 3, 2 ,1/Click and repeat.

Chet's suggestion with the tripod is awesome.

Good luck and be awesome!

Before hanging the OP out to dry, let's get some info on the event. I highly doubt this is a $3-$5K wedding that expected 50 weddings under their photographer's belt when he attended their event. If so, then OP, you need to teach me how to sell, and in turn I'll teach you how to shoot weddings.

Most likely this is a small event for a friend or family member, and the OP is making minimal if any money. OP please be more explanatory on your event.

You're worried about the size of the wedding party. What size is it?

Is the wedding indoors or out? What time of day? If indoors, have you thought about how you will light the event? If out, and in the middle of the day, have you thought of the reverse? What type of gear are you working with? What is your forte in photography?

These and even more need to be answered before we can give advice to the OP.

Jarvis, could not agree more with all your statements about some more info to better help. But...... and here is the big but, my first advice would be try to never do family or friends, especially if just starting out. Now you can preface it with the client just starting out and don't expect much, but a lot of times, they do expect it and it just creates issues. My son apprenticed with one of the best photographers on the East coast for 6 months and that was one of the first things he told him about family and friends. Yes you can do them if you have too but you better know your stuff.

I just fear with the OP, if not having done a wedding before, might be overwhelmed with the whole process. Worrying about focus issues is one of 30 things he is going to have to have a very good handle on over the course of the day. We can give him all the advice he desires, but kind of like I can explain to you how to drive a car the first time before getting behind the wheel. But we all know what happens the first time behind the wheel, we make a bunch of mistakes in the school parking lot but who cares. You are learning. A wedding is taking the driving test, and without practice, could become an issue.

I do wish the OP the best and thus the suggestion of trying to hook up with an established wedding photographer to get some pointers if he has the time.

I remember my first wedding.
Just did lots of on-line research beforehand, YouTube, practice and of course this forum!

If you put in the time for learning and practice, you will be fine.

I hate to be "that guy", but you should not be shooting this wedding. It sounds like you don't understand your camera settings and don't have enough knowledge of photography. A wedding is a 12hour+ shoot without anytime to double check or chimp shots, or experiment. How to get things in focus is a basic skill that every photographer should have. First you must use a pro body which has AF fine tune, then you must do many tests to ensure that the lens is not back focusing or front focusing (most lenses need adjustments). After the lens and camera are calibrated you can then practice getting your photos in focus and find a reliable method of focusing on things that are not directly in the center of the frame, but keep in mind that most focus points other than the center will give inconsistent results causing poor focus. After you've established how to focus properly you must practice changing your f-stop to increase/reduce your Depth or Field (how much distance is in focus). For group shots you must use a higher number f-stop such as f8 to get the entire group in focus. Using a higher f-stop like f8 lets less light into the camera so sometimes it's necessary to use some additional lighting to ensure the group is well lit. Also camera's will not focus in the dark so you need some kind of AF Assist lamp which usually comes built into a quality speedlight, I assume you have one? Sorry for sounding so negative, but I feel it's important that you understand exactly what it is that you'll be doing so you can be best prepared. Here's a link to Neil Vn's website, He covers everything you need to know in detail and I recommend you send multiple hours a day reading his site before the wedding. I wish you the best of luck and since I'm slightly vested in this thread now could you please post a few of the photos after the wedding? http://neilvn.com/tang​ents/

Best way to get into weddings with absolutely zero experience is to assist and third shoot. Second shooting still requires being on point.

Op never actually said it even was small or for a friend which scares me even more...

Im agreeing with most people here but Im going to make a different point. Weddings are alot of times unpredictable and 10x more of this is your first one. Will you be able to roll with the punches when the church lady saids no flash in the dimmly lit church? How about when the bridal party starts drinking early and they get super impatient about the formals? Ect

Little funny story kinda on topic:

I 2nd shot a wedding for a friend of a friend as a favor last year. I had only met her once and it was her first wedding. I have a fair bit of experience so it was kind of strange situation where I think she was planning on learning from me even though she wanted to be the big important lead. She was totally clueless when it came to interacting with the b&g, posing and lighting. These things are hard to learn from the interenet by the way so its all well and good asking about a specific question like how to get people in focus but it's a different story just knowing how to interact and pose people. She would take a shot and look worried which made the bride super self-conscious which was freaking her out. She had them staring at the sun for formals and getting frustrated about people not paying attention. The worst part was photographing just the bride and groom. She had this huge bag of picture frames, sparklers, scrabble letters, prob rings. It was like watching carrot top. She obviously did research on pintress and just got a bunch of props bc thats what she thought you do. So bringing it all back around if she had done a few weddings as a 2nd she would see how things work, wedding etiquette, how to interact.

DThriller wrote in post #17920532
Op never actually said it even was small or for a friend which scares me even more...

Im agreeing with most people here but Im going to make a different point. Weddings are alot of times unpredictable and 10x more of this is your first one. Will you be able to roll with the punches when the church lady saids no flash in the dimmly lit church? How about when the bridal party starts drinking early and they get super impatient about the formals? Ect

Little funny story kinda on topic:

I 2nd shot a wedding for a friend of a friend as a favor last year. I had only met her once and it was her first wedding. I have a fair bit of experience so it was kind of strange situation where I think she was planning on learning from me even though she wanted to be the big important lead. She was totally clueless when it came to interacting with the b&g, posing and lighting. These things are hard to learn from the interenet by the way so its all well and good asking about a specific question like how to get people in focus but it's a different story just knowing how to interact and pose people. She would take a shot and look worried which made the bride super self-conscious which was freaking her out. She had them staring at the sun for formals and getting frustrated about people not paying attention. The worst part was photographing just the bride and groom. She had this huge bag of picture frames, sparklers, scrabble letters, prob rings. It was like watching carrot top. She obviously did research on pintress and just got a bunch of props bc thats what she thought you do. So bringing it all back around if she had done a few weddings as a 2nd she would see how things work, wedding etiquette, how to interact.

I have second shot for wedding photographers who still have no clue what they were doing despite being in the game for years. Shooting while eating, being in the wrong place at the wrong time, etc.

Also, I tell people that wedding is much harder than shooting a PAC12/NCAA Div I sporting event because I've shot both for extended seasons. No joke. People here on the forumz and interwebz laugh about this, but it's true. Weddings are a beast to handle well and hence why there's great demand for professional-demeanor and experienced wedding photographers that aren't separated by "gear" but rather professional training, attitude, and intellect.

^^^

Wait for the naysayers to start posting haha