1st Client

I have done some portraits and now I have a client that wants me to do their wedding. The people are very laid back and are amature photographers them selfs. I am going to be shooting their wedding in sections (which is good for me)

1. in the morning I am going to the hair salon to meet with them and get some of the pictures of the mother, sister, and bride getting the hair done.

Then I get a couple hour break (luckley my house is 5 minutes away)

2. They are doing a Beach Wedding at 2:00 pm, so I decided that I should be there 45 minutes earlier to get used to the set up.

3. The "Family Photos" there after, they stated that they would line up everyone for me in the oder that they want the pictures taken. (No backdrops or anything like that / ALL Natural)

4. After that they are having a private party around 5:00 - 6:00 pm back on the beach. This is where I belive that I will get my money shoots of the Bride and Groom and their Groomsmen and Brides Maids. (I will have less people and be able to work with them better)

ok now for the questions.

1. I charged them $650 for the weeding. They asked for a cd of the Images so I told them I would do 25 / 75 % (keeping the images that I spend some time on and giving them the throwaway pictures danceing, drunk people, crowd shots and keeping the Cake Pictuers, Bride and groom, et al.)

2. At the hair salon I will use Manual to take all the pictures seeing that I have some time to think and get the pictures right.

at the wedding I was going to use the AV mode so I can just control the depth of field.

family pictures I will go back to manual

reception go back to the av

afterparty use manual

3. There is also a profesional "film" photograher that is retiered and going to help me with some shoots. But does not know anything about digital, but should be helpfull. And my wife will be there helping me out as well. (The profesesional is the one that refered them to me and also he is a guest of the wedding)

Hopefull things will turn out all right.

Also at the 2:00 wedding on the beach I will be useing a polarizing filter as well (is this the right idea)

Thanks for your time and help. This is my first wedding and I am a little bit nervous.

Scott

I couldn't find any question. So it seems that you know what you are doing.

Do they accept your plan about the images? Just wondering about this combination.

One advice, don't plan the last details long ahead. Things come always the other way. It's good to know the intended plan, but checking each detail off, this has never worked.
I decide at the local situation which camera mode, not long before.

You didn't mention when it will take place.

In your signature I see that there is 1 camera. Backup?

Good luck

djscottwalls wrote in post #4225950
Also at the 2:00 wedding on the beach I will be useing a polarizing filter as well (is this the right idea)

Scott

This appears to be your only question, the answer's 'Maybe', if you are used to using a polarising filter and can manipulate it to great effect in a fast moving environment, then go for it.

The rest of the post wasn't really a question, but the points I've picked up on beg some questions to me;

1.5 why no 'getting ready' shots at the brides house, you'll miss some great opportunities.

2 You should know the setup beforehand if you're inexperienced. 45 minutes early will get you there with not much time to spare before you're shooting the grooms arrival, then the families - bridesmaids - before you know it the Bride's arrived and you haven't caught your breath.

3.5 This is where you should be organising your B&G portraits, between the family stuff and the party. You don't really want to be taking them away from the party for posed pic's.

4 The party is where you'll get all the great candid opportunities.

Then to point 1 that wasn't a question. If you're already charging for portraits, how does this price hold up to your other work? Unless my only income was Photography I wouldn't charge for what amounts to a 'practice run' I'd be glad of the opportunity. However that's down to personal circumstances.

Are you asking about camera modes? <rant>I have regularly said that it makes no difference whatsoever what mode your camera is in. The important function is to know your meter, when to trust it and when to override it.</rant> The only time it makes a real difference is when using flash, indoors you should use Manual for your flash exposures, the Auto modes will push you around.

Lots of WP's swear by Manual for it's more consistent exposures, but I never have problems with consistency when using AV. I find my wife / shooting partner does have more exposure inconsistency, but using the semi auto modes keeps her in the ballpark. I fear if she shot manual she'd keep forgetting to re-meter causing even more problems.


As was picked up above;
If you're charging you are morally obliged to have a backup of everything, If you're working for free and have a camera go down, a heartfelt apology isn't enough but they have no real basis to sue you. If you've charged them and you have equipment failure that stops you performing - that's a disaster of immense magnitude, both for them and for you.

Good luck.

Phil pretty much said everything that I would have said, but I'll add that you might want to take a couple of practice shots of someone in white on a beach at the same time of day with that polarizer. Though I don't use one myself (I bought one but haven't had the opportunity to put it on at a wedding ceremony), I was having a conversation with a friend of mine in town, and he claimed that he used a polarizer once, and that the added contrast was too much and really blew out the dress. Again, this is hearsay, but I respect the guy as a photog, and have thought twice about using my polarizer for anything but church exteriors since...

Scott,

Get immediately your web site the "about" section regarding spelling done. Being not an native English speaker, even I lived quit a while in New Zealand, I see immediately "Collage" instead "College". Never heard of "Meseum", probably "Museum". There are some other things too.
A web site should be free of spelling / grammar errors. It's not a forum where you jot down some words and there is not much need of correct spelling. A web site is like a business card, the first impression counts.

Often the problem is that you don't notice such things as you read the text from memory. Ask someone else to have a look on it too.

More stunning shots would be much better than the list of your photography education. Nobody is interested in courses you visited, whereas stunning shots persuade the interested person.
Having visited a course doesn't mean that you can do it well.

This reply is not intended to criticize your homepage, it's aim is giving you some advice to improve it. I wanted to see your style and had a look.

You'd be better off spending all day with them, to capture the little things. The model for the CD sounds odd, i'd give them all the images as shot but show them the difference between as-shot and fully processed so they can purchase prints if they want to. I'd also suggest spending a bit of time in similar lighting scenarios to weddings, if you're not sure about your exposure you'll have some pretty big problems on the day.

ok corrected the spelling. I had one more thing is ask, I have a Canon40D and when doing the wedding do everything in raw and then at the reception do everything in sraw. Would that work. One other thing is that I will not be pulling them away to do any posing. They are haveing the after party back at the beach for a small number of people, and they stated that it might be a better oppertunity to get pictures of everyone. I am also useing a film camera as a backup camera.

Scott

djscottwalls wrote in post #4227584
I had one more thing is ask, I have a Canon40D and when doing the wedding do everything in raw and then at the reception do everything in sraw. Would that work. One other thing is that I will not be pulling them away to do any posing. They are haveing the after party back at the beach for a small number of people, and they stated that it might be a better oppertunity to get pictures of everyone.

Why shooting mixed RAW formats? SRAW can only processed with DPP at the moment, it depends on your work flow.
I don't have a camera with SRAW and can't judge the quality of it. I shoot everything in RAW no matter of size of the files.
Honestly, get more CF cards and use only one system, even if it fits more on a memory card using SRAW.

Regarding posing, be prepared to pose groups as PJ style will never get certain group shots people are asking. There are heaps of great opportunities to shoot unposed.
Keep in mind that it's a wedding and party, not a photo shooting.

I missed the bit about keeping images back, that's the weirdest thing I've seen. You seem to have missed the part about them being THEIR wedding photo's. They pay us to shoot and to produce a product for them. That product should be based on our artistic vision of the day, either all the keepers (as proofs or on cd as their product), or a selection in an album. The selection would be based on quality and art, not what we think we can get reprint sales from?

What possible use is there in 'keeping back' THEIR pictures, other than to make money? It's not a business model I've seen before, and bears more relation to kidnapping than to providing a service.

djscottwalls wrote in post #4227584
ok corrected the spelling. I had one more thing is ask, I have a Canon40D and when doing the wedding do everything in raw and then at the reception do everything in sraw. Would that work. One other thing is that I will not be pulling them away to do any posing. They are haveing the after party back at the beach for a small number of people, and they stated that it might be a better oppertunity to get pictures of everyone. I am also useing a film camera as a backup camera.

Scott

From my understanding, sraw is a lesser quality output is it not? I would stick to full raw for the best possible shots. Is your film camera an slr or compact?

Phil V wrote in post #4230931
I missed the bit about keeping images back, that's the weirdest thing I've seen. You seem to have missed the part about them being THEIR wedding photo's. They pay us to shoot and to produce a product for them. That product should be based on our artistic vision of the day, either all the keepers (as proofs or on cd as their product), or a selection in an album. The selection would be based on quality and art, not what we think we can get reprint sales from?

What possible use is there in 'keeping back' THEIR pictures, other than to make money? It's not a business model I've seen before, and bears more relation to kidnapping than to providing a service.

I noticed this too - I usually provide the pictures the other way around - give the couple the best of the lot as prints and everything else that is worth processing is processed and goes onto CD/DVD. I certainly don't give them the "Throw away" shots. These get thrown away!

Don't shoot sRaw, spend the $100 to get more memory cards.

I am amazed at how people will put themselves in a situation that could end up very badly. This is on both ends. The B/G are "photographers" and yet they hire someone with limited experience/equipment. I am guessing that their experience might be on the same level. I just hope that you understand that with this being your first wedding to shoot that you will probably encounter things that you will never even think to ask on here. I shoot weddings almost every weekend and there are still things that come up that require experience and quick thinking.
Just make sure that the B/G know your limits and make sure that you have a contract.

Dont forget that I there will be a retiered profesional photographer that is going to help me out the whole way through the shoot. He has done wedding for over 30 years.

1. He is the one that recomended me
2. He told me that he would be there to help me with the posseing

Also I am not a newbee (maybe to a wedding) but I have been shooting picture for over 10 years and I am fully comfterbul with the Canon 40d, I am just asking to see what other people are doing and how they will handel situations. If I go through everything several times I am less likely to make a mistake. No matter what portrait of wedding you shoot; you will always walk away with thinking of new ideas and better way of handeling/shooting the situation.