Wedding Test Today, Wedding Tomorrow

Okay, full discloser. I'm a sports shooter but a friend asked if I'd take pictures of his wedding. It's indoors and flash is not allowed. I went today and took a couple of test shots. WOW...DO I NEED HELP! These are straight out of the camera with no post processing applied. Settings were as follows.

Lens 24-70mm 2.8L
Camera 1D Mark III
Shot in AV
ISO 3200
f/2.8
1/250
AWB

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Too bad you weren't able to get some heads up on timing so you could rent a 85L or 135L or 200L (fast sharp lenses) from LensRental. The light is not bad but wedding photography is a very well understood art form and few get it right the first 'n' number of times.

I wish you luck. I'd be studying wedding photography on the web and talking to the bride and groom to make sure they get what they want.

The help that I'd like is with the settings. In sports the rule is low f-stop, highest practical shutter speed, and go up in ISO as needed to get an acceptable shutter speed. Are the rules the same for indoor weddings? I can probably sacrafice some on the shutter speed (unless the bride starts to run for the door), but what about f-stop. Should I close the lens down for weddings or do the same general rules apply for weddings?

Any help with settings would be appreciated.

I think you may find that the settings you use will be appropriate. I am not an expert in weddings but the photographs you've presented are obviously well lit and processed correctly in my eye.

www.wayneyuan.com

this guy does a lot a close ups with low f-stop and lotsa nice bokeh

Exposure looks smack on to me

I would be careful with the wide open lens and group shots inside, shallow depth of field.

I'd probably sacrifice a stop or two of shutter speed in order to gain a little extra depth on shots where nobody is moving.

we cant really tell anything with photos that small but the exposure looks fine...

Exposure is okay, but the backlighting is going to be tricky. I think you'll need to zoom in a lot to avoid the haze from the windows and lights. Put a UV filter on the 24-70, nothing else. You must have a steady hand as the lighting will make shooting fast speeds difficult. I would check the areas where you can stand and move around. I would center focus.

For the formals, where you need to stop down for DOF, use your tripod and a remote release.

The restriction against flash usually only applies to the ceremony. Make certain that you can shoot the formals with flash, if not pop a couple at the alter then move the rest somewhere with enough light to work.

Thanks, everybody, for the great tips! I'm about to pack up and put them in use! Wish me luck!!

Be sure to post a couple of results pictures in this thread so we can see how it went.

gonzogolf wrote in post #8501106
Be sure to post a couple of results pictures in this thread so we can see how it went.

Phewwwww! Boy, am I glad that this is over!! I think that it went okay...thanks to everyone's advice on this forum. I'm sure that I've got lots of room for improvement so PLEASE provide constructive criticism so that I can learn how to improve. This was certainly a learning experience. I'm not thrilled with the formals...where I acutally used a flash. I covered it with a Fong diffuser. Anyway, all suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Here are a few samples.