First wedding - lessons learned

Malone,
You take great photos based on your posts here...you are not in over your head. Worst case, figure out a price based on your hours worked and work from there. You have a great eye, consider this your first step in professional photography.

Rich

billshack wrote:
Really good info wish i'd seen it all sooner i am shooting my first tomorrow. Can you elaborate on WHY you feel brackets are essential. I've been trying to come up with a good reason to get one other than they look very professional

To lower shadows below/behind the subject to keep them from beinng too obvious.

Thanks for all the helpful advice, guys. You're all awesome.

Good Thoughts. Did one in an old house last month. Your tips are spot on. Have been doing weddings for a year and it was my hardest yet. I might add to anyone interested to bring lots of flash for posed portraits and for fill work.

Thanks Brewer. I am using a Lumiquest 80/20 at the moment and it does this pretty good but of course i pay the price in reduced distance and about 1 stop or so as well.

Whew! Tough work!

Lord_Malone wrote:
Whew! Tough work!

Let us know how it turned out and lets see a few images when you're done!

billshack wrote:
Really good info wish i'd seen it all sooner i am shooting my first tomorrow. Can you elaborate on WHY you feel brackets are essential. I've been trying to come up with a good reason to get one other than they look very professional

They're essential for some situations, mainly when shooting with flash as the main light indoors. I forgot to take mine to the last wedding I did, and it wasn't a problem. You can always shoot landscape and crop if you need to.

Thanks for the advice.

I have my first serious wedding next month. I have shot other weddings but never been paid, until next month. I have been told I should be paid and a lot my pictures turned out better than the Photographer that was hired. anyway I will post wedding next month.

Great stuff!!! Thanks I'm sure this will be useful.

great advice, i'am intrested in doing wedding gigs have read this excellent piece of information but need to know exactly what whould be good and inexpensive camera lenses to do these gigs is there any place on this forum which explains in more specific details of what type of lense and settings are required to capture those romantic moments? i currently own a canon 17-85mm usm lense and a canon 350d what is your opionion

Before you can even consider wedding photography you must have mastered exposure, as well as knowing your equipment inside out. Posing is also tough, I recommended books that will help you learn. The questions you've asked show that you're not anywhere near ready to attempt wedding photography.

My recommendation for a starter professional wedding kit:
- 2x30D (cheap version - 20D + XT, but I wouln't do that)
- 17-55 F2.8 IS (cheap version Tamron 28-75 F2.8 but you'll upgrade quickly)
- 70-200 F2.8 IS
- 2x580EX (or 580EX/550EX)
- 10GB memory (all solid state CF cards)
- Flash bracket
- Studio lighting (a nice powerful single strobe) is helpful.

I also have a couple of primes, a couple of other zooms, and a macro lens. I'd not like to be without any of them but could get by if necessary. All gear has backups in case of failure, because failures do happen. I've had 20D's go down during a ceremony twice, luckily I had a backup right beside me so it didn't matter.

Don't expect much change out of US$10K

If only I knew about this thread a few days ago

thank you for advice!!!i know i'am no where near ready still preparing my self up!!! i'am considering a few crash course? any recommondations for Australia or over the net like dvd tutorials? what are your thoughts,, can you give brief outline on how you first started out with photography!!!.....
Lately i have been noticing pictures and images in a photographic view try to understand what type of settings and angles the photographer has used. Is there any particular website that explains in detail how images are taken or examples?
sorry if this question is silly but i have a lot of confusion in my mind i want to learn this piece of ART it's so amazing there is another perspective out there!

I started like many do, doing a wedding for a friend. I learned by reading a half dozen wedding photography books, mastering the use of my camera, experimenting with lighting and in different situations (backlit, direct sun, low light inside, etc), and reading LOTS of websites. I'd give yourself 3-6 months intensive study before attempting to do a wedding yourself - I had 3 months and about 4 hours per day. Another way is by working as an assistant to an experienced pro.

Can't help much with Australian resources, maybe Del can. I didn't use any local resources, just books from amazon and the web.