Wedding/Event Shoots, Lenses? Books? ect

Hello everyone! I'm interested in getting into event and wedding photography, but I know absolutely nothing about it. No clue what lenses I'd need, flash if any, technique, nothing. Figure I'll have myself a great deal of fun learning all this stuff.

So, to start with, what books or websites would yall recommend I read?

What type of lens, or specific lenses generally make good wedding lenses?

Are flashes important in this style of photography? Are there any good books you could recommend on advanced flash photography?

Anything else I need to research and learn?

Thanks everyone!

There's people using the lenses you have now for weddings.

Available light in churches if they dont permit flash means your going to need zooms faster then F4 like the 2.8 version of your 70-200, then there's 24-70 F2.8. group shots outside the 17-40 should be fine, might struggle with available light. Then there's the primes like the 85mm, great portrait lens, you have a 50 already.

Sports, well that depends on what sports you want to shoot. Look in the sports section to see who's using what for what. Some amazing boxing photos taken with a 50mm, but if it's say football you want to shoot you're going to need 200 to 400mm

1) Make sure you can operate your camera, external flash, and flash bracket blindfolded. Also make sure you can set up any configuration you need within about 2 seconds, and that you're confident in taking photos in any situation, under any lighting that happens to be around.
2) Have a read of this thread, and the books at the bottom of the first post.
3) Find a pro who's willing to take you on as an assistant or 2nd shooter.
4) Practice! Spend a year doing the job for free or very cheap, to get build up experience and a portfolio.

Lenses depend on the wedding, I think a 28-75/24-70 is the most commonly used lens, but I used every lens during the one wedding i've done.

Also, read this website, and start reading the wedding photographer forum on fredmiranda.com

erm..


Yeah what tim said

RbrtPtikLeoSeny wrote:
Hello everyone! I'm interested in getting into event and wedding photography, but I know absolutely nothing about it. No clue what lenses I'd need, flash if any, technique, nothing. Figure I'll have myself a great deal of fun learning all this stuff.

-- (sig)
Excited to say I own a Canon EOS 20D

btw if you're still excited by your new toy, and don't know if you'd need a flash, you're not anywhere near ready to do this sort of thing. Reading and getting an apprenticeship would be a good start, figure a year or two before you'd get hired on your own. Don't let that put you off though, if you're interesting, enthuiastic, smart, have enough money for equipment, and have a good eye, it's only a matter of time.

Woah! Thanks for all that! Very helpful! Anyone got more to add?

RbrtPtikLeoSeny wrote:
Woah! Thanks for all that! Very helpful! Anyone got more to add?

Wait until the real wedding photographers show up, remember all my advice is coming from a semi-obsessed person who's been doing photography 6 months, and has done one wedding. My first wedding pics here.

Tim, I think you did a fantastic job for your first wedding! Looked at all the pics. Very nice.

FWIW, I found the 50mm 1.4 to be much better suited to wedding photography than the 1.8. Faster focusing, better focusing on low contrast and obviously an extra half a stop.

Other than that, offer to help a few friends out for free (along with their PRO photographer) for the first three weddings. After that you can try it solo. Just know that you're not going to get rich doing it anytime soon, and quality albums can run $400-$500 at YOUR cost.

Adam

Cheers, the B&G liked them, and a photographer friend of mine asked if I was a secret wedding photographer

Agreed, the 50mm F1.8 is a good hobbyist lens, the 1.4 is a great lens. I also don't get doing things like charging markups on wedding albums. Sure, charge delivery fees, fees for putting them together, and other costs, but I personally don't agree with marking up things you're using to provide the product (ie wedding photos).

Tim; "btw if you're still excited by your new toy, and don't know if you'd need a flash, you're not anywhere near ready to do this sort of thing."

Yes, I know. I'm very new to photography, and don't intend on shooting weddings and stuff for $$$$ for quite some time. I've got a lot to learn!! I just want to start learning as soon, and as much as I possibly can.

Alblums eh? I didn't know they could cost that much!! Ouch. As a wedding photographer though, wouldn't you just charge for your time? And for the expenses of what ever material you use? I guess there's a million different ways you could charge.... oh well, don't really need to worry about that right now.

As for the 50mm f/1.8, I just bought that for the hell of it. I was at ritz, it was 90 bucks. Figured it couldn't hurt. I'll probably upgrade to the f/1.4 later on after I pay off everything else I've bought.

I'd love to be an apprentice, no clue where to find a pro photographer in the area who needs one though. Maybe I should look around for pro photog's business cards and call em up or something?

Same here. I'm going to do a little more reading and practice myself, then call up some photographers in the yellow pages (local business directory), or ask a couple of photographers I know.

It is not as simple as that.

Like everything else in the modern world, there is competition. A good wedding photographer cannot just charge an open-ended amount of money for the job.

There used to be a few good medium format film shooters who concentrated on weddings, and that was good. They tried to do a skillful job on making an album later. However, times have changed.

There are thousands upon thousands of new photographers, armed primarily with Canon 20D and Digital Rebel XT cameras, and they are all fighting to set foot into the wedding photography marketplace. Some of them are probably good, and some of them aren't. Everybody is driving the cost of wedding jobs downward, so lots of the old medium format film shooters have packed up and retired.

---Bob Gross---

Awwww, I'm sorry to hear that. Competition is a pain.... but one must learn to adapt. I'm sure there are some old school photographers who are still doing very well because they came up with some new innovative ways of marketing themselves that all the ametures with 20D's and XT's couldn't compete with.