noob to photography...l'il advice please?

Thekwango

Thekwango

Thekwango

Soldato
Joined
5 Feb 2009
Posts
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Location
N. Ireland
Howdy folks,

Next August the fiance and I are planning to have our wedding(well the religious ceremony) in a small village in france where we've been holidaying for the past 6 years.

due to the remoteness of the village (and partly my miserableness) we intend to get her brother to take the pictures for us. thing is i have no idea about what kind of camera to get-that should be easy enough to use/understand, though her bro is quite tech savvy so should pick it up quite quickly, and will take good quality photographs.

I'd also need advice or pointers towards a tri-pod. tho i guess i tri-pod is a tri-pod??

budget wise i really have no idea, lets say 300 notes, would that be sufficient? i could go higher but would obviously like to go lower! :p

many thanks in advance
 
First, I would remove any expectation right now. Unless her brother has some hidden talent in photography that he doesn't even know about, being tech savvy to taking half decent wedding photographs are a world's apart.

He won't need a tripod, what he will need, at minimum is a DSLR with a fast glass and a flash for the evening.
 
Raymond Lin said:
First, I would remove any expectation right now. Unless her brother has some hidden talent in photography that he doesn't even know about, being tech savvy to taking half decent wedding photographs are a world's apart.

He won't need a tripod, what he will need, at minimum is a DSLR with a fast glass and a flash for the evening.
Click to expand...

Probably the best advice you'll get on wedding photography on here and I'd be inclined to agree. Technical knowledge is no replacement for artistic flare.

Equipment wise if 300 is the budget I'd conceder renting, particularly as Raymond mentioned fast glass at least 2.8.

To be honest I'd try putting a thread over on talk photography forum, you might get some stick but there are usually some budget photographers that may come close to your budget.
 
I would rather find someone with talent who is starting out and give him £300 for the photo rather than spend £300 on entry level gear used by a brother with no experience.

My first gig I got £500, but i turned up with a 5Dii, 30D, 24-70, 16-35, 50/1.4 and 2 flashes and 64G of memory.

Find the right person will get you more value for money...just make sure you pick the right guy!

so....start looking someone local for 500 euros?
 
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advice duly noted fellas, i appreciate the honesty-should add that your replies were pretty much exactly what my other half said when i suggested getting her brother to take the photos!! guess i'll have to brush up on my french and start looking for someone local.

was hoping her uncle would travel out as he took up photography about 15 years ago when he took early retirement. but he doesn't like flying and doesnt fancy the ignorantly long drive from northern ireland to southwest france!

on an aside note, was gonna ask this in a seperate thread but might as well pop it in along with this, i wanna buy a camera for my own personal use anyway, any suggestions-would just be used for casual photography. I live on the North Coast of Antrim in Northern Ireland and we have some gorgeous coastal scenery. Would love to get into a bit of hobbyist photography. Again the budget i have no clue about so any suggestions would be much appreciated
 
Going back to what you originally asked... What has been said is spot on... I would get someone in who knows a bit of what is going on to do the photos not someone knows nothing.

However...

If you really want your brother to do the photos it might be better if you rent gear instead of buying it. That will give you more/better gear to aid your brother.
 
You've also got to remember that a Photographer can't enjoy the wedding. So it means he would be taking photos the whole time, which would be a real downer for him.

If he gets fed up and decides to just drink and party, well that's your wedding day photos down the drain.

This is a once in a life thing, up your budget a bit and get a photographer.
 
My cousin got her brothers girlfriend to do exactly what your asking for their wedding and the photos where truly awful. She didn't have a clue what she was doing not just with the camera settings but with the composition of the shots, making massive mistakes.

Best example of one of those mistakes was to take a group photo of all of the grooms family and then not do the same for our side lol. I also took a better photo of them cutting the wedding cake with no flash on a very cheap P&S camera than she did with a £500 sony DSLR :S

Raymonds advice is spot on and I cannot emphasise enough the difference in quality you'd get some paying someone in the know to do it for you (after proper research) or just give a few hundred quid to a family member who knows nothing about photography.
 
Yea we've decided to ditch the idea of using her brother. Not that she ever fancied that plan!! Just me being miserable.

Are there any credentials, or whatever you call it, I should look for someone to have when looking into photographers. Or should I just ask to see a sample of their work, or is that not the done thing?

Apologies if my questions seem a little dumb, I genuinely have no clue regarding photography!
 
not really credentials, just check their portfolio. although ideally they should be insured for public liability (your venue may insist on that) and imdemnity (basically covers costs if the service isnt up to scratch)
 
Portfolio of their work, not their best of, but at minimum a set of photos from a single wedding.

Anyone can shoot 50 weddings and produce 50 half decent photos. Not anyone can produce 50 decent photos from 1 wedding.
 
Ahhh.....portfolio. That's the word I was looking for.

Cheers to all for the info and advice.

Yet again OcUK forums comes to the rescue!
 
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