Weddings... any tips and/or online tutorials?

Pezza · 10 Jul 2006 at 11:42

Hi guys,

I've rather-distressingly been asked to shoot at a friend-of-my-girlfriend's wedding in September this year. I moaned quite a lot about this as I know these are the most difficult things to shoot, but I'm assured the couple just want some relaxed and informal photos rather than the usual professional album affair. Bearing that in mind, I'd still like to do a good job of it. I've got a 20D with 24-105mm F4L (and also the kit 18-55mm lens and a 100-400mm L lens, but I guess I won't use either of those). I think the wedding will be during the day outside, but I don't have a flashgun (first problem I guess). Think I could get away with dialling up the ISO where necessary, or if not what are your thoughts on flashguns to get?

Anyway, was just looking for some general tips on everything from composition to anything else you can think of. I guess my problem is that I know exactly when a photo looks 'bad' or amateurish, but I want to know what to think about to make them look professional!

Cheers, Stuart

Mint_Sauce · 10 Jul 2006 at 13:39

I just did my first wedding (not as a pro, just a guest) and my top tip is to bump up the ISO to get the shutter speeds you need. Having slight noise over having a blurry image is far more preferable! A few of my shots that I thought would be great just arn't sharp and not useable really as I was trying to keep it at ISO 100. Wish I'd bumped down, sometimes even to 1600.

If I were you I'd take the 24-105 and the 100-400 for outside. You can get some great candids with nice Bokeh with the 100-400. Depends where it's being held though. If weight/space is an issue you probably won't really miss the 100-400, it would just be nice to have.

If anyone comes up to ask if you're the official photographer just tell them no, your just another guest but have a bigger camera. That way people don't feel on edge about where you are or what you're taking pics of. They'll probably be more natural around the camera too and allow you to be more covert.

Pezza · 10 Jul 2006 at 15:33

Many thanks for that, that's very useful info.

Btw have just found out that searching for "wedding" rather than "wedding tutorial" (which I originally searched on before posting) yields much better results! A wealth of info on here

brakeinup · 10 Jul 2006 at 21:11

Get yourself a flashgun - you may need it for the fill in even though you are outside. And you cannot guarantee the weather!

We use a 550EX and 580EX on the our cameras and they are great bits of kit, but there are other Canon flashes that will do the job which cost less (4xx series).

I would recommend that you have some idea on the sort of shots you want to take. Practice these shots in different lighting situations to get to know your camera.