Preparing for an Upcoming (and First!) Wedding Shoot

[iceman (Mike)]

I’ve never really done much people photography. The odd family photo here and there but my main interest and passion has been landscape photography and of course astrophotography.

So you can imagine it came as quite a shock to me when a few weeks ago, Tanya (a friend and ex-work colleague at Ericsson Managed Services) asked me to photograph their upcoming wedding! My first reaction was a combination of shock, fright, nervousness, denial, interest and excitement.

You may be saying “You’re crazy man! Leave it to the professionals!”. And you’d be 100% right. So what influenced my decision?

Continue reading to see how I got myself into this, how I’m preparing for the event, and to see some of the practise shots.

Preparing for an Upcoming (and First) Wedding Shoot!

Cheers

[renormalised (Carl)]

Don't forget to guide well, and take all your darks and flats

One thing to remember....after all the prep and such, with all the nerves you'll be having on that day, make sure you take your lens caps off!!!. I've seen it happen time and again. It's the simplest things we end up forgetting and they're usually the one thing that makes all the difference

[iceman (Mike)]

haha thanks, but with the DSLR I can't see anything with the lens cap on so that shouldn't be an issue

[matt]

Ah well...at least you're not going it alone. That would've made it all the more nervewracking.

Appears to me you've covered all bases.

The only suggestion I would make is to also try take and plenty of unplanned/unposed shots which capture people behaving 'naturally'. Those candid, relaxed portraits look great mixed in amongst the posed images.

[StephenM (Stephen)]

Hi Mike,

I actually did my first wedding last Saturday! It was my brother-in-law's wedding, and he lined me up as the official photographer a couple of months ago. I felt a bit under pressure leading up to it, but like you I did some practise shots "on location" with the couple a week before the wedding and worked out what they wanted, and I'm quite happy with some of the shots from the day. Hopefully the happy couple will also like them!!! (they get to see them tomorrow). I'm sure you and Humayan will do an excellent job!

Cheers,
Stephen

[rogerg (Roger)]

Mike,

I hope you enjoy it and have some success!

Easy for me to say, but try not to be too put off by the inexperience. Christine and I recently chose our wedding photographer and only after deciding on him did we realise he's only 22 or 23 years old. As it happens our second choice was 25 years old. Both may be "less experienced" than other wedding photographers out there, but their creativity and skill stood out from the rest quite clearly. The older more "what you expect" photographers we met with (some charging more, some charging less) had such "stuck in the mud" ideals of what photos they would take etc, so little creativity and inspiration. It's costing us more to get this guy, but he's worth it.

A criteria for us was having the digital files. It's going to cost us, but not as much as some. One lot wanted to charge us $10,000 for the digital files!!! and several others flat out refused. They lost our business immediately. They don't realise - it's not that we think we can edit them better or print more for less $$, it's just that we want to be able to have our own photo album the way we want with our text and story in it! how hard is that to get their head around.

The biggest "People photography" shoot stuff I've done was my grandmothers 90th some years ago (about 5), back with my EOS300 film camera. I tell you what, using an L lens gets you 70% the way to a good set of photo's, and lighting does the other 30% ... I really surprised myself with a lot of nice shots.

I look forward to hearing how it goes

Roger.

PS. As it turns out, our photographer happens to have had a stint doing astrophotography! and is keen to persue that somewhat. So after 30mins of showing us his work the other night at our place, we then spent 2 hours in the observatory

[sheeny (Al)]

Mike,

I'm like you... I'm more into landscapes than people, and I'm no pro, but I have a brother who is.

What time of day is the wedding? Where you practice shots taken the same time of day, so you are confident you won't have shadows on faces and won't have people squinting into the sun?

I know you've said you expect not to have to use a flash, but I'd recommend if you have a good one make sure you take it and have plenty of batteries - a bit of fill flash will do wonders in a backlit shot or if you get high contrast or shadows on faces.

Having H along as well is a great idea. I have photographed a few weddings (not as the official photographer) and it's good to work as a team. While one is capturing the formal shots, the other can capture less formal and behind the scenes shots that often end up as some of the great memories. The little things like decorations, flowers, gardens and features around the wedding that everyone will have seen, and even some "papparazzi" shots of the photographer taking the formal shots seem to go over well. It's not just about the people or the scenery but trying to pick up the "memories" too.

It looks like you're setting up with some great landscapes in the background of the shots, but don't forget to try to get some tight ones as well with nothing to distract from the people.

Most of all have fun, so the wedding party has fun and don't miss any candid shots if they have a bit of a play - they can often go over well too!

You probably know all this anyway... but I hope its worth somethign to help you on the day.

Lets see a check list...
Batteries,
backup camera(s),
Lenses,
tripod ? (for some more creative shots, perhaps? Say a story panorama? e.g. bride and groom in separate shots "noticing" each other, next shot together with perhaps a kiss and the last shot walking off hand in hand, perhaps, all in the one final shot. Fiddly to do, but can be a lot of fun and be very effective if done well).
More batteries,
Spare memory card (my experience is if something can go wrng it will!),
Good strong flash with more batteries (for fill flash, or just in case...)
Sense of humour,
more batteries... I'm sure you've got the message!

Al.

[Dennis]

The location looks like it is a public place, which probably means you may have people walking through?

Can you “rope” it off to prevent passers by interrupting the shoot?

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny (Al)]

Oh, and of course the usual basics...

Drift align, darks, flats and bias frames...

Al.

[sheeny (Al)]

Originally Posted by Dennis

The location looks like it is a public place, which probably means you may have people walking through?

Can you “rope” it off to prevent passers by interrupting the shoot?

Cheers

Dennis

Oh yeah! Good thinking Dennis. I've recently seen some wedding shots with people in the background do some stuff which really detracts from the shots. If your lucky you might be able to PS is it out, but if you can prevent it in the first place, that's better and easier.

Al.

[okiscopey (Mike)]

Good luck Mike!

The previous advice about having a back-up for everything should be taken seriously. I had two flashes give up on a job once ... luckily "Mr. Backup" had a small third flash stashed away that saved the occasion.

Just a useful tip I picked up:

When photographing a wedding group (assuming you're doing some 'formal' shots), get everyone together first, take the whole group and then remove the folks not needed for the next shots. This is much easier than trying to add people to the 'bride and groom' duo when the guests are scattered all over and involved in other distractions.

It's hard work but can be good fun ... I'm sure you'll have a great time!

[Octane (Humayun)]

Great article.

It will be a great time. Take a few deep breaths before you start and all will be well.

My first shoot was of a colleague and their 5 month-old bundle of joy. I was a little nervous, and hesitant, before starting, but, I had confidence in my skills and knowledge of my camera and the light around me. I just calmed down and once I started clicking, the rest of the afternoon went by as a breeze.

We went out to the Bushfire Memorial Park near the base of Mount Stromlo. It was a beautiful afternoon with lots of cloud to diffuse the soft afternoon light. I'm still processing those images but hope to have them completed soon and offered as prints.

I am confident that between us, we'll have one or two shots she'd like.

Regards,
Humayun

[Bassnut (Fred)]

From one experience I had, as Al said, bring a flash, and hope its a cloudy day, shadows are a killer. Bracket the shots for possible HDR, seems to be an ideal application for them, the effect would blow them away.

[Ford Prefect (James)]

Mike,

Good luck, I too have been asked to do my first wedding, although I have about 12 months to get my skills and ideas up to scratch. I've been reading up too, and offer a few bits of advice from what I've read:
- make a written list of all photos to be taken and the people to be in them, photocopy it 5 times, put one in your pocket, one in your bag, one in the car, one in Humayun's pocket, etc...
- don't take just one big 8GB card, take 4-6 smaller cards. That way if you lose one or for some mysterious reason it fails...
- go to a pro shop and get a gold/silver reflector, which Humayun can hold if the light is challenging. If it's sunny you'll want to try and balance out shadows as best you can.

Originally Posted by rogerg

A criteria for us was having the digital files. It's going to cost us, but not as much as some. One lot wanted to charge us $10,000 for the digital files!!! and several others flat out refused. They lost our business immediately. They don't realise - it's not that we think we can edit them better or print more for less $$, it's just that we want to be able to have our own photo album the way we want with our text and story in it! how hard is that to get their head around.

TBH Roger I think they're not really concerned about lost sales, since if they're smart they'll have already made their money out of you before they give you the digital files. From what I understand, they're more concerned about the damage you could do to their reputation if you get them printed at your local kiosk, show them to your friends and say "yeah, Joe Bloggs did our photos...". This has the potential for the colours to be out of whack, and for the printing to be of sub-standard quality. I'm on the fence on this issue, since (a) I'd want to be able to get copies printed without having to traipse back to the photog, but (b) I'd never give the digital originals of my own photos to someone else. I do wish we had the originals of our wedding photos, since the photog has since gone out of business..

[rogerg (Roger)]

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

TBH Roger I think they're not really concerned about lost sales, since if they're smart they'll have already made their money out of you before they give you the digital files. From what I understand, they're more concerned about the damage you could do to their reputation if you get them printed at your local kiosk...

True, now that you mention it I remember a photographer or two telling me that reason.

In some ways I can understand it, but I always work on the theory of "give the customer what they want, even if it means charging the customer for it".

[wavelandscott (Scott)]

Good luck Mike, I am certain it will go well!

[GrahamL]

Would be a little daunting for you mike .. saturn and jupiter prolly don't ring you up if they arn't happy with your shots.. but honestly your a great photographer and you won't have a problem .. and if things arn't quite right theres always photoshop

[JimmyH155]

With that fabulous backdrop of Sydney harbour, Mike, you cant go wrong
A few years ago I was the photographer at my grand daughter's Christening. It was held in the torpedo room of a Collins Class submarine Now that took some doing - wide angle lens, zoom, flash etc. I just blazed away and surprise, surprise, some real aces came out

[iceman (Mike)]

Thanks everyone for your feedback and suggestions. Less than a week away now, it should be fun but i'm sure i'll still be nervous on Friday night.

Originally Posted by matt

The only suggestion I would make is to also try take and plenty of unplanned/unposed shots which capture people behaving 'naturally'. Those candid, relaxed portraits look great mixed in amongst the posed images.

Absolutely - and those are the type of shots she likes too so there'll be plenty of candid ones to go along with the "posing" ones.

Originally Posted by StephenM

Hi Mike,

I actually did my first wedding last Saturday! It was my brother-in-law's wedding, and he lined me up as the official photographer a couple of months ago. I felt a bit under pressure leading up to it, but like you I did some practise shots "on location" with the couple a week before the wedding and worked out what they wanted, and I'm quite happy with some of the shots from the day. Hopefully the happy couple will also like them!!! (they get to see them tomorrow). I'm sure you and Humayan will do an excellent job!

Cheers,
Stephen

That sounds great, Stephen! I'm sure the couple will love them.

Originally Posted by rogerg

Mike,

I hope you enjoy it and have some success!

Easy for me to say, but try not to be too put off by the inexperience. Christine and I recently chose our wedding photographer and only after deciding on him did we realise he's only 22 or 23 years old. As it happens our second choice was 25 years old. Both may be "less experienced" than other wedding photographers out there, but their creativity and skill stood out from the rest quite clearly. The older more "what you expect" photographers we met with (some charging more, some charging less) had such "stuck in the mud" ideals of what photos they would take etc, so little creativity and inspiration. It's costing us more to get this guy, but he's worth it.

A criteria for us was having the digital files. It's going to cost us, but not as much as some. One lot wanted to charge us $10,000 for the digital files!!! and several others flat out refused. They lost our business immediately. They don't realise - it's not that we think we can edit them better or print more for less $$, it's just that we want to be able to have our own photo album the way we want with our text and story in it! how hard is that to get their head around.

The biggest "People photography" shoot stuff I've done was my grandmothers 90th some years ago (about 5), back with my EOS300 film camera. I tell you what, using an L lens gets you 70% the way to a good set of photo's, and lighting does the other 30% ... I really surprised myself with a lot of nice shots.

I look forward to hearing how it goes

Roger.

PS. As it turns out, our photographer happens to have had a stint doing astrophotography! and is keen to persue that somewhat. So after 30mins of showing us his work the other night at our place, we then spent 2 hours in the observatory

Definitely understandable, wanting the digital files. Our wedding was shot on film and we'd have to go back to the photographer to get anything reprinted - which we want to do because some on the wall are turning yellow

We'll provide the couple their files on CD/DVD, both in web-size and full-resolution. So they can put them on a webpage, email them to friends, and of course the high-resolution ones for printing at a place of their choosing.
She's mentioned she'll ask for advice on where to print but that's some time away.

I have no issues providing the full-res files in this case, but I can understand why some wouldn't I guess.

Originally Posted by sheeny

What time of day is the wedding? Where you practice shots taken the same time of day, so you are confident you won't have shadows on faces and won't have people squinting into the sun?

It's a midday wedding, and the practise shots were taken at exactly the same time. There WILL be shadows on the face and people WILL be squinting. Those are two of the challenges we'll face.
Some of the locations (like the fig tree) are shaded so they'll be fine.

Originally Posted by sheeny

I know you've said you expect not to have to use a flash, but I'd recommend if you have a good one make sure you take it and have plenty of batteries - a bit of fill flash will do wonders in a backlit shot or if you get high contrast or shadows on faces.

Having H along as well is a great idea. I have photographed a few weddings (not as the official photographer) and it's good to work as a team. While one is capturing the formal shots, the other can capture less formal and behind the scenes shots that often end up as some of the great memories. The little things like decorations, flowers, gardens and features around the wedding that everyone will have seen, and even some "papparazzi" shots of the photographer taking the formal shots seem to go over well. It's not just about the people or the scenery but trying to pick up the "memories" too.

It looks like you're setting up with some great landscapes in the background of the shots, but don't forget to try to get some tight ones as well with nothing to distract from the people.

Most of all have fun, so the wedding party has fun and don't miss any candid shots if they have a bit of a play - they can often go over well too!

You probably know all this anyway... but I hope its worth somethign to help you on the day.

Lets see a check list...
Batteries,
backup camera(s),
Lenses,
tripod ? (for some more creative shots, perhaps? Say a story panorama? e.g. bride and groom in separate shots "noticing" each other, next shot together with perhaps a kiss and the last shot walking off hand in hand, perhaps, all in the one final shot. Fiddly to do, but can be a lot of fun and be very effective if done well).
More batteries,
Spare memory card (my experience is if something can go wrng it will!),
Good strong flash with more batteries (for fill flash, or just in case...)
Sense of humour,
more batteries... I'm sure you've got the message!

Al.

All good advice Al, cheers.

Originally Posted by Dennis

The location looks like it is a public place, which probably means you may have people walking through?

Can you “rope” it off to prevent passers by interrupting the shoot?

Cheers

Dennis

Unfortunately not, Dennis. It is a public place. I did ask Tanya what happens if someone else is having a wedding (or a photo shoot) there - she wasn't too fussed, she just said they'll pick their spot. It should be pretty quiet at midday as most weddings will be after 3pm.

Otherwise, I'll clone them out in photoshop

Originally Posted by okiscopey

Good luck Mike!

The previous advice about having a back-up for everything should be taken seriously. I had two flashes give up on a job once ... luckily "Mr. Backup" had a small third flash stashed away that saved the occasion.

Just a useful tip I picked up:

When photographing a wedding group (assuming you're doing some 'formal' shots), get everyone together first, take the whole group and then remove the folks not needed for the next shots. This is much easier than trying to add people to the 'bride and groom' duo when the guests are scattered all over and involved in other distractions.

It's hard work but can be good fun ... I'm sure you'll have a great time!

Good advice, Thanks!

Originally Posted by Octane

Great article.

It will be a great time. Take a few deep breaths before you start and all will be well.

My first shoot was of a colleague and their 5 month-old bundle of joy. I was a little nervous, and hesitant, before starting, but, I had confidence in my skills and knowledge of my camera and the light around me. I just calmed down and once I started clicking, the rest of the afternoon went by as a breeze.

We went out to the Bushfire Memorial Park near the base of Mount Stromlo. It was a beautiful afternoon with lots of cloud to diffuse the soft afternoon light. I'm still processing those images but hope to have them completed soon and offered as prints.

I am confident that between us, we'll have one or two shots she'd like.

Regards,
Humayun

I'd love to see them, sounds like it went really well.
And I agree, she'll be blown away i'm sure

Originally Posted by Bassnut

From one experience I had, as Al said, bring a flash, and hope its a cloudy day, shadows are a killer. Bracket the shots for possible HDR, seems to be an ideal application for them, the effect would blow them away.

Yeh I wasn't going to take a tripod but I will, just in case.

Originally Posted by Ford Prefect

Mike,

Good luck, I too have been asked to do my first wedding, although I have about 12 months to get my skills and ideas up to scratch. I've been reading up too, and offer a few bits of advice from what I've read:
- make a written list of all photos to be taken and the people to be in them, photocopy it 5 times, put one in your pocket, one in your bag, one in the car, one in Humayun's pocket, etc...
- don't take just one big 8GB card, take 4-6 smaller cards. That way if you lose one or for some mysterious reason it fails...
- go to a pro shop and get a gold/silver reflector, which Humayun can hold if the light is challenging. If it's sunny you'll want to try and balance out shadows as best you can.

Yeh I don't have a reflector - I can see it would be beneficial to stop the shadows under the eyes on a midday shoot.
I'll see if I can pick one up this week.


Thanks again guys.

[iceman (Mike)]

H and I did the wedding shoot today.

It was just great, we both had a great time and got a lot out of it. Even though it was really hot and really sunny in the middle of the day, under the shade of the massive fig tree with a bit of sea breeze it was actually quite comfortable.

Got literally hundreds and hundreds of shots to go through (about 650), and I know H has just as many if not more than me. He filled up 9gigs worth, but that's not too hard with a 21mp camera! I had to loan him my spare 1gig card With burst mode and a digital camera it's so easy to just keep clicking

Was a great day.. will post some shots once I start weeding out the best from the rest.

Thanks to H for letting me use his 17-40L and 24-105L lenses! Just brilliant.