Wedding Photography - Digital Scrapbooking Community

kb522 · #1 (**permalink**) 01-10-2009, 02:38 PM

My baby brother is getting married! We're so excited! They don't have a lot of money so they've asked my sister and me to take pictures at the wedding.

actually, i'm not too worried. it's going to be a very small wedding, just the siblings and parents, so about 16 people at a small chapel. http://www.pilgrimchapel.org

I suggested he might want to rent us a lens to get better pics during the ceremony. I anticipate that the light will be pretty low. Do you think this is necessary? I have a Nikon D80. I thought my 1.8 50 mm might be a good choice to use but wondered if I should also try to get a faster telephoto like a 2.8 200mm or something. Any ideas or suggestions?

My sister has the D40, so she can only use lenses with the autofocus in them. I also have a 90mm 2.8 Macro which I thought might be nice for ring shots, etc.

sam ellis · #2 (**permalink**) 01-11-2009, 07:51 AM

If you can rent the 2.8 24-70 you will have a bigger range to shoot with. Weddings happen very quickly - small or big and one moment you need 200 and then you need 18. ! No time to change lenses.

My 2c and GOOD luck ! and enjoy

bluelemur01 · #3 (**permalink**) 01-11-2009, 01:33 PM

Congrats on shooting the wedding! Here are a few of my ideas...

The light looks EXTREMELY low in some of those pics! I think you may also need to bring your tripod and/or monopod (monopod might be better for action shots, b/c it's more mobile and allows you to move quickly when necessary). You should also bring your best flash and some kind of softening device, like a Gary Fong Lightsphere (which I knocked in a previous post but still do use in certain wedding situations.)

For group shots at the altar, you can put the camera on tripod and/or monopod and get great, shake-free and blur-free shots at a lower ISO. If you absolutely need to handhold, you'll need to bump up your ISO quite a bit, I would expect. The D80 is a great camera, but it DOES show noise at the higher ISO's. So I'd def. try to use the tripod so you can get away with slow shutter speeds and low ISO when possible. The ceiling looks quite high so you won't be able to bounce your flash for most shots; that's why I suggested getting the diffuser. If you need to use flash pointed straight forward, that way you won't "blow out" people's faces if you're doing a nearby shot, and it will soften the shadows. The diffuser won't work well for "far away" shots though; it eats up too much light.

Since it's small & mostly family, I think you'll be fine! I'm sure they'll all be cooperative and follow your lead to take pictures. That's the good thing about family.

It's comfortable and they'll listen (hopefully!)

My other recommendation is to visit the chapel ahead of time if you can, and take sample pics at the same time of day that the wedding will take place. Maybe your bro will help out by being a model ahead of time!

That way you get to practice and see what kinds of setting you need to use, and which shots NEED the tripod to avoid the blur. That will help so much and will put your mind at ease on the day of the shoot.

If you can't visit that exact chapel, I'd recommend visiting a nearby church or chapel and just take sample alter pics & action shots in there. At least you'll get the practice of shooting in a dim, "churchy" environment and likely many of the settings you'll need will be quite similar.

good luck and have fun!
Jennifer

I agree with Sam that you should def. rent the lens; that way you'll have more options. You may also want to rent a 2nd camera body so you can have one lens on each camera and can swap quickly when needed. Like Sam said, there is often no time to change lenses.

katrinak · #4 (**permalink**) 01-12-2009, 09:28 AM

What fun!

I'd say rent the lens too! Having rented lenses a couple of times I'd STRONGlY advise renting it a few days ahead so you can get used to using it. The weight of the 70-200 f/2.8 surprised me and was a little tricky to get sharp photos. (but I loved it and now long to own it...which is something else to be ready for!)

kb522 · #5 (**permalink**) 01-12-2009, 10:33 AM

Thanks for all the tips. I do have issues with noise on my D80 when the ISO gets too high. That's something I have really noticed. Should I be sure to manually set that when I'm working in darker situations?

Also, I have a small external flash, the Nikon SP-400 with a diffuser on it. We probably won't see the chapel before the wedding because I don't live in the same state as my brother. But I'm sure they'll be visiting, so I'll see if I can have him take a few pictures just so I can see. Fortunately, they're wedding is at 2:00 pm, so hopefully that will give us a bit more light.

Katrina, where did you rent your lens from? I'm excited to try it out!

msbrad · #6 (**permalink**) 01-12-2009, 12:29 PM

Last June I did a whole wedding using the 50mm with my canon xti. I bumped up the ISO.
I was closer to the altar.
My son in law, used his Sony Alpha w/16-105 and tripod near the back of the church.
It was a great combination of photos.
m

SAHMom · #7 (**permalink**) 01-12-2009, 12:45 PM

I'm not a wedding photographer, so take this with a grain of salt... LOL
The last wedding I shot, I used the 70-200mm 2.8 for the ceremony. It allowed me to be further away... I didn't want to take away from anything by milling around. It is a heavy lens, so you'll want to practice a bit with it first or use a mono or tri-pod.
For the detail and posed shots you have a bit more freedom with setting things up and finding good light, and with a smallish group, I'm sure your 50mm will be good!
I don't know if the SB400 has the capability of being used off camera? But that would be an idea to add some extra lighting for posed shots.

Good luck!

kb522 · #8 (**permalink**) 02-16-2009, 04:20 PM

Well, I've rented the Nikon 70-200 mm 2.8 lens from rentglass.com! The wedding is next weekend, but I'm renting it for 2 weeks so that I can practice next week and make sure I feel at least a little more comfortable using it! I'll let you all know about the rental experience!

katrinak · #9 (**permalink**) 02-16-2009, 04:44 PM

Good luck Kami! Be sure to post your photos for us to see

(and sorry I missed your request for lens rental companies!)

kb522 · #10 (**permalink**) 02-16-2009, 11:54 PM

It's OK, Katrina! I did some research and rentglass.com had some good reviews. I'll keep you posted!

kb522 · #11 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 10:37 AM

OH, Ladies... I have a new love... and it is the 70-200 2.8 VR lens! How am I ever going to be able to return this thing!?! I rented from rentglass.com. It came very well packaged and arrived on Friday. I've been playing with it all weekend. So far I've taken it to a friend's daughter's Ice Skating Show (fabulous!) and my daughter's awards ceremony this morning (I think I was the envy of all the parents there!) I can't wait to use it at the wedding on Sunday!

audrey77 · #12 (**permalink**) 02-23-2009, 11:41 AM

BTW- Scott Kelby's The Digital Photography Book Volume 2 has a whole section devoted to "Shooting Weddings Like a Pro".

kb522 · #13 (**permalink**) 03-03-2009, 04:31 PM

OK! Here's a sneak peak of one of the pictures I took at my brother's wedding in Kansas City this weekend. The little chapel was so beautiful and we decided that the 3 inches of snow they got the day before the wedding made everything look perfect! I used the 2.8 70-200 mm lens that I rented and it was heavenly! I have some serious lens envy now. Hubby says maybe later this year.....

But anyway, I have A LOT of editing to do, but here is one of my favorites!

I'll post more when I get them finished. It went really well. Thank you all for your help!