Lense for Weddings

[thyme4me]

My nephew has a wedding coming this summer. They have an official photographer. But his fiance has mentioned to me about getting some behind the scenes photos. I was wondering what lense to bring. The wedding is at 5:30 in the evening at a church. Then they go to a reception hall. I don't know if I want to haul my camera bag.
I'm not really in a position to purchase a new lense, so I will be looking at renting one. Do you also think I should get a flash as well? My camera is a Canon Rebel. I'm asking this early so I can practice with whatever I choose. I also have never shot RAW and don't have LR. Though my New Years resolution was to learn shooting RAW. I'm a little behind!

[katrinak]

I'd shoot with the 50mm, go high ISO the darker it gets, go for journalistic style. RAW shoots no differently than JPG Kris, the learning is in post processing LightRoom is where I'd spend my money

[hguenthe]

If getting LR is not in your budget, check your CS2 and see if you have a plug-in called Camera Raw. Or shoot a photo in raw and try opening it with Photoshop and if you have it, it should automatically open with Camera Raw, I believe.

It is an Adobe plug-in that has come with everything from my PSE4 to CS3 to CS4 so might have been around for CS2 as well. It will allow you to post-process similar to LR so if buying another program isn't in your budget right now, it doesn't mean you need to hold back shooting raw.

[dugarner]

I just attended my cousin's wedding in Charleston this past weekend. Oh, how I wish I had had a fast lens!!! (I've got my eye on the 50 mm 1.4) She had an outdoor ceremony at 5:30 pm, facing west!?! The sun was behind the entire bridal party, almost at head-level. It went under the horizon just ten minutes after the procession. The professional photographer was having a field day with her meter. What a frustrating event. Eventually we were under the lights outside, but I only got one or two decent shots of the entire ceremony, and very few of the outdoor festivities.

So I'd go with Katrina's recommendation! Even ISO 800 is very noisy on my camera, so I wish I'd had the option to open the aperture up even more.

[thyme4me]

Oh Katrina, I had a feeling you'd tell me this (50mm). It's my least favorite lense because I get so frustrated with it. It seems to never want to focus properly for me. I end up having to manually focus it. I guess I'm just going to HAVE to keep my 50mm on my camera and make myself get use to it. Everyone here seems to rave about it. I get so upset with myself that I haven't gotten the hang of it yet.

I haven't opened Photoshop yet to check on the plug-in but thank you for mentioning it.

[katrinak]

Kris, what focal points do you have active on your camera most of the time? Do you switch them up? If you don't email me (or post here) and lets talk!