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Q. New to Wedding Photography - please help!
Asked by Riann Henkel
(K=0) on 5/5/2004
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Hi All! Well, I just had 3 people ask me to take their wedding photos - all within the next 2 months! Yikes. I am totally new to this, I have done outdoor stuff before, but I'm going to need to know how to turn out great indoor shots as well for this.
I plan on shooting Fuji NHP indoors and Fuji Reala 100 for outdoors for color, Agfa APX 100 and Fuji Neopan 400 for B&W. Does NPH work good outdoors, does anyone know? I did a test roll with the Reala and was not impressed with the colors, everything looked washed out. Also, I only have a flash unit that sits on top of my camera. Any suggestions on how to get this to work best? I can't afford to buy anything different as far as equipment.
One of the weddings is on a boat, at sunset, so flash will be needed for almost all pictures. Basically, any ideas/suggestions on film speeds, etc. would be greatly appreciated!
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Mike George
(K=3429) - Comment Date 5/6/2004
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I'll try as best I can to answer your questions (I'm an advanced amatuer so keep that in mind). I have used NPH inside and out with very nice results. As for the flash, here is my advise. First, get one for your camera, ie a Canon Speedlight which works for a Canon camera. If you can swing it, rent a unit from your local camera store that is like the ones pros use(the ones in my area do this). You can build this into the fees that you'll charge. Next buy a thing called a Stroboframe from your local camera store (mine ran about $40). It is a quick-flip mechanism. It has a hotshoe flash attachment which raised the flash about 9-12" above your camera, eliminating most red eye and shadow problems. You will need an off camera flash cord to connect your flash to your camera's hotshoe (about $15). I purchased one several years ago and never regretted it. Take lots of extra batteries. When I have shot weddings, I always have a backup camera, backup flash and the like. I would strongly suggest prescouting your locations. Take the equipment you plan to use and take some photos of anyone in the same location at the same time of day. Take notes (ie, bouncing the flash, direct, which way light was coming from windows, you know what I am getting at) on everything that can affect your shots. Most places I have shot photos were very accomdating and let me use the room for up to an hour without charge (since one of their customers was renting it out at a later date). That is the best advice I can give you. There are some flash attachments called Lumiquest which mount to your hotshoe flash and work like mini soft boxes. They are available for about$15-20 each (they have various degrees of diffusion). Good luck.
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Chris Lauritzen
(K=14949) - Comment Date 5/6/2004
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For wedding work here is the film I use:
Fuji NPS 160
Fuji NPZ 800
Fuji NPH 400
Ilford FP4+
Ilford HP5+
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Eveline Shih-Pitcairn
(K=4406) - Comment Date 5/7/2004
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Are you using Canon or Nikon? Since Mike's covered most of what I would suggest... The only thing I would add is if you don't want to invest in a Lumiquest or Omni softbox, you could use a cut-up white plastic grocery bag and rubber band it over your flash unit to diffuse the flash.
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Mark Jones
(K=458) - Comment Date 5/7/2004
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Hope this helps. I did my first wedding a couple weeks ago. Mine too was at sunset or close to it. I used an F100 and started out using Reala. I set the camera to slow synch for fill flash. I used a 35-70 2.8 D lens and a 70-210mm. The longer lens allowed me to pick off pictures from a distance of guests without being too intrusive. I was also new to weddings and unlike most of the replies I didn't use NPH(although I should have). Secondly, although I was using flash, and the light levels began to drop, I began to feel the shutter speeds slowing down using the REALA. I shot most in aperture priority mode. I left briefly and found myself looking for some faster film and wound up using two rolls of Kodak 200 and one of 400. My results were terrific. The beach and portrait scenes using the fill flash turned out excellent(many requests for enlargements). The balance was dead on. The 400 gave sharp clear pictures after the sun went down and overall everyone was quite happy with the pictures. My tip would be to prepare for everything. DEFINITELY have a backup camera and DONT run out of film. My only regret is that the groom's father was feeling ill and left early. I only got a couple candids of him and as it turned out he passed away two weeks later from cancer. SO have a good time. Just bring film, batteries, a back-up, and shoot shoot shoot!
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Riann Henkel
(K=0) - Comment Date 5/7/2004
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Thank you everybody for all your advice - I'm taking a list to the camera store tonight to find out how much all this equipment mentioned by everyone will cost. One week to go until the first one! But the advice helps tons. I'll let you know how it goes!
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Riann Henkel
(K=0) - Comment Date 5/28/2004
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Everyone, I just want to say a big thanks, especially to Mike George (the equipment you mentioned was wonderful, and I wouldn't have known about it otherwise.) So far, the pictures are turning out great, and I am so happy with the way the Stroboframe and Lumiquest diffuser helped the indoor shots especially. I have one more wedding next weekend, and am so much more confident now. Thanks!!!!!!!!!
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Mike George
(K=3429) - Comment Date 5/28/2004
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Glad it worked for you...I look forward to seeing some of them.
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