Just over a year ago some friends of mine asked me if I would photograph their wedding now anyone that has been a member on this forum for any length of time knows the usual threads that appear regarding this and also the way they usually end up. I therefore avoided posting at the time with another thread along the lines of my friend has asked me to shoot their wedding, what should I do / how do I shoot a wedding? Instead I had a good search through the previous threads and although some of them descended into chaos there are a few threads in existence that offer genuinely good advice and these were a great help when I was preparing to shoot this wedding. This is after all a great forum and as a result I think its only fair I post my experiences of the day from a amateurs point of view in the hope to help others out who are not wedding photographers and fall into the category of guests who have been asked to photograph at a wedding.
Now before I get shot to pieces I should probably explain that I have never had any aspirations to be a full time wedding photographer, Im simply an enthusiastic amateur, and the following is just my experience and opinions from doing one wedding, not necessarily the right way to do things. So heres my thoughts and the way I did things.
Firstly a bit of background, the couple in question had seen my previous work and knew I had enough of a clue to carry it off but are also aware Im not a professional and had expectations that reflect this. This can of course be where the problems start as just because:
a.) somebody who can take a decent picture wont necessarily be any good at photographing a wedding and,
b.) clients expectations vary wildly.
I was comfortable with this and see any opportunity like this as a way to learn and a way to develop my photography, Im also always happy to help friends out. If I wasnt comfortable doing it I wouldnt be doing it.
Contract
Ive read may times that you must get a contract, I didnt. My personnel view on this would be that you should make the decision on whether you need a contract. Now I know there are horror stories out there about people getting sued but I made a personnel judgment based on the friendship I have with the couple and given that I wasnt getting paid and was there as a guest I would not have felt comfortable asking them to sign anything. I know there will be people on here that will disagree with this and if you are getting paid then thats a different story, especially regarding insurances, tax, etc. Maybe Im too trusting but its who I am and feel Im a good judge of character, everyone is different so make your own mind up based on the situation you are in.
Preparation
If you look back through previous threads the same thing comes up every time preparation, this should not be under estimated if you want to do a good job.
First things first, you need to understand the basics and be comfortable with the camera and how it works. So many people posting on here dont even know the basics but expect to be able to shoot a wedding, if this is the case then you will struggle. One thing that struck me is there is so many other things to think about that if the settings you need for a given shoot dont come naturally to you then you really arent going to get the shots you want.
What the couple want is key and critical in the preparation, I had plenty of conversations with the couple prior to the wedding regarding style of photography and luckily they were clued in enough to have done research and knew what they wanted. The style they were going for was reportage which avoided the need for all of the formal sots. (They did get me to take one or two formal shots but as a rule I was taking reportage style shot which suited me). They sent me links to the sort of photos they liked, but I also spent plenty of time researching by looking through other wedding photographers photos. A great bit of advice I can give it would be to, look at the photos, find what works and what doesnt and dissect the photo to work out how it was taken, what settings were used, how it was lit, the angle it was taken from, the focal length? Look at the web sites of other local photographers that shoot at the same venue, where do they stand the bride & groom? Make notes and take them with you, as I said there is loads going on and its easy to get distracted, especially as you will probably know a lot of the guests. The notes I had make before really helped keep me focused on what shots I wanted, where I was going to get them and who was going to be in them.
If you can visit the venue beforehand then do, fortunately for me the couple were having their reception at the same venue I was married at 7 years earlier so I knew the place well, however I hadnt visited the church. This was a concern as I had no idea what the conditions were like in there, all I knew was it was a modern church building. To get round this I attended the rehearsal the day before the wedding which was of huge benefit. It gave me a chance to take test shots which I then had chance to assess at home and realise any mistakes or ways I could improve.
Equipment
Again preparation is important here and ideally you should have back-up equipment but not everyone shooting a wedding as a guest has this luxury. Only you can make the judgement on the consequences of what happens if your camera packs up but it wasnt a risk I would have taken. I had the following:
Bodies:
D7000
D90 (borrowed)
Lens
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR
Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8
Nikon 50mm f/1.4
Nikon 35mm f/1.8
Plus:
Flash (SB-600) fitted with Opteka FB-50
Spare battery
Tri-pod
I had taken the D90 as a back-up only but quickly learned at the rehearsal that it is far easier to just use two bodies, one with the 17-55mm and the other with the 70-200mm. I would certainly have missed some shots if Id been just swapping the lenses between a single body. I now understand why wedding photographers are always carrying two cameras. Ive already said it abouve but things happen quickly and you need to be ready to capture the shot.
One thing I struggled with was light (or lack of it), mainly as nearly every shot was indoors and on a dark December day. I simply couldnt have managed with a camera that couldnt deliver at high ISO and f2.8 lenses, even with both these things I was always struggling to keep the shutter speed up and the images needed noise reduction in PP to get them looking good. Ive read it so many times but Ill repeat it here you can uses a noisy image, you cant use a blurry one so if you need to get the shot dont be afraid to up the ISO. The majority of time I was shooting at ISO 1600 and above but if you have done your preparation and know the venues then youll be prepared, in the summer it might not be an issue but it can often be dark inside a church and not knowing that till 5 minutes before the service is just going to panic you. If you dont have the right gear to do a good enough job then hiring it would be the right thing to do.
I didnt use all of the equipment I took, I only used the 50mm for the details on the cake and flowers and the 35mm didnt get used at all, nor did the tri-pod or the spare battery. One thing I did use is a lot of memory card capacity and you really need to make sure you have enough memory cards. I took 1168 photos through the day and that takes up a lot of space when you are shooting RAW, for the price of cards these days its worth having plenty and Im of the opinion that you are better off with lots of smaller cards that one big one in case it goes corrupt. I divided the day up into sections (e.g. Bridal prep, Service, Reception, Evening) and shoot each section on a different card, it makes it easier to stay organised and reduces the chance of losing all data if you do have an equipment failure.
On the Day
The main observation I have here is just how fast things happen and there are no second chances. I know this is the third time Ive mentioned this but the day really did seem to go by at a lightning pace. I made sure I had a list of the timings of events throughout the day so that I could try and get things prepared and be in the right place at the right time with the right lens.
Id agreed to go over to the hotel where the bride was getting ready to do a few shots over there, after all it gave me something to do while my wife was getting her hair done, etc. This was probably the calmest part of the day and there was time to think about what I was doing but that wasnt to last.
After leaving there and heading over to the church my confidence was good and during the ceremony all went well. I was able to move round the church getting all the shots I had planned and although the lighting wasnt great I was able to shoot down to some pretty slow shutter speeds using the VR and bracing myself against the wall etc. The wedding rehearsal had been absolutely invaluable and although during the rehearsal I had missed important shots but Id learned from these mistakes and got what I needed.
Once at the reception the started I was snapping away getting candid shots where I could and then the cake cutting, speeches, etc. and before I knew it the evening guests were arriving but I was happy Id got enough shots.
Room for improvement
I learned a lot in a very short period of time through the day and although it went as well as I hoped there is room for improvement and in many cases its stuff that would come with experience, hence why the seasoned wedding photographs do such a good job. You cant buy experience, hence why I was free. One photo that could certainly have improved was the first dance, and I had originally warned the couple not to expect great things from this shot as I would consider it something that cant be done easily without plenty of experience. I know there was a long thread about this recently with various differing opinions for lighting it but based on my lack of experience Id opted for the SB-600 on camera with a Opteka FB-50 Flash Bouncer (knowing that the ceiling at the venue was too high to bounce the flash off). Better results could almost certainly have been achieved with a couple of off camera speedlights, ideally held by an assistant but this was way outside the original scope of what I was there to do. The groom had already said he expected me to be too drunk to get a decent first dance shot by that time anyway!
Post Wedding
Make sure you back everything up! Im always quite paranoid about losing images and had my D7000 set to write to 2 memory cards simultaneously when I was shooting. I also back everything up once its on the computer as there is no point in putting in the effort to record great images and then having your computer fail on you. I copied everything to my computer hard drive and an external hard drive before I considered formatting the memory cards. The couple didnt want much post processing done, the only thing I really did was to delete all the poor photos which left me with about 600 images, and then reduced the noise where it Id used high ISO and cropped any photos that needed it. I then burned the RAW files to DVD (took 3 discs) and exported all the files as full size JPEGs and burned them to disc for the couple (another 2 off DVDs).
Have Fun
For people in my situation, i.e. they are a guest as well as a photograph, you need to still enjoy the day. If you dont think thats going to be possible then Id suggest not doing it as the main reason you are there is to share in the couples wedding day and celebrate with them. A few of my other friends had suggested to me that being the photographer would spoil the day for me and maybe if Id been stressed about it then that would have been the case. My view is that its about striking the right balance between being a guest and getting the shots and with this comes compromise. If Id had the camera glued to my face for the full day I would have caught some more great candid shots, however I wouldnt have socialised with friends and enjoyed the atmosphere of the day. The couple I was shooting for appreciated this and told me no make sure a still had a good day, however Im sure not every couple is this understanding and for many it might not even cross their minds, after all, wedding photography is easy , isnt it?
I think its fair to say I invested a fair amount of time and effort into researching and shooting this wedding and although it was of no financial gain to me it was a great learning experience and something that will undoubtedly aid other areas of my photography. I was under no illusion before I started that it would be a challenge but with adequate preparation I was able to cope well with the situation and enjoy the experience without getting stressed or flustered. I think by tackling challenges outside your comfort zone you exposure yourself to a learning experience that is difficult to replicate. I think I could enjoy wedding photography as an alternative career (with a lot more practice / experience) however thats unlikely to happen as I have a well-paid secure job which I would be a fool to leave but never say never.
The main thing for me is that the bride and groom are happy with the results, they got some photos they love and I got a great insightful learning experience into the world of wedding photography while still enjoying the day.
Ive posted a few images below and any constructive comments are always gratefully received as although I dont plan on shooting another wedding anytime soon Im always looking to improve. There are also a lot more photos on my blog if you are interested.
1.)
2012_12_28WilsonWedding003-2 by Tunbridge Wells, on Flickr
2.)
2012_12_28WilsonWedding022-2 by Tunbridge Wells, on Flickr
3.)
2012_12_28WilsonWedding035 by Tunbridge Wells, on Flickr
4.)
2012_12_28WilsonWedding114 by Tunbridge Wells, on Flickr
Now before I get shot to pieces I should probably explain that I have never had any aspirations to be a full time wedding photographer, Im simply an enthusiastic amateur, and the following is just my experience and opinions from doing one wedding, not necessarily the right way to do things. So heres my thoughts and the way I did things.
Firstly a bit of background, the couple in question had seen my previous work and knew I had enough of a clue to carry it off but are also aware Im not a professional and had expectations that reflect this. This can of course be where the problems start as just because:
a.) somebody who can take a decent picture wont necessarily be any good at photographing a wedding and,
b.) clients expectations vary wildly.
I was comfortable with this and see any opportunity like this as a way to learn and a way to develop my photography, Im also always happy to help friends out. If I wasnt comfortable doing it I wouldnt be doing it.
Contract
Ive read may times that you must get a contract, I didnt. My personnel view on this would be that you should make the decision on whether you need a contract. Now I know there are horror stories out there about people getting sued but I made a personnel judgment based on the friendship I have with the couple and given that I wasnt getting paid and was there as a guest I would not have felt comfortable asking them to sign anything. I know there will be people on here that will disagree with this and if you are getting paid then thats a different story, especially regarding insurances, tax, etc. Maybe Im too trusting but its who I am and feel Im a good judge of character, everyone is different so make your own mind up based on the situation you are in.
Preparation
If you look back through previous threads the same thing comes up every time preparation, this should not be under estimated if you want to do a good job.
First things first, you need to understand the basics and be comfortable with the camera and how it works. So many people posting on here dont even know the basics but expect to be able to shoot a wedding, if this is the case then you will struggle. One thing that struck me is there is so many other things to think about that if the settings you need for a given shoot dont come naturally to you then you really arent going to get the shots you want.
What the couple want is key and critical in the preparation, I had plenty of conversations with the couple prior to the wedding regarding style of photography and luckily they were clued in enough to have done research and knew what they wanted. The style they were going for was reportage which avoided the need for all of the formal sots. (They did get me to take one or two formal shots but as a rule I was taking reportage style shot which suited me). They sent me links to the sort of photos they liked, but I also spent plenty of time researching by looking through other wedding photographers photos. A great bit of advice I can give it would be to, look at the photos, find what works and what doesnt and dissect the photo to work out how it was taken, what settings were used, how it was lit, the angle it was taken from, the focal length? Look at the web sites of other local photographers that shoot at the same venue, where do they stand the bride & groom? Make notes and take them with you, as I said there is loads going on and its easy to get distracted, especially as you will probably know a lot of the guests. The notes I had make before really helped keep me focused on what shots I wanted, where I was going to get them and who was going to be in them.
If you can visit the venue beforehand then do, fortunately for me the couple were having their reception at the same venue I was married at 7 years earlier so I knew the place well, however I hadnt visited the church. This was a concern as I had no idea what the conditions were like in there, all I knew was it was a modern church building. To get round this I attended the rehearsal the day before the wedding which was of huge benefit. It gave me a chance to take test shots which I then had chance to assess at home and realise any mistakes or ways I could improve.
Equipment
Again preparation is important here and ideally you should have back-up equipment but not everyone shooting a wedding as a guest has this luxury. Only you can make the judgement on the consequences of what happens if your camera packs up but it wasnt a risk I would have taken. I had the following:
Bodies:
D7000
D90 (borrowed)
Lens
Nikon 70-200mm f/2.8 VR
Nikon 17-55mm f/2.8
Nikon 50mm f/1.4
Nikon 35mm f/1.8
Plus:
Flash (SB-600) fitted with Opteka FB-50
Spare battery
Tri-pod
I had taken the D90 as a back-up only but quickly learned at the rehearsal that it is far easier to just use two bodies, one with the 17-55mm and the other with the 70-200mm. I would certainly have missed some shots if Id been just swapping the lenses between a single body. I now understand why wedding photographers are always carrying two cameras. Ive already said it abouve but things happen quickly and you need to be ready to capture the shot.
One thing I struggled with was light (or lack of it), mainly as nearly every shot was indoors and on a dark December day. I simply couldnt have managed with a camera that couldnt deliver at high ISO and f2.8 lenses, even with both these things I was always struggling to keep the shutter speed up and the images needed noise reduction in PP to get them looking good. Ive read it so many times but Ill repeat it here you can uses a noisy image, you cant use a blurry one so if you need to get the shot dont be afraid to up the ISO. The majority of time I was shooting at ISO 1600 and above but if you have done your preparation and know the venues then youll be prepared, in the summer it might not be an issue but it can often be dark inside a church and not knowing that till 5 minutes before the service is just going to panic you. If you dont have the right gear to do a good enough job then hiring it would be the right thing to do.
I didnt use all of the equipment I took, I only used the 50mm for the details on the cake and flowers and the 35mm didnt get used at all, nor did the tri-pod or the spare battery. One thing I did use is a lot of memory card capacity and you really need to make sure you have enough memory cards. I took 1168 photos through the day and that takes up a lot of space when you are shooting RAW, for the price of cards these days its worth having plenty and Im of the opinion that you are better off with lots of smaller cards that one big one in case it goes corrupt. I divided the day up into sections (e.g. Bridal prep, Service, Reception, Evening) and shoot each section on a different card, it makes it easier to stay organised and reduces the chance of losing all data if you do have an equipment failure.
On the Day
The main observation I have here is just how fast things happen and there are no second chances. I know this is the third time Ive mentioned this but the day really did seem to go by at a lightning pace. I made sure I had a list of the timings of events throughout the day so that I could try and get things prepared and be in the right place at the right time with the right lens.
Id agreed to go over to the hotel where the bride was getting ready to do a few shots over there, after all it gave me something to do while my wife was getting her hair done, etc. This was probably the calmest part of the day and there was time to think about what I was doing but that wasnt to last.
After leaving there and heading over to the church my confidence was good and during the ceremony all went well. I was able to move round the church getting all the shots I had planned and although the lighting wasnt great I was able to shoot down to some pretty slow shutter speeds using the VR and bracing myself against the wall etc. The wedding rehearsal had been absolutely invaluable and although during the rehearsal I had missed important shots but Id learned from these mistakes and got what I needed.
Once at the reception the started I was snapping away getting candid shots where I could and then the cake cutting, speeches, etc. and before I knew it the evening guests were arriving but I was happy Id got enough shots.
Room for improvement
I learned a lot in a very short period of time through the day and although it went as well as I hoped there is room for improvement and in many cases its stuff that would come with experience, hence why the seasoned wedding photographs do such a good job. You cant buy experience, hence why I was free. One photo that could certainly have improved was the first dance, and I had originally warned the couple not to expect great things from this shot as I would consider it something that cant be done easily without plenty of experience. I know there was a long thread about this recently with various differing opinions for lighting it but based on my lack of experience Id opted for the SB-600 on camera with a Opteka FB-50 Flash Bouncer (knowing that the ceiling at the venue was too high to bounce the flash off). Better results could almost certainly have been achieved with a couple of off camera speedlights, ideally held by an assistant but this was way outside the original scope of what I was there to do. The groom had already said he expected me to be too drunk to get a decent first dance shot by that time anyway!
Post Wedding
Make sure you back everything up! Im always quite paranoid about losing images and had my D7000 set to write to 2 memory cards simultaneously when I was shooting. I also back everything up once its on the computer as there is no point in putting in the effort to record great images and then having your computer fail on you. I copied everything to my computer hard drive and an external hard drive before I considered formatting the memory cards. The couple didnt want much post processing done, the only thing I really did was to delete all the poor photos which left me with about 600 images, and then reduced the noise where it Id used high ISO and cropped any photos that needed it. I then burned the RAW files to DVD (took 3 discs) and exported all the files as full size JPEGs and burned them to disc for the couple (another 2 off DVDs).
Have Fun
For people in my situation, i.e. they are a guest as well as a photograph, you need to still enjoy the day. If you dont think thats going to be possible then Id suggest not doing it as the main reason you are there is to share in the couples wedding day and celebrate with them. A few of my other friends had suggested to me that being the photographer would spoil the day for me and maybe if Id been stressed about it then that would have been the case. My view is that its about striking the right balance between being a guest and getting the shots and with this comes compromise. If Id had the camera glued to my face for the full day I would have caught some more great candid shots, however I wouldnt have socialised with friends and enjoyed the atmosphere of the day. The couple I was shooting for appreciated this and told me no make sure a still had a good day, however Im sure not every couple is this understanding and for many it might not even cross their minds, after all, wedding photography is easy , isnt it?
I think its fair to say I invested a fair amount of time and effort into researching and shooting this wedding and although it was of no financial gain to me it was a great learning experience and something that will undoubtedly aid other areas of my photography. I was under no illusion before I started that it would be a challenge but with adequate preparation I was able to cope well with the situation and enjoy the experience without getting stressed or flustered. I think by tackling challenges outside your comfort zone you exposure yourself to a learning experience that is difficult to replicate. I think I could enjoy wedding photography as an alternative career (with a lot more practice / experience) however thats unlikely to happen as I have a well-paid secure job which I would be a fool to leave but never say never.
The main thing for me is that the bride and groom are happy with the results, they got some photos they love and I got a great insightful learning experience into the world of wedding photography while still enjoying the day.
Ive posted a few images below and any constructive comments are always gratefully received as although I dont plan on shooting another wedding anytime soon Im always looking to improve. There are also a lot more photos on my blog if you are interested.
1.)
2012_12_28WilsonWedding003-2 by Tunbridge Wells, on Flickr
2.)
2012_12_28WilsonWedding022-2 by Tunbridge Wells, on Flickr
3.)
2012_12_28WilsonWedding035 by Tunbridge Wells, on Flickr
4.)
2012_12_28WilsonWedding114 by Tunbridge Wells, on Flickr
I'm sure you will be fine when you shot your family members wedding, the main points are research, practice and good preparation. Its not easy but it is rewarding.
