I did my first wedding recpetion this weekend.

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Well this weekend I did my first wedding reception shoot. A short while back a friend who I don’t see that often had suggested that I take some pictures for him. He had seen some of the stuff I had chucked on facebook and thought I would be good enough. My first reaction was to say no, but then I thought of the fact that it may be a good experience, how often do I get a captive group of people to take photographs of? I reluctantly agreed on the clear understanding that he should have no expectations of any photographs being any good and that I was treating it purely as a practise, I wasn’t charging him after all. He had been married a few days earlier and had some pictures taken then.

I‘ve read a number of threads about people doing weddings and stuff and all the arguments between the pro’s and the happy snappers and as such was aware of the difficulties that can come from working for other people, especially people you know, how difficult it is to arrange people, managing peoples expectations, arranging kit, having a plan, knowing your settings, checking the weather and so on. I can honestly say I did a lot of things wrong but I’m sure it was a good lesson for me, I will be much more aware about changing conditions and getting the correct camera settings.

I’m now at the stage where I have to process the pictures in Lightroom. I have whittled the main set from about 280 down to 115 and the evening from 300 down to 130 give or take. To be honest I’m sick of seeing them. I don’t know if it’s just me or not but the more I look at them the more I hate them and find fault. I’m sure my friend will like them though.

Overall a positive experience, as a result the person who owned the property wants her dog photographing, another potential practise subject.

What was your first gig like? What did you take away from it? Does anyone actually like the pictures they take for others after going through them multiple times?
 
I'm exactly in the same boat. I did my niece's wedding and though my sis was stood there saying wow thats a great pic i was thinking are you blind?! this is shot thats not right and look at the shading on that!! i need a better camera and a time machine!

i started the whittling down process last night before going for a three hour break on LA Noire.

Biggest lesson I learnt is to be faster on manual settings. quick switching and remember what your previous setting was.
 
I did my girlfriends sisters wedding last year as a favour and was more than happy with the results, although knowing what I know now, would have done a few things differently. They are happy with the images so that's the main thing, but I also got sick of the sight of the images on my monitor! The amount of times I went back and tweaked them here and there!
 
I've just shot my 5th wedding and I have the same process for them all.

Plug in harddrive with backed up ceremony and morning shots on + mem cards from night and copy to PC.

Go through them in Lightroom and think "yep, got some real nice ones"

Wife comes in, looks through them, makes some bitchy comment about them and puts me in a bad mood thinking "are they all crap?"

spend a few days deleting, cropping and editing.

Wife comes in, "oooo these are really good now, well done!"

Then start putting a slideshow to the first dance together, get sick of seeing the photos and listening to them music.

Show wife slideshow, she makes suggestions.

Edit slideshow, reshow, she likes.

burn everything and deliver to couple who love them.

It really is an emotional rollercoaster of self doubt for me, silly really but perhaps its something everyone suffers with. I need to improve on my processes to speed things up, get even more practice with my camera, but I am getting there :) on and off camera flash with the SB900 is my biggest challenge at the moment!
 
I recently shot a friends parents 40th anniversary, once again it was just for fun/experience. I took around 300 photos on the night, the more I looked through the more I found that IMO were rubbish. People in the background looking extremely unflattering, some pictures unsharp due to lack of light etc.

Overall there were about 130 photos I edited and gave out to people on CD's and so far everyone seems to be happy with them. It's amazing how many people are over the moon with photos I would usually bin because compared to the photos they usually pull off their £100 compact they're so much better, but I imagine another togger would spot as many flaws as I did. I certainly found I need to invest in some better performing equipment before I would ever consider charging for that scenario/low light situation but enjoyed it non the less. :)

I guess it's easy to be overly critical of your own work, but I can't think of a better way to improve than look at pics that everyone else is happy with and pick fault then remedy said fault next time you're out with the camera!
 
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At least I'm not the only one who gets sick of seeing the photos, If it were me I would have junked the lot with the exception of one or two. The pros must just switch off when going through them.

Plus why does the image always look ddifferent after exporting to jpeg? they look good in lightroom.

If i were to do this in the future I want to substitue any un photogenic guests with models.
 
as if to prove a point, I've just been out to pick the wife up and checked the post box on the way back in.

Thank you card from the last wedding I shot, my photo on the front and a message in side saying they loved the photos as did everyone else that has seen them :)
 
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