Starting out as a Wedding Photographer

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Hi Guy's, I am starting out as a wedding Photographer and currentley Have a Nikon D50 camera with 2 lenses the 18-55mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED LENS and a Tamron 70-300mm F/4-5.6 LD MACRO (NIKON AF) can anyone recomend what other equipment I need?

Thanks Katherine
 
Hi Katherine and welcome aboard. :)

Sorry to be boring and practical, but the minimum requirement for doing weddings is two of everything, that's 2 bodies and two flashguns minimum. You'd think you'd be fairly safe with lenses, but I once had a diaphragm stick on f8 halfway through a wedding. On another occasion the flash contacts on the shutter burned out. Thankfully, I had a spare body. If people are paying you money they expect you have the kit, and don't forget this is their big day, they won't be too understanding about equipment failures.

Unfortunately with weddings a lot of shots need to be taken indoors so a good flashgun is essential. Some sort of diffuser or better still, bounce brolly to diffuse the harsh flash is a big help.

Finally, just don't take the weather for granted. You can end up taking all the shots indoors in the most dire unsuitable situations if it pours with rain.

Sorry to sound a bit negative - I don't mean to honest, but it's based on hard won experience. :)
 
IanC_UK said:
Hi, welcome to the forums, not related to Andy Rouse are you ? ;)

I have never done wedding photography, but i suspect a good sturdy tripod, remote shutter release ......would be invaluable

You do need a good tripod. I'd go for a three way head rather than a fiddly ball head for straightforward wedding shots and a good sturdy tripod - one where you can just splay the legs and plonk it down. I always took a tripod, but often didn't use it, prefering to work hand -held, but clergymen are a funny lot, some wont allow flash shots during the service - some will, so there are occasions when there's no substitute for a tripod for available light shots.
 
wide primes are very useful for wedding shots ive done 3 weddings now with a 50mm and an 85mm both f1.8


as CT said, this is someones big day, you cant afford to (for want of a better way of saying this sorry mod team) **** it up. therefore you need back up for everything. you cant just turn round and say "sorry i accidentally hit the format button and lost everything" you can reshoot practically any other portrait event, you simply cannot do that with a wedding. for a proffesional setup that means atleast 2 pro or at the very least semi-pro bodies (one as backup) flashguns, tripod, an array of lenses and to boot a hell of a lot of skill and confidence, as you have to make a shot work and you might not get more than 1 attempt at certain critical things.


have you undertaken any wedding photography before?
 
I shoot weddings and will echo what the other posters have already said. You need to have backups of everything and wide aperture lenses will help you in low light conditions.
 
Umm... depends on the style of Wedding photography you'll be doing really. I used to use a Pentax 67 and two lenses for all my weddings and shot only black and white film.
Nowadays with digital you have even more options open to you - do you want to do 'traditional'; reportage; lifestyle etc etc. Different kit for all of those. I'd agree with the others though; double up on everything: a second body as back-up definitely and since you have a Nikon already, I would go for nothing less than a D200 for commercial work, for the simple reason that it's more robust then your present camera and less likely to suffer a breakdown in the event of slightly adverse conditions (it sometimes rains at weddings, and just because the bride and groom may not be in the rain, that doesn't mean that you may not be.
For lenses, you could do pretty much everything on a 15-55mm f/2.8. Yes, it's expensive, but like the D200 it'll keep going forever. You'll also need a tele-zoom - a 70-200 f/2.8 will do the trick. Don't be seduced by mega-zooms with huge ranges like the 18-200's around at the moment - for paying customers you need to provide the best-quality images possible and those lenses aren't as sharp as lenses with a more modest range. It may not be very noticable, but it's there.

Another consideration these days, is that as cameras get cheaper (and whatever we may say, the non-photographic community will always equate image quality with the cost of the equipment you use), you don't want to be in the position of having Uncle Alf upstage you with his cameras - the customers will be asking why on earth they're paying you to do the job when thier relatives have better equipment. Project a professional image by using professional equipment.

And charge a realistic price - don't be suckered into asking for peanuts - it's easier to drop your prices to suit less well-off couples than it is to raise them.

Lastly, Good Luck!
 
Arkady said:
Another consideration these days, is that as cameras get cheaper (and whatever we may say, the non-photographic community will always equate image quality with the cost of the equipment you use), you don't want to be in the position of having Uncle Alf upstage you with his cameras - the customers will be asking why on earth they're paying you to do the job when thier relatives have better equipment. Project a professional image by using professional equipment.

Never thought of that before Rob. Reminds me of the opposite side of the coin when we went to an exclusive hotel & knew the owner...absolutely loaded, but purposely didn't buy a ferrari (which he wanted & could afford), as he would have upstaged his customers.
 
for cheapness...you need 2 of everything + good flashguns + 2x versatile lenses.

(I know its been re-iterated)

Really, your talking demoting the D50 to backup and getting something better, perhaps a D200 (D100 if your cheap). You'd also need a relatively fast zoom (Sigma 17-70 F/2.8-4 is meant to be pretty good. Obviously not in the Pro range, but for the cost its a good range) and a few primes (50/1.8, perhaps ~30, no more than 2.8 - I don't know the nikon lens ranges). The idea is to change lenses as little as possible, and to use the variable zoom for most shots, and then the prime if you want particularily low light shots (without flash) or when you want a smaller DOF.

Remember, just because you have a DSLR and a few lenses doesn't mean you can be a wedding photographer. You need to be very organised, and have a lot of knowledge of photography.

Leo
 
I'd hate to give Katherine the impression that she shouldn't start out on this path - everyone has to start somewhere, even wedding photographers. :) You don't have to be any great and gifted photographer to undertake wedding work, but it goes without saying that you should be competent, and confident in you own ability to cope. Anything less, and you'd be plain daft to take it on.

The photography is secondary really to the real problem, which is coping with and organising often large numbers of people, posing them etc. and getting the job done without losing your cool and keeping the atmosphere light and pleasant. An outgoing nature helps a lot, but like everything else in life, it only really comes with practice and experience.
 
Arkady said:
Another consideration these days, is that as cameras get cheaper (and whatever we may say, the non-photographic community will always equate image quality with the cost of the equipment you use), you don't want to be in the position of having Uncle Alf upstage you with his cameras - the customers will be asking why on earth they're paying you to do the job when thier relatives have better equipment. Project a professional image by using professional equipment.

on a similar vein, the last wedding i did i was asked to do it by a friend (i needed the experience so free booze and a small sum was all good) not only were my pictures better than the £1500 photographer in that they showed more life, were technically better (he fudged up the service, didnt meter properly i should think, the light made it tricky as the entire service took place infront of a window so you had bright windowlight and really dark shadows) but not only that but i looked and acted more proffesionally, built up a better rapor with the people i was photographing and annoyed them less with posing etc.

had i not been there to clear up after mr proffesional with his 2 mamiya medium formats, my friends would have missed vital memorys of the day, which simply should not and cannot happen when your being paid for wedding photography. its a scary state of affairs.


the best way as far as im concerned is that you should find some friends who are getting married, phone them, ask if you can take your camera along and take some shots, make sure they clear it with the proffesional (sometimes they get arsey about people getting in the way or stealing there shots etc) and take some pictures, either provide them with some prints or the full size digital images. dont ask for any money unless they offer and even then, just take expenses (printing costs)

and see how it goes, you might hate the pressure and the entire way of workingm you might enjoy it, but as mentioened you need to look proffesional and that also means using proffesional gear, these days there is more than a good chance that someone at the wedding may turn up with something that will totally overshadown your camera, and that doesnt look good, granted its what you do with it, but also its about giving the appearence that the happy couple are getting value for money.

as everyones mentioned, we are not trying to put you off, more ensure your fully aware of what you want to get yourself into!
 
Hi Again Everyone, Sorry Again For The Caps Lock, I Am Not Shouting, Or Being Rude, But As I Have Said In Previous Threads, This Is How Our Computer Is Set Up. Anyway Some Advice For Katherine, Regarding Wedding Photography, As Well As All The Obvious Things , I Used To Take A Roll Of White Cotton, Needles, Pins, A Few Objects To Use As Weights, A Roll Of Sellotape, An Umberella, Some Plasters. These Are All Things That People Forget, The Needles And Cotton Are For The Dress If It Gets Torn, The Weights Are For Windy Days When The Dress Is Blowing Everywhere, The Umberella , The Obvious, The Plasters In Case Of Emergency. I Hope This Might Help;)
 
All of the posts are good advice.

Couple of extras, see if you can find a local wedding photographer who will allow you to shadow him/her for free. This will give you an idea how a typical workflow would go and types of shots taken. They might even let you take your own pictures which you could use in a portfolio.

You will need to show off your photos to potential clients. Hopefully, you will have some photos you have taken of weddings of friends or family? If so, create a portfolio album from these. Thats what we did. My wife took a load of pictures at my cousins wedding and we used these pictures in our first portfolio album. Eventually when we had taken our own weddings we gave this old portfolio album to my cousin who was very pleased with it! :)

Best of luck in your venture!
 
Did I also mention that as a 'war' photographer, I'd rather walk naked through Basra with 'F*** Mohammed!' painted on my ass that turn up to a wedding-job unprepared.
In the great scheme of things it's no big deal, but it's one of the very few events that you only get one shot at getting right.
Practice all your shots with mates beforehand, organising groups can be a nightmare, especially at weddings where everyone just wants to get on with partying.
Recce the church a week beforehand, so you already know where you'll be doing the group shots.
If need be, arrange for 'pre-view' shoots for the bride/bridesmaids and groom/pageboys - usually one or two weeks before the ceremony. This allows you to get good set-up shots without the pressure of working in front of a crowd of strangers.
If you're doing 'reportage' style as part of the package, then arrange to be with the bride as she gets ready, as these always go down well afterwards.
Try not to get roped in to doing the reception as well as photos of people getting drunk and filling thier faces never looks good - stick to the cake-cutting and the first dance if you have to then leave ASAP.

Whatever kit you use, be fully conversant with it. Nothing worse than faffing with camera settings in front of a crowd. Keep it simple - that way there's less to go wrong (which it will - just stay calm and don't panic).

Lastly, enjoy it - if you look like you're having a good time, it's more likely to put your clients at ease than if you look like you're struggling to cope and hating every minute of it.
 
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