Shooting Your First Wedding

Going to the chapel and you’re… shooting a wedding…  OK, enough with the cheesy lyrics, but 3/4 bridal parties tend to break out in this song during the bride’s preparation shoots, so it’s something that sticks in my mind on the day of a shoot.  When I started shooting with a veteran wedding and portrait photographer, I was dreadfully nervous.  He gave me two short instructions that I repeat to myself before each shoot… Have Fun, and Don’t Suck.  That being said, how do we achieve both of those goals?

Have Fun. This sounds easy enough.  At this stage of the game, you have some technical competencies (more on those later), so most likely you’ve been asked to shoot a wedding for a friend, or a friend of a friend.  That means that they already like you as a person.  That means you are well on your way to achieving your first objective.  Put is simply, be yourself while doing what you love.  It will show.

Some shooters are a fly on the wall with very little interaction between the subjects and the shooter.  That’s their personality.  Other photographers are almost part of the wedding party.  They make friends with the wedding party, joke around and have fun.  That is their personality.  You were hired for being you.  So that’s simple.  If you are being yourself, you’ll have fun and it will show in how you work your day.

Don’t Suck. This opens Pandora’s Box.  First off, if you do not have the technical competencies, PLEASE decline the job.  A wedding is not a “… I think I can…” type of shoot.  If you are friends with the groom, if your pictures are not good, you can be sure that the bride will not allow you to see him again.  On a more serious note, it is a wedding.  This is extremely important to the couple and their families.  Out of focus, or missed shots are not an option.  If you’ve never taken your camera off ‘P’ mode, this is a clue that you are not ready.  If you possess the technical competencies, let’s move on.

Equipment. This is not going to be ammunition for the Nikon/Canon/Sony debate.  But I will say this.  You need two bodies with high ISO capabilities.  The minimum level of camera would be the D90/50D camera, and you’ll need two of them.  Did I mention this?  Two bodies.  A couple of quick reasons are that cameras break.  If you have one body and it quits on you, you have two options.  Hit the bar, run away or both.  Because there will be no pictures.  Secondly, there are times during the day that you are going to want to shoot wide, then immediately shoot tight with a long telephoto.  If you need to change lenses, you will miss one of the shots.

That brings up the next important part.  Glass.  You want something fast.  By fast, I’m talking about zooms with f2.8 for the entire zoom range.  You can get by with f4 for the range if you have high ISO capabilities in your body.  You will need one wide, one zoom and a fast prime lens.  A lot of shooters will have a 24-70 2.8, 70-200 2.8 and a 50 1.4.  If you have that range of glass, you are set.  You can shoot 95% of what occurs at a wedding with that set of glass.  Of course you can substitute out different glass by adding a portrait lens, or a super wide angle zoom.    The fast glass is important because churches are dark.  Receptions tend to be dark.  Also, fast glass allows you to shoot with a narrow depth of field which allows for stunning images.

Speaking of dark, you’ll also need a flash of some sort.  Even if it’s an on camera flashgun, you’ll need one.  Again, the minimum quality of flash should be an SB-600/430 EX level.  Two of them is better.  I was assisting a photographer shooting formals after the ceremony and he took a shoot after herding up 40+ people at the front of the church.  Nothing happened.  He looked at me, I subtly shook my head “nothin’ fired” and he diligently went back to his bag and got another flash out of his bag and the day went on.  Imagine if he didn’t have that extra flash (or three) in his kit.

Does this mean that you max out every credit card you own for this set up?  Not necessarily.  Local camera shops and national megastores have rental departments.  For $30/day, you can use a $2,000 lens.  Take advantage of this.  You should be able to rent glass, bodies and flashes all at once.  Unfortunately, your consumer body and kit lens might be great for casual street photography and snapshots, but it won’t cut it here.

Don’t Suck Part 2. Now that you have the equipment you will need for the day, what do you do with it?  Part of it is creating your own style of capturing the images throughout the day.  You may excel at candids.  Or have a knack for awesome poses.  But then what?  A lot of new photographers have a shot list.  If you have one, use it discretely.  The best use of a shot list is to memorize it before hand.  With regards to posing, there are a lot of stunning photography on wedding blogs and established photographer’s websites.  Have a look at them.  Figure out how they were shot.  Did they use window light creatively?  Were off camera flashes used?  It’s unlikely that you’ll step up and do a multi off camera light shot like below.  If you have the know how and it’s your style, go for it!

Shoot a lot, but not too much. There’s no need to rapid fire a portrait at 8fps. So be selective. The reason behind this is you have to edit all of this stuff once you’re done. That’s next months article!