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10/06/2006 05:46:21 PM · #1
Some friend just asked me to shoot is wedding (free of charge but he will pay me for the prints).

I'm thinking about the opportunity it gives to me to get into this business. I have 2 questions:

1. Is this equipment good enough for a start:
Canon rebel XT
Canon 50mm f/1.8
Sigma 70-300 f/4.0-5.6 APO DG
Tamron 28-78 f/2.8 XR-DI
Bogen/manfrotto 718B tripod here
Lastolite collapsible reflector 38" white/sunfire here
Avenger Collapsible reflector holder here
one lexar 1gb 80x and one lexar 2gb 80x card
Sigma EF-500 DG super flash

2. I plan to get in touch with a wedding photographer (probably outside my area) and ask him/her to take me as a (free) apprentice to show me the do's and don't of wedding photography, the absolute must of images and the whole game for a few wedding. Is this a good idea. How can I ask for this. What to say and what not to say?
10/06/2006 05:53:01 PM · #2
I know nothing of weddings but to me 3 gigs doesn't seem like enough if you will be shooting in RAW. Also, I don't see where you have a battery pack or extra batteries. I think that would be important also.

Message edited by author 2006-10-06 17:53:33.
10/06/2006 06:04:50 PM · #3
If you're going to be shooting the wedding alone, I would also not risk depending on 1 camera body. You should have a backup even if it is a point and shoot. If something goes wrong with your camera, the wedding will not wait until you get it sorted out and there are no retakes.
10/06/2006 06:05:11 PM · #4
1
Canon rebel XT fine
Canon 50mm f/1.8 good
Sigma 70-300 f/4.0-5.6 APO DG depends on light
Tamron 28-78 f/2.8 XR-DI very good
Bogen/manfrotto 718B tripod here consider monopod
Lastolite collapsible reflector 38" white/sunfire here not to useful except for posed shots but indoors...bouncibg artifical light..nah
Avenger Collapsible reflector holder here same as above
one lexar 1gb 80x and one lexar 2gb 80x card need more or a drive to dump them to
Sigma EF-500 DG super flash good use its built in difuser and or bounce it
Also get the extra battery grip, makes portrait shots great and the extra battery life is a must., also a flash bar and a cable to move the flash off camera.

2. I plan to get in touch with a wedding photographer (probably outside my area) and ask him/her to take me as a (free) apprentice to show me the do's and don't of wedding photography, the absolute must of images and the whole game for a few wedding. Is this a good idea. How can I ask for this. What to say and what not to say? This depends, it is not wedding season so many photographers not wanting people to tag along right now, just trell them your an amatur photographer and want to do a free apprentace ship and will give him/her copies of all your shots, and bring a portfolio. Dont tell them your looking to shoot a friends wedding, that to them will be sour graps because is lost buisness.

Also a few tips, get there ahead of time and get the settings you need from the camera, and try to set where you will need to adjust very little on apature ect so you don't miss shots to fiddeling with settings.finally if your using a flash take shots 2 in rapid suscession so the flash fires then second shot is when it is recharging. Is a easy way of doing a semi bracketed exposure on the fly., extra batteries and memory are a must.
10/06/2006 06:08:47 PM · #5
Check out what Pedro has done.
//www.dpchallenge.com/forum.php?action=read&FORUM_THREAD_ID=471353
10/06/2006 06:11:39 PM · #6
Originally posted by PeterPic:

If you're going to be shooting the wedding alone, I would also not risk depending on 1 camera body. You should have a backup even if it is a point and shoot. If something goes wrong with your camera, the wedding will not wait until you get it sorted out and there are no retakes.


shooting a wedding for free and you'll have a backup? wow, THAT's service!

I shoot my weddings in jpg - I'm not making enough to process all that RAW stuff anyway.

You can just feel my love for shooting weddings spill out into every aspect of my service, can't you?

They seem to be happy and I keep getting referrals - sad to say - and I keep taking them.

So have fun, I think your gear is fine. Remember you are the boss - the schedule proceeds when YOU are ready for it to proceed - and remember you're the entertainer too. Fumbling with your gear and acting flustered will only transfer to the wedding - even if it's all going wrong, smile, joke, have fun. Then fix it in post! :-)

Message edited by author 2006-10-06 18:13:03.
10/06/2006 06:19:02 PM · #7
Originally posted by digitalknight:

Originally posted by PeterPic:

If you're going to be shooting the wedding alone, I would also not risk depending on 1 camera body. You should have a backup even if it is a point and shoot. If something goes wrong with your camera, the wedding will not wait until you get it sorted out and there are no retakes.


shooting a wedding for free and you'll have a backup? wow, THAT's service!

I shoot my weddings in jpg - I'm not making enough to process all that RAW stuff anyway.

You can just feel my love for shooting weddings spill out into every aspect of my service, can't you?

They seem to be happy and I keep getting referrals - sad to say - and I keep taking them.

So have fun, I think your gear is fine. Remember you are the boss - the schedule proceeds when YOU are ready for it to proceed - and remember you're the entertainer too. Fumbling with your gear and acting flustered will only transfer to the wedding - even if it's all going wrong, smile, joke, have fun. Then fix it in post! :-)


Good advice, I haved used alot less equipment and have not had complaints. I would recommend if even shooting in jpeg that you have a mass storage device (lap top, etc) to dump one card while shooting with the other. This isn't real important during the wedding, but if you're going to shoot the reception also you will eat memory quickly doing the candids.

edit for stoopiditty!

Message edited by author 2006-10-06 18:21:36.
10/06/2006 06:27:48 PM · #8
Originally posted by nemesise1977:

1
Canon rebel XT fine
Canon 50mm f/1.8 good
Sigma 70-300 f/4.0-5.6 APO DG depends on light
Tamron 28-78 f/2.8 XR-DI very good
Bogen/manfrotto 718B tripod here consider monopod
Lastolite collapsible reflector 38" white/sunfire here not to useful except for posed shots but indoors...bouncibg artifical light..nah
Avenger Collapsible reflector holder here same as above
one lexar 1gb 80x and one lexar 2gb 80x card need more or a drive to dump them to
Sigma EF-500 DG super flash good use its built in difuser and or bounce it
Also get the extra battery grip, makes portrait shots great and the extra battery life is a must., also a flash bar and a cable to move the flash off camera.

2. I plan to get in touch with a wedding photographer (probably outside my area) and ask him/her to take me as a (free) apprentice to show me the do's and don't of wedding photography, the absolute must of images and the whole game for a few wedding. Is this a good idea. How can I ask for this. What to say and what not to say? This depends, it is not wedding season so many photographers not wanting people to tag along right now, just trell them your an amatur photographer and want to do a free apprentace ship and will give him/her copies of all your shots, and bring a portfolio. Dont tell them your looking to shoot a friends wedding, that to them will be sour graps because is lost buisness.

Also a few tips, get there ahead of time and get the settings you need from the camera, and try to set where you will need to adjust very little on apature ect so you don't miss shots to fiddeling with settings.finally if your using a flash take shots 2 in rapid suscession so the flash fires then second shot is when it is recharging. Is a easy way of doing a semi bracketed exposure on the fly., extra batteries and memory are a must.


Thanks, very useful reply.

I forgot to mention that I have to batteries and that the charger that came with the rebel charge batteries faster than I can drain them.

I'm not planning to use the 70-300 a lot but it's a lens I have and I'm going to take it with me just in case.

I hate monopod!!! No seriously I'm not planning to shoot the wedding with the tripod, just the posed shot. The rest of the wedding will be done handheld.

I'm not a big fan of direct flash photography and the test I made with the sigma proved that it's not very useful bounced of the ceilling when the ceilling is to high. What would you suggest for lighting the posed shot?. My plan was to bounce the flash on the reflector to light the subject. I don't want to spend a lot because I don't have a lot of money and I don't even know if i'll be doing 0.02$ out of this ever.

3 GIG of memory card give me enough space for about 350 shots is this really not enough? :-(

I plan to give the photographer tha will train me all of my RAW files. But I want to keep the right to use them as a portfolio for me. I'm also willing to negociate a trade for a website that I'd build. (I know, my website is not so amazing but he's been online and not updated for two years, I'm a lot better than this at building websites now.)


10/06/2006 06:34:32 PM · #9
Originally posted by nicklevy:

Sigma EF-500 DG super flash....

I'm not a big fan of direct flash photography and the test I made with the sigma proved that it's not very useful bounced of the ceilling when the ceilling is to high. What would you suggest for lighting the posed shot?. My plan was to bounce the flash on the reflector to light the subject. I don't want to spend a lot because I don't have a lot of money and I don't even know if i'll be doing 0.02$ out of this ever.



I was at a wedding over the weekend and the photog had this diffuser for his flash that did such a great job of softening the flash that I ran out and got one.

Diffuser

He also had a cord for the flash so he could hand hold and get different lighting effects and do verticals. This would replace the cumbersome bracket that some folks use.

10/06/2006 06:38:54 PM · #10
I went and checked my last wedding. Two cameras used during the wedding which included the bride and groom before the wedding, the wedding and the formals.

3.5 hours (they were friends and we showed up early with the family)
850 pictures

I (or my wife assistant) downloaded all the pictures just prior to the ceremony. Then again dumped 2 gig just after the ceremony then off to the reception.

Yes, memory or mass storage is a must!
10/06/2006 06:54:04 PM · #11
Originally posted by MayaM:

Originally posted by nicklevy:

Sigma EF-500 DG super flash....

I'm not a big fan of direct flash photography and the test I made with the sigma proved that it's not very useful bounced of the ceilling when the ceilling is to high. What would you suggest for lighting the posed shot?. My plan was to bounce the flash on the reflector to light the subject. I don't want to spend a lot because I don't have a lot of money and I don't even know if i'll be doing 0.02$ out of this ever.



I was at a wedding over the weekend and the photog had this diffuser for his flash that did such a great job of softening the flash that I ran out and got one.

Diffuser

He also had a cord for the flash so he could hand hold and get different lighting effects and do verticals. This would replace the cumbersome bracket that some folks use.


The dg500 has a decent difusser built in. The hand holding flash is cool but can be akward holding camera and flash, would only do tha if the camera is ona tripod.

as for 350 shots... well depends on how shutter happy you are, you would be suprised in event photography how many shots you will run through, and if you run out of space then you will either have to take time del shots and lose something or your done...

If a high celing then bounce is worthless, use hi iso and fast shutter as possible and noise reduction. So for light use what you have, and dont be afraid to move it outside to take advantage of natural light. Lots of churches have nice parks trees stuff like that handy for good backdrops.
Guessing from what I see in your port you have nothing to worry about except battery power and storage.
10/06/2006 06:55:20 PM · #12
Originally posted by kawesttex:

I went and checked my last wedding. Two cameras used during the wedding which included the bride and groom before the wedding, the wedding and the formals.

3.5 hours (they were friends and we showed up early with the family)
850 pictures

I (or my wife assistant) downloaded all the pictures just prior to the ceremony. Then again dumped 2 gig just after the ceremony then off to the reception.

Yes, memory or mass storage is a must!


Well thanks all for all the good advice. It's the first time I feel confident about this thing. If people can do it then I must be able to do it to and if I can do some as an aprentice with an experienced photographer it will be all for the better.

Last thing, How does it qork for pricing. Is the shooting and the prints sold separately?

10/06/2006 07:00:20 PM · #13
Agree with Thegrandwazoo Check out the link he provided from Pedro.. but also check here: pedro website specifically check out the bottom of the page... the last 3 or 4 weddings especially.... Brilliant, outside of the box, beautiful work. Dude knows what hes doing and talking about....

Good luck with your venture Nicklevy :)
10/06/2006 07:12:14 PM · #14
Ney Nick,
It's not a question about the equiptment (although equiptment helps)
I think a better question is: Are YOU ready to take photos of a wedding?

and I agree with nemesise1977 - "Dont tell them your looking to shoot a friends wedding, that to them will be sour graps because is lost buisness."

But then again, if they are getting a friend to shoot it for free, then they should understand that you get what you pay for.

Just be careful doing this... if something goes wrong, you could loose some friends.

Good luck!

E
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