My first (and last) Wedding photography experience - update (Page 2): When our daughter got married about 3 years ago we hired the same photographer as the other two. She and her two...

traderjohn Loc: New York City

Fredrick wrote:

Back in April I posted a topic looking for input/feedback on a wedding I had (reluctantly) agreed to do for one of my wife's nephews. It occurred this past Sunday, in Santa Barbara, CA. Here's an update on that experience:
I have a new found respect for all wedding photographers! I really had no idea how much work was involved in shooting a wedding! While it was an exhilarating experience, it was absolutely exhausting! Granted, I was going through a learning curve, however, standing on my feet (at age 77) for 10 hours (with one 20 minute break for dinner) did take a toll at the end of the night. I took 560 pictures, and after a first pass have done an initial culling down to 310 pictures. I edited 5 pictures of the ceremony today and sent them off to the bride and groom, and they loved them! So, I can now relax a little and go through the process of editing the entire set. I'll probably send them 200-250 pictures when I'm done.
If you might recall, I was told that there would be about 40 people at the wedding and reception...there were 105 people! I did go to the home where the wedding and reception was to be held the day before at the same time as the ceremony the next day, which really helped with me understanding the lighting and places to take the formal pictures, etc. All the family members who said they would help coordinate family members for group pictures...didn't! Thank God for my wonderful wife, who was my assistant and really saved the day!
After taking my first set of formal pictures, my on camera Nissin flash mysteriously stopped working. I totally freaked out into a cold sweat. I changed batteries, but it still wouldn't work. Then I remembered my old adage "when in doubt, re-boot." I turned my camera off, then back on and everything worked fine after that!
Am I satisfied with all the pictures I took...no. In reviewing all of the pictures on my laptop, I saw obvious composition issues I wish I not not made, but fortunately I took enough pictures so I could discard the ones I didn't like. I found myself running around like a maniac to get certain shots. Once the bride and groom kissed, they immediately started walking back up the aisle, and I had to literally quickly run up the aisle in front of them and quickly turn around to get one shot, which fortunately came out pretty good.
The last three hours (8pm-11pm) of the reception was in the dark outside, and the on camera Nissin flash on my Fuji X-T2 and the in camera flash on my Fuji X100V worked surprisingly well. I had very little experience with doing flash photography, so I'm glad that worked out. For all you Fuji shooters out there, I did shoot jpeg and RAW, and used the Pro Neg HI film simulation mode for my jpegs, which I thought came out pretty good.
Two of my wife's cousins approached me during the reception about doing their daughter's upcoming weddings, and I politely but affirmatively said "no." I will leave that to the younger wedding pros!
To all of you who initially responded back in April, thank you again! Your input really did help me!
Once I'm done editing, I'll post a couple of the wedding photos in the Wedding Discussion group.

Back in April I posted a topic looking for input/f... (show quote)

When our daughter got married about 3 years ago we hired the same photographer as the other two. She and her two assistants did a great job. However, the best pictures came from the disposable cameras my wife put on each table. There were 15 tables and 30 cameras. We got back about 26. These were all candid shots. My wife had three albums made up from her chosen selections.

camerapapi Loc: Miami, Fl.

"A wedding event is likely the most important day in a women's life." I could not agree more on this. A wedding is a serious event, photographs are a precious gift to the couple to share with others during their lifetime. Ruin those moments with poor quality images and the disappointment will last forever.
In my humble opinion engaging in shooting a wedding without formal training is a big mistake. Perhaps what the inexperienced photographer considers a good pose is not. Perhaps important moments during the wedding were missed.

It is not my intention to offend anybody with my comments on the contrary, I want to bring some order to the fact that a wedding is a serious photographic assignment. A person without experience will make many mistakes and those mistakes could result in poor quality images that the couple will not appreciate. As Thomas indicated a good, experienced assistant is very important. Using flash will be a must but it requires using flash wisely. Too many factors involved in shooting a wedding. As you saw lots of work required and lots of pressure behind it.

If your images have been accepted by the couple you did your job. Now you know what to expect when shooting a wedding besides the responsibilities implied.

rmalarz Loc: Tempe, Arizona

--Bob

ImageCreator wrote:

From experience, the worst part of shooting a wedding is the brides mother.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Lesson learned. I shot one for a cousin in the 1970s. Easy peasy. Times have changed, though. I just shoot what I want now.

Jeffcs Loc: Myrtle Beach South Carolina

I’ve lost count. I started with 2-1/4 film, heavy slow costly(film-processing-prints)
Went to digital, that turned out to be more work, each wedding equals a 40 hour working week(selling,shooting,processing,several meeting with bride,finishing books and prints)
So I’ve had awesome brides and bridezellows
Several close friends and family asked I turned them all down!
I’m so glad I’ll NEVER shoot a wedding ever again

Bigmike1 Loc: I am from Gaffney, S.C. but live in Utah.

I did several weddings many years ago now. It was for family and friends and I didn't make anything. It ain't fun.

agillot

The way to do wedding and having fun , is to freelance it . just show up with your camera and start shooting . Just stay away from the pro photographer . i used to do it and enjoyed it .Even at church , just be discrete and quiet .

HRPufnstuf

I photographed my first wedding at 18 for some friends. Had no clue what I was getting into, and no business doing it. One camera, one lens, ond flash. Mostly came out good, purely due to luck.
A week later, the groom scrambled his brains in a motorcycle wreck. Mine were the last photos of him in "normal" condition. Lucky for me, that resulted in the sale of lots of prints.
Never shot another wedding without lots of backups. 2-3 bodies, 3-4 lenses, 2-3 strobes, film and batteries by the pound.
My most successful sales afterward were when I pretty much played puppy dog to the bride, following her everywhere I could (and a few places I shouldn't). Often times the bride told me afterwards that she was disappointed that she didn't see me taking many photos, only to be astonished when I delivered the final prints. They barely noticed me!
A word of caution: if the wedding is in a church, be sure to ask the minister/priest/rabbi about any "rules" they might have about photos during the ceremony. If they rule out many of the more common shots, then you'll either have to reenact them later, or get the bride to straighten him out about photographing "her" wedding.

achesley Loc: SW Louisiana

I never was the hired guy for a wedding but was asked to just walk about taking non posing pictures during the reception. Use one of my G16 Canons as I could just get it set for the basic environment and they are good in low light, just walk around and shoot from the hip or side or overhead with one hand. When getting home , load them into my computer and correct/delete in LR C as I just shot in RAW. Then send the whole set to the family. Several times they liked my pictures over the guy/gal they hired as most people in my pictures didn't even know I was taking pictures.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

My son wisely turned down a request to make a video of a friend's wedding.

imagemeister Loc: mid east Florida

Fredrick wrote:

Back in April I posted a topic looking for input/feedback on a wedding I had (reluctantly) agreed to do for one of my wife's nephews. It occurred this past Sunday, in Santa Barbara, CA. Here's an update on that experience:
I have a new found respect for all wedding photographers! I really had no idea how much work was involved in shooting a wedding! While it was an exhilarating experience, it was absolutely exhausting! Granted, I was going through a learning curve, however, standing on my feet (at age 77) for 10 hours (with one 20 minute break for dinner) did take a toll at the end of the night. I took 560 pictures, and after a first pass have done an initial culling down to 310 pictures. I edited 5 pictures of the ceremony today and sent them off to the bride and groom, and they loved them! So, I can now relax a little and go through the process of editing the entire set. I'll probably send them 200-250 pictures when I'm done.
If you might recall, I was told that there would be about 40 people at the wedding and reception...there were 105 people! I did go to the home where the wedding and reception was to be held the day before at the same time as the ceremony the next day, which really helped with me understanding the lighting and places to take the formal pictures, etc. All the family members who said they would help coordinate family members for group pictures...didn't! Thank God for my wonderful wife, who was my assistant and really saved the day!
After taking my first set of formal pictures, my on camera Nissin flash mysteriously stopped working. I totally freaked out into a cold sweat. I changed batteries, but it still wouldn't work. Then I remembered my old adage "when in doubt, re-boot." I turned my camera off, then back on and everything worked fine after that!
Am I satisfied with all the pictures I took...no. In reviewing all of the pictures on my laptop, I saw obvious composition issues I wish I not not made, but fortunately I took enough pictures so I could discard the ones I didn't like. I found myself running around like a maniac to get certain shots. Once the bride and groom kissed, they immediately started walking back up the aisle, and I had to literally quickly run up the aisle in front of them and quickly turn around to get one shot, which fortunately came out pretty good.
The last three hours (8pm-11pm) of the reception was in the dark outside, and the on camera Nissin flash on my Fuji X-T2 and the in camera flash on my Fuji X100V worked surprisingly well. I had very little experience with doing flash photography, so I'm glad that worked out. For all you Fuji shooters out there, I did shoot jpeg and RAW, and used the Pro Neg HI film simulation mode for my jpegs, which I thought came out pretty good.
Two of my wife's cousins approached me during the reception about doing their daughter's upcoming weddings, and I politely but affirmatively said "no." I will leave that to the younger wedding pros!
To all of you who initially responded back in April, thank you again! Your input really did help me!
Once I'm done editing, I'll post a couple of the wedding photos in the Wedding Discussion group.

Back in April I posted a topic looking for input/f... (show quote)

Thanks for your update/review ! A good reflection process for most of us here .....

.

BudsOwl Loc: Upstate NY and New England

Fredrick wrote:

Back in April I posted a topic looking for input/feedback on a wedding I had (reluctantly) agreed to do for one of my wife's nephews. It occurred this past Sunday, in Santa Barbara, CA. Here's an update on that experience:
I have a new found respect for all wedding photographers! I really had no idea how much work was involved in shooting a wedding! While it was an exhilarating experience, it was absolutely exhausting! Granted, I was going through a learning curve, however, standing on my feet (at age 77) for 10 hours (with one 20 minute break for dinner) did take a toll at the end of the night. I took 560 pictures, and after a first pass have done an initial culling down to 310 pictures. I edited 5 pictures of the ceremony today and sent them off to the bride and groom, and they loved them! So, I can now relax a little and go through the process of editing the entire set. I'll probably send them 200-250 pictures when I'm done.
If you might recall, I was told that there would be about 40 people at the wedding and reception...there were 105 people! I did go to the home where the wedding and reception was to be held the day before at the same time as the ceremony the next day, which really helped with me understanding the lighting and places to take the formal pictures, etc. All the family members who said they would help coordinate family members for group pictures...didn't! Thank God for my wonderful wife, who was my assistant and really saved the day!
After taking my first set of formal pictures, my on camera Nissin flash mysteriously stopped working. I totally freaked out into a cold sweat. I changed batteries, but it still wouldn't work. Then I remembered my old adage "when in doubt, re-boot." I turned my camera off, then back on and everything worked fine after that!
Am I satisfied with all the pictures I took...no. In reviewing all of the pictures on my laptop, I saw obvious composition issues I wish I not not made, but fortunately I took enough pictures so I could discard the ones I didn't like. I found myself running around like a maniac to get certain shots. Once the bride and groom kissed, they immediately started walking back up the aisle, and I had to literally quickly run up the aisle in front of them and quickly turn around to get one shot, which fortunately came out pretty good.
The last three hours (8pm-11pm) of the reception was in the dark outside, and the on camera Nissin flash on my Fuji X-T2 and the in camera flash on my Fuji X100V worked surprisingly well. I had very little experience with doing flash photography, so I'm glad that worked out. For all you Fuji shooters out there, I did shoot jpeg and RAW, and used the Pro Neg HI film simulation mode for my jpegs, which I thought came out pretty good.
Two of my wife's cousins approached me during the reception about doing their daughter's upcoming weddings, and I politely but affirmatively said "no." I will leave that to the younger wedding pros!
To all of you who initially responded back in April, thank you again! Your input really did help me!
Once I'm done editing, I'll post a couple of the wedding photos in the Wedding Discussion group.

Back in April I posted a topic looking for input/f... (show quote)

I did my wife’s nephew’s second wedding and I will never do another one.

St.Mary's

This UHH discussion on August 31, 2002, addressing wedding photography, should be programed to come up immediately when someone on this website enters the words "photographing a wedding".

AzPicLady Loc: Behind the camera!

I've done (I think) 4 weddings in my lifetime and don't intend to ever do another one! My favorite was a wedding that took place in a storage facility. The bride arrived via a horse-drawn cart. The attendants were German shepherds and the best man was a poodle! Love it. The rest were horrid and at every one I swore I'd never do another one!

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

Don't say you'll never do another, just limit it to not being the primary photographer.

I always take photos at a wedding. I try to stay out of the way of the primary guy but (s)he can't be everywhere. I always get a few shots that are worth passing along to the couple, or even to the primary. I try to include shots of the photographer for documentation.