One week later, I have finished processing the photos from my first wedding shoot. In all, I took about 2500 photos during the nine-hour event. The finished deliverable to the client will be just under 800 photos. Overall, I’m extremely pleased with how they turned out. I’ve identified some areas where I need to improve but, overall, I’m very happy with them… A few of my favorites below:
So, here we go… Part 2 of my wedding recap. In this post, I am going to share some tips and thoughts from my first wedding shoot. The tips will be more high-level tips about shooting a wedding rather than low-level technical details on camera settings and lighting configurations. At any rate, I hope they’ll be helpful to any photographer thinking about shooting a wedding anytime soon.
Click on each image to see a larger version…
This is extremely important, especially if you’ll be shooting your first wedding. Use the opportunity to, first and foremost, set expectations. Being able to explain that this was my first wedding shoot helped alleviate alot of the pressure I was putting on myself to perform. I’m not saying you should go into the meeting telling them that you have no idea what you’re doing, but make sure they understand where you are professionally. Chances are, if it’s your first wedding you may not be charging them a lot of money. The experience you’ll gain from the experience will be far more valuable than any price you could reasonably charge for your first shoot anyway. But make sure they understand that it is your first shoot and don’t try to pass yourself off as a master wedding photographer because it may come back to bite you in the end. A manager of mine in my day job used to say “Underpromise and Overdeliver“. This is good advice. Keep that in mind when talking about the finished product you’ll be delivering to them.
Part of setting expectations is understanding exactly what they’re looking for. To do this, use the meeting as an opportunity to ask questions. You better ask them now because, on their big day, they aren’t going to want to hold your hand… Some of the questions I asked during the meeting include:
I’m currently editing and processing the photos from the wedding and will probably be doing so through this coming weekend. So far, so good! In fact, I wanted to share one of my early favorites with you… This was actually a candid moment that almost looks posed. I hope you enjoy!
Click on the image below for a larger version…
Thank you for your patience!
Tags: My Photos, portrait, wedding
It’s in the books! I’ve completed my first wedding shoot. Overall, I think it went pretty well. I’ve begun editing and looking through all the photos and I’m pretty happy with how they turned out. There were a few shots I was disappointed in but most of them, including the key shots turned out pretty well for a first-time wedding photographer.
We started the day around 10:30am at the bride’s house where I photographed some of her preparations along with the rest of the bridal party. We shot a few posed portraits inside once everyone was ready, but most of the shots were candid “getting ready” shots. After about two hours at the bride’s house it was time to head to the chapel. We had about an hour at the chapel before the actual ceremony started… I took the chance to shoot a few test shots and review the program. I wanted to make sure I had the program almost perfectly memorized so that I knew what was coming next in order to be in the right position with the right camera and flash settings. What helped somewhat was the fact that the chapel was quite small inside so I really didn’t have a lot of options for where I was going to be. Because of that, I knew I wouldn’t accidentally be caught in the back of the church when it was time for the kiss, even if I hadn’t already memorized the program. Also, because of the space limitations, I didn’t have to change my camera settings and flash too often throughout the ceremony. Everything stayed fairly constant.
After the ceremony, there was a brief portrait session inside the church. I already had the lightstand ready laying behind a pew in the back of the church so all I had to do was grab it and bring it up front. It was my beautiful assistant (my girlfriend) that actually suggested this while we were killing some time before the ceremony. Thanks baby! It was a good thing, too, because we didn’t have much time for portraits before we had to be out of the chapel. The portraits went well. We did all the major groupings such as bride and groom with bridal party, with parents, with family, etc. Thanks again to my lovely assistant for manually holding the lightstand up above the pews for the larger group photos! I wish we would have had a little more time for the portraits to let us get a little creative but we got some good shots in the time we had. The outdoor portrait session that we had originally planned was canceled as well since the both the bride and groom were looking forward to getting back to the house for the reception. I offered to do an outdoor portrait session with them at some point in the near future if they decided they needed some outdoor shots.
After we got back to the reception, we took a few portraits right outside the house and inside before eating. The newly-married couple were nice enough to add my girlfriend and I to the guest list so we had a seat at one of the tables where we could take a break and grab something to eat.
After eating, I headed back into the main dining area where I was able to photograph the toast, the removal of the garter and the throwing of the bouquet. After that, I stuck around for about two hours of dancing before heading out.
All in all, I had a great time! It was definitely exhausting work and very challenging but I learned a lot! And, now, even though I may not be ready take on another full wedding by myself soon, the prospect doesn’t frighten me as much as it once did. I look forward to improving my skills and photographing my next wedding!
Coming soon: Part 2 of the wedding recap! I’ll include some tips, impressions, things I’m glad I did, and things I wish I had done… And maybe a couple shots from the wedding!
Tags: recap, weddingI started writing up my list of equipment to bring last night but, as I was packing it up this morning, I figured I might as well rewrite it here, both to share with all of you, and to make sure I wasn’t forgetting anything. So, here it goes…
I think that’s about it… I’ll update the list when I begin packing.
Tags: equipment, wedding
As I’ve alluded to in previous posts, I will be shooting my first wedding today! A few months ago one of my girlfriends friends referred me to one of her friends who was getting married soon. But, they were looking to save a little money, the wedding was going to be very small, and they didn’t want to spend thousands of dollars on a photographer so, they came to me. At first, I tried turning it down. I just didn’t quite feel like I was ready for the pressure of photographing someone’s wedding on my own. The plan was to assist some photographers for a little while before I started taking my own wedding clients. After hearing about how small the wedding would be, and that they were afraid they wouldn’t be able to get a photographer if I turned it down, I decided to take it on.
A few weeks ago I met with the couple to get an idea of what they were looking for and, more than anything, to set expectations. I made sure to explain that I had never shot a wedding before but I also assured them that I would do the best that I could. I’m not charging very much at all because it’s my first time and, hey, who knows how well this is going to go? And, second, the real value in this, for me, is getting the chance to shoot a wedding entirely on my own without a massive amount of pressure. I think it will be the perfect chance to get some really good experience without stressing myself out too much.
Last night we attended the brief rehearsal at the chapel so I could get a good idea of the lighting conditions I’d be facing and, also, so I knew exactly how the ceremony would go so I knew where I needed to be at particular points during the ceremony.
Anyway, I likely won’t be updating the blog today… We have a long day ahead of us. We’re heading to the bride’s house at 10:30 to take some shots of her getting ready, then it’s off to the chapel at 1pm for the brief ceremony and portrait session afterwards, and then on to the reception!
Wish me luck!
Tags: weddingNext weekend, I am shooting my first wedding. It’s a very small event but it’s a wedding nonetheless. Because of that, I’ve been spending some time recently learning more about off-camera lighting. I thought I’d share some of the sites and tutorials I’ve found so far.
- Strobist - If you don’t know about Strobist yet, you either don’t do much photography or you just started using the Internet. Strobist is, by far, the best off-camera lighting site available.
- Strobist: Lighting 101 - The Strobist: Lighting 101 series is a great compilation of tutorials you’ll need to start with. They cover everything including how to use all the cool equipment you just ordered. 
- Lighting Essentials - Another great site with a TON of tutorials including tutorials and lessons for your models! Highly recommended!
- Photography and Design 101 - This is a great blog I just discovered recently. Some of the articles are even a little more basic than Strobist and include a lot of great images to illustrate the lessons. Check it out!
- Sublime Light - A great blog also designed to address your off-camera lighting knowledge deficit. They also have a series on Portrait Lighting for Beginners.
- DigitalProTalk - This has quickly become one of my favorite all-around photography blogs. David Ziser is an avid blogger and he loves sharing his insight into the photography business and is always willing to describe how he got a particular shot. A must read for any photographer who is looking to delve into wedding photography, or any photography for that matter!
- Midwest Photo Exhange Strobist Kits - Looking to get some gear to get you started but have no idea what to buy? Check out MPEX Strobist Kits! They have a few options of complete kits to get you started, almost all of them under $500.
Have any good off-camera lighting sites or tutorials I missed? Share them in the comments!
Tags: lighting, links, off-camera, weddingWow, it’s been a long time since I’ve done one of these. I’ve been doing my best to keep up on my Google Reader items but it hasn’t been easy! I want to thank those of you that have kept up with my blog and linked to articles of mine, even though I haven’t been around to visit many of yours…
That being said, here are only a couple articles I picked out in the last few days…
- Ever search job sites for “photography”? If you have, you’ve likely come across more than one ad for a real estate company who needs someone to shoot their properties. Photopreneur has an interesting article on Partnering With Real Estate Professionals.
- Friend of the blog Patty Hankins has a great article on Shooting Waterfalls.
- Have you ever wondered how to really experiment with your black and white images? Jeff over at PhotoWalkPro discusses some cool software specifically designed for just that!
- I’ll be shooting my first wedding in a couple weeks (more on that later) so I’ve been reading through this article from DPS: Wedding Photography Agreement (Contract) Tips
- Finally, friend of the blog, Samer Farha (Flickr stream here) is getting ready to go on a two-month trip around the world… Of course, he’ll be taking photos and blogging about his experiences. Follow his travels at his new blog: Perambulare.
That’s all for this week!
Tags: links, waterfalls, weddingI haven’t had a chance to blog in a few days… Sometimes, I’m simply too tired and other days the Internet connection is not working. But tonight, I opted out of the football match at the university so I could stay behind and catch up on some blogging.
On Saturday night, all of us went over to Sa’ed’s house for dinner. I met Sa’ed the last time I was in Nablus when he was head of Public Relations for An-Najah University. He is still very much involved with the Zajel program. On Saturday, he had us all over at his house where he gave lecture on the geopolitical history of the conflict, complete with a ton of maps showing different stages of the conflict. He also recounted the story of how his mother was killed in 2002 by the Israeli army while she was sitting on her front porch during a curfew. You can read about it on the website www.remembershaden.org.
On Sunday, after all of us had returned from the refugee camp, all of the international volunteers gave a presentation on the country they live in. Since most people know more about the United States than we could possibly cover in a single presentation, we decided to do short presentations on where we are from in the US. This meant that I gave a brief presentation on Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, complete with a few Terrible Towels. I gotta try and start that Steeler fan club here.!
After the presentations, one of the local families in our village invited us out to a wedding party that was happening right in front of our castle. What a blast! I was warmly welcomed with my camera and I was able to get inside the huge crowd and take some shots. With the action and lighting, it was probably some of the most technically difficult shooting I’ve done yet. But, I am really happy with some of the shots. You can see a few below… I’ll even be putting a bunch of them on DVD before I leave so that the wedding party can have them. Who would have thought my first wedding shoot would be in Palestine?
It’s that time of the week again… Time for me to share some of the interesting photography happenings around the web from the last week. Also, please note that “Friday Link Love” might be taking a short vacation as I continue my travels. I leave for India this weekend and I’ll be gone for two weeks. While I will certainly be blogging and posting photos while I’m there, I may not have the chance to post the weekly “Friday Link Love”. However, if anyone wants to volunteer to put together some links every week and send them along to me, I would certainly be grateful. Of course, you will get full credit and a link to your site.
Anyway, enough with the formalities, let’s get to the links!
- Thinking of being a wedding photographer? Photo District News has posted the results of an extensive survey of wedding photographers and their incomes. Definitely worth a read if you’re thinking about jumping into this field. Hat tip: David Ziser of DigitalProTalk
- Any LA photographers in the house? If so, consider checking out this Photographers’ Rights Protest on June 1st.
- Thinking of being a photojournalist? ProPhotoLife has interviewed photojournalist Colin Summers on how he managed to break into the field.
- The Photoshop Roadmap has a gallery of 40 free special effects Photoshop actions available for download.
- CameraPorn has published a great list of 60 Photography Links You Can’t Live Without!
- A new site Panoye has been launched specifically to be somewhat of a Flickr for panoramas. Cool stuff!
- I know we have some DC photographers here… A reader of the site, Gyuri, has notified me of FotoWeek/DC which is happening in November.
- Also, if you’re in DC, don’t forget to go down and check out Artomatic! It will be running until June 15th.
- A reader and frequent commenter on the site, Broderick, has recently launched his own photoblog. He already has some fantastic images up there so go check it out and give him some love.
That’s about it for this week… If I left anything out, let me know in the comments!
Tags: links, photojournalism, photoshop, protest, rights, wedding
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