I've not read any of the above but these are my thoughts having been asked to do a couple of friends weddings.
* Make sure they know your level of competance before hand. Without being rude you sound like you have a very basic understanding of photography. Show them examples of what you can/can't do. At minimum you need to understand depth of field.
* Make sure you understand what type of photos they want, I'm not good at formal photos so avoided doing both.
* Make a list of all the photos they want and when and then be prepaired to struggle to get people to be there when you want them.
* Rope the Mrs in to taking some shots too, you can gurantee you will fudge one of the important shots, thats why you pay a pro.
* Take lots of shots, but dont get in peoples way.
* Use one wide to normal and one zoom lense. I've got a 28-70 and 75-300
* Be prepaird to not enjoy the day and spend hours after cropping photos etc to their best potential.
* Serach the web for a good album site, this can really make your pics amazing. Both weddings I did people thought the shots and albums were done by a pro.... although any one with a little knowledge could see the poor quality of stock lenses and built in flash.
Nice split between answers to my questions and general debate / high-hoorsery so at least STW is continued as usual.
Funkydunc, I've had the camera for about 4 years now and over that time have worked out a basic understanding of the principles although have never really managed to put it into practice successfully. As said above it's a thing you need to learn and to do that you need to spend time practicing which is something I never seem to be able to do.
I love taking pictures of the family but they do get bored when I ask them to hold the pose for a 5th time while I try something else. I'm also not the most patient of people and for these reasons end up trying to snap pictures on auto that I hope will look nice in the electronic family album.
I won’t be buying any more lenses at the moment, I just can't justify the expense for something that I'd like to do more of but in practice struggle to spend more time one.
I'll take away some of these ideas and do some more research then subject the family to some practice sessions to try it all out I reckon.
while working with many people who regard you largely as a fly on the wall rather than an invited guest.
Surely as a pro that's exactly what you are? Or are you just a really popular guy
The point I was making is that it changes the dynamic in terms of the way people react to the photographer. In some ways for the better, in some ways not so much. A pro photographer can easily become pretty unpopular if they're not careful. They're there to do a job. Doing that job involves persuading people to accommodate the photographer's wishes from time to time. When the photographer's a pro and not one of the guests, that fact has an impact on how people respond.
I'll take away some of these ideas and do some more research then subject the family to some practice sessions to try it all out I reckon.
Yay! A good result all round, then 🙂
When the photographer's a pro and not one of the guests, that fact has an impact on how people respond
That's what I was referring to about MF's pics above, where the bride is grinning at the camera. She probably wouldn't have reacted to a stranger the same way 🙂
That particular subject probably would - she is unreasonably happy. 😀
