I seem to have volunteered to do pictures for a friend’s ultra low key wedding. She knows I’m an amateur, I won’t charge, and her expectations will be low so that’s all sorted. So now I’m shopping for gear, naturally 🙂

The consensus seems to be that off-camera flash is very important. So I’m thinking of a flash bracket like this:

There are cheap knock-off ones but they don’t have the handle to hold onto. I have had good results in the past bouncing the flash but I guess at a wedding you don’t always get appropriate walls to bounce off.

The other thing I may try and get is a wireless flash. I have a long cable that I use in our “studio” but I could imagine a standalone wireless flash could be really useful.

Assume you have a Speedlight? If the ceiling is low (and painted white) you’ll get away with bouncing the flash. Very few wedding togs I know (I’ve assisted but don’t ‘do’ weddings on my own) use one of those brackets. They might use direct flash with a diffuser over the speedlight. One wedding tog at a wedding I attended as a guest recently had a couple of speedlights on tripods using Pocket Wizards but that’s serious cash for a one-off. If you go wireless just make sure it’s reliable.

No idea what your standard is… My advice is recce the locations before you go and splash on any kit. You may well be fine with camera and speedlight mounted direct.

Have you got some pop up reflectors?.

Always handy .

Oh and can I suggest a tripod (remember that thread?) 😈

I have some reflectors yes, but not necessarily an assistant 🙂 The flash I have my eye on are around £90 s/h

I have tripods and brollies too, I could use those for some main portraits, but they might not want to go to that much trouble knowing the couple.

You can normally bounce off the ceiling or use a diffuser if you have to point the flash forward.

I can lend you a Speedlight if you need an extra flash (think mine in an 810).

Thanks.. I wonder to what extent it’ll work with my Olympus..

….ultra low key wedding….

….her expectations will be low so that’s all sorted…

Yeah Right!

Good luck fella…

I’d have thought you’d be better off getting one of those Lumiquest accessory kits for your flash.

The photoghrapher at our wedding used the flash on camera apart from a few very specific shots of us with the venue in the background, when he had his assistant stand to the side with the flash and fired it wirelessly.

Make sure you have enough batteries for the camera and the flash, that everything works and I’d want a back-up, even if it was a camera borrowed off a friend that I wasn’t 100% familiar with.

Has been done before:

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XlIqbTmrTOA[/video]

When you get your flash learn how to use it.

Shooting with a speedlight is very different. I don’t know how you shoot normally but unless in daylight using a flash for fill in shooting in Aperture or Shutter Priority mode is hopeless with the flash in auto.

I usually leave the flash in auto. Turn the camera to manual. Remember you are setting the exposure of the background with the aperture / shutter speed and iso, and letting the camera / flash automatically sort out the exposure of the foreground subjects.

Your best investment would be a pack of about 20-30 2500ah AA rechargables and a 2hr fast charger.
Or hire a battery pack with shoulder strap.

And why did you volunteer? Wouldn’t you rather be stood with a glass of champagne in your hand with nothing to worry about apart from when the food is going to be served?
Never volunteer to photograph a wedding, avoiding that situation is a basic life skill.

Yeah Right!

Good luck fella…This.

If it is a good friend rather leave the camera at home and enjoy the day.

You may enjoy it though, good luck either way.

My flash has TTL, so for snaps I go with that and get good results.

As it happens, my wife’s camera is the same system so that’ll be my backup. Good point about the batteries, I’m not used to taking that many pictures at once 🙂

If it is a good friend rather leave the camera at home and enjoy the day.

They’re not close friends – they are only inviting the minimum so I wouldn’t be invited if I weren’t taking photos. Also I wouldn’t be going if I thought they were going to be arsey about it!

Modern camera with fast lens. High iso sorted..
Weekend lens rental from the likes of calumet.unless you know what your doing flashed pics look sheeite unless youve got some power and a decent diffucer and a assistant

If it’s a sunny day, use the flash outside to lift shadows under hats etc, under expose the flash by 1 stop at least though

When inside, make sure your camera exposure matches what it would be outside so it looks like the right light coming in through the windows.

Always expose for the brides dress. This may mean under exposing everyone else. If you don’t, you risk making the bride look like a head popped ontop of a white triangle

The hardest thing about wedding photography is crowd control. Do the big group shot first than let them get a drink, in dribs and drabs as your group gets smaller and smaller until you’re just left with the bride and groom, tell them all this is what you are going to do or you will be forever dragging folk out of the bar for another photo etc. not good.

Have fun and keep it simple.

Edit : Don’t take a tripod, if you can’t hold a camera still at 125th, you shouldn’t be holding a camera, leave it on auto white balance.

Modern camera with fast lens

Just let me get my credit card out then 😉

Good tips chl thanks.

Lens how is a good start, but might be more difficult for you on Olympus bodies. High ISO and a fast lens works well, I hired a Sigma 18-35 f/1.8 for the last wedding I did and it was stunning. I’ve ended up in the same boat as you (again) so will be taking the same to the next one.

The accessory bracket isn’t that necessary, going back to your original post.

Yeah, I’d be looking at getting the fastest lens possible and boostinf the ISO if needed. Some of the best wedding photography I’ve seen uses mainly natural light (http://www.helenwhitaker.com), with barely any flash at all. Obviously that’s a personal preference thing, but that’s what I’d be trying to do if I wasnt 100% familiar/confident with a flash.

Why bother? Trust me, it isn’t going to be worth it.

1) There’s a HUGE amount of stress involved, before, during and after the wedding.
2) You are getting no financial reward, and are an amateur, so use what you have and if it’s not good enough, bow out before getting the credit card out.
3) If you’re asking such “basic” questions about flash photography then are you (honestly) up to the job? (honest question, not a criticism).
4) You’ll need an assistant. Getting the right people in the right place at the right time is a nightmare. Also things like a back-up camera will be required.

I’ve done a few, as an assistant and one with another photographer, and they were all very stressful. That’s why wedding photographers charge “a fortune” 🙄

Do’t do it, let the tight-wad pay for a photographer!

Why bother?

A favour to a friend who doesn’t have much money and can’t afford a real photographer. She has realistic expectations, and just wants some pictures better than P&S snaps from her relatives.

If you’re asking such “basic” questions about flash photography then are you (honestly) up to the job? (honest question, not a criticism).

I know a bit about flash and lighting, I’m just after people’s opinions. As to wether I’m up to it – I can do better than Aunt Mabel with her phone, so that’s an improvement 🙂

And the credit card thing was sarcasm, hence the smilie 🙂 I may use it as an excuse to buy a remote flash, that I’ve been wanting for a year or two.

Lens-wise I’ve got a Sigma 30mm f1.4 which should be fine, and knowing the camera as well as I do I can get good enough results for prints at 2000 ish, perhaps more depending on the scene. The venue isn’t going to be particularly bright and it’ll be October, so we’ll see.

The best pictures will be ones taken from a little distance when the subject’s don’t know they are being photographed, eg chatting and laughing with fellow guests etc. So my number 1 gear recommendation would be some longer distance lenses. I would also find a way to do some practicing, how to take photos in a crowd from a little distance and not be noticed. Then make sure you know who the main people and make sure you have some decent photos of them plus of course the key ceremony moments.

Molgrips – as I said, I was in the same boat as you earlier in the year.

I got the ‘why bother, get them to fork out for a professional’ questions on another forum when I asked for some wedding photography tips. Mainly from people who shoot a lot of weddings and, as far as I could tell, didn’t want any more competition. Thing was, it was pretty much the same situation: A good friend who couldn’t afford a professional wedding photographer and was willing to risk an important part of their big day taking a pretty big chance on me. That put the stress on, but talking to them, getting an idea of what they wanted, letting them know that I was happy to do it but working out of my comfort zone, etc. really helped. They’d both seen my sports shooting before, liked my style, and were more than happy for me to set my own agenda for the day.

I don’t know anything about your photographic skills, so apologies if any of this sounds really patronising. The biggest tips I got from the first wedding I ever shot:

– Scout the venue as much as you can. If you can be there for the rehearsal, brilliant.
– Talk to the celebrant in advance about where you can and can’t stand, move, be during the ceremony, and whether you can use flash in the church/venue.
– Get a shooting list from the bride of what they want by way of Formals. That helps stop family politics getting in the way of your shots.
– Have an ‘assistant’ or nobble one of the Ushers/Bridesmaids into helping you locate and arrange family members in formal shots.
– Don’t leave your camera bag in shot (my only mistake, and only in one, non-crucial shot… Still kicking myself about that one.)
– Pack a shedload of spares – camera batteries, flash batteries, memory cards etc. My camera bag weighed a ton, but I used nearly everything I carried.
– Have backups of EVERYTHING. I carry two camera bodies which take pairs of memory cards (Nikon D7000). I had one memory card glitch/corrupt on me. Fortunately, the paired setup means I didn’t lose anything.
– Have some snacks in your camera bag. It can be a long day, and champagne goes straight to your head.
– 99.9% of the time, the unexpected shots work out better than the planned ones. If you’re used to shooting sport stuff you’ve probably got good at shooting things that happen pretty quickly and you don’t get a second chance at. That’s a wedding, really.

Fortunately, there will only be about 6 guests, which is really going to help. My wife would love to assist and take her own candid snaps too, but the only people who would watch the kids are the ones getting married 🙂

I agree about the candid/tele shots, that’s my favourite way of taking photos of gatherings. My 40-150 is very small and I’ve found people really don’t notice it pointing at them. Esp when half pissed 🙂

You’re lucky, I had three families to deal with. Bride’s parents divorced when she was quite young, so two sets of family shots and all the associated politics to deal with…

Olympus lens’, accessory hire here.

If you’re DSLR, £20-£30 will get you the 12-60 or 14-54mm for a few days, flashes for hire as well.