In the deep end (a photography challenge)
Discussion
I've been pondering this for a while, and now I seek the advice of the knowledgeable photographers on here.
Straight to the point: I have been challenged to do the photographs at a family wedding next summer. It will be a small event. Am I mad to attempt this? Should I turn it down?
1) I've never done anything like this before.
2) The threads on here about wedding photography say quite emphatically 'don't do it'. But the couple just don't have the budget for a pro. I did consider hiring a pro myself on their behalf as a gift, but I wouldn't learn anything and I wouldn't have any kit. But an SLR, two lenses and necessary accessories will approach the same budget. But what a great excuse to buy a new camera...
3) My trusty Fuji bridge camera is not up to the job. I only keep using because it takes AA batteries, and has a very flexible lens (18-300 it claims). Do I go straight for a DSLR with a couple of lenses (research suggests 70-200 and something like a 50mm?) I'm expecting to need plenty of batteries and memory cards - an estimate would be useful, as there is a difference between buying two spares and ten, eight of which I'd not use much again. I'll need to purchase soon so I can get practicing. I'd also consider hiring a second identical body for the day if need be.
4) I'm really quite rubbish behind the camera - very much a beginner, although the couple seem to be happy with what I've achieved before (still-life and motorsport, I almost never take portraits), I just know there is an enormous gulf between my expectations, their expectations and likely outcome. But I have [some] time and enthusiasm to learn. I'd welcome suggestions for best places to learn/books to read to support practice? I've seen the best forum thread and will have a look through that.
5) I will lose the whole day working and not taking part in the event.
6) I've never done anything like this before.
So, am I mad to be thinking of doing this? Or should I really back down and just find a way to get someone who knows what they're doing?
Over to you.
Straight to the point: I have been challenged to do the photographs at a family wedding next summer. It will be a small event. Am I mad to attempt this? Should I turn it down?
1) I've never done anything like this before.
2) The threads on here about wedding photography say quite emphatically 'don't do it'. But the couple just don't have the budget for a pro. I did consider hiring a pro myself on their behalf as a gift, but I wouldn't learn anything and I wouldn't have any kit. But an SLR, two lenses and necessary accessories will approach the same budget. But what a great excuse to buy a new camera...
3) My trusty Fuji bridge camera is not up to the job. I only keep using because it takes AA batteries, and has a very flexible lens (18-300 it claims). Do I go straight for a DSLR with a couple of lenses (research suggests 70-200 and something like a 50mm?) I'm expecting to need plenty of batteries and memory cards - an estimate would be useful, as there is a difference between buying two spares and ten, eight of which I'd not use much again. I'll need to purchase soon so I can get practicing. I'd also consider hiring a second identical body for the day if need be.
4) I'm really quite rubbish behind the camera - very much a beginner, although the couple seem to be happy with what I've achieved before (still-life and motorsport, I almost never take portraits), I just know there is an enormous gulf between my expectations, their expectations and likely outcome. But I have [some] time and enthusiasm to learn. I'd welcome suggestions for best places to learn/books to read to support practice? I've seen the best forum thread and will have a look through that.
5) I will lose the whole day working and not taking part in the event.
6) I've never done anything like this before.
So, am I mad to be thinking of doing this? Or should I really back down and just find a way to get someone who knows what they're doing?
Over to you.
Thanks, you make an interesting point. Fortunately for me there will be at most 35-40 people, I think herding 100+ must be quite difficult. I'm also considering dishing out disposable point-n-shoots early in the day for others to play with, it worked out quite well at my sister's wedding.
Thank you all for the excellent advice. I have thought long and hard about this.
I have spoken to the person requesting my services - and made my position clear. They emphasised that if I don't do the photos, there will be no photos! The wedding is very small - in fact there is no budget for a photographer. So essentially I will be in the deep end as much as I'd rather not be.
The good news is I will have plenty of access to both couple and venue well before the event, so I should be able to overcome some problems in advance, and I have someone who can help with crowd control.
So, now for the camera - can anyone recommend one? Should I go for an DSLR? Or something like the Panasonic FZ200? For DSLR I'm leaning towards Canon based on previous experiences, although I'm open to Nikon/Sony etc as I don't have any lenses yet. Budget will be circa £500 for body. Are kit lenses best avoided (e.g. the 18-55)? Is there a better option? Bear in mind once done, I will be aiming to go back to motorsport and automotive photography, with some landscapes thrown in.
Thanks again.
I have spoken to the person requesting my services - and made my position clear. They emphasised that if I don't do the photos, there will be no photos! The wedding is very small - in fact there is no budget for a photographer. So essentially I will be in the deep end as much as I'd rather not be.
The good news is I will have plenty of access to both couple and venue well before the event, so I should be able to overcome some problems in advance, and I have someone who can help with crowd control.
So, now for the camera - can anyone recommend one? Should I go for an DSLR? Or something like the Panasonic FZ200? For DSLR I'm leaning towards Canon based on previous experiences, although I'm open to Nikon/Sony etc as I don't have any lenses yet. Budget will be circa £500 for body. Are kit lenses best avoided (e.g. the 18-55)? Is there a better option? Bear in mind once done, I will be aiming to go back to motorsport and automotive photography, with some landscapes thrown in.
Thanks again.
A small update:
I managed to borrow a Canon EOS 550D with the stock 18-55 kit lens and a UV filter. Played with it for an hour, and really happy with what I could achieve versus my old bridge camera. Happy with the general layout and controls so Canon it is. Currently scouting for offers on the 600D (and eBay, missed a few kits), although I am amused that Amazon sell the twin lens kit at more than the cost of buying the 18-55 and then getting the 55-250 separately.
Speaking of which, is the 55-250 IS worth bothering with? I gather from above suggests that its the need for a low aperture at the long end that will be the limiting factor, and I could stretch to the 70-200 f4 L knowing how highly rated it is, and how much use I could get out of it. The only issue is I often shoot racing at Silverstone, where 300m upwards is recommended. Of course, I could just crop from the 200. Thoughts? (also am I correct in saying that with 1.6 crop factor on APS-C, that 70-200 is more like 112-360?)
Also I have been experimenting with RAW and post-processing, plenty to learn but enjoying it.
I managed to borrow a Canon EOS 550D with the stock 18-55 kit lens and a UV filter. Played with it for an hour, and really happy with what I could achieve versus my old bridge camera. Happy with the general layout and controls so Canon it is. Currently scouting for offers on the 600D (and eBay, missed a few kits), although I am amused that Amazon sell the twin lens kit at more than the cost of buying the 18-55 and then getting the 55-250 separately.
Speaking of which, is the 55-250 IS worth bothering with? I gather from above suggests that its the need for a low aperture at the long end that will be the limiting factor, and I could stretch to the 70-200 f4 L knowing how highly rated it is, and how much use I could get out of it. The only issue is I often shoot racing at Silverstone, where 300m upwards is recommended. Of course, I could just crop from the 200. Thoughts? (also am I correct in saying that with 1.6 crop factor on APS-C, that 70-200 is more like 112-360?)
Also I have been experimenting with RAW and post-processing, plenty to learn but enjoying it.
Flibble said:
Maybe grab the 15-85 and a 70-200 or 70-300 to go with it.
I'm still undecided between the 70-200 f4 (better low light performance), a 70-300 (more reach) or the 55-250 (much cheaper and more flexible). Would it be a bad idea to get the 70-200 L without IS?I have borrowed a 550D again (with 18-55) and have a week to experiment. I've also been playing with Lightroom 5 beta, quite impressed with it so far (see below). I have access to Photoshop but it's very apparent that LR would be far better at managing many RAW files.
Straight from the camera (S6500fd, top), and after:
It's been quite a while so here's an update. First apologies I didn't do an ongoing update as planned, I got rather busy at the back end of last year/start of this year, in fact things have only really started to calm down, and that's just before it kicks off again!
After much experimenting with my ageing Fuji I acquired a Canon EOS600d earlier this year. I got a reasonable deal with a 18-55mm non IS and a 70-300mm, again non-IS. I also bought a 50mm f1.8, which is definitely my favourite of the three lenses. To go with that I slowly acquired a new tripod (MeFoto - feels built like a tank), remote and wired releases, numerous batteries and memory cards (16Gb 45Mbps Sandisk Extreme, £10 each) and a bag to lug it all about in. I also bought Adobe Lightroom as I was very impressed with the trial version and it was on offer at the time (£75 rather than £100). I then set about plenty of practice...
... surely he's not going to use those lenses I hear you cry? Correct! I took up a half-price offer from lensesforhire (even before I'd bought the body), and for a week in May I had a 24-70mm F2.8 L and a 70-200mm f2.8 L IS at my disposal. These lenses were superb, although the 70-200 feels very heavy after a solid days' use, the sharpness and amount of light it lets in is so useful. I deliberatly chose to not get an off-camera flash, something I don't regret as I feel there were only one or two situations it would have helped. Feel free to disgree when you see the final results! Pleased with the lenses, I hired them again for the wedding itself. I also borrowed a second body - a 550d, so almost identical to my 600d, so I could easily switch between the 24-70 and the 70-200. Both were set to RAW, spot metering, continuous shooting and generally used in aperture priority.
That week of practice, and much more, plus reading hundreds of articles and lots of kit testing and familiarisation, and scouting the venue with the couple prior to the event itself, meant on the day I was nervous but feeling confident I could do something. The day went fine, I shot less than half the exposures I had anticipated (around 930) despite heavy use of the continuous shooting mode. As much as everyone else was overjoyed to have bright sunshine and clear skies I was not, but I persevered, so there are some harsh shadows unfortunately. Many, many hours of messing about in Lightroom followed as I tried to narrow down the pictures, and tweak them to a standard I was happy with.
Much to my relief, the bridge and groom are really pleased with the final photos (they got around 150 different images of through the day), as are others who have seen them. So, success? I'd like to think so. Yes I made a few errors, and there are plenty of things I could have done better, but I learnt so much in the progress, I feel like my photography has moved on leaps and bounds, even if it may not show. The total bill for this misadventure approached four figures, but I now have lots of shiny new kit and a 70-200 is firmly on the 'save-up-for' list.
Here's a link to 20 of my favourite images from the day: https://www.flickr.com/photos/123597004@N08/sets/7...
It remains just to say a huge thanks to those who gave support and advice, and as for those of you who said don't do it, well
After much experimenting with my ageing Fuji I acquired a Canon EOS600d earlier this year. I got a reasonable deal with a 18-55mm non IS and a 70-300mm, again non-IS. I also bought a 50mm f1.8, which is definitely my favourite of the three lenses. To go with that I slowly acquired a new tripod (MeFoto - feels built like a tank), remote and wired releases, numerous batteries and memory cards (16Gb 45Mbps Sandisk Extreme, £10 each) and a bag to lug it all about in. I also bought Adobe Lightroom as I was very impressed with the trial version and it was on offer at the time (£75 rather than £100). I then set about plenty of practice...
... surely he's not going to use those lenses I hear you cry? Correct! I took up a half-price offer from lensesforhire (even before I'd bought the body), and for a week in May I had a 24-70mm F2.8 L and a 70-200mm f2.8 L IS at my disposal. These lenses were superb, although the 70-200 feels very heavy after a solid days' use, the sharpness and amount of light it lets in is so useful. I deliberatly chose to not get an off-camera flash, something I don't regret as I feel there were only one or two situations it would have helped. Feel free to disgree when you see the final results! Pleased with the lenses, I hired them again for the wedding itself. I also borrowed a second body - a 550d, so almost identical to my 600d, so I could easily switch between the 24-70 and the 70-200. Both were set to RAW, spot metering, continuous shooting and generally used in aperture priority.
That week of practice, and much more, plus reading hundreds of articles and lots of kit testing and familiarisation, and scouting the venue with the couple prior to the event itself, meant on the day I was nervous but feeling confident I could do something. The day went fine, I shot less than half the exposures I had anticipated (around 930) despite heavy use of the continuous shooting mode. As much as everyone else was overjoyed to have bright sunshine and clear skies I was not, but I persevered, so there are some harsh shadows unfortunately. Many, many hours of messing about in Lightroom followed as I tried to narrow down the pictures, and tweak them to a standard I was happy with.
Much to my relief, the bridge and groom are really pleased with the final photos (they got around 150 different images of through the day), as are others who have seen them. So, success? I'd like to think so. Yes I made a few errors, and there are plenty of things I could have done better, but I learnt so much in the progress, I feel like my photography has moved on leaps and bounds, even if it may not show. The total bill for this misadventure approached four figures, but I now have lots of shiny new kit and a 70-200 is firmly on the 'save-up-for' list.
Here's a link to 20 of my favourite images from the day: https://www.flickr.com/photos/123597004@N08/sets/7...
It remains just to say a huge thanks to those who gave support and advice, and as for those of you who said don't do it, well
Gassing Station | Photography & Video | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff