Shooting a small, chill wedding, help!

**Tye 1on** · 08-07-2009, 01:52 PM

So a couple good friends are tying the knot, really low key and low budget. No wedding party, maybe 30 family and friends total, and no budget for a real photographer. I offered to shoot it just so at least one person was making a lame attempt. I'll be using her camera, a Canon PS SX110IS, 9MP, 10x optical zoom.

Any hints? Has an 8 gig card in it, should i set it for the biggest images, and superfine resolution or will that eat up too much of the card? I'm planning on having a spare card and batteries along, and will bring the laptop in case i have to dump the pictures onto it midstream.

Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated!

**gholman12** · 08-07-2009, 02:19 PM

8 gigs will take all the pictures you can possibly take and then some even on the largest setting in superfine resolution, so don't worry about that. If you have any experience with an SLR whatsoever I'd try to borrow one for the wedding, PS = point and shoot = piece of shit imho.

post up some results when you're done and good luck!

**bklyn** · 08-07-2009, 02:45 PM

Take her camera, attach a note on the carry string and leave it on the table. The note should encourage everyone at the wedding to take snapshots for the couple with it and then pass it along.

Borrow a more versatile camera for what you're volunteering to do and hopefully have some time to practice with it before hand.

Typically, bright white wedding dresses and dark suits throw off automatic metering on cheaper cameras and something suffers (blown out highlights on the dress, off skintones, lost shadow details suits, etc). If you capture the right moment, most people won't care about technical imperfections... so... keep your eyes open for them.

**Tye 1on** · 08-07-2009, 02:53 PM

Originally Posted by gholman12

8 gigs will take all the pictures you can possibly take and then some even on the largest setting in superfine resolution, so don't worry about that. If you have any experience with an SLR whatsoever I'd try to borrow one for the wedding, PS = point and shoot = piece of shit imho.

post up some results when you're done and good luck!

Thanks for the...beta. I'll change the settings. My buddy who just replaced his DSLR said i could borrow his old one...if it wasn't broken, so i'm stuck with the pos.

Originally Posted by bklyn

Take her camera, attach a note on the carry string and leave it on the table. The note should encourage everyone at the wedding to take snapshots for the couple with it and then pass it along.

Borrow a more versatile camera for what you're volunteering to do and hopefully have some time to practice with it before hand.

Typically, bright white wedding dresses and dark suits throw off automatic metering on cheaper cameras and something suffers (blown out highlights on the dress, off skintones, lost shadow details suits, etc). If you capture the right moment, most people won't care about technical imperfections... so... keep your eyes open for them.

Thanks T- not sure if he's even wearing a suit, but she will be bright. I'll try to find those moments, as i'm always so impressed when good shooters like you capture them so well. And thanks a ton for the 'camera on the table' idea. I'll do that with my little camera at the reception [thanks again for the deal El Chup!] and keep shooting away with the bigger one!
My only consolation is that they were going to rely solely on their friends' happy snaps until I offered, so at least they'll have something!

**nufenstein** · 08-07-2009, 02:56 PM

Originally Posted by gholman12

PS = point and shoot = piece of shit imho.

...Zing!

**Teague** · 08-07-2009, 05:05 PM

I think most professional wedding photographers have a shot list of classic wedding shots that they'll work from in addition to the candid spur-of-the-moment shots they shoot throughout the ceremony. Google "wedding photography shot list" or something similar and take a look at some of the shots that you might not think to seek out. Also, a little bit of knowledge when it comes to post processing can salvage some pretty botched shots. Simply knowing your way around the curves or levels tool in Photoshop or Gimp (free) can help save or improve a good percentage of your shots.

**single** · 08-07-2009, 05:27 PM

Tye, I would say your biggest concern at this point is to take as many photos as you can and dont lose them. Back up everything.

Chances are there will be many other guests with cameras. Between the ceremony and reception, or during a slow part wedding it could be in your interest to inform the other guests that you have a laptop there and would love it if they could dump their images onto it for the bride and groom. From previous experience, the guests should be stoked to participate in something.

But that would mean you would have to get a way for them to upload photos. You can find an SD/CF card reader for pretty cheap. Would probably make a pretty good wedding gift.

Good luck, dont feel too stressed. If you are having fun and being supportive you will not only get better pictures, but the B+G will probably be stoked on them because it reminds them of the good time they had. They definitely arent paying for professional images, so dont feel like you need to be held to that standard... at all.

If you have any interest in getting creative, or just getting some insight, check out this forum...

http://www.fredmiranda.com/forum/board/48

there are some fine wedding photogs there.

Final point- I usually find that people dont care that much about pictures of the groom, except for his mom. So if it comes down to taking a picture of one or the other, I would focus on the bride.

**Tye 1on** · 08-07-2009, 09:58 PM

Thanks a bunch y'all. Good stuff, knew you'd come thru. It's tomorrow, so a little sun dance for 12-2 in jackson would be appreciated. I'll check out that forum and do the suggested google. And Single, if you saw the bride, you'd know your last suggestion is a given.

**OSECS** · 08-08-2009, 05:40 AM

Well I thought this was gonna be a want ad for a hit on a small west Texas, bride to be is a hired trying to be retired, ninja assassin wedding complete with a small town father and son sheriff team and some cool background music.

I was gonna say post a lot of pics in black and white, but never mind.

**Todds** · 08-08-2009, 10:05 AM

Originally Posted by single

Chances are there will be many other guests with cameras. Between the ceremony and reception, or during a slow part wedding it could be in your interest to inform the other guests that you have a laptop there and would love it if they could dump their images onto it for the bride and groom. From previous experience, the guests should be stoked to participate in something.

Sounds like a great idea. Get someone else to volunteer to do the backup stuff. Maybe you could get a kid to do it. Make them part of the gig.

Make it known at the beginning of the wedding that the album will be made from everyones photos.

If the bride has some time today you may want to snap some shots of her in the dress so that you can figure out the best settings. Good luck.