Note: This text
is a work in progress, and should be considered a FIRST DRAFT
of this FAQ. It's still pretty useful!
Section One -
"Should I Shoot This Wedding?"
The question "my friend/sister/2nd cousins best friends dog groomers son can't afford a professional photographer asked me to do their wedding photos because they loved a photo of a mountain I took, otherwise they'll only have disposable cameras, should I do it?"
The question is usually followed by a list of equipment, and a bit of background about the person. The replies that people get vary between "you're an idiot to consider it", "what's the harm", to answers that are actually well thought out. It's impossible to answer this generic question well without knowing the full background of the customer, the photographer, and the situation, so I’ll discuss a few things that often come up.
The customer, whether they’re friends, family, or anyone else, will be referred to as “the customer” throughout this document.
1.1 Working for
friends and family
Working for friends and family isn't like working for a customer. Generally they take you for granted, and don't give you the respect they'd give a hired professional or even another free photographer who's not family. There's potential to lose friends, alienate family, and cause various rifts that you might not even know about. Did you forget to take a photo of Aunt Hilda with the bride? Even if it wasn't requested? You’d better watch out for rat droppings in your next Christmas dinner.
1.2 Expectations
What would the customer expect from you as their photographer? Do they want traditional posed images, or contemporary images with brides in fields of long grass or standing on the edge of a cliff in front of a stunning sunset?
Do they want these images as 6x4” prints? In an album or a book? Just a CD of 800 fully retouched photos? Do they need guidance about planning their wedding day? These are all things that can reasonably be expected from a professional that a beginner might not be able to provide.
If you do decide to do a wedding, make sure you set expectations appropriately. Promise low, but aim high. For my first wedding I promised to show up, but said if I forgot to take the lens cap off all day that’s just tough. When the bride saw the photos she cried, and told me she was quite nervous after what I’d told her to expect, but she loved the photos.
1.3 Payment
The aim of this wedding is either to help someone you know out, or to get yourself experience to be able to get paid for doing it. In my opinion you shouldn’t ask for payment for your few weddings, especially because once you’re being paid expectations are raised. It’s quite reasonable to ask for expenses such as fuel, prints at cost, albums, or film (if you can find an antique camera that uses it).
Wedding photographers are expensive. Do you know why? It’s because of the initial and ongoing training, their knowledge and experience, and the overheads of advertising and running a business, not to mention a lot of expensive equipment. Many professional photographers make their entire living doing wedding photography, and of course they need to make a reasonable living doing it. Wedding photography is an art, but professional wedding photography is first and foremost a business. Never forget that.
1.4 Equipment
I’ll touch on equipment here, in the context of someone doing their first wedding. A later section will address the type of equipment someone setting up as a professional photographer will need.
So you have a big fancy camera. At least it looks like a big fancy camera to most people, even if it’s just a 300D with the kit lens. Maybe you have a 40D or a 1 series camera, with a couple of expensive lenses and an external flash. Maybe you even have the biggest best most expensive camera available, a dozen L lenses, and enough equipment you could sell it and buy a house. That’s great, but it doesn’t qualify you to shoot a wedding. No matter what it is most people look at them and think “wow that’s a big camera, it must take great photos”. Of course we all know that the photographer is the most important part of that system, but most people don’t know that. You have a big camera, therefore you must be a professional, or dag nabbit be so close.
Equipment does matter. A modern camera will help you out a lot, in terms of high ISO performance, ease and speed of operation, and may help you get more accurate exposures. An external flash will be more powerful and give you more creative options than the internal flash. Studio lights will help you out in dark indoors areas or if it rains. Don’t forget though the best equipment available in the hands of an inexperienced person gives them false confidence, whereas an experienced person with limited equipment has the experience to understand the limitations of the equipment and work around them. I’d personally rather have an experienced photographer with a single 20D, a good prime lens, and an external flash shoot my wedding than a beginner with the best equipment available.
Let’s cut to the chase. If you have a 300D and the kit lens (18-55 F3.5–F5.6) and no external flash you’re probably going to run into problems. You really want to be at the longer end of the lens for most of your photos as at the wide end people look distorted, especially at 24mm or wider. The long end of the kit lens is F5.6, which is quite slow, and will likely require light to be added for indoor photos. It will also limit your ability to use a narrow depth of field to blur out busy backgrounds or ugly guests. With high ISO you might manage good exposures, but you’re likely to run into issues indoors with not having a fast enough shutter speed. Another limitation of the kit lens is it can flare quite badly when there are bright lights that can shine directly on the lens, even if they’re not in the frame. Using an onboard flash will result in flat images, but at least they’ll be reasonable sharp. All this applies for consumer zooms – they're fine outside especially if there’s no direct sunlight, but otherwise quite limiting. It is possible to shoot with this equipment, but I would strongly recommend against it.
I recommend the Canon 40D as the current sweet spot for wedding photographers. It has great resolution, is reliable, and I like the 1.6X crop. Full frame cameras tend to have more distortion at the edges, making peoples heads look funny shapes, which I don't much like. The top of the range camera at the moment is the Canon 1D Mark III, it'd be a great camera in general, but for a wedding photgrapher it might be overkill. For sports or tough conditions it'd be great. If you need the 1D3 get it, if not, get two 40D's instead. Either way you MUST have a good backup camera, for reasons I outline below.
My suggested minimum equipment is a better quality F2.8 zoom like the Tamron 28-75 F2.8 or Sigma 24-70 F2.8. A fast prime is a useful addition for reception shots; anywhere between 24 and 50mm is a good length, with my preference being on the wider side. A wide lens is handy for smaller rooms, with an external flash the kit lens is acceptable. Longer lenses can come in handy for staying out of the way, but consumer grade long zooms like the 75-300 or 100-300 are often a bit slow to be useful indoors.
My ideal wedding photo lens set is the Canon 17-55 F2.8 IS, the Canon 70-200 F2.8 IS, a fast prime like a Sigma 30mm F1.4 or Canon 50mm F1.4, and a macro lens, like the Canon 100mm F2.8 macro or the slightly cheaper Canon 60mm F2.8 macro. Add a 580EX and a 430EX speedlite or better, a light stand/tripod, and some way to bounce the off-camera 2nd flash into an umbrella, and you’re set. The 70-200 F4 IS is the slightly slower little brother to the F2.8 IS version, while I wouldn't buy it myself it may suit people with small budgets. Also note that the 17-55 F2.8 IS isn't as reliable as some lenses, so having a backup is essential, even if it is a 50 F1.8. I think the 17-55 is valuable enough that I bought two of them.
If you want to do quality work wide open, do NOT get the 50mm F1.8. Its focus motor isn’t accurate enough to consistently focus accurately at wide apertures. You only get one chance at a shot in wedding photography, make sure your equipment is up to the task. For less demanding tasks the 50mm F1.8 is a good value lens.
Having only one camera is also risky. I’ve personally experienced 20Ds, 30Ds, and 40Ds failing at the worst possible moment, such as during the ceremony as the couple is about to kiss. Since I have two backup cameras I just drop the problem camera, grab one of the others, and keep on going. It’s usually a quick fix when I have time to look at the camera, but during the ceremony or the cutting of the cake you don’t have time. If you’re doing a wedding as a favour try and borrow or rent a second body, but given you’ve already set expectations low you’d probably be ok without one.
An external flash is also a must-have. These give you the ability to bounce the flash off the ceiling or the walls, to create shadows and graduated lighting, which can make a big difference to the quality of your images. Lighting is one of the keys to making photos with real impact. A 420EX or better will do the job fine, as will the Sigma 500 series. A 580EX gives you more flexibility. A Canon CP-E4 will reduce the flash cycle time from 7 seconds to 2 seconds, give or take, and is highly recommended. I use one on each flash, especially when one flash is on a light stand.
You’ll also need plenty of memory. An 8MP camera fits approximately 100 RAW images on a 1GB card, or around 300 JPGs. The 10.1MP 40D fits about 70 images per GB. RAW gives you a lot of latitude to fix exposure and colour temperature if you mess them up, which you’re more likely to do as a beginner, so RAW is a good idea if you have the space. My suggestion is if you’re game to shoot JPG make sure you have 4-8GB of memory, if you shoot RAW aim for 15-20GB. Rent, beg, or borrow. Make sure whatever type of memory you have its reliable, there’s nothing worse than shooting the perfect image only to lose it to a card failure. I’ve found Sandisk Ultra II to be reliable, as well as Kingston Elite Pro, but I don’t personally trust Lexar or the smaller brands. Honestly memory's so cheap now just grab a bunch. I use Sandisk 4GB and 8GB cards.
1.5 Preparation
A good period of time to prepare for your first wedding is 3 months. That gives you time to get to grips with using your camera under pressure, reading about weddings and posing, and getting to grips with exposure with lots of black and white material around. You should be able to set up your camera to whatever mode/settings you like inside of 5 seconds, in complete darkness.
To support the development of this FAQ please click the following links and purchase the books from www.amazon.com. Alternately please make a donation to POTN, my favourite photography forum, on this web page. More book recommendations can be found here.
Here’s a list of recommended books.
Understanding Exposure (Bryan Peterson)
(you MUST understand exposure, flash exposure, and balancing light sources before you can shoot anything professionally)
Digital Wedding Photography (Paul Gero)
(quite simple, a good first wedding photography book)
Posing for Portrait Photography: A Head-to-Toe Guide (Jeff Smith)
(essential reading)
The Best of Wedding Photojournalism: Techniques and Images from the Pros (Bill Hurter)
(essential reading)
The Art of Wedding Photography: Professional Techniques with Style (Bambi Cantrell, Skip Cohen)
(Not my favourite book, and is a bit dated now, but some people like it.)
Wedding Photography - A Better Way (Scott Smith)
http://www.lightingmagic.com/weddinbk.htm
(Scott is a master photographer with a unique view, and is more interesting reading that essential reading.)
http://www.aljacobs.com/
(Another interesting read, and it's free.)
1.7 Contracts
Keep it simple. Promise nothing, specify what will be delivered, and any costs/expenses. Address the issue of image ownership and high resolution images (JPG). Consult a lawyer familiar with photography, or use a contract prepared by a local professional photography association.
1.8 Summary
Wedding photography is an art, and a business, and not
something to be entered into lightly. With this short introduction I’ve raised
some of the issues, and given you something to think about. Further information
follows in later chapters (when I get time to write them).