Very Nervous and Concerned about lighting

[ChowChi-Ching]

I am so very nervous. I am meeting with a guy Thursday evening about doing his wedding pictures! His wedding is in April, so I have a little time to prepare but here is what is making me so nervous, this guy is a photographer, he has done weddings before. I have not EVER done a wedding. Everyone thinks I will do fine but I am terrified of screwing up this persons wedding pictures.
I prefer natural light/outdoor pictures. This is in a restaurant(they have reserved the entire dining area of Luigis!) I am going crazy. I know I shouldn't be as nervous as I am. I wonder if everyone that does their first wedding is like this?
How do you prepare for lighting in a restaruant?

[Sebastian]

Being nervous is understandable. I went to several weddings as a guest and assisted before doing a wedding on my own, but it's still nerve-wrecking.

As for the lighting, hopefully the restaurant has low ceilings, if it does, bring lots of fast-recycling NIMH AAs and bounce as much as you can. But even if you can't bounce, direct flash with a slight shutter drag can look very cool, especially when there is action.

[JSPhoto]

Hehehe, I get nervous all the time, I actually do better work when I am nervous Of course I don't shoot weddings but I don't want to screw up either. The problem with shooting sports is you can end up part of the action too easily. I have noticed on numerous occasions that as a photographer, at times all eyes are on you. Nothing like a gym full of people staring at you
And this morning was another problem, I can't go ANYWHERE without being recognized! I went to a county court three counties away to do a small claims suit today and walk into the clercks office and before I could get all the way in the door a guy looks and says "oh, theres the photographer". Basically once you start working in large groups you will be recognized....and that makes me nervous

JS

[drg]

1. Call the restaurant. Ask nicely if you can come in during off-hours (such as morning for most better lunch and dinner eateries) and take some test shots. Explain you are THE photographer for the wedding event.
2. Get a flash bracket, like a Stroboframe to get the flash off the center line of the camera, you may need a few other accesories like an off camera flash cable/cord.
3. Look at some of the Lumedyne or other similar flash modifier products to 'soften' the on camera flash if you can't bounce off a ceiling. Also some ceilings in dining establishments now have sound/fire proofing material that is not very reflective and soaks up light! There are a couple of nice Mini Soft Box products out now that fit on your flash and do a fair job. Get the bigger ones, the little ones just are annoying and will sometimes put a 'shape' in your photos. I used one this past summer that was about 10 inches square (a rectangle really that's 10+ inchs on the long side) with Nikon gear (SB-600flash) that produced very good results.

Also as Sebastian said, get lots of batteries. We mean lots of batteries. 3 or 4 sets minimum. Unless you are not planning on taking many pics.

4. Find a setting or two that work well when doing test flash shots. Figure out how far away you are from your subject, what the conditions are for the background (color/reflectivity and distance certainly) and then when you are shooting the event, stick with those parameters to minimize problems. Photograph people in the test shots.

Shooting for another photographer? That's an ambitious first wedding shoot. Either that or he knows something! Search the forums here for lots of other information about wedding photography. Shots lists, handling crowds, what to shoot as required and specials.

The one serious advice I repeat frequently is, wear good and comfortable shoes. If you are sitting, you are not shooting! Best of luck and let us know if there's anything else. Lots of good wedding photographers in the world. Lots of bad ones also. Preparation makes up for a lot in this area as the party just keeps on going and nobody will ever successfully get it to even slow down!!

[another view]

I moved this one into the Help forum. Take a look here at older threads - think there was something recently about weddings.

Luigi's sounds like an Italian place (this guy's brilliant, ain't he?) and typically that means dark. Definately take a look at it but make sure that the light levels are what you will see the night of the shoot. Seb's idea of dragging the shutter is a good one but can be an over-used technique and will require some practice if you're not familiar with it. Do it for a few shots here and there, but I wouldn't do a whole lot of it.

The person hiring you is a photographer - do they know that you haven't done this sort of thing before? It's not rocket science but there are some tricks you'll pick up along the way. I'm not doing them anymore, but I think it's important to be up front with who you're dealing with. I wouldn't sign a contract or anything. If they're comfortable with you it could be a great way to push yourself and get some experience. Comfortable shoes help!

[Grandpaw]

A few things I might add. I know that I do not have the knowledge that some do on this forum but these are some things learned over the years.

Check out and get your equipment ready several days before and check it ALL out. If you need to fix or purchase something this will give you some time to do it. An hour before time to go is NOT when you want to discover that you have a problem.

I found out the hard way, but I would not take any wedding pictures or anything else without having backup equipment such as a second camera, flash and batteries. You never know when something will stop working or get broken I might add to keep your camera bag and the extra equipment in a safe place. A friend of mine had his extra camera setting out and someone grabbed it and started taking pictures.

Check ahead of time to see if there are any special shots they want taken.

Also ask ahead of time if taking pictures during the ceremony is OK. Some want the pictures taken during the ceremony and some want them afterwards.

Make sure you have plenty of memory or film so that you don't run out. You can never have too much!

Find out if someone special has come a long way to the wedding or the is a special friend and make sure and get pictures of them with the bride and groom.

Something I like to do is to ask ahead of time if there is someone that knows all the family members that could help you locate the different people for group shots. This makes things go much easier.

Be ready to take the pictures. Each second of delay when taking group shots will loose smiling faces.

The day before the wedding get all your equipment together and ready to go. If you wait untill just before time to go to gather things you need you will be nervous and could forget something.

As soon as the wedding is over make sure and remind everyone especially the men to keep the jackets, ties and everything else on for picture taking. If parts are missing and the picture taking is delayed there will be many faces that are not smiling.

Added this... You might want to find out the status of the parents. Trying to put mom and dad together at the wedding for a picture if they are separated or divorced may not be a good idea. This could cause a bad scene and ruin the wedding.

[another view]

Also ask ahead of time if taking pictures during the ceremony is OK. Some want the pictures taken during the ceremony and some want them afterwards.

All good advice, but to this I'd add that it should be the person performing the cermony who should be asked. Most people will want pictures of the ceremony, but you'll have to follow the rules. Standard rules are that no flash can be used after the bride walks down the aisle. This will mean that you'll need a tripod and probably a long fast lens (80-200 f2.8 is probably best) and a high ISO setting on your camera like 800.

[Grandpaw]

Your right, I should have clarified that about asking the one performing the ceremony and not asking the bride or groom.

I take several pictures during the ceremony but do it with available light so that taking pictures doesn't take away from the wedding. If you go ahead and plan out how to move around without distracting make sure ahead of time any doors that you may need to go through are not locked.

I almost forgot a biggie.... You need to find out what is going to happen during the wedding and when. If they plan on lighting the two candles and then joining together to light the third you need to know so you will be in a good position to get the shot.

A good thing to do would be to look at a few sets of wedding pictures to get ideas.

One shot I always take that everyone has always liked is the bride and groom puts their ring hands on top of one another with the rigs showing of course on top of the marriage certificate. Take it close up with the brides bouquet next to the certificate to add color.