The budget Nikon wedding photography thread

I'm a big fan of Bresson's moments and I think weddings are full of them. But capturing moments needs some preparation and trained senses. Know how the ceremony works, the procedure and when to have which possibility for shooting what. It's also good to know the location, where you can get or hide some ladders when you need to get a view from above and what a good background looks like. Being prepared is setting the stage for a good picture. One shot that will need a lot of preparation is the group portrait. Group portraits are hard, you're under pressure and you will make many wrong decisions if you don't prepare. Think about camera settings beforehand, how you get the people to the place, how you gain and maintain their attention. You've got to talk to them, entertain them and take pictures at the same time. While thinking about composition, group layout, technical aspects, aperture, ISO, shutter speed, lighting, positioning, hidden faces, closed eyes, shadows, whether everyone is on the picture etc. I've seen Pros failing with group portraits over and over. Noise is always a problem, you probably have to use fill flash or other light sources.

One of my favorite moments is to sneak into the priest's position while he's doing the holy communion and get some good shots when people don't care for the camera. Usually you have a lot of action going on so it's quite an interesting picture with a lot to explore and discover. Your best pictures usually tells some kind of a story, however one which need not be really fancy. I always like the simple stories best, simple and honest works good. More meaning doesn't always make it better.

Why aren't lenses so important? Because you can tell stories with any kind of lens. You can for example focus totally on the face of some people and get a series of different expressions (if the people are comfortable with such close-ups) using a tele. The story is in the succession of the pictures. You can go further away more into normal and try to focus on the interaction between a selected few or go wide-angle and focus on the whole scene. Of course you can try everything on one day. Isn't it a long day after all?

The worst that can happen is that you fall into shooting the same stuff over and over in the same way. Sharpen your senses to detect these situations and do something completely stupid to get out of it, like shooting from the hip. Putting your camera on self timer and get in the scene for yourself or give the camera to someone else and ask them to do a portrait of you and the bride/groom. It's always interesting to see how other people take portraits. The naive picture is often one that has an interesting touch. Just do something totally different. You can regain a lot of creativity from that.

The other bad thing that can happen is direct flash. Avoid direct flash at all costs if there are suitable natural light sources (except for group portraits). It's okay when there's no other light, but mixing flash and natural light usually doesn't look good. It looks artificial and ugly. People will be framed by their own shadow. Yuck! BUT! You can create a nice sidelight with flash. Trigger it remotely by holding the camera in one hand the flash in the other pointing at the subject from the side creates an entirely different picture. Or bounce it. But, watch out for unwanted shadows. Try to google images for "direct flash" and "bounced flash" and you'll immediately feel the difference. But bouncing is just one possible way to escape the direct flash trap. If you're shooting outside and in the sun absolutely get a reflector. Don't fiddle with fill flash, chances are high that you won't get it right (except for group portraits). A reflector is easy to handle for everyone and I'm sure you can ask someone to assist you. Reflectors usually have a white and a gold side. The gold creates a nice warmer tone. Try not to overdo it though. Good lighting is half the picture.