Need some tips how to take good wedding pictures with CP995

Hi,

I bought a cp995 few days ago. My good friend asked me to take pictures for him at his wedding. I don't have an external flash, is it possible that I can get pictures with soft looking skin like studio pictures? I want to try the manual mode. Most of the pictures will be taken indoor. what setting is reasonable, when I am 6-8 feet away from the object.

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

PhiLong

Since you don't have much time, get a few friends together at THE location, if not possible then a location that is similar, and PRACTICE. Use flash with a homemade diffuser with alot of other good light. Indoor or outdoor will make a difference. I use remote flashes even in both indoor and outdoor with diffusers. I could go on and on with your settings but the above advice should get you started.

Hope this helps quick enough.

Sherm

PhiLong said:

Hi,

I bought a cp995 few days ago. My good friend asked me to take
pictures for him at his wedding. I don't have an external flash,
is it possible that I can get pictures with soft looking skin like
studio pictures? I want to try the manual mode. Most of the
pictures will be taken indoor. what setting is reasonable, when I
am 6-8 feet away from the object.

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

PhiLong

Click to expand...

Hi,

Have a look at this post and the answers to it, you should find some of them helpful...
http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&page=1&message=1166023

You can also search the forum for 'wedding'.

Yours sincerely,
Michael Offe,
South Australia.

PhiLong said:

Hi,

I bought a cp995 few days ago. My good friend asked me to take
pictures for him at his wedding. I don't have an external flash,
is it possible that I can get pictures with soft looking skin like
studio pictures? I want to try the manual mode. Most of the
pictures will be taken indoor. what setting is reasonable, when I
am 6-8 feet away from the object.

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

PhiLong

Click to expand...

Remember. that if the Bride is wearing white it can fool your exposure in automatic mode and underexpose the image.

Jim C.

PhiLong said:

Hi,

I bought a cp995 few days ago. My good friend asked me to take
pictures for him at his wedding. I don't have an external flash,
is it possible that I can get pictures with soft looking skin like
studio pictures? I want to try the manual mode. Most of the
pictures will be taken indoor. what setting is reasonable, when I
am 6-8 feet away from the object.

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

PhiLong

Click to expand...

Phil,

If the curch (or where ever you're going to be) is fairly well-lit with natural daylight it's actually possible to use that natural light and nothing else. I did attend to a wedding the other week and I did manage to take "action" shots during the cermony. Only problem is that I have the 950 which has a bit lower ISO and I didn't want to use more than +1 (i.e. ISO 160) since the images then would be noisy.

Since you have a better camera that way you can shoot in 200 ISO and get good pictures, you could probably even use the noise reduction and you won't see any diffrence at all.

If you take photo's outdoors you might need a flash to light up hard shadows or have a friend with a reflector helping you to soft the shadows.

Here's my examples, taken with my 950, +1 (no EV set).





Petra

PS, these shots are just snapshots that I took, I wasn't asked to photograph at the wedding but I did end up burning a CD with all 95 pictures I had taken and gave it to the bride and groom the morning after their wedding. A very nice idea and I was defineatly the first to produce photo's from the wedding. :-D

PhiLong said:

Hi,

I bought a cp995 few days ago. My good friend asked me to take
pictures for him at his wedding. I don't have an external flash,
is it possible that I can get pictures with soft looking skin like
studio pictures? I want to try the manual mode. Most of the
pictures will be taken indoor. what setting is reasonable, when I
am 6-8 feet away from the object.

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

PhiLong

Click to expand...

You can dismiss the idea of being able to take decent indoor wedding photos without an external flash, it just won't happen. Beg, borrow or steal an external flash and spend a few $ on a "How to take wedding photos" book. Whether you are doing the wedding for free or not really won't be the issue with the bride. If your photos are screwed up and you are the only photographer doing the wedding, you'll incur her wrath forever. It probably won't be a picnic for the new hubby either.

Petra's suggestion of using reflectors was a good one. They can be inexpensive and easy to use, but a friend to help would be very useful. You can use white posterboard to fill shadows and soften a shot, and even a gold foil sunshade from an auto parts store as a warming reflector, or aluminum foil over posterboard for lots of fill.
HTH, FJBrad

This is a very deep subject and not one to be treated lightly. I'm assuming there is a professional hired for the event also. You really, really don't want the responsibilty of being the main photographer. I retired from doing weddings this year after over 30 years. It is no place to practice with new equipment. Pros bring at least one back up for every piece of equipment they have. As someone said, you will be worse than dirt if you fail. Just think, it's an occcasion that for all intents and purposes, can't be redone. You're dealing with people that are either happy as the devil and can't hardly stand still, or they're nervous as hell and just want to get it over with. And, you have to do a marvelous job within a certain time frame. On the other hand, if you're there as the second photographer, then go for it, but practice, practice. And that external flash is almost a must. You can get along without it, but that depends on a lot of things. Oh yes, don't get in the pros way when he/she is shooting. They're being paid to do a job and they'll be judged by what they get with no excuses. Most will let you step up and shoot after they've taken a shot. Bottom line, if you're thesecond photographer, it's a good learning experience. If you're the main one...... oh brother!

Also, all depends on the size wedding it is. Small justice of the peace? Full blown Cathedral with 14 attendants?

Bob said:

PhiLong said:

Hi,

I bought a cp995 few days ago. My good friend asked me to take
pictures for him at his wedding. I don't have an external flash,
is it possible that I can get pictures with soft looking skin like
studio pictures? I want to try the manual mode. Most of the
pictures will be taken indoor. what setting is reasonable, when I
am 6-8 feet away from the object.

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

PhiLong

Click to expand...

You can dismiss the idea of being able to take decent indoor
wedding photos without an external flash, it just won't happen.
Beg, borrow or steal an external flash and spend a few $ on a "How
to take wedding photos" book. Whether you are doing the wedding
for free or not really won't be the issue with the bride. If your
photos are screwed up and you are the only photographer doing the
wedding, you'll incur her wrath forever. It probably won't be a
picnic for the new hubby either.

Click to expand...

I have the same question
I will also want to take pictures at my friend wedding
I have 990 and no external flush (trying to find one)
So what is the best ISO (inside) with and without external flush
What is the best shutter speed ?
What is the best shutter aperture ?

I understand the answer most likely will be depends on situation
but still...

Ross

Jarrell Conley said:

Bob said:

PhiLong said:

Hi,

I bought a cp995 few days ago. My good friend asked me to take
pictures for him at his wedding. I don't have an external flash,
is it possible that I can get pictures with soft looking skin like
studio pictures? I want to try the manual mode. Most of the
pictures will be taken indoor. what setting is reasonable, when I
am 6-8 feet away from the object.

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

PhiLong

Click to expand...

You can dismiss the idea of being able to take decent indoor
wedding photos without an external flash, it just won't happen.
Beg, borrow or steal an external flash and spend a few $ on a "How
to take wedding photos" book. Whether you are doing the wedding
for free or not really won't be the issue with the bride. If your
photos are screwed up and you are the only photographer doing the
wedding, you'll incur her wrath forever. It probably won't be a
picnic for the new hubby either.

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

This site is in one of the messages already recommended my Michael Offe, and it is worth reading. The only addition I would make is to dress well at the wedding; it helps you get the cooperation you will need.

http://www.ksimmons.com/faqs/photofaq.html

I concur with everyone else here that if you are the only photographer you are in a terribly tough spot. I did weddings for several years, all of which was about 15 years ago.

Some tips if you are winging it:

1. Get close to your subjects and focus on them.

2. Take care to frame your shots carefully. It's easy to get caught up in the emotion of the moment and fail to notice a trash can next to the bride in that great candid shot.
3. Use the Nikon 2X tele for portrait shots. It works great.

4. In regard to the flash - that's the toughest issue. If the wedding is outdoors it's not such a big deal but for any indoor shots the flash on the coolpix will be totally inadequate.

BillyBob

Above all, listen to Jarrell!!!

Hi:
Below is my suggestion...
1. You better to use tripod.

2. If you want to capture the wedding snapshot, normal the people count from 1,2,3 and shot, you need to press the button at count 1.

3. Some situtation, low resolution is prefered because cp995 will introduce the lag time for high resolution image (rings exchange moment, sign the wedding certification, kiss moment)

4. epsecially the kiss moment, since the digital camera has lag time, you need to shot in advance.. it is hard.... but you can request them to kiss slowly.
5. Beside, the double exposure is quite useful...

Ken

PhiLong said:

Hi,

I bought a cp995 few days ago. My good friend asked me to take
pictures for him at his wedding. I don't have an external flash,
is it possible that I can get pictures with soft looking skin like
studio pictures? I want to try the manual mode. Most of the
pictures will be taken indoor. what setting is reasonable, when I
am 6-8 feet away from the object.

Any tips are greatly appreciated.

PhiLong

Click to expand...

I think you'll find the thread below interesting. ^^^Bob^^^

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=1243096

. . . that takes you back to the top. I meant to reference this thread in another one, and got mixed up. ^^^Bob^^^