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Wedding photography is tough! (a bunch of 5700 pics)

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Uncle Frank

Uncle Frank

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I did my first wedding yesterday. Boy, it sure is a lot of work, and a lot of pressure. The couple are friends of mine, and I was deathly afraid of screwing up, and losing their precious memories. I shot pictures from noon until 8PM, and ended up with about 300 images to sort and edit. It'll take a week or so to do the job right, but I worked last night and this morning, so I could upload a partial gallery for them to share with friends and relatives who couldn't make the event. Here's a few samples.

The bride



The ceremony



The kiss



After glow



First dance



Bouquet toss



Garter searching



Cake ceremony



The couple and the DJ, after a happy ending



This will be the last time I volunteer to do a wedding for free, as I've gained a better appreciation of why wedding photographers charge so much -lol.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
Uncle Frank said:
I did my first wedding yesterday. Boy, it sure is a lot of work,
and a lot of pressure. The couple are friends of mine, and I was
deathly afraid of screwing up, and losing their precious memories.
I shot pictures from noon until 8PM, and ended up with about 300
images to sort and edit. It'll take a week or so to do the job
right, but I worked last night and this morning, so I could upload
a partial gallery for them to share with friends and relatives who
couldn't make the event. Here's a few samples.
Click to expand...
From the samples provided, I would say you did a first-class shoot, Frank. My congrats on a tough job done well. You won't catch this boy trying it -- TOO much pressure. :)

Phil
 
Frank you did a great job (especially for your first time).... they will be happy, I'm sure.

Just one note... is there a spot of some sort on brides face in some of the reception pics that isn't there in first pics? (though with your discerning eye I'm sure you didn't miss that so it probably supposed to be there, but it's a bit distracting.... my apologies if it's a part of the person).

--
Ann
CP 5700
My tiny little pbase gallery http://www.pbase.com/isshinryu_mom
 
Hi Frank,

I know what you mean. I did a wedding of friends a few years back using film. I was a nervous reck until I got the prints back. Everything worked out ok, but I don't want that responsibility again. You did a great job.

--Ed--
Uncle Frank said:
I did my first wedding yesterday. Boy, it sure is a lot of work,
and a lot of pressure. The couple are friends of mine, and I was
deathly afraid of screwing up, and losing their precious memories.
I shot pictures from noon until 8PM, and ended up with about 300
images to sort and edit. It'll take a week or so to do the job
right, but I worked last night and this morning, so I could upload
a partial gallery for them to share with friends and relatives who
couldn't make the event. Here's a few samples.

This will be the last time I volunteer to do a wedding for free, as
I've gained a better appreciation of why wedding photographers
charge so much -lol.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
Click to expand...
--
--Ed--

http://www.pbase.com/edmondm
http://www.bytephoto.com/photopost/showgallery.php?ppuser=367
PBase supporter
Member FCAS
 
isshinryu_mom said:
Just one note... is there a spot of some sort on brides face in
some of the reception pics that isn't there in first pics?
Click to expand...
Good eye, Ann. It's a sticker that she, and most of the guests, put on as sign of Joy. I couldn't bring myself to clone it out.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
These pica are all GREAT! I'm sure they'll be happy as anything! Well done!

I don't think I could ever do that kind of shoot. As previous posters said, I think the fear of messing it all up would outweigh the want to be kind ;-)

Fantastic job...!

--
Best Regards Leif

--- Proud 'FCB Member, Luggage Division' --- See thread: http://forums.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=6071099 for explanation.
 
Thanks, Steven. I held my breath until I saw I had some focused shots and had burned all 4 cf cards to a CD.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
Great job on the wedding photos. Now I wont feel so scared to use my 5700 for weddings! Did you use auto or manual focus?

--
Mike V
FCAS Charter Member
CP5700 and all the goodies
http://www.mvehphoto.com
Life is only as good as the pictures taken.
 
Mrmaver said:
Great job on the wedding photos. Now I wont feel so scared to use
my 5700 for weddings! Did you use auto or manual focus?
Click to expand...
I was able to use manual autofocus, where I select the zone, for all but one shot... the couple and the DJ. I couldn't get focus at all on that one, so I turned autofocus to [off], which causes autofocus to work on the center of the frame, and it latched right onto the subjects.

The camera works like a charm, unless I get in its way.

--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
it's just for mementos. I'll let the pro have the headaches. I will say that at one wedding I went to, the bride liked my shots better - caught lots of different ones from the formal type. Anyway, you did very well, cool!!
--
Muriel - 9 9 5, 3 1 0 0, W C-6 3, T C-2 E
DPR and Pbase supporter
FCAS Charter Member
 
Hi

Great Job Frank

I have shot over 200 weddings and you sure did a better job than my first few.

Just a hint on the indoor shots without flash. i always shoot manual using my trusty old Gossen Luna 6F. I sneek in to the church before the ceromomy and take a light metering from the alter facing back to the camera, Always gets the lighting spot on - especialy if you have staines glass windows in the back ground.

I havent been game enuf to try the 5700 with a wedding yet, after seeing jour shots, i'll take it next time for the candid shots.

Onge again Great Job

Dont make this the last one my first were shockers !!

PS: The Stress Factor never goes away :-(
Uncle Frank said:
I did my first wedding yesterday. Boy, it sure is a lot of work,
and a lot of pressure. The couple are friends of mine, and I was
deathly afraid of screwing up, and losing their precious memories.
I shot pictures from noon until 8PM, and ended up with about 300
images to sort and edit. It'll take a week or so to do the job
right, but I worked last night and this morning, so I could upload
a partial gallery for them to share with friends and relatives who
couldn't make the event. Here's a few samples.
Click to expand...
Uncle Frank said:
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
Click to expand...
 
I remember the first one I did 35 years ago I was too dumb to be nervous, but after realizing all the things that could have gone wrong I was all nerves for the next few years. I shot my last one around 4 years ago and I was nervous until it was about half over. I think it pays to be a little nervous about it though, it keeps you from becoming complacent and making mistakes. What am I talking about... I wouldn't even have tried it with a 5700.... :)
You done good, real good.
Jarrell
 
Frank, I'd say you did a pretty darn good job! You are verry brave. Youd never catch me shootin a wedding. My only nitpicks are that first dance and garter search appear a tad dark on my monitor. A light bump of the gamma " middle slider" in levels could lighten them a little.

--kind regards
Craig H. Coolpix 5000.5700 north jersey
http://www.pbase.com/craigh
 
I've never had fun @ one yet...
...I have yet to shoot one with out stress of some sort.
The reasons I don't do it as much as I could: ("Mothers and stress").
They are synonymous to weddings.
It is pretty easy to get jobs doing weddings when you do good work.
(More than you want or can handle around here)

You did great with the 5700.
I had lots of people tell me it was not possible
But a few were my biggest paying jobs,
and turned out to be my best word of mouth ads.
--

_ Equipment in my studio where it belongs ( http://www.YCSPhoto.com )
 
Thanks to all for your kind comments and critiques. Shooting this wedding was fun and interesting, at least now that the pressure is off :-). I was going to attend as a guest anyway, and frankly, it was more fun playing photographer than it would have been sitting on my ample duff. In the process, I gained new respect for the 5700 as a general purpose tool, particularly when used in conjunction with a good external flash or a tripod. Despite rumors to the contrary, I'd rate the autofocus as excellent. Many of the shots were taken in low light, but I was able to get focus lock in every case, and only one required a work-around to do so.

Should you be interested, here's the link to the gallery I've set up for the wedding album.

http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/heinzjoy&page=all
--
Warm regards,
Uncle Frank, FCAS Charter Member, Hummingbird Hunter
Coolpix fifty seven hundred and nine ninety five
http://www.pbase.com/unclefrank/coolpix&page=all
 
I photographed at someone's wedding, but they had a professional take the real pics. However, I was able to get a lot of varied shots that hopefully added to their memories. I found it pretty difficult though! I did learn some things that I would do differently. Here's some of the problems.

Craig mentions the darkness, but one of my biggest problems was that they kept turning down the lights as the event went on, and so my shots became more blurred! The flash does no good at most of the distances I was trying to make use of, and the zoom just makes that worse. I just can't step right next to people and click away with a flash -- I think that's just too rude. SO, I used the flash sparingly (well, plus the flash REALLY drains my batteries too fast so I can't use it for every shot!), and dropped back to ISO 200. Iso 400 was pretty noisy, so I don't think I used it much, so a lot of the photos were a compromise. I think I decided that maybe if I were to do it again, I'd go for ISO 400 more, as increased noise is better than blurry.

One of the things I did afterwards was run out and buy a slave flash. It was clear that the built-in flash was not enough, and there were some large-room shots that would have come out better with more flash. Unfortunately, I have not had such an occasion to use the slave flash on. Oh well.
CraigH said:
Frank, I'd say you did a pretty darn good job! You are verry brave.
Youd never catch me shootin a wedding. My only nitpicks are that
first dance and garter search appear a tad dark on my monitor. A
light bump of the gamma " middle slider" in levels could lighten
them a little.
Click to expand...
It might also add in some more noise, but here again, perhaps better to add noise than to get a blurry pic.

--
Gary W.
 
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