Nikon D3100 ++ Wedding photography

[Haithamcz]

Hi,

I have been asked to take pictures for somebody wedding.

I have nikon D3100 equiped with 35mm 1.8G DX, 18-55mm 3-6G DX, and 70-300mm DX VR II, and I have flash Nikon SB-700, have some flash diffuses.

I will be shooting indoor portrait ( inside church) , outdoor portrait for the whole family and some picture for the couple cutting the cake... etc,

what lens i should use for my actions above? and when i should use the flash?
the weather will be mostly half sunny and later will be a bit cloudy.

some tutorials are welcome.

thank you a lot in advance.
H,

 

[wlad]

I would take the 35mm for shooting inside the church, then switch it for the 18-55 and keep that for the rest of the wedding. I would leave the 70-300 at home - since they asked you to take pictures, you can get up close and you wont need a long tele lens.

Use flash whenever needed and allowed ;-)

 

[lilrabbit129]

I would keep the 70-300 just in case. There are always nice uses, such as focusing on the ring during the actual ceremony, and not have to get too close. I've found that with a nice telephoto, you can let the action happen, still get the very personal up close shots, without interfering or being part of the happenings.

 

[marceloanelli]

1- 70-300 will give you weight to carry only

2- flash on camera all time: fill outdoor, main indoor if possible get another flash to fill indoor

3- I use d3100 with 18-55 for almost the wedding as a 2nd camera with no trouble and good response at 1600 asa, first camera is olympus e-30 with 14-54 f2.8-3.5 II

4-You can take near to 400 photo but if possible get a spare battery or recharge it on mid times

5- If have enough memory shoot raw + jpeg always. More time to pp but better results
6-practice before wedding... to get better response on real world.
--
Marcelo Anelli C.
http://www.marceloanelli.com/

 

[scarlet knight]

Bring extra batteries, chargers and sd cards.

Get close up to people. My photgraphy teacher used to say "If you think you are close, get closer."

Just took pictures at a wedding as an amateur, not the primary photographer and I wish I got closer.

 

[wlad]

Bring extra batteries, chargers and sd cards.

Get close up to people. My photgraphy teacher used to say "If you think you are close, get closer."

Just took pictures at a wedding as an amateur, not the primary photographer and I wish I got closer.

the most important thing here is not to get in the way of the paid pro photographer, or disturb the ceremony

 

[David Grabowski]

The 18-55 is the main lens you will need. I'd use flash in most of the coverage personally. There could be a stiulation of no flash during the ceremony, you can up the ISO even if it gets a little more noisey. You could also use the 35 then but be ready to get back to the 18-55, as right after the last kiss they are likely to be headed out the door.

I shot 12 years of weddings, liked to shoot a bit loose to leave room for cropping. If 8x10s are wanted then a pretty hefty crop is required. Dance shots and such are pretty much album photos, now and then you might get a selection there for an enlargement, so I'd mix those some really tight shots accompanied with a loose version. You have 14MP of info, I shot first with medium format (6x6) then 4 and 6 MP, still did as above. With 14MP at hand you can almost make a horizontal out of a vertical and have as much info as I used all together. So don't fear.

indoors I always shot in manual. I matched the aperture and flash then dragged the shutter for best effect. Often shooting 30th sec shutter speeds. Flash freezes your subject, the slow shutter lets in ambient exposure. Yo get warm toned wedding photos generally with accurate toning on the subjects. Bounce your flash where ever applicable for soft flash results vs harsh. This is all indoors. Outdoors you could move to aperture priority and lower ISO.
David

You will do fine !

 

[scarlet knight]

i thought the original poster is the primary photographer.

If not, i agree with you , stay back and don't disrupt important ceremonies or the pro.

 

[wlad]

i thought the original poster is the primary photographer.

If not, i agree with you , stay back and don't disrupt important ceremonies or the pro.

it was a reply to your comment

"Just took pictures at a wedding as an amateur, not the primary photographer and I wish I got closer. "

;-)

 

[jonikon]

Hi,

I have been asked to take pictures for somebody wedding.

I have nikon D3100 equiped with 35mm 1.8G DX, 18-55mm 3-6G DX, and 70-300mm DX VR II, and I have flash Nikon SB-700, have some flash diffuses.

I will be shooting indoor portrait ( inside church) , outdoor portrait for the whole family and some picture for the couple cutting the cake... etc,

what lens i should use for my actions above? and when i should use the flash?
the weather will be mostly half sunny and later will be a bit cloudy.

some tutorials are welcome.

thank you a lot in advance.
H,

My rule of thumb for shooting weddings is to have only fast glass, at least f2.8 and when you must use flash, use bounce off the ceiling, or if the ceiling is too high than remote flash preferably using one or more umbrellas on a stand (this is great for receiving lines). If you must use direct on camera flash, get and use a Flashbender flash card. They are cheap, simple, store easily and can be put on or removed in a jiffy, and the Flash Bender works better than any of the other silly diffusers out there while retaining much of the flash power..

When not using flash, I prefer using Auto-ISO in Aperture priority mode with a minimum shutter speed for Auto-ISO set to 1/125 sec to avoid subject blur.

The bane of wedding photographers is the brides white dress, which will cause underexposure and wreak havoc with TTL flash metering. At the same time, you don't want to blow the highlights of the dress either. Manual mode is best for flash and avoid slow shutter speeds (under 1/125), when shooting high ISOs because you may get movement ghosting of your subjects due to ambient light exposing your subject.
I have rented large aperture lenses for weddings and the cost is very minimal.

Last work of advice is to get at least twice as many photos of the bride than the groom!
Good luck!



Best regards,
Jon

 

[James7000]

If you have unfettered access, you can shoot the whole wedding with the 35mm. Unless you need to take large group shots, then the 18-55mm will be helpful.

The 35mm can be tricky with depth of field though, so be careful when shooting wide open.

Also be mindful of what you are exposing for, lots of white or black can cause the camera to under or over expose faces.

Good luck!

--
photos: http://www.jamesfryer.com/photography/
blog: http://www.jamesfryer.com/blog/