my first wedding shoot

[ajo43]

Sorry I can't give you lots of nice pictures of the bride and groom but I didn't get their permission to put shots on the web.



Weddings are hard. I learned heaps by watching the professional photographer. A couple of interesting things he did:

- used angles heaps. He always tried to get a different perspective on a shot by crouching, holding the camera above his head etc. Ie, anything but normal eyesight
- used a quite long zoom for many shots (I'm not sure what it was but it looked to be up to 200 or 300mm (there is a shot of the camera below so some of you may be able to tell me)
- he was running around like a mad man - in front, behind etc etc
- took film, not digital (not sure why - he was a photo journalist - maybe that was a personal preference of his or the bride and groom asked).

Here is one of the cameras he used (Canon EOS1 with 28-70)




This is the other camera he had (can anyone identify the lens)




The photographer in action:



In the picture you can see another guy squatting down taking photos. I sat opposite him at dinner and it turns out he is a fashion photographer. Shoots for Vogue and all the top mags (has done Elle, Claudia etc). Does Beckham's shots. He was using a little tiny Contax film P&S.

Mental note to self - good photographers crouch down lots.

[atencati]

Well done ajo. When I shoot people I like to crouch to show more sky and or natural scenery. I don't care for shots of people, couples, etc in front of buildings, signs, roads, doesn't seem intimate. It also lends the feeling of confidence to the subjects to look slightly down at the camera. Conversely, children shot from above looking slightly up tends to show their vulnerablility and youtfulness. Eye level isn't always the most appealing shot. Would love to see the comparison between your shots and the "pros"

Andy

[ajo43]

If I can get some of the pro shots then I'll certainly put them on the web to compare.

One more thing that I learned about my D70. WB Shady gave me the nicest skintones. WB Cloudy was OK. WB Auto was too green. The day was kind of overcast with patchy clouds and sun so hard to choose the correct setting.

I'm a JPEG shooter so not as much ability to correct WB afterwards (I find NEF too slow and too much PP).

[Mj]

Just for your info, that lens is most likely the Canon 70-200L.