So first wedding this week-end

[andylawcc]

Originally posted by: OdiN
If you have two shooters, this is a huge help. One of you can focus on the giving away of the bride by her father - and the other should be concerned with the mother of the bride. You can get great emotion-filled pictures by doing this approach. Also when the vows/rings, etc. are being done - one focus on that and the other on the parents of each, etc. It's nice to have different angles of the same thing too, but the emotion captured by focusing some on family is priceless. Also - when the bride first enters - one of you focus on her, and the other focus on the grooms reaction.

:thumbsup: advice

 

[alfa147x]

Ok I got a Canon Speedlite 430EX from my dads friend and I plan on having to borrow a few CF cards from wally mart
and another 18-55 mm

thanks guys

 

[alfa147x]

Oh and would there be an advantage with having the flash on the 30d over the 20d

I was thinking of having it on the 20d as my friends going to be having the telephoto on his camera
and on my 30d I was going to use the 50 1.8 as much as possible; so I would not need to bump the ISO up too high

 

[OdiN]

Use it on whatever needs the most light. If you can get away without it with your 50mm, then let him use it.

Be sure to check with the church/whatever to make sure that flash photography is allowed during the ceremony.

 

[alfa147x]

Oh and it is at a church, was going to go check it out today but was not able to
I am trying to stop by friday

 

[soydios]

shoot RAW, that way you can get the maximum dynamic range allowed. capturing bride+groom pictures is notoriously difficult because the bride is often wearing bright white and the groom is wearing deep black. now I will give you two conflicting bits of advice and leave it up to you to balance them out: shoot as much as you can, and shoot as quietly and discreetly as you can.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Originally posted by: alfa147x
Our equipment:Updated!

Canon 20D
Canon 30D
Canon 18-55 f/3.5 x2
Canon 50mm f/1.8
Quantaray 75-300 f/4.0
Canon Speedlite 430EX

2x SanDisk Extreme III 2gb
1x off brand 2gb

Also I will have my macbook + an external HDD to dump photos onto if we run out of CF space

Lots of good advice in this thread. Like others have mentioned, having two shooters is incredibly valuable and you need to work on coordinating each other. Play to each other's strengths: pick the best person to take a certain kind of shot.

Some problems you may encounter:

Flash cycle time: In dimly lit areas you may be using your flash at full power or close to full power for each shot, meaning your flash will have to recharge its capacitors quite often, which takes time, a long time depending on the flash. A long cycle time which I consider more than one second will cause you to miss important shots, like the couple doing dance moves or something or the flower toss. This is why it is so important to be prepared and to be in place and to be able to predict what things are going to happen so you can time the shot perfectly. The recharge time will grow longer as the batteries drain down, so always have spare, full batteries on tap with you at all times. When I was at my cousin's wedding the photographer had to change his flash batteries at the alter, and luckily he had them on his person and was able to do it quickly. So take lots of batteries because you'll be using that little flash a LOT.

Memory Card: Each 2GB card will get you around 250 shots in RAW. IMO you don't have enough, especially if this is being split between the two of you. Not sure if the OP is updated to reflect the "rentals" from Wal-Mart. I'm a prolific shooter, and I shot maybe 8GB+ on the day I did a wedding. The two other professional photogs at the time probably did the same. Try to get more memory, and you must use RAW. Don't even bother thinking about shooting in JPEG for this. Dumping onto a laptop may be too slow, so time it well.

And like others have said, do advanced preparation and be prepared to spend the whole entire day and/or day before with the client from dawn to dusk to night. It's going to be a grueling day. Rehearsals. Dressing and preparation (one photog for the bride, one for the groom). The pre-ceremony time where you can get a lot of good shots of the guests. The actual ceremony starting with the walk where there are no do-overs. The after-ceremony shots as described below. The dinner. The toasting. The dancing.

Talk to people to see what shots are allowed or not allowed, flash, no flash, close proximity, far away, etc. At my cousin's wedding they were fine with the photog using flash and being very close to them at the alter in the middle of the aisle. I can see other couples not being comfortable with this.

Know and shoot the key and even the non-key people at the right time and place. Candids are good, groups are good, and try to represent all the people there.

Know the planned movement of said people. Be in position beforehand. Be predictive, not reactive.

Get the lay of the land. Look for interesting angles, backdrops, natural frames, vantage points, things you can climb up on, etc.

Figure out the poses and the places and the times where you'll do the after-ceremony shots. At my cousin's wedding it was the classic beach shot of the couple, the bridesmaids, and the best men. They had all the poses figured out and the timing was perfectly aligned with the golden hour.

Be prepared for product photography. The uncut cake, the rings, the flowers, the dress, etc.

Sacrifice ISO and aperture sharpness for shutter speed in dim situations.

Consider setting up a system where you can get shots of each and every guest ie. have them line up and do shots couple by couple, family by family, etc. This can be easier if they are all forming a natural line or have to all enter into the same place ie. all have to eventually go into the church / dining hall, so post one of you guys outside and try to catch each one entering. Make it their admissions pass. This is better than trying to form your own line just for guest pictures, as it's hard to coordinate so many people. So use natural bottlenecks.

 

[OdiN]

A tip for timing - for posed shots, allow at least 3 minutes per photo/pose. They take a while.

For groups - shoot 3 or 4 shots of the same pose. Someone will blink, etc.

When you are shooting groups, don't have both of your cameras out - just use one. If you have both, the people you are shooting will naturally end up looking at the wrong one...because it's a camera and you're supposed to look at the camera. Same thing with guest cameras. I don't allow them during formal shots because I don't want to compete with them the subjects attention.