I apologize if I hit a nerve of all the paid wedding photographers on this forum. I really did not mean to.
Yes, I am an amateur photographer and that is why I came here to ask questions. A lot of you seem like you know what you are doing and could offer helpful advice that I would very much appreciate.
I'm not out to steal your business; it will be a while before I will charge any one for photos, if I even get to that point.
I deleted my original post to hopefully let the post die out. I was feeling bombarded by the negativity when I just asked a few simple questions.
A lot of people asked questions about my equipment and I didn't have time to answer earlier, but I will now.
Yes, for some shots I was using the kit lens. I know they aren't the best at all, but that and a 75-300mm, f/4-5.6 lens were all I had. I wasn't about to ask the bride and groom to wait until I saved money to buy better lenses to get married. =)
I will post a few photos that I took; some from the ceremony inside the church and some from the group shots afterward. I hope to receive some helpful advice on how to improve, I've gotten all the criticism that I need.
I posted earlier that I told the bride and groom that I had "no experience", and I only meant that in the wedding photography realm. My experience lies more in landscape and outdoor photography; stuff where I have more time to figure out the lighting situation.
Were you the only person paid to shoot this wedding?
Did the couple know that this was your first wedding shoot?
Shooting a wedding without KNOWING you could do it is, at best, reckless.
Can you post some examples? Blurriness can be a myriad of things: camera shake, subject movement, out-of-focus, too shallow depth of field or if only slight perhaps just under sharpened RAW files.
Shooting in low light conditions is difficult, and dealing with so many people on such an important day is even more difficult. You need both experience and ideally decent equipment, lenses more so than bodies in my experience.
What frustrated me was that the photos worked well at the rehearsal, set up the same way I was going to do the actual wedding. But it didn't work at the wedding.
P.S.
I mentioned that it was my first wedding and I wasn't the only photographer there. I'm trying to learn, and I would appreciate it if I got help instead of insults.
And I did it for free. It was a favor and a learning experience. Both bride and groom knew I was not experienced and they were both good friends of mine, so it all was covered and understood.
I recently did my first wedding and I am completely disappointed. It isn't about my shots; I'm pleased with what I took, with concerns to composition. I'm disappointed with my camera.
It was a major crisis time. I was lying on the floor of the church, or draped over the balcony messing with every single setting, trying hundreds of different combinations to get it to shoot well, but it didn't. Every single ceremony photo is blurry.
External flash with a diffuser - still blurry.
External flash with no diffuser - still blurry.
Built in flash, no diffuser - still blurry.
No flash - still blurry.
I shoot with a Canon Rebel XT (digital). Is my model just not good for low lighting, movement photos? Is it user error?
I was shooting in RAW most the time, but my frustration led me to try all the factory presets as well.
Any advice?
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What frustrated me was that the photos worked well at the rehearsal, set up the same way I was going to do the actual wedding. But it didn't work at the wedding.
P.S.
I mentioned that it was my first wedding and I wasn't the only photographer there. I'm trying to learn, and I would appreciate it if I got help instead of insults....Show more →
I don't see anything in the first post alluding to another photographer. I'm very glad to see you mention that now!
What lenses were you using? Yes, posting some photos may be most helpful.
If you're truly interested in shooting weddings...and charging $ for them...you should second shoot for as many different pro wedding shooters that you can while learning everything you can about the mechanics of photography.
"Trying hundreds of combinations as well as factory presets" tells us that you're not as familiar with photography as you should be when shooting an event like a wedding.
High ISO + fast glass + appropriate shutter speed would have solved your problem assuming you're style leans towards natural light.
I'm guessing that the lighting conditions at the rehearsal were different than the lighting condifions at the wedding...either that or you accidentally switched ISO and didn't realize it.
Find a pro who will take you on as an assistant and then apprentice for him or her for at least a season.
I didn't mean to sound insulting, and am more than happy to help.
Please do post some photos if you can.
J
jennimon wrote:
What frustrated me was that the photos worked well at the rehearsal, set up the same way I was going to do the actual wedding. But it didn't work at the wedding.
P.S.
I mentioned that it was my first wedding and I wasn't the only photographer there. I'm trying to learn, and I would appreciate it if I got help instead of insults.
Practice anywhere and everywhere other than weddings. School, church and community events, friends and family, etc. Find the worse lighting conditions and learn to work with them.
this is helpful, and not an insult. if you think a "bad camera" is the cause of your blurry images, you clearly have little to no knowledge of how exposure works. you need to be reading a book or asking questions in a beginner photography forum, not a wedding forum.
Blurry, as in motion blur, would be caused by either camera or subject movement.
This you should already know how to fix...adjust your camera settings (ISO, f/) so that you get your shutter speed up to at least 1/30.
Blurry, as in out of focus, is just that...out of focus.
I have had the little AF/MF switch get bumped to MF when pulling the lens out of a pouch, so now I check that every time I change lenses.
jennimon wrote:
Edit::
What frustrated me was that the photos worked well at the rehearsal, set up the same way I was going to do the actual wedding. But it didn't work at the wedding.
To clarify what I meant by "hundreds of different combinations"... I was talking about different ISO's, etc. I found the ISO that worked at the rehearsal and I didn't shoot anything else after that, kept the camera set up the same way. The rehearsal and the ceremony were at the same time of day.
P.S.
I wasn't the only photographer there and I did it for free. The bride and good understood that I have no experience and they were both good friends of mine. I'm trying to learn, and I would appreciate it if I got help instead of insults. ...Show more →
unfortunately, your edited post makes your lack of knowledge even more apparent. simply having a camera in your hands does not make you a photographer. if you have "no experience" why would you expect to get great results? and, frankly, why would you be so distracting as to blast off your flash and be changing settings "hundreds" of times during someone's most important day? sadly, that bit is just plain rude.
hey, i know i've never baked a 5-tier fondant-covered cake before, and i know it's your great-granny's 100th birthday party, but i can do it! i own an oven! oops. sorry i burned your house down.
i would encourage you to first pursue even the most basic knowledge of photography before you even consider pursuing professional photography. try a book by: http://www.scottkelby.com/
What you wrote about in your first post, is exactly why couple's should hire a professional photographer.
Without seeing any sample pics... my guess is that your shutter speeds were too slow and you suffered from camera shake. I know that you said that both the rehearsal and wedding were at the same time of day, so you used the same settings, but light can vary greatly even at the same time of day. If one day was more cloudy you'd have varying amounts of light coming in through the windows, illuminating the ceremony and reception venues.
At the core.. it sounds like you may only have a basic understanding of what is happening when you are changing settings. I say this because if you were really changing settings as much as you were without getting an acceptable result, you were merely guessing, hoping to get something right. A pro can look at a shot and dial in a correct setting in one step, usually we can dial in a setting just by looking at the available light without a test shot.
I'd recommend picking up "Understanding Exposure" by Brian Peterson. After all of that, I'd be willing to bet that your choice of gear wasn't the best either. Even if you had a full professional understanding of photography, you'd run into the limitations of your gear in a wedding setting.
Learning to be a wedding photographer (or photographer in general) at a friend's wedding isn't a great place. There are much better avenues and places to learn. Like Grits said, just because you have a camera doesn't make you a photographer. Learn to swing before you try to take pitches in the big leagues.
However I will have a slice of that 5-tier fondant-covered cake, it sounds delicious, even if you did burn my house down.
