A Tale of Two Wedding Photographers…

[Kestrana]

Ok so orionid did our first big paid wedding this weekend. We learned a lot and the pictures actually look good. However, we’ve learned some stuff and I wanted to share our experience in case anyone else might be doing this in the future.

First, it was one of my best friends getting married so we tried to price basically to cover our costs and a very small profit margin, with more money coming in from the print sales since we’re pricing reasonably not astronomically like our pictures were priced.

We under priced. We definitely spent more money on this wedding than we made. Holy. Crap. We did decide to rent the d800 instead of the d700 and that was our cost to absorb but considering we billed them for 6 hours/ea of photography and wound up putting in about 20 hours/ea.

And it is very physical work. Running, jumping, stretching, climbing, kneeling, changing levels constantly, setting up, taking down, twisting, etc. My right thigh is definitely strained, if not out right pulled. By the end of the night my shoulders were aching, my hands were on fire, my two fingers on the right hand were throbbing from trigger fire and I was mentally and physically exhausted.

But, at the same time, it was pretty fun.

Other things:
1. When you rent a 128GB memory card for the photos, make sure you have 128GB of memory space on your computer to dump them on so you can return that rented card on time. Then you don’t have to detour through Toledo, Ohio, looking for a Best Buy.

2. You might have been hired by the bride & groom, but the parents will run the show. Smile, nod, then ask the groom if that’s really what they want.

3. Pictures of Grandma are sometimes more important than pictures of the couple.

4. High ISO capabilities/wide apertures are a godsend. Do not use your amateur camera. Rent the good stuff and make sure you know how to change all the settings beforehand. (I had done this but on the fly I forgot some of the stuff I had figured out).

5. Check your photo booth often. Someone tripped over the tripod and aligned the camera the wrong way and didn’t tell us so we lost about 20 shots.

6. Flexability will keep you sane. I had a plan for the order of the group shots and it went out the window immediately.

7. Re-enacting the kiss? Not a problem at all.

8. Auto focus is sometimes the devil. But manual focus will break your heart. Thank God we had 2 shooters. I could not imagine this wedding with only one person taking pictures.

9. 200GB worth of card space was barely enough for an event that lasted 12 hours.

10. It’s probably not necessary to take 10 frames of each posed portrait. 5 would have been fine.

[CauseISaidSo]

All of that and more is why I hope I’m never asked to photograph a wedding. Sounds like you learned quite a bit, though, and better with your friends than with a possibly less understanding client. Thanks for the info.

[Kestrana]

Also, editing 5000 pictures kind of sucks after awhile.

[bender16v]

I don’t think that I ever want to shoot a wedding, especially after reading that. I don’t think that I would like the pressure, knowing that there aren’t any do-overs. The worst would be the editing, as you said. What lenses did you use?

[fluffybunny]

I enjoy shooting weddings as a guest. I show up with a few lenses and try to be unobtrusive, especially when it comes to getting in the way of the paid talent. It is a good opportunity to get people as subjects, there is absolutely no pressure, and sometimes it benefits the family.

Last time I did this the family was unhappy with the paid talent and seemed grateful that myself and others had taken photographs.

[Kestrana]

bender we rented a Nikkor 14-24 f/2.8 and then took pretty much all our other lenses: 24mm f/2.8, 50mm f/1.4, 60mm f/2.8, 85mm f/3.5, 18-105mm, 70-300mm. The 50 was on the studio camera. I used the 14-24 and the 70-300 during the ceremony, and switched between the 14-24, the 60 and a little of the 85 during the reception. orionid used the other lenses.

[orionid]

*ahem*
the 85mm is f/2.0

[Curious]

9. 200GB worth of card space was barely enough for an event that lasted 12 hours.

10. It’s probably not necessary to take 10 frames of each posed portrait. 5 would have been fine.

i think i’m seeing a solution here.

on the time involved how much was misplanning and how much just being there with your friends and taking pictures. since you were there and all. my guess it’s unusual for the photog to stay 12 hours.

overall it sounds like you both had fun, made a couple of bucks and learned some good lessons.

[Kestrana]

We had perhaps an hour and a half of that time where we weren’t working but yeah its unusual to work such a long time

[emiliogtz]

My wife shots weddings, I go with her as a second photographer. Yes, the physical effort hurts you the first time, by the third one you won’t notice it.

Also, 200GB? 5000 shots? Jesus, what were you shooting at? I don’t know the details of your deal, but we and the wedding photographers we know, deliver about 500 pictures to the customers. That usually includes two days of shooting: the e-session and the wedding day. The e-session is mostly for fun, we take a ride with the couple, go to places they like, shoot some frames, break the ice. Wedding day usually starts in the morning, we cover the getting-ready for the bride and the groom, close relatives, and sometimes there are small parties and the like. Then comes the church, the formals, the reception.

We usually take about 1800 pictures, average, 2000 at most. From that, we trim down to about 800-1000, discarding shots that are poor-focused, redundant, awkward moments, mishaps such as closed eyes and the like. The rest we process most of them, then we make the final selection of about 500 pics, which is what my wife charges for.

With time, you’ll get better at directing people, and get that posed shots in one take, two at most. I can’t imagine going over 5000 pictures from a single event. The most I’ve shot myself have been 1700, for a three-day motorsport event, and the postproc was painful.

Congratulations on your new enterprise, don’t expect to make a dime on your first two or three events, but expect to have a lot of fun. And keep in mind that after all is said and done, the only things that will survive that big day are the memories, and the pictures you took (the two are one and the same, he), ’cause we all know marriage leads to divorce =)

[Author]

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