God help me, I’ve booked a wedding!

[ravnostic]

Okay, I’m going to need serious suggestions here. One of the subjects I shot at a G+ photowalk contacted me. Her wedding photographer dropped out, the wedding is on March 3rd, she remembered me, found me, looked through my albums and wants me for her wedding.

She knows I’ve never done one, but wants me anyway. It’s out of doors–which it would have to be as I don’t have fast enough lenses for indoors (well, I have 1, but still).

I’m going to need remote flashes and lighting umbrellas for a 4pm wedding near the equinox. Suggestions? I’m thinking of renting.

//edit: Ah, well, it was nice while it lasted; the woman’s in-laws came to her ‘rescue’ and hired someone with experience (good for them, I hope, not so much for me.)

In the process, though, I’ve found out how cheaply I can rent good glass locally–and I’m going to start doing that occasionally, as well as stobes/flashes so I can get some experience anyway.

[Farktographer]

4pm outdoors, I don’t know if you’ll need umbrellas so much, but you’ll definitely want to grab a couple 5 in 1 reflectors and spare hands if you can to help hold them up. Plus if you’re outdoors, I don’t know if you’ll have time to set up everything for all the shots since the couple will be moving around a lot (unless you’re talking about doing the pre-wedding photos that lots of couples are doing…then yeah, I get the umbrella setup, but don’t know if they’d be strong enough without entering the photo). For the actual ceremony, you might just have to settle with the ambient light and some fill flash from a hand-held strobe.

As far as setting up for pre-wedding and renting, there’s a video I posted a couple days ago. It’s a 2-hour speech by someone from B&H and he goes into how to set up the lights, the correct angles to start with, metering the foreground and background to give texture to the subject, differences between umbrellas, strobes, and beauty cones, etc.

[fluffybunny]

I believe the sun will be at 45 degrees @ 1600 on March 20 (equinox) with sunset @ 1930. My limited experience with strobes outdoors was either shaded or closer to sunset. I use GN130 (ft) hot shoe strobes, probably not an option for you.

[ravnostic]

I will check out that video, Farktographer, thanks! I figured reflectors–which are pretty cheap, really, I’ll probably buy a couple. Extra hands are in the works. I will be talking with Sylvia on Saturday regarding the details, and I plan a trip to the wedding site long beforehand so I can scope things out a bit. Lots of reading, research–basically prepare myself the best I can. I think I’ll just rent a couple faster lenses in case I’ll need them for anything that might be ‘interior’.

[fluffybunny]

Going on the assumption that you’re not doing this gratis, you might want to look at some resources for writing the contract with the bride to be. There can be heaps of emotional overhead all pivoting on a one time photo opp. A well written contract, understood by both parties can go a long way towards keeping your relationship with the client peaceful and professional.

[caradoc]

Make sure there’s a “Best Effort” clause in the contract – something like:

Due to the nature of wedding photography being a ?best effort? artistic endeavor, it is understood and agreed that Photographer will not be held responsible for images/photographs that are damaged or unusable due to the use of flash or strobe on the part of wedding guests performing their own photography. If necessary, Photographer will request that wedding guests cease photography while working on posed portraits. The Contracting Party agrees to support such requests insofar as may be possible. The Contracting Party further agrees that no complaint can be made after-the-fact as regards ?missed images? or failure to include ?important people? in specific images. (The Photographer highly recommends that the Contracting Party have someone at the event with a list of ?required? images to assist in gathering the requisite ?important persons? to be included in specific photographs.)

[fluffybunny]

You might want to look at “Best Business Practices for Photographers” by John Harrington, esp. Ch. 15, “Contracts for Weddings and Rites of Passage”.

[Author]

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