1. Enjoy and have fun
Please don’t go into Wedding Photography if you don’t enjoy weddings. You will need to handle the pressure and always remember that you only get one shot at weddings. You can’t afford to screw it up. Working a tight schedule and having good social skills is also very important.
2. Check your equipment
Before leaving your home or studio to go to the wedding, check and double check your camera equipment, make sure all camera batteries are fully charged and flashgun batteries are also if you are using rechargeable ones. Personally, I prefer rechargeable batteries for my Nikon SB900 flashes.
3. Have backups
Never shoot a wedding with only one camera body and one lens. You must have at least 2 bodies. Try to shoot with the same bodies. Don’t have a $ 3000 professional body and a backing like a $ 400 body. You need to have a similar backing body. I photograph with 2 bodies and I have a third as backup. Have a variety of lenses from wide angles, zooms and fast primes. The ones I would recommend for photographing a wedding are:
– 24-70mm f / 2.8
– 14-24mm f / 2.8
– 85mm f / 1.4
– 70-200mm f / 2.8
– 105 VR macro
– 50mm f / 1.4
– 35mm f / 2
4. Insure yourself and your business
It is absolutely essential that you make sure. Just like you would insure your car and your home. You need to have sufficient insurance in case the worst happens, whether your kit is stolen, a CF card fails and gets corrupted or a hard drive failure, someone gets hurt or injured due to your negligence while on a wedding. To be covered, you need to have:
– Public liability insurance
– Professional indemnity insurance
(if you are outside the UK, check with your insurance company or seek legal advice)
5. Do not shoot in continuous mode
You have to choose the moments and shoot. Shoot like a sniper, wait, aim and shoot. Do not machine-gun everything that moves in the hope of getting a good image. Remember, you will need to edit and post the images after the wedding. Which would you rather have, 500 really good images or 3000 average images? The story of a typical wedding can easily be told in 500 images or less.
6. Shoot in RAW
No need to record JPEG files anymore. Shooting RAW means you can “future-proof your files” and using software like Aperture 3, Lightroom 3, or Capture NX2, you can fully edit them non-destructively. If your camera has two CF card slots (Nikon D3 / D3x / D3s), set both slots to RAW + RAW. This way you have an instant backup of the images on the camera. It gives you more peace of mind and I do not hesitate to use larger cards such as 8Gb. If you only have one CF slot in your camera, I advise you not to use cards larger than 2Gb. Therefore, don’t put all your eggs in one basket if things go wrong.
7. Do not delete images on the camera
You may miss out on great shots if you are constantly “ringing” and erasing images from your CF card. It also consumes more battery from your camera and you also risk CF card getting corrupted.
8. Use Flash creatively
When using the flash, use it creatively by removing the flash from the camera’s hot shoe. Lastolite produces a variety of products that are ideal for small flash guns.
9. Always be one step ahead of the game
I always carry the following information with me at all times:
– Hours of the day: What happens when
– Names of the bridal party, that is, parents, best man, ushers, bridesmaids, etc.
– Emergency telephone numbers
– List of family group photos
– The address of the places, that is, where the bride is prepared, church, reception place
10. The couple should spend more time … with their loved ones and not with the photographer. Don’t keep them away from everyone for a long time. About 15-20 minutes to do the couple feedings is more than enough and maybe another 15 minutes later in the evening.