I am taking my cousin's wedding pictures this July and she doesn't have alot of money to pay for photos of her big day. That is why she is letting me do them for $200 bucks. But I need a camera that is easy to use yet can provide for me and my cousin good shots that are reliable. I have been a photographer for 3 portrait studios but never on my own. I want to see if I can make this a little business somehow. Anyone else know of any good software to go with this also? I don't know all the tech for photography but enough on what can make a great picture. GREAT ADVICE HERE!!
hey! so im not going to tell you what all these people are telling you! but here goes!! im not a professional but im going to tell you what i think will help you for the task you are specifically asking for.
INEXPENSIVE CAMERA: hp photosmart model # r742 i got this for christmas and i really like it. it easily removes red-eye.
also it has different modes in which to shoot in (up close, portrait, outdoor, landscape etc ). and it has about 7 or 8 different color schemes you can play with. and when you do so it doesnt delete your original picture it simply makes a copy in the color that you choose. you can also crop, rotate, zoom and add borders. it runs less than $200. dont forget the memory cards. get at least 2 with a lot of memory. (that way you can take a lot of pictures)
INEXPENSIVE COPIER: i dont remember the exact model but my brother has an amzing PICTURE MATE copier. you just put the memory card in, run a few test picture sheets and select whatever you want to be printed and how many of them you want done. also from best buy you can get a packet of printer ink and 100 sheets of picture paper for about $50!
AND ALSO.....
you want to make sure that you and your cousin come to an understaing that you are not a professional but you will make the most of what you have. also its equally important that you
two agree to have fun with this process.
if you can have a few test runs with her with this camera. that way when it comes down to the day you know how to work the camera. this way you two can decide on what types of poses you look forward to doing, what types of detail pictures she would like and at what stages of the wedding you will be with her or with the groom, on the dance floor etc. even though you are inexperienced you can come up with a great game plan to be properly prepared for the day so that when the day comes and you have some trials and errors you can easily fix them.
this will also allow you to have great communication during the course of the big day.
if you are looking for some great ideas for wonderful poses you can try looking in wedding books, wedding magazines, online.
if you go into any barnes & noble they can direct you to quite a few wedding books.
i also encourage you to look at flickr.com with the bride and come up with some poses there.
HAVE FUN! COME UP WITH A GAME PLAN! AND I REALLY HOPE YOU CHOOSE THIS CAMERA IT WORKS GREAT AND IS EASY TO USE!
OH PS!! for this wedding day dont think of what camera your going to use in the future if you decide to go down this road. take my advice and then after her wedding think about what types of equipment youd like to use later down the road! What kind of camera do you have now? The reality is you can't get a camera like a professional would use unless you drop a big chunk of bank account.. AFAIK, no camera has a setting that says "good reliable wedding shots." You might want to think about an entry level dSLR at the very least. A point and shoot is not going to give you the results your cousin is hoping for. Of course, by placing her photography in untrained hands, she is very likely to be dissapointed no matter what camera you use. Not to be harsh, but the lack of a suitable camera is not really the biggest problem. You don't know the tech stuff, but you do understand what makes a good picture? Having an "eye" is not enough for weddings, you need the tech stuff too. It's one thing to do your first wedding shoot for a friend or family for free (yes, free) but another to consider jumping into the business "somehow", which evidently means with no equipment, skill, or training. Your studio experience may help you with understanding lighting and some posing, which is a start. Translating that knowledge to produce great wedding images, especially without good equipment and understanding of the technical elements involved will be a problem, I'm afraid.
Shooting weddings as a business ain't brain surgery, but does require a good bit of preparation, knowledge, practice, and expensive equipment x2. Two of everything, three of some things. A fast, powerful computer. Expensive image working programs and plug-ins. A sound business understanding. Great portfolio. Wonderful people skills. Most of this can be learned with time and dedication, but not instantly and not all during one wedding. Good luck, hope it goes well and both you and she are happy with the results. Not sure what you consider inexpensive.
I bought my Nikon D50 with three lenses all for under $1000. Since you're planning on doing this for a living, it's a great camera. You say she is letting you do this for $200....does that mean you are paying her to shoot the wedding?? I'm not going to repeat the "you should not be doing this" answer, though it is how I feel.
But the big problem I see you having is that you are going to have to spend lots more on equipment than you are going to make doing the wedding. NO WAY ON EARTH are you going to get even a used DSLR and lens and fash for $200.
"Good camera" and "not expensive" do not belong in the same sentence.
If as you say, you are thinking of doing this as a business in the future, then you DEFINITELY are going to have to spend some big bucks on the proper equipment... then buy it TWICE. If you do not have back up equipment, you are just a horrible problem waiting to happen when you have a piece of equipment failure... and probably a lawsuit from the irate couple.
Plus, you need liabilty insurance.
You need good contracts.
You need extremely good marketing skills.
You need extremely good photoshop skills to try to make fat, ugly brides look like a princess... (which they EXPECT you to do).
You will need to establish vendor resources for album purchasing and design if you cannot do it yourself. You need a real lab for prints... Wally World will not cut it.
Most want a DVD slideshow. Can you make that? If not, you will need to find a source for that. (E Motion Media is great).
Take my word for it, after experiencing the stress and long, hard work of doing a wedding well, you will soon not even THINK of doing it for $200 again. Everyone starts out doing it for low prices like this, but soon realize it is a LOT of HARD work and hours, both during the wedding and in post work later.
So I see you as between a rock and a hard place. If you just want good equipment for this wedding, you are going to be losing money. If you a want to think in terms of future weddings, then you are going to need to be spending LOTS of money... and you may not even like doing weddings.
Bottom line, $200 is an unresonably low price for this. IF you already had some good equipment, it might be ok for your first time and since it is family, but if you are going to have to purchase needed items, you are in a big hole.
Try to get out of this mess while you have time.
steve http://www.target.com/Kodak-EasyShare-12... Check the Pentax K10D. It has Image Stabilization in the body and can use every K-mount lens made since 1975.
You will definitely need a compatible flash unit so buy the one Pentax suggests for the K10D.
Fortunately, you have plenty of time to practice using the flash and camera between now and July. I would recommend the Canon Rebel XTi... you can get it for 649 from wolf camera right now... and sometimes you can find it with an extra lense for only 699. It's a great camera. I don't mean to burst your bubble, but wedding photos are an extremely important job for any wedding. In 2 to 5 (or even 10) years all that will be left is her wedding ring and a few photos that they have out. Her dress will be packed away - if not sold, they may not even live near any of their bridal party and some of their family/guest may not be alive then.
So having someone take photos is a big job, and one to be taken by a professional. There is a lot of work to weddings, a lot of photos that can be missed or taken wrong if you don't know what to do or look for.
Feelings can get hurt, memories ruined, friendships with family members ended if photos are bad, blurry, improperly taken or if you missed the moment.
Not to mention positioning of the people in the photograph's and how important that is. You can't just line people up and ask them to say cheese. There is background to consider, there is more than one person that needs to be looking at you and your attention is on all of them and all the fine details (is the dress, train, and veil displayed properly, is the grooms tux done up, is the brides hair out of her face etc etc) looked after before you begin that photograph.
Now being that you've been in a portrait studio, you do know something about posing people, but weddings are a lot of work and even more if you don't know what you are doing.
Really there is way to much to leave to chance. I know that there is people that want to buy the bride and groom a gift and one thing that I do suggest is have their gift help pay for a qualified and professional photographer - not a family member.
You really can't get a cheep enough camera to do it justice either. You are going to have to buy something bigger than what she is paying you for. Plus there is just so much to know about weddings and she is just really going to be happier having a professional take the wedding photos. You should stay near and watch the professional, see if you can help in any way, learn from a professional before you attempt your favorite cousins wedding - you owe it to her to know what you are doing...and it may be best to say no to her request.
Wouldn't you rather enjoy the wedding than be so extremely focused on taking photographs thru the wedding day & night? You need to think about that too! The library should have Consumer Reports. They cover medium and high end digital cameras at least once a year. For software, you could put down $700 for Photoshop or Corel's product. The free stuff is all about equal, and equally limited. http://reviews.cnet.com/4321-6501_7-6553...
has reviewed some great options Fist let me say that this should be left to the pros but since she does not have the money to hire a pro here is the minimum of what you need.
A good SLR camera (film or Digital) NO POINT AND SHOOT
A good flash
Plenty of batteries, film or memory cards and preferably a backup camera and lenses.
For a lens I would go with some where around a 28-135mm. This should cover most situations you will encounter. A good choice for Canon would be 28-135 F3.5-5.6 IS USM ($529)
As far as cost goes you can get a good film SLR for $200 used (Canon or Nikon).
A digital is going to run you from $500 for an entry level to several thousand for a more advanced model.
A good flash will run you from $200-$600.
Cameras to look at.
Canon XT, XTi, XSi, 40D
Nikon D40, D60, D80
As you can see this wont be cheap. The equipment I mentioned would be a minimum of what you needed. If you are really considering doing this professionally you will need to spend a lot more than what I have mentioned
If cost is very important I would go with the used 35mm SLR, a used lens and flash if you can find one. Go to a good private camera store in your area or check Craigslist. You want to be able to check out the equipment before you buy it. Before photographing a wedding, you might want to realize how much in over your head you are. As a wedding photographer who owns my own business and started with nothing, I realize how hard it is to photograph a wedding. You seriously need to research this a lot. Before I go on with the advice, let me answer your initial question. After much research, I decided to get the Canon digital Rebel xti. it's the best for the price. it's around 450-550 dollars right now.
I'm glad you have experience in a studio, but this is much more fast-paced and you have to figure out a system. If you will be there all day, plan on taking around 500-800 photos. That will require about 4-5 gigs of memory. Don't use film, it will be more than twice as expensive than digital after it is all said and done. Backup your digital photos on an external hard drive as soon as possible. If you have any other questions, don't hesitate to ask me. If you want some ideas for business stuff, I have a website at http://photographybyashleigh.com
here's a list of shots you should/could get:
Wedding Photography Shots Before the Ceremony
___ Wedding dress lying over a chair
___ Zipping up or buttoning the wedding dress
___ Mother of the bride fastening the bride's necklace
___ The bride's garter
___ The bride's veil
___ A close up of the bride's shoes peeking out from under the dress
___ Bride looking into a mirror
___ Bride and bridesmaids putting on makeup
___ Bride pinning corsage/boutonniere on mother/father
___ Bride hugging parents
___ Bride touching up
___ Bride and parents leaving for ceremony
___ Groom tying tie
___ Groom looking into mirror
___ Bride looking out window
___ Groom pinning corsage/boutonniere on mother/father
___ Groom hugging parents
___ Bride and parents leaving for ceremony
Wedding Photography Shots At the Ceremony
___ Outside of ceremony site
___ Guests walking into ceremony site
___ Bride and father entering ceremony site
___ Parents being seated
___ Grandparents being seated
___ Maid of honor walking down the aisle
___ Bridesmaids walking down the aisle
___ Flower girl and ring bearer walking down aisle
___ Groom waiting for bride
___ Ceremony musicians
___ Officiant
___ Altar or canopy during ceremony
___ Close up of bride, just before she makes her entrance
___ Bride and father walking down aisle
___ Groom seeing bride for first time
___ The back of bride and father walking down the aisle 鈥?with the groom waiting in the distance
___ Bride's father and Bride hugging at end of aisle
___ Shot of the audience from the bride and groom's point of view
___ The unity ceremony
___ Close up of bride and groom saying the vows
___ Wide shot of bride and groom saying the vows
___ Exchanging the rings
___ Close up of hands
___ The kiss
___ Bride & Groom walking up the aisle
___ Receiving line
___ Bride & Groom outside on steps
___ Guests throwing confetti/rose petals/birdseed
___ Bride & Groom hugging guests, laughing, getting congratulations
___ Bride & Groom getting in car
___ Bride & Groom in back seat
Posed Wedding Photography Before the Reception (These can also be taken before the ceremony)
___ Bride alone (full length)
___ Bride with Maid of Honor
___ Bride with bridesmaids
___ Groom with bridesmaids
___ Bride with parents
___ Bride & Groom together
___ Bride & Groom with parents
___ Bride & Groom with families
___ Bride & Groom with entire wedding party
___ Bride & Groom with flower girl and ringbearer
___ Groom with parents
___ Groom with best man
___ Groom with groomsmen
___ Bride with groomsmen
___Groom Alone
During the Reception (to help your photographer, you may wish to list these shots in the order they will happen at your reception)
___ Outside of reception site
___ Bride & Groom arriving
___ Bride & Groom greeting guests
___ Table centerpieces
___ Table setting
___ Bride & Groom's table (head table)
___ Musicians or DJ
___ Guest book
___ Place card table
___ Closeup of bride and groom's place card
___ Wedding cake
___ Groom's cake
___ Gift table
___ Decorations (specify which _________________________)
___ A shot of bride & groom with guests at each table
___ Bride with college alums
___ Groom with college alums
___ The buffet or, if having table service, a dinner serving
___ Bride & Groom's first dance
___ Bride & Father dancing
___ Groom & Mother dancing
___ Guests dancing
___ Bride & Groom cutting the cake
___ Bride & Groom feeding each other cake
___ Toasts (specify who is giving them: ____________________)
___ Bride & Groom drinking champagne
___ Signing the marriage license
___ Bride throwing bouquet
___ Groom retrieving garter
___ Groom tossing garter
___ Garter/Bouquet dance
___ The getaway car
___ Bride & Groom leaving party
___ Bride & Groom driving away |
