I have a good problem. I recently purchased a 5D3 and a 70-200 iii lens. My pictures have been gaining a lot of traction just being shared around social media (I shoot car/motorsports photos).

I’ve had a few people ask about shooting weddings already, but I’m not prepared.

  1. What lenses do you primarily shoot with at weddings? I for sure will not be able to use my current 70-200 in most situations.
  2. Any advice over using flash? It’ll be an entirely new concept to me. Luckily a flash came with my 5D.
  3. General Advice? Things you wish you knew when starting out with wedding gigs?
  4. What to charge?

Thank you!

  • tampawn@alien.topBEnglish
    1·
    1 year ago

    Lots of good advice here already…

    I’ve shot about 40 weddings myself after 5 unpaid second shooter gigs… You need to be a second shooter so you know where to be at all times during the ceremony and there are many must have shots during the bride prep and reception you MUST get, and you really need to see and do it instead of watching a video.

    Your 70-200 will be vital. All ceremonies are dimly lit. You’ll mainly want to use it for bokeh shots at all events. A mid range zoom you’ll need too. Brides like detail shots like jewelry, shoes, something borrowed something blue etc so you need a macro or 85mm 1.4. You could do a wedding with one midrange zoom, but you’ll want a long lens and a macro for more quality bokeh shots.

    One thing to do is ask for reenactments if you miss events. Often the pastor won’t let you close to the ceremony and its already in dim light anyway. Ask for ring and kiss shots if you don’t get good shots during the ceremony.

    This is a great book to study Wedding Photography: The Complete Guide: Cleghorn, Mark: 9781861084590: Amazon.com: Books with checklists of must have shots.