First Wedding

On August 31, 2013 I shot my first wedding as a professional photographer.  It was a fun and exciting time for me as well as for the bride and groom.  When I first got the booking I was stressing over the technical aspects of shooting this wedding. 

The couple told me the wedding had been moved from their back yard to a Victorian house.  The time had also been moved, from afternoon to evening.  I worried about the light, or lack thereof.  How light or dark will it be at six in the evening; at ten at night?  The groom said the house has lots of windows and chandeliers and was well lit.  I hadn't seen the venue and wouldn't see it until the wedding. 

I Google the venue and it looked dark.  I needed more light, and cheap.  Amazon let me down this time.  They had cheap light I could put on a tripod but I couldn't get the one I wanted in time for the wedding. I briefly considered using my on camera flash but knew I'd hate the results.  This shoot was for me as well as the bridal couple.  These pictures were also to be for me to use as my portfolio to get bookings for more weddings. 

I'd been kicking around the idea of getting a camera with live view.  That would make it easier for me to compose shots.  Now, I have my excuse/reason to get one.  I didn't use live view as much as I thought I would; it eats battery power like crazy.  I'd use it to check up on my settings now and then.  Good thing I did.  During the reception I left the camera at the table while I called my daughter.  I guess my table mates must have looked at it because the pictures I took right after I got back were all dark.  I checked the settings and they had been moved.  I corrected the settings and everything was okay again. 

My new camera will go up to ISO 6400.  Like someone said on YouTube, "Just because it says it'll go, doesn't mean it should."  I usually shoot at ISO 200 and occasionally 400.  I did go up to 6400 before the night was over.  To me those shots had too much high ISO noise.  I used noise reduction software on them and it works really well.  The biggest drawback is the noise reduction software compresses the files to about a third of a regular JPEG.  I gave the newlyweds all three versions of their pictures so they can decide for themselves which they like best.  They got all the originals just as they came out of the camera.  They got the retouched files, with and without noise reduction.

It's all over now.  they have, and said they liked their pictures.  I'm putting out the words that I can shoot your wedding.