first wedding - DPChallenge Forums

05/27/2008 05:58:11 PM · #1

i have my first wedding on june 21st,
i have about 375 bucks in the bank and chargeg 600 for the wedding +prints or photoalbum costs... heres what i got witht he 375
-430EX
-80GB Lacie tough drive
-Scandisk 4GB EXTREME CF
i also had asked for 300 2 weeks before the wedding, which i will get...
-1 week camera rental
-Battery Grip
-AA batterys out the A$$

i also got a friend who is less experience than me to asist me and offered him 50% or the profit from prints as pay...

so heres everything ill have for the wedding
-2, maybe 3 Canon Xtis (one is rented, one is my friends who is assisting me...if mine
is back from the shop by then than whoopie)
-Canon 70-200 F/2.8L IS
-Canon 18-55 F/3.5-5.6
-Canon 50mm F/1.8
-430EX Flash
-2 4GB memory cards 8GB total,
-Canon 15mm Fisheye F/2.8 (my friends)
-Batteries

am i missing anything HUGE?
can i get by on this?

trevytrev

05/27/2008 06:02:19 PM · #2

You should get an extra flash if you only have one. If yours kuputs then you are screwed with a pop up flash.

ETA: You need more memory too.

Message edited by author 2008-05-27 18:05:28.

renefunk

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

05/27/2008 06:04:20 PM · #3

lol i envide you, i did my fisrt well payed wedding with a 20d and a 28 200mm not so cool
:)

renefunk

Canon EF 17-40mm f/4L USM

05/27/2008 06:04:58 PM · #4

Originally posted by trevytrev:

You should get an extra flash if you only have one. If yours kuputs then you are screwed with a pop up flash.

i did it with that it saved my life you know

Eyesup

Nikon D300

Sigma 70-200 /2.8 APO EX DG Macro HSM II

05/27/2008 06:07:01 PM · #5

you can Never have too much memory.... ever... I like to have at least 3 or 4 so that no matter what I have lots.... but that's j ust paranoid me :)

05/27/2008 06:20:36 PM · #6

well, il just have to risk that... i really cant aford a second flash...maybe rent one but... my buddy wil be getting one too a 430 so he can shoot at the reception...

the plan... i(the more experienced one) will shoo the whole wedding with dual bodies 70-200 and 18-55 on each body
then, at the reception, we will each take a camera and shoot the reception
go home sleep and prepare for a crapload of photoediting

lentil

Canon EF 135mm f/2.0L USM

05/27/2008 06:42:33 PM · #7

Originally posted by Jib:

well, il just have to risk that...

sorry but this makes me cringe... please at least rent a back up flash... I had one die on me in the middle of a ceremony, if I didnt have a backup I would of been screwed. please please please rent one.. even if it is the sigma 500 dg (which is what I have by the way)

How long will you be at the wedding for? I dont think that 8gb is enough.... perhaps if you are there for around 3-4 hours it may be. Shoot raw.. 70-200 good, 18-55 not so good.. I would use the 50 before I would use the 18-55..

All that said, deep breaths and good luck :D

05/27/2008 07:04:46 PM · #8

Why rent the camera for an entire week? Can you not rent it at a daily rate? Perhaps you could save some money there and rent a second flash. With that amount of memory you will probably need to shoot JPEG, so nail your exposures!

I have gotten by on less...it sucked but I made it work.

Good luck.
-drew

ETA: stop by a book store one evening and flip through a posing or wedding photography book, make notes/drawings on poses you like and can pull off with a single light source. Or grab a couple bridal magazines and see what today's brides are seeing/wanting...try your best to reproduce those shots.

Message edited by author 2008-05-27 19:07:52.

05/27/2008 07:06:56 PM · #9

Originally posted by drewbixcube:

Why rent the camera for an entire week? Can you not rent it at a daily rate? Perhaps you could save some money there and rent a second flash.

I have gotten by on less...it sucked but I made it work.

Good luck.
-drew

100 bucks to rent itfor a week... 40bucks/day to rent it from local place

05/27/2008 07:09:42 PM · #10

Originally posted by Jib:

100 bucks to rent itfor a week... 40bucks/day to rent it from local place

Can you reserve it to pick up first thing Saturday morning, or right before close Friday night, return Sunday (if they are open) or first thing Monday morning. That is the way my local shop rents stuff out and you are only charged one day's rental. Saving yourself $60...surely enough to rent a flash.

05/27/2008 07:16:08 PM · #11

i want it for the rehersal too... but its all good...
also...thanks to the DPC users instiling fear of murphys law, i have added a 430ex to my rental order only 26 bucks for a week, so ill be good to go, i really apprcieate al the help...
its moments like these on here when i realize why i pay to be a member here thank you all so much

also its only 75 bucks for a week, its the shipping where the cost goes up...

Message edited by author 2008-05-27 19:17:10.

05/27/2008 07:19:44 PM · #12

Ah-ha you need equipment Friday night too! Good to see you added a backup flash.

Best of luck and check my edit above about posing books/magazines.

-drew

trevytrev

05/27/2008 07:23:03 PM · #13

Good to see you rent another flash. Office Depot has 4GB CF cards onsale for $25 after instant rebate, a pretty good price if you have a little extra $. Good luck and have fun with it!

05/27/2008 07:23:18 PM · #14

ah excellent idea...il be off to barnes and nobel sometime between now ant the 21st... haha i dont know how well thy will react, but will be fun

Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM

05/27/2008 07:23:53 PM · #15

Originally posted by trevytrev:

Good to see you rent another flash. Office Depot has 4GB CF cards onsale for $25 after instant rebate, a pretty good price if you have a little extra $. Good luck and have fun with it!

whats the writespeed? maker?

chesire

Canon EOS-60D

05/27/2008 07:23:59 PM · #16

In my first wedding (weekend before last, so still smarting in my head) we took thirteen gigs of photos throughout the day. I had a laptop with us so we were downloading constantly, but still had down time. Something else we found out after the fact, when I changed cards on my 350, it changed the IMG_9999 numbering scheme, so two cameras ended up with files with the same name, lost about 100 shots by overwriting them.

You might want a cheap diffuser (try ebay, like $30 gary fong wanna be) makes the flash much nicer.

05/27/2008 07:28:21 PM · #17

Originally posted by chesire:

You might want a cheap diffuser (try ebay, like $30 gary fong wanna be) makes the flash much nicer.

wayyy ahead of you..14.99 b&H //www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=cart_accessories&A=details&Q=&sku=408072&is=REG

trevytrev

05/27/2008 07:34:30 PM · #18

Originally posted by Jib:

Originally posted by trevytrev:
Good to see you rent another flash. Office Depot has 4GB CF cards onsale for $25 after instant rebate, a pretty good price if you have a little extra $. Good luck and have fun with it!

whats the writespeed? maker?

They are Ativa, which I believe is the office depot brand product. They are 60X High Speed, I have a few and can't tell a difference with my others such as Sandisk, lexar and tosiba.

05/27/2008 07:46:59 PM · #19

idk thats about 150% slower than my current card... 150x...il give them a look
oh and wedding is from 2-4 reception is 4-7 so 5 hours shot in Large JPG ( i usually shoot in raw...buttt) i figure 1000 images + per card of 4GB ummm yea, i should have enough memory, not to mention, i think my friend has a 2 GB card... so

Message edited by author 2008-05-27 19:49:19.

Sigma 30mm f/1.4 EX DC HSM for Nikon

05/28/2008 01:53:05 AM · #20

Originally posted by Jib:

ah excellent idea...il be off to barnes and nobel sometime between now ant the 21st... haha i dont know how well thy will react, but will be fun

I see people reading in these joints all the time...with laptops, notebooks, stacks of paper all about them, you would think the place was a library! I just counted up my CF cards...8 & 1/2 GB. I don't shoot a lot, and I use shallow DOF sparingly, and large Jpegs have always fit on my cards to cover one wedding. I ran into a little problem, when I had a wedding, band, and multi-family shoots all the same weekend, all out of town. I had to cut some pics during the down time. But as long as you aren't going to be machine gunning at F/1.2, and concentrating on getting the focus right the first few times, you shouldn't have to shoot too many repetative shots. I can't see how guys like [b]ecker rattle off thousands of shots during portraits! How the hell do they sort through all those quickly enough, cutting the bad/OOF ones, and still get shots up on their blogs/websites by the end of the weekend?

Anyway, good luck and I hope you like the new experience. I know I am looking forward to our weddings this summer.
-drew

jdannels

Nikon D300s

05/28/2008 02:15:43 AM · #21

If you are using multiple cameras, make sure to set all the cameras to the exact same time when you start. When you get them all loaded up to go through for editing, you can sort the photos by the time the photo was taken rather than go by image number. It should save you time when organizing later on.

Sigma 35mm f1.4 DG HSM for Nikon

05/28/2008 08:46:35 AM · #22

yea i did know that, how should i set the file numbering? i dont want 3 copies of IMG_0001.JPG

kgeary

Canon EOS-5D Mark II

05/28/2008 08:59:03 AM · #23

Originally posted by Jib:

That 18-55 is probably going to be useless.

NVPhoto

Canon EOS-40D

Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II

05/28/2008 09:01:05 AM · #24

You could rent the 580EX II from my site...

//www.rentphotostuff.com/item?id=5&category=3

$52 for 1 week with shipping.