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Home >> Learning >> e-Book on Wedding Photography Table of Contents Wedding Photography e-Book - Preparation Equipment Your equipment should be checked over, packed and ready to go the night before the wedding. All batteries should be either new or charged to full capacity with plenty of spares of every type you need for all pieces of equipment. This is where pro-oriented gear that uses the common AA cell is a great advantage since you can keep everything standardized to one type of battery. Almost everything I own that I use at a wedding has been standardized to AA, from the medium format’s motor drive, to the Nikon F100 cameras, to the flash units, including the big Metz flash that uses NICAD packs but can be powered by AA cells, to my wireless flash trigger and flash meter. I may occasionally mix in other pieces of equipment that utilize a different battery type, but I make sure I have spares of those available.
For the medium format motor drive I prefer to use Energizer’s lithium AA cells for their long lasting power capabilities. I can easily go through a dozen weddings with one set, but I change the cells after each season. I also use a lithium cell in my flash meter for similar reasons and one cell will also power me for a whole season. The thing with lithiums though is that they are very linear with their power, that is, they run perfectly right up to the end and then fail spectacularly with little warning. If you use lithiums in a device with a battery indicator and notice it blinking, be sure to have a replacement set ready to go immediately, in fact when the indicator starts blinking, just replace it then and there instead of trusting to fate that you can squeeze off a few more frames.
I use two 35mm cameras for the primary wedding day coverage and although I could say that one is a backup, in fact I use both cameras simultaneously with two different lenses. For the last couple of weddings I was involved in 2003, I even took to using three cameras simultaneously, with the third one loaded with infrared film and a wide-angle zoom lens with a red filter. A 16mm fisheye with an orange filter was mixed in with the wide-angle zoom for even more striking images. If something were to happen to one of the primary F100 cameras, I simply switch to using the other F100 only. Fortunately, this has only happened once where one camera seemed to flake out for a short period of time and nothing I tried or could think of under pressure while a photo-rich moment was occurring worked. Powering it down did not work nor did taking out the battery tray, but when the moment quieted down and I fiddled around some more, the fix was ludicrously simple, just advance the film to the next frame. This fix was mentioned in the manual too under the trouble shooting section, D’oh! Time the camera was down and out, probably no more than 15 minutes. Time that I aged during that moment, probably five-years with my heart beating furiously like an adolescent looking at his first Penthouse magazine. I also have two medium format bodies, but one I have attached to a motor drive and the other is just stock. I’ve only had an issue with the motorized camera once during a wedding when pressing the shutter release did nothing, but manually advancing the frame cleared it up. That was less stressful because another photographer just stepped in and took shots with his 35mm rig while I cleared up my minor stall and then I was able to step back in seamlessly. With the first F100 example I was shooting alone as the primary photographer.  So, dual, sometimes triple 35mm cameras and dual medium format bodies are available in my kit. For lenses, I’m a bit less picky in duplicating all focal lengths because lenses are usually the most reliable pieces in the kit because for the most part they’re just tubes of glass. Things are a bit different with the newest lenses that have AF-S/USM and VR/IS motors incorporated in their design and all electronic lens mounts to boot. These lenses offer the potential for more problems than older auto focus or manual focus lenses. My current complement of lenses are, in focal length order, the:
I also have two primary flash units to use with the F100 cameras, both being the Nikon SB28, but I expect to add a third and perhaps even a fourth Nikon flash unit in the form of the SB800DX for added redundancy (but primarily for digital use). The primary flash unit for the medium format system is the Metz 45CL4, which is backed up by the venerable Vivitar 283, but the Nikon flash units could also be pressed into service in either Auto or Manual mode with the Bronica cameras. Flash is one area that I definitely feel requires generous redundancy due to personal history, as well as seeing flash fail with other photographers. For a two-camera kit, go with three flash units that are the same model so that one can easily slip in place of another that has failed. With your kit all packed up and ready to go as soon as the events unfold, you can concentrate on the photo taking rather than the equipment. Make sure cameras are mounted to their flash brackets and flash units and cords are close at hand. You can wait to see how the day shapes up weather wise before deciding on your first roll of film. Pack any notes or special instructions from the couple in a place easily found, e.g. suit pocket, if you wear suits, or, as I do, in a waist pouch that I also keep extra rolls of film, batteries and a Pocket PC that I use to store poses and ideas for the formal shots. Get a good night’s sleep by heading off to bed early rather than late and if you suffer from allergies like I do, make sure a supply of non-drowsy pills are in your bag or pocket. By being fully prepared the day before, you can get yourself fresh and ready to go immediately without worry that you forgot this or that for your equipment case. Incidentals that you might want to pack in a shaving kit for those “just in case” moments:
Other incidentals to have handy:
You may never utilize any of the items listed above, but weddings can turn out to be fickle events and preparation as an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure.
For daytime conditions outdoors, I prefer to use ISO 160 films to allow for fill-flash use but even then the lens might still have to be stopped down quite a bit more than I like in very bright sunny conditions. A polarizer or neutral density filter can help to bring down the depth of field into the comfort range. For indoor daytime conditions I use ISO 400 films that I can use with flash, or if the light is strong enough, just ambient, but I am mostly using flash as much as possible with color films for that extra pop and saturation. For nighttime conditions I use an ISO 800 film to help burn in the ambient light better when I’m using flash. Interspersed with these color films are rolls of Kodak Portra B&W (now TMAX 320) for black and white coverage. ISO 320 or 400 is a bit fast for fill-flash use in sunny conditions, so I have to go ambient most times but the high contrast seems to work nicely with black and white. Add in a bit of sepia and you’re really cookin’. Some Kodak TMAX 3200 or Ilford Delta 3200 for high speed ambient coverage indoors might be utilized, but I have generally not been a high speed kind of guy. Depending on the day itself, Ilford’s SFX 200 might see action in another camera to get some funky near-infrared photos. Especially effective with foliage in the background, but incredibly dramatic with puffy clouds set in blue sky. Use a red filter on the lens and if you really want to push the blackness of the blue sky in the print, try a polarizer on top of the red as well. Any of the B&W and ISO 160 films would be lower usage types with ISO 800 coming next, but the workhorse film is the ISO 400 type. This is the middle film that can straddle low light and bright light with good results either way. For digital, nothing could be easier than custom fine-tuning your ISO as lighting conditions warrant. Bright light? Set to the lowest ISO. Middling light? Set to ISO 400. Low light? Set to ISO 800 and if you really want some ambient only photos, set to ISO 1600 and then clean up with Noise Ninja or Neat Image Pro. For the workflow afterwards, I like to sort the digital files into separate folders based on the ISO used to batch apply the custom noise reduction profile before combining the filtered files back into one master folder again. Keeping Fit Working a full day wedding is hard work. Whoever said wedding photographers earn too much never spent 12 hours lugging two full size, pro cameras and lenses around their necks with two additional cases or bags on top of that, and a tripod. Even a relatively short day for four to six hours can still inflict a beating on the body. The following day, my body is usually stiff and I sometimes wonder why, but when you think about it, the wedding photographer is constantly on the go. Do a few of those types of days in a row and watch the pounds melt away. My lower back will be stiff along with my neck and shoulders. My right forearm will also usually feel stiff too from holding onto a camera for long periods of time. So, though you may not feel much on the actual wedding day itself, as you get on in years, you definitely feel it the day or two after. This flows nicely to the point that you want to maintain some physical fitness and conditioning to minimize the stiffness and allow you enough juice to keep going the whole day. I’m reminded of the scene in the movie Hoosiers when Gene Hackman’s character is running the boys through a series of tough conditioning workouts at the beginning of the movie, because by the end of the season, Hackman does not want his team to run out of gas and ever be outworked and out-hustled by another team. Now, I’m not suggesting some basketball style workout regime, but some regular exercise and good diet will make life easier on you for those days that you have to abuse the body by working it out without ingesting a regular supply of food and water, as you would for regular non-photographic days. Diet and exercise will also minimize any unpleasant surprises when you take the winter off and then have to dust off the suit and shirts the following season, only to find that you’re still carrying Christmas turkey baggage around your waist. Dress and Comportment Dress sensibly, but most important, dress comfortably. A suit and tie look great, but are a pain in the ass to wear and photograph in. The suit jacket is constricting and tends to bunch up with camera straps around your neck and on your shoulder. The tie also tends to get caught up in the neck straps. For my own wedding shoots, I prefer a basic outfit of dress pants, or really good looking black, wrinkle-free khakis that can pass for dress pants with a wrinkle-free dress shirt – yes there are such shirts, try Eddie Bauer for some decent looking ones. They cost about CAN $75 and will wear better over a full day then a traditional dress shirt that looks great for the first hour but looks like it had been slept in by the end of the day. Plus good dress shirts cost over CAN $100 and are not as durable, requiring dry cleaning, whereas the Eddie Bauer shirts can be machine washed and dried with regular laundry and come out looking great. I forego the tie as well. The most important part of the outfit though is perhaps your shoes. Comfort again is the key word because while fancy dress shoes look great and are comfortable enough for an office environment where you aren’t on your feet the whole day, not so good for weddings. Traditional dress shoes usually have a hard and smooth sole that is too thin for comfort and too noisy over hard floors. Rubber soled shoes provide superior cushioning and support over a long day. Less noisy on hard surfaces, but if they get wet they do tend to “squeak.” Now that you’re all set to go, your attention can be focused on the wedding itself. Next Chapter - Putting it all together for the Wedding Day Workflow |
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Correspondence & About this website Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong |
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I
mostly use rechargeable cells in the 35mm camera and flashes, but other
pieces of equipment require so much current that rechargeable cells
just do not work or last very long. The medium format motor drive is
one such device and on the rare occasion that I use the Metz flash with
a 35mm camera, the TTL adapter requires small AAA cells to properly
pump out the proper amount of flash, otherwise, the flash just dumps
the whole charge. This TTL adapter is one that sucks the life out of
rechargeable AAA and requires akalines in order to get through a shoot.
And
in the farthest reaches of your camera bag or case, have a dozen-pack
of Energizer or Duracell akalines for a “just in case” moment. The big
thing about wedding photography equipment is redundancy. You’ve likely
heard it before and you’ll hear it again here, make sure you have spares
of your primary pieces of equipment. Some will say that you need spares
of every single piece of equipment you own, but even an equipment whore
like me considers that to be too much. 
My
only real duplication is in the normal range where I have the 24-85
and 35-70 lenses. If all the other lenses somehow failed or suffered
catastrophic falls onto cement, I could still cover a wedding with either
one of those lenses, utilizing foot zoom power to go wider or to get
closer. As most of the action tends to happen in this normal range,
it is the most appropriate area to duplicate lenses for. I would not
mind duplicating the 70/80-200 range too, but that is an extravagance
that is not warranted at this time being a part time photographer. If
I were to duplicate the telephoto range, I would likely do so with a
different lens than another fast 70/80-200 lens, such as the Nikon 80-400
VR lens, which would provide another benefit on its own with the super
long coverage to 400mm.
Additionally,
a tool kit is a must have for a photographer and if you use more than
one bag or case, having multiple mini kits can be handy instead of having
to open up one case while working out of another. Some basic tools to
have or consider are:
For
film, you must have more film than you anticipate needing to use for
the shoot. If you’re doing a full day and you figure to shoot 20 rolls
of film of all types, bring 30 rolls with extras of the most used types.
I make no specific recommendations below for film brand, other than
Fuji or Kodak professional type with a bit of Ilford mixed in.