Beginners guide to wedding dinner shoot

First and foremost I am no professional wedding photographer, nor do i make a living out of shooting weddings. And no, i certainly do not have any credentials to prove on paper or any professional qualifications whatsoever. Just writing this article to share my experience of late. Enjoy and hope this article is useful. =P

A Beginners Guide to Wedding dinner shooting and how not to screw up

Have you ever been in an awkward situation where you are suddenly thrown into the responsibility of having to shoot a wedding dinner, or an important function in a restaurant(for that matter) when you are totally unprepared (batteries uncharged, camera body unavailable, no flash gun) when your relative or someone close to you asks you to take charge, since you are known to have the big guns. Or when you totally have no experience in shooting dinners but just because you have a DSLR you are tasked with this big responsibility. Well fear not, this guide should be able to help you, i hope.

Well, that happened to me and i was totally caught off guard. I was told that i had to cover my relative's wedding dinner just one hour before the event and all i have was my Sony a300 without charged batteries and my flash gun is dead. So I had no choice but to use my dad's Canon 450D + 18-55mm lens as well as a 270EX flash.

Photo from dpreview.com

Now although my gear was reaaaally basic, it still pretty much does the job. But for these type of events, you MUST at least have a DSLR (a m43 or NEX could also do a good job but you really don't give people an impression that you are serious). Having a flash gun that can bounce would of course make your life much easier.

There are some things you can hope for before you make your way to the wedding venue.

1. Your 'clients' aren't exactly fussy.

2. There's a lot of light available (you know there are some weddings who love to use bloody dim lightings).

3. The colours of the lights are consistent, and not too overly tungsten.

4. The ceilings are low, so that your tiny flash gun can bounce (if you have one).

5. No fast actions (that includes dancing, magic shows etc.)

Hoping won't hurt so try to hope more. =P

Alright enough of the introductions and let's get to the basics of how things should be done, at least how I manage it.

Let's assume that the dinner is quite a straight forward one, and lighting remains relatively constant.

1. Settings

This is one of the most important things to do if you do not want to spend hours behind the computer fixing stuff. I usually shoot in Manual mode, set the shutter speed to 1/60 (so that it's fast enough to avoid hand shake, freeze minimal motion and get enough light in) and step down the aperture a bit to f4-f5.6 (depending on whether i am shooting a single subject or a group shot). If you don't have a flash gun, you could use a lower shutter speed at 1/30 and hope your subjects don't really move and REMEMBER to enable Image Stabilisation or Super Steady Shot. Try to use at least ISO800, or you can push it to ISO1600 since newer cameras nowadays can produce very clean shots at ISO1600. If you don't understand what these terms are, just use these settings and you shouldn't go wrong by much, and hope for the best.

2. Composition

I won't go much into these as there are thousands of reviews out there on how to take proper compositions. My general advise is, try to keep your subjects in your centre, don't cut off their bodies awkwardly. Decide whether you want to take half body shots or full body shots or 75% body shots and work from there.

3. Group shots

Now this is one of the most important aspect in wedding dinners, where everybody, especially the bridge and bridegroom and their parents, group around and you are the one responsible for the shot.

So what can you do with your entry level gear in this situation? First of all, try to use a smaller aperture f5-f5.6 so that everybody will appear sharp. For more info, google 'depth of field' and 'aperture' and start reading. =3

Secondly, use flash! If possible, use a bounce flash if you have flash gun, otherwise, USE THE POP UP FLASH! It's there for a REASON. I have lost count the number of times people that don't use the pop up flash. They claim the flash sucks as it makes the subject overly bright and the scene dark. Well, that's because you don't understand the relationship between your camera settings and the flash. Try to use the settings above in point 1 and you might just see the difference. However this only applies to group shots, as the pop up flash may cast dark shadows if you use it too near to your subjects. :D

Last but not least, try to remove distracting objects from your shot if possible, like the chair at the bottom left in the picture below. It will certainly make a difference in your shot.

4. The moment

Now this is the tricky part. To get the moment, or the momentS throughout the wedding. Well a simple tip is to be observant and time your shots. Usually moments that you shouldn't be missing out is when the bridegroom and the bride goes around toasting to guests, or the cutting cake ceremony (if there's one) etc. You get the idea. Experienced photographers will know what and when to expect all these moments and are always prepared. But since you are not paid to shoot ( I assume), and the food is rather tempting, keeping up with the moments could be quite challenging.

5. Limitations

Of course there is a reason why pros often go for expensive gears and lenses with big big apertures.

Shots like that could have a better effect if the background was blurred away, just leaving the subjects in the frame.

And if there are fast moving actions throughout the dinner, your entry level camera and tiny flash gun certainly can't keep up with the pace. Understand what your camera can and cannot do, and your life will certainly be a little bit easier for the night.

6. POST PROCESS

One of the most important aspects of photography as well. I guess the title is self explanatory. After the dinner, try to fix your shots in photoshop or Lightroom and do some minor editting here and there, especially with the brightness and contrast can certainly boost your shots. If you know how to add vignetting effects then it's all the better.

Alright that's all from me for now. Hopefully this article was helpful to prepare you should get thrown into such a situation in the future. Try not to put too much pressure on yourself on that eventful day and don't forget to enjoy the dinner and food as well! :D