Tips for Wedding, Sports Or Other Large Photo Shoots

[Photo 5]

There has been a large number of request for people asking about wedding photography and sports photography so I thought I would post a few of my tips.

Feel free to add your own to this post

1.) 24 hrs ahead of the shoot start charging every battery you have even those that you think are charged. That way you have maximum battery power on site

2.) Make sure memory cards are empty and formatted. I like to have my cards set to continuous numbering so I can keep my photos in order no matter how many cards I need to download

3.) On site I tended to just shoot and delete photos later unless I know they are really really bad. I do check them often in the EVF screen to make ure the white balance and lack of burrliness is good. I will do a delete session once the photos are unloaded to my laptop

4.) I always carry all my batteries amd memory cards with me to a large shooting even if I think I might only take 250 images.... you never know ehen one crd might fail or if something will happen that wilol catch your eye etc.

5.) Most importantly when in doubt take the picture and see if it comes out. The longer you think about it or truy to figure it out the less chance the photo will still be there.

Hope this gives you a few ideas and will spark more ideas within

dave

[JohnG]

Dave,

How long have you been shooting weddings? What equipment are you using? Just curious. Which bracket do you use? I might consider replacing the one I'm currently using and wedding photogs tend to get a lot of use out of them and are usually a good source so I thought I'd ask.

what about sports? What kind of sports are you shooting and with what gear? I have to confess I'm more into the sports shooting but I'm always curious what people are using - not just for sports but for weddings.

Thanks!

John

[Mark1616]

John, just to chime in, after looking at another post Photo 5 is a Fuji S9100 user...... anyway that was not the reason to chime in but that you mention the weddings you have done and was wondering if you had any locked galleries or anything I could take a look at (PM me if you like) as I'm shooting 3 weddings this year for friends so getting as many shot ideas as possible. I really want to give them something that encompasses the normal posed shots as well as more interesting angles etc. I'm also looking at grabbing a 5D with 24-105 f4L (I know I should be getting the MkIII lol but don't have the budget and after these weddings getting some more bookings could soon pay for the MKIII as well which means I would have a nice set for both sports and portrait/wedding work (and keep the 30D as backup when shooting sports).

[JohnG]

Mark - no, I'm not a wedding photog. I only mentioned wedding photogs were good people to get bracket advice on and I might be looking for a new one. Sorry, bud, but I can't help you out on wedding examples. I prefer to spend my time at weddings with a drink and not a camera in my hand

[Mark1616]

LOL, my mistake, now being even more thick what sort of bracket are you talking about?

[Photo 5]

Sorry none of my photos are on line. They are all stored on hard drives in a netgear storage device and on either CD or DVDs.

dave

[gryphonslair99]

JohnG wrote:

Mark - no, I'm not a wedding photog. I only mentioned wedding photogs were good people to get bracket advice on and I might be looking for a new one. Sorry, bud, but I can't help you out on wedding examples. I prefer to spend my time at weddings with a drink and not a camera in my hand

Hate weddings....Detest Weddings.... Don't shoot weddings.

Great bracket though: IMHO the best on the market today. I use it for other events and love it. And yes, I learned about it from a wedding photographer friend of mine.

http://www.custombrackets.com/script...?idproduct=145

Pricey though.

[JohnG]

Thanks for the link. I'm currently using the CB Junior - which is a flip style and a great starter bracket. This one looks good - a number of ones I've seen that allow the camera to rotate do not appear to provide much separation of flash from camera body - which is, in large part, the benefit of a bracket. This one does.

Thanks again for the link!

[martinbishop]

equipment-wise, I'm thinking of making a set of badges for photographers to carry and wear as needed at a wedding:

I'M the photographer


it's not my fault, she's the
one that wants all these groups


just co-operate and
it'll be over quicker


No, I don't do nudes


of course I do have an expensive camera
but it takes a little more than that!


this is not just a Saturday afternoon job


yes, it's digital... I could delete all
the bad shots, if I took any!

Any other suggestions??

[Mark1616]

LOL those are good