I am about to photograph a 25th wedding anniversary mass in a church and need help with technique. This is my equipment: elan 7,420ex,50mm f/1.4, 100mm f/2.8 macro,20-35mm f/3.5-4.5, bogen tripod and ball head. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

-- marc (pookeybookey@aol.com), March 08, 2002

Answers

The equipment you are using sounds good, all of the most used focal lenghts used for weddings are covered( 35mm,50mm,100mm) one very important item to find out is whether flashes are allowed in the church ,I have been suprised a few times when told they were not. to be on the safe side bring a roll of 800 speed(agfa perhaps)to catch availible light portrats. also bring a small portable tripod for a nice ariel view from the back balcony. One last thing you may want to bring a mild diffuser or a piece of thin panty hose to put over that 100macro you will find it makes the portraits more flattering not hard edged. good luck

-- joe cap (joemocap@yahoo.com), March 08, 2002.

If you do use flash, put it on a flip type bracket that will keep it directly above teh lens. That will make any shadows fall directly behind and below the subject where they won't be seen as much.

Use a professional 400 speed film or 800 if necessary. Fuji NPH, NPZ or Kodak Portra works good. I prefer to use Fuji but find the exposures are best if you down rate the film speed at least 1/3 stop.

You basically need to use wedding photography techniques. One good one is "dragging the shutter." Set the camera to manual and use a slow shutter speed. 1/15 or so. That will allow you to pick up some of the ambient lighting. I usually meter the church and pick an aperture, then adjust the shutter to be 1.5-2 stops below the ambient meter reading. That often works out to 1/15 sec.

This isn't a bad way to break into wedding photography. It's nearly the same but with a lot less stress.

-- Jim Strutz (j.strutz@gci.net), March 08, 2002.