Last weekend, I had the extreme pleasure of photographing my very first wedding at the Tewkesbury Park Hotel in Gloucestershire. It was a blast. I don’t think I have ever had so much fun with a camera in my hand.
For months, I had been preparing, researching and getting things in order; to help make the day run as smoothly as possible. The key to successful wedding photography is good planning.
In all of research I did, I only came across a handful of photographers who only use prime lenses in wedding photography.
So I figured I couldn’t hurt to share some of my preparations here on the blog, for people who are interested in how I shot my first solo wedding. Including the slightly unique (mad?) decision to shoot an entire wedding with just two fixed prime lenses.
Camera Gear I Take
ThinkTank Retrospective 30 Shoulder Bag (The Bag I Carry)
- My Own Nikon D700 with Nikkor AF-S 34mm f1.4 G
- A Hired Nikon D700 with Nikkor AF-S 85mm f1.4 G
- 2 x SB900 Speedlights
- 1 x Set Kenko Autofocus Extension Tubes
- 4 x Spare Batteries For D700’s
- 4 x sets of 4 AA Eneloops
- 4 x 16GB SanDisk Extreme Compact Flash Cards
- Full Set Of Flash Gels
- Itinerary For The Day, including emergency phone numbers for the bridal party.
- Business Cards
- Mints
- Pocket Mirror
- Tissues
- Paracetamol
ThinkTank Retrospective 10 Shoulder Bag (in the car / or close by)
- Nikon D3100 with AF-S 35mm f1.8
- Bottled Water
- Granola Bars / Energy Bars
- Change Of Clothes
- SatNav (with all addresses already entered)
In The Tripod Bag (in the car)
- 2 x Calumet Full Height Light Stands
- 2 x Reversible 30” Umbrellas
- 1 x Westcott Apollo 40” Soft box
How The Gear Is Set Up
Both Nikon D700’s are set up identically, with one little exception.
- Shooting In Manual Mode (with auto ISO On)
- Quality: RAW
- Annoying Autofocus Beep Off
- Time And Date Set The Same On Each Body (to the second!)
- Auto ISO – My D700 (with 35mm) is set with a minimum shutter speed of 1/60th second. The other D700 (with 85mm) is set with a minimum shutter speed of 1/100th second. I’m perfectly happy with the D700 at ISO 6400, so that is where the max ISO is set.
- Both cameras controls, including focus settings, and custom functions are set up the same, so I can switch between both cameras effortlessly. (Nikon cameras have a facility to copy all camera settings to the compact flash card, and then load them all again when the card is inserted in a different camera. So this takes 2 seconds to do.)
- I’m not using battery grips because they add unnessacery weight and bulk. The total weight of both cameras and lenses is less than 3kg. My bag when fully loaded was just shy of 6kg.
How I Used It
I stuck to natural light for most of the day, but did brefily get the Speedlights out for the evening entertainment and dancing. I was planning to use the umbrellas/soft boxes for the bridal portraits, but there just wasn’t enough time. Considering this was my very first time shooting a wedding, I aimed to keep the equipment and setups really simple and this really helped things flow well, and help me concentrate on the photo journalistic aspects of capturing the day.
As per the rest of my work, I prefer large apertures and lots of depth of field, but I was mindful of stopping down for moving subjects and the larger group shots. Both the Nikkor 35mm and 85mm are super sharp wide open, so I have no issue with using the lenses wide open.
I must admit, it felt like I was over shooting on the day, but in fact, I probably didn’t shoot enough to begin with. Over shooting was vital to make up for any errors with focus that my come up from shooting those lovely prime lenses at very large apertures. (Like the 85mm at f1.4!) But even on continuous autofocus, the D700 managed to keep up with moving subjects at f1.4 - f2.0 about 70% of the time, which is not bad at all.
All of my post processing is done via Lightroom 4 with a combination of my own presets and the fantastic VSCO Film. A few key portraits will retouched in Photoshop CS4.
How Did It Go?
To finish up, I just want to say that shooting a wedding with just a 35mm and 85mm worked beautifully. The 35mm and 85mm worked together seamlesly , just like I thought they would. It just requires a different approach to photography and photo journalism.
All I know is that I’m very happy with images, and I think the client will be too.
Please keep an eye on the blog for the photos from my first wedding, and maybe at some point I will go more in depth about how to shoot a wedding with two fixed prime lenses.
If you have any questions please leave them in the comments below.
by Chris Scuffins
James Sloane - Superb! I really do find the entire website fantastic! I am only a budding begginner and find your website inspiring and informative. Really find your blog posts superb! I must say I am attracted to primes too, just havent been able to afford one yet, still with that kit lens! Can’t wait to see those shots for the wedding. An older friend who has been shooting weddings for almost 11 years now is finally looking to covert from film to digital. Would you recomend getting the D700 and good glass over the D800. Any way keep your posts and videos comming!
Many thanks
James
Chris Nash - Hi James
Thanks for the kind comments.
That’s a tough question about the D700 vs D800. But if it was me, it would be the D700 and good lenses every time. The D700 is great all round camera, and very easy to work with. I am considering buying a second one as a second body for weddings, rather than spending twice as much on the D800. I hear the D800 is very unforgiving with cheap/poor lenses.
Kudos to your friend to be still shooting film for wedding work. I’m sure there a quite niche market for that these days. If he is experienced and good at it, and marketed himself the right way, he could probably charge a premium for not shooting digital!
Nada - Very nice photos, it’s great that you achieved perfect photos with two prime lenses. Did you use any filters or edited the photos after ?
Chris Nash - Thanks!
No I didn’t use any filters. And as the entire day is shot in RAW, all of the images were post processed in some way or another. I very rarely crop though, as I like to keep as much resolution available for printing big and doing high quality albums.
Hope that helps.