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Alpha Lens Rental + Wedding

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 6:06 am
by KevinBarrett
In one weekend in August I will have the rare pleasure of shooting two inexpensive weddings in one weekend. Because of this, I can justify renting an extra body from Alpha Lens Rental without sweating the cost of renting cutting into my meager profits. So I thought, why stop there? Why not rent a lens that I might not get the pleasure or justification to work with again?

One wedding is indoors in the morning, the next wedding is outdoors in the evening, with no reception.

I have:
a700 with VG
17-50/2.8
70-210/4
50/1.7
24/2.8

Will rent:
extra a700 with VG

What additional lens should I rent?
135/1.8
85/1.4
70-200/2.8
open to other suggestions...

Re: Alpha Lens Rental + Wedding

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:44 am
by Dr. Harout
If it were just 2 lenses on those 2 weddings, I would opt for the 17-50 on one camera and 85/1.4 on the other (though you might consider also the 70-200/2.8 too for one of the weddings, the outdoor one).

Re: Alpha Lens Rental + Wedding

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 11:24 am
by pakodominguez
Get the A900 + 24-70 2.8!

Re: Alpha Lens Rental + Wedding

Posted: Sun Jul 12, 2009 8:02 pm
by KevinBarrett
Actually, renting the a900 would be more than all the rentals I'm considering combined. I'm leaning toward the 135/1.8, myself.

Re: Alpha Lens Rental + Wedding

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 10:07 am
by bossel
Set your beercan to 135mm and shoot with that for an hour. I have a 135/2.8 and it is just very very long on APS-C. I would not go for the 135/1.8.

Why don't sell the beercan & 24/2.8, save the money for the rental and buy the Sigma 70-200, praised by DK. Or rent the Sony 70-200 & take your 17-50. Unless you do some staged shoots, you're going to loose a lot of pics if you have to change lenses.

Re: Alpha Lens Rental + Wedding

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 1:49 pm
by jonathanh
I would recommend a 24 -70 lenses as this will cover most of what you need with a 70 200 for candids these are the only two lenses that I use other than a 12-24 for overall effect shots. Just remmember that its not the lenses that you have but the way that you use them that will make for great photos.

Re: Alpha Lens Rental + Wedding

Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 6:37 pm
by bonneville
I am certainly no professional but I did cover a birthday bash recently that went well and as a result I have a booking to cover a civil partnership day soon.

Image

I used my a700 & grip + SAL70200 f2.8 and a100 + Sig 1850 f2.8 with 56 flash and surprised myself with the results. The party people loved them, I sold loads of pictures and books I created in BLURB.

Wound up the ISO and the trick was using the fast lenses in the low light, but beware the shallow depth of field at 2.8.

Re: Alpha Lens Rental + Wedding

Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 3:46 pm
by Dusty
I'm getting in on this late - I've been too busy to hit the forums much lately - but I have some advise.

Having done weddings professionally for a few years, you need to know the location setups and rules to determine the lenses needed. If they don't allow flash during the ceremony (lots of churches still don't) you need to set up in the balcony with long lenses. The outdoor one won't have a balcony, but then light should be less of a problem.

Group shots of the wedding party require wide glass. These are the most important, beside the ring and first kiss. If they have a Unity Candle, grabbing that shot from the balcony with a star filter adds a touch of magic!

I'm just getting back into weddings on digital, and booked a cheapie recently. It will be all digital delivery, burn everything to DVD and hand it off. I also plan on doing that in the future with dumping everything to a digital picture frame. Music optional.

I'm finding lots of people who like that idea, turn it on while visitors are over, they'll see more of the wedding than if the album lay unopened on the coffee table. Also printing costs are cut out of the price. You can always add an 11x14 or larger for the mantle, that's really all most people ever look at anyway.

Dusty

Re: Alpha Lens Rental + Wedding

Posted: Sat Aug 08, 2009 10:15 pm
by KevinBarrett
I actually just shot the first of two weddings this weekend. All I rented was a Gary Fong diffuser, which was useless for this first wedding. I was able to do most of it with the Tamron 17-50/2.8, Minolta 50/1.7, and F56AM

Re: Alpha Lens Rental + Wedding

Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 4:21 am
by KevinBarrett
Image

One from the wedding today. a700 + 50/1.7

Re: Alpha Lens Rental + Wedding

Posted: Sun Aug 09, 2009 10:04 am
by aster
Congratulations on your wedding assignments Kevin.

Looks like these past two weddings have been good learning experiences for you and next ones will be of less trouble.

I don't think you should let your Sony go easily though, as there're still some more announcements to be heard of apparently! Take me for example; I am patiently waiting for some good/exciting cameras while shooting my garden's insect population as a good learning pass time! :D :D

Yildiz