THE BEGINNING - STARTING CAN BE PAINFUL:
Understandable, I truly emphasize with you who have blitzed yourself into financial and talent obscurity and I do feel your pain. It will get worse when you discover you need to buy a flash. The thing on top of the prism doesn't cut it. It’s a groin injury because your wallet sits on the back of your groin defending your disposable income outlay. Our money is always well spent. It must be, it seldom returns.
It's just like buying a tank. When out shopping for tanks it's important to realize three things. Lets use this nice Panther I found at Ft. Benning. Light, fast, and pallet drop-able. So you ask yourself a few questions, if this is the one for you.
1- Make sure you are not being outgunned.
2- Make sure it's suitable for the occasion or terrain.
3- Make sure the right ammo is available and works.
The truth is when you buy a strobe ask yourself the same questions.
1- Is this strobe powerful enough to do the job it is intended for?
You have to weigh the entire process. Fortunately flash units are lighter than tanks.
2- Is this strobe portable, with an optional pack or even stable as an AC unit without overheating for different locations and sites. Lugging a fifteen pound battery to the top of that hill that looked so promising absolutely sucks as an idea. Is is big enough to handle a wide wedding party?
3- Is it compatible with my existing gear and in the case of older flashes not harming my newer gear. Ask yourself will it even work with my new gear?
While out cruising, Dolly, my late beloved, came across this one owner Russian T-72 in decent condition. "Honey, she said we can save money by buying a used tank like this on eBay."
Closer inspection revealed it needed some paint, a little bodywork from careless driving and for some reason the reverse gears were completely worn out.
Surprisingly enough it had no bullet holes in it. So I checked with TANK FAX and found out it was registered to Saddam Hussein's Republican Guards.
It saw limited action in the first Gulf War mostly in reverse, and was updated with safety equipment by Ralph Nader who was hired as a consultant and put huge backup lights on all their tanks. That explained the wear on the rear gears. If you know little about used gear, take someone along who does. Or buy from a reputable dealer with a thirty day return policy less the ammo you used.
YOU ARE ON A WELL TRAVELED PATH
Like a migration of the Caribou or the gigantic Wildebeest herds in Africa, the newbie Wedding shooter seems to follow a path laid down by his predecessors. It is, the new techno world. The manufacturers have replaced knowledge. Knowledge was earned by working as an understudy with a real professional. Unlike today with the promise of perfection as long as you have the proper credit card and a computer.
Photography is about light, not the mantras of the photo equipment manufacturers. Failures are because of a lack of preparation, training and a sheer lack of effort and study. PERIOD. Flash manufacturers, know this and they have automated their flash units to death, they call it integration. So you get something of an image, and then I hear, just shoot it and we'll correct it in Photoshop.
Those folks have new names. "POST-OGRAPHERS" study the extreme use of sharpness, raw over/under exposure and bloated saturation which is the motivation behind an enormous cash flow in the general direction of ADOBE. I know I pay for the same upgrade bills you do.
Our newbian feels the impulse to shoot Weddings because; It looked easy enough at his sisters wedding, and all the talent is in the tool, right? The new cameras do all the figuring and work for you to get perfect pictures. So let the buying begin. It comes in stages to create the perfect storm. A compilation of bad moves. Many of the statements here reflect portraiture and event photography too as well as Quinceañera's and other customary social events.