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One Lens Wedding by Jason Schneider You can do it with a long-range wide-to-tele zoom! Article rating: 7.63

Yes, you can cover the full range of matrimonial festivities from dressing the bride to the final toast with a single lens so long as it’s an 18-200mm or 18-250mm on a consumer DSLR or a 28-300mm on a full-frame DSLR.

No, you don’t have to shoot a wedding with one lens—these days most pros use at least a couple of DSLR bodies and a battery of 3-4 lenses to cover this most demanding of photographic assignments. However, most enthusiasts and weekend warriors don’t have the luxury of having an assistant or a backup photographer, so the ability to capture the entire event using only one long-range-zoom lens is a distinct advantage.  On a consumer DSLR with an APS-C-size sensor, the popular 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens offered by all major camera makers and independent lens companies is the equivalent of a 28-300mm on the 35mm format, and if you’re shooting with a full-frame DSLR like the Canon EOS 5D, you can opt for an actual 28-300mm lens. In shooting the colorful Russian Orthodox wedding illustrated here, I used Tamron’s outstanding 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3, which provides even more reach, but I certainly could have done a creditable job with either of the two aforementioned long-range zoom lenses.

The reason wedding photography is such a challenging assignment is that it entails capturing the essence of a pivotal event in a couple’s life and doing it with style, grace, and tact. And you’ve got to get it right the first time—there are no do-overs! In a way, shooting a wedding is like covering hard news—it’s essential to show what actually happened and to tell a compelling story. But it’s also like sports photography because you’ve got to know the game—what happens when and where—so you can anticipate the action. And as any good wedding photographer knows, the ability to direct people discreetly without being either overbearing or under-assertive is essential in creating the professional quality formal and informal portraits that clients expect to include in their album.

Although I’ve been shooting weddings since I was a teenager (picture an awkward 18 year old lugging around a 17-1/2-pound Crown Graphic press camera and shooting on 4x5 sheet film!) and have over 120 weddings to my credit, I don’t advertise myself as a wedding photographer. However, when the opportunity presented itself to photograph an attractive young couple getting married in a Russian Orthodox Church in Brooklyn, New York the idea intrigued me—because I had never done it before, and because I knew it was going to be something special. The clincher was that after the ceremony, the entire wedding party would drive to a park-like pier on the Brooklyn side of East River, literally under the Brooklyn Bridge, where there would be a fabulous view of the span arching over the lower Manhattan skyline. Then it was on to a lavish catering hall located in Brooklyn’s Coney Island section.

Usually when you’re shooting a wedding as a pro, you have an assistant to manage your shooting list, round up specific people, haul your equipment, stow your memory cards, and generally keep things on track, but I didn’t have that luxury. If I was going to do it, I had to do it as a one-man band. Technology came to the rescue in the form of a high quality digital SLR (my Canon EOS 30D) a 2GB memory card  (so I could record all the 629 hi-res images I shot without changing cards), and most of all, the excellent Tamron 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 lens, which I used for over 95% of the pictures I shot on that glorious day. Indeed, the only time I switched to my trusty Tamron 11-18mm f/4-5.6 wide-angle zoom was when I needed its ultra-wide coverage to capture the bridal couple in the limo, the bride being primped, and the bride and friends posing fetchingly on the narrow staircase leading to the groom’s apartment. Could I have actually covered 100% of the wedding with one lens? Well, 99%--everything except the limo shots.

To keep things as simple as possible I decided not to use an auxiliary flash unit, but to rely on the camera’s built-in flash for all the indoor shots. Before the event, I took a series of test exposures to make sure the flash power, coverage, and recycling times were OK when using the Tamron 18-250 and they were—providing I shot at ISO 800. A brief comparison test of images taken at ISO 200, 400, and 800 confirmed that any loss image quality at 800 setting was very minimal, and the benefits in terms of extending the flash range and enhancing my operational flexibility were considerable.

Our wedding day began at the groom’s apartment in a brownstone in Park Slope, a vibrant, diverse, mostly middle class section of Brooklyn. I took some record shots of the assembling guests and their cars, and people congregating around the charming 19th century entrance to the building. When I moved inside to record the bride’s final preparations, I switched to the Tamron 11-18mm to give an expanded view of the interior, and kept this lens on the camera to shoot some intimate portraits of the smiling couple in the limo. Once we arrived at the church, I switched back to the Tamron 18-250mm and kept it on the camera for the rest of the day. In other words the actual wedding, the riverside portraits, and feast that followed—
the core of the wedding album—was shot with just one lens. Judge for yourself, but I think the results are outstanding. In terms of capturing the grand and dignified but irrepressibly spirited nature of this unique celebration, it may well be the best wedding I ever shot.

While not overly impressive on the outside (to be fair, they’re in the midst of a major renovation project), the interior of the sanctuary is truly magnificent with an amazing array of traditional old world icons and artifacts. The actual ceremony, which lasts close to 2 hours, is equally splendid, with golden crowns held over the head of the bride and groom, and the priest and other church officials resplendent in their traditional regalia. I was fortunate indeed that flash was permitted because the ambient light was fairly dim, and the fact that my relatively low output in-camera flash did not create any distraction was a real plus.  I was able to capture some spectacular details shooting at 200-250mm and apertures from f/5.6-6.3, and the Tamron 18-250mm lens delivered excellent sharpness. I was also impressed with the  focusing accuracy of the EOS 30D even under these challenging conditions.

Once the entire wedding party drove to the lovely little park at the pier under the Brooklyn Bridge, flash was not necessary, but I did occasionally use my sturdy, lightweight Davis & Sanford Carbonlite XL10 tripod to ensure maximum sharpness at extreme telephoto settings. This location—
and the lighting—were superb, and I was able to get iconic images of the bride and groom kissing while standing proudly against the Manhattan skyline, the bride joyously unfurling the colorful flag of the Republic of Georgia, and spontaneous groups of happy, smiling guests posing and horsing around. Then it was on to the feast and post-nuptial celebration, a sumptuous affair with long elaborately decorated tables (a suckling pig at each!) and a delectable array of Russian and Georgian delicacies. There was music and dancing aplenty and innumerable toasts and little speeches. A particularly poignant moment came when a video message from the bride’s mother and grandmother was projected on the screen--they were back in the old country and couldn’t attend. And then there was the “breaking of the plate” an Eastern European wedding custom that’s similar to the Jewish wedding custom of breaking the glass. I had to leave after the cake cutting, at about 9PM, but I’m sure the party lasted into the wee hours.

To say that I could not have covered this wedding single-handedly without a high quality wide-to-tele zoom lens lens is probably a bit of a stretch, but I don’t think I could have covered it as effectively or created outstanding images over such an extensive range with any other type of lens. Modern long-range zooms like the Tamron 18-250mm deliver remarkable performance in high-flare situations, such as when shooting into the light source, and their ability to capture detail and render color accurately is fantastic. Having shot with other long-range zooms, such as the 18-200mm Nikkor, and Sigma, I can state unequivocally on the basis of hands-on experience that they also deliver pro caliber image quality. If you ever have to shoot an entire wedding by yourself, or any other event where you need wide to long telephoto focal lengths along with macro capability, the current range of wide-to-tele zooms are a great choice. Just look at the pictures!

All pictures taken with the 18-250mm f/3.5-6.3 Tamron lens unless otherwise noted.

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	Great article. I have the Sigma 28/300mm and enjoy it also. I also use the Tamron 28/105mm with good success.. like your pics a lot thanx for sharing Posted by: Richard L Coy Oct 2, 2007 @ 5:4 PM EST
	I enyoyed the article of the Tamron 18-250mm lens and the pictures are great so I must try to get me one. Posted by: C R Williams Oct 2, 2007 @ 10:28 PM EST
	thats nice Posted by: kashif Oct 2, 2007 @ 11:42 PM EST
	I believe you are an exelent photgrapher and could have done the job with far simpler lenses. It's your know how that has made exelent coverage. Having said that, simplifying things makes sense for all of us. Thanks for telling it as it is. Walter Posted by: Walter Rietig Oct 3, 2007 @ 3:56 AM EST
	Bought an 18-200 last Friday, and shot 2500 frames at a poorly lit international Synchronised Swimming Event on a Canon EOS 20D using the 3200 ISO mode on RAW. Bloody brilliant! Despite the slightly slow 200mm end, the results are really very good. I am looking forward to shooting a veteran Games Athletics Meet this weekend, a wedding next weekend, followed by a 7 aside soccer competition, it is that versatile. Very sharp, and fast focussing. I tested the 18-250mm, but found it searched for focus, whereas this one is very quick, even in low lightg. Posted by: David Russell Oct 3, 2007 @ 5:39 AM EST
	Quite outstanding work. . Posted by: George Simwa Oct 3, 2007 @ 6:43 AM EST
	Though using 1 wide-to-tele lens is all good and all, I would much prefer two lenses, preferably a normal to tele with a constant 2.8 aperture (70-200 f2.8), and a Wide to Normal (17-55 f2.8). They really help with the low light levels with a lower ISO, trying to stay under ISO 800. I wouldn't use the superzoom, in a wedding, since distortion and slow aperture really make things harder than they need to be, especially in darker chrches, and ones where flash is prohibited. Though I must say I started with a superzoom lens, and used earnings from it to purchase the faster ones I use today. Posted by: JoeyJason Nov 20, 2007 @ 10:53 PM EST
	As always, I enjoyed this article by Jason. He's always right on the money. Some mighty fine photos for sure. As I told Jason back in the mid 1990s, "You're One Cool Dude." I still have the requested photo of himself that he sent me...right there on my wall!. Gary Posted by: Gary Feb 15, 2008 @ 9:46 AM EST

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