If it isn’t a smart solar they will still be able to help you with purchasing a pump.

Are you film or digital? Film has more latitude. With digital, you risk “blowing the highlights”, or having no detail in the bright areas. (Like a white dress, for instance.) If you are not comfortable with manual settings, use the program mode and adjust the exposure comp until there are no winky-blinkys. Take a test shot or two, then check the histogram. You want pretty even distribution of the light levels. If they are all bunched to the left, it’s too dark. If they are spilling off to the right, you have blown highlights. Adjust exposure as necessary.

Best case scenario, you will have medium bright overcast. Perfect for portraits. Worse case, bright sun and spots of shade. They will probably have an arch or something set up where the actual vows will take place. If it is in sunlight, use your flash at high output and the fastest shutter speed which will synch. That fill flash will open up the shadows underneath eye sockets and noses, and equalize the light between subject and background. It will also eat batteries, so have some spares on hand.

For your portraits, try to use a wide aperture, or use the portrait mode on your camera. Find nice, open shade if possible. Dappled sunlight is not your friend! So either have all shade or all sun, not some of each. Don’t turn your subjects into the sun, (unless the sun is low in the sky) it will make them squint. Turn them at an angle to the sun, with the sun from the side or behind, if it’s not too low. Use your flash, again, to open the shadows.

Open shade is nice, too. In shade, you can try some with no flash, and some with flash set at minus compensation, start at minus half and try a few down to -1 or maybe -1.5.

When posing, turn their bodies at an angle to the camera. Your subjects should always have a front and back shoulder, not a right and left. If it bends, bend it. Don’t let the guys line up like prisoners with their hands in front of their crotch! (My pet peeve!) When doing groups, try to work in odd pairings. The b&g are always placed together, usually in front or a bit higher than the rest of the group. Hands in pocket for the guys are find. The girls, bride as well, will tend to hold their flowers too high. Have them lower the bouquet to waist level, or even to their side at hip level. Make sure the stems point to the back.

Pay attention to your composition. Make your shots either full-length, 3/4, or close-up. Don’t cut off feet or fingers. Watch for trees or poles etc etc growing out of people’s heads. Use caution in the use of wide angle in the closeup portraits. Portraits are better using moderate telephoto, say about 80mm to 150.. Don’t forget to leave a little room for cropping to an 8×10.

Visit some professional wedding photographer’s websites to see what poses you might try to duplicate. It’s a bit late to practice much posing, but you can get some ideas. Make cheat sheets if you need to. Google Marc Williams, Bambi Cantrell, Jeff Ascough for starters.

I hope all goes well tomorrow and your friendship survives the event. Wedding photography really isn’t for the faint hearted or amateur photographers. Make sure the bride’s expectations are in line with your skill level to avoid dissapointment. Best wishes and good luck!