Best settings to photograph a Wedding Dress

[AussieBigMal]

Hi,
looking to photograph the step daughters wedding. Not as the main photographer, phew thank goodness

What would be the best settings to capture the true white and the detail of the dress without it blowing?
eg: White balance inside and out, using flash or not, exposure compensation in AP mode.

Thanks for for your help in advance

[ameerat42]

Answer in advance: Hard to say, Mal. Me - I've done this recently*, but they weren't great compositions!! - what I did was to expose
for the scene normally and then bring back the tones of the dress only in PP. My camera has tons of headroom for hi-light
recovery, but I guess most modern cameras do too.

But forget all that. Do you have access to the dress? Can you try a few shots "IN ADVANCE"?

Am.

* recently ~6 months ago.

[Hawthy]

This comes from someone who has never shot a wedding and hopefully never will. Too stressful. This advice comes from what I have read, not what I have done. Simple really (do we have a nervous looking emoticon?).

Shoot in RAW. Turn on the over exposure blinkies on your camera and make sure that you have not overexposed the dress. Use manual exposure if you understand that. If not use aperture mode. Side lighting is more interesting and usually more flattering. Use a reflector to fill shadows. Don't take portraits in full sun, find some shade. Maybe just follow the pro around and learn from him. Have a back up for everything. Good luck.