Great Tips for Wedding photography
May 6th, 2008 by Sean Lamb
So your friend has asked you to take the pictures at his wedding because after all the other expenses, they cannot afford a wedding photography professional but want some good pictures. After feeling flattered that they think you good enough to record their most important day, the worries start to happen.
You will need to talk to the couple to find out what are the most important shots they want to put into their album, try to keep them to a minimum so that you don’t have too much pressure on yourself. As you probably won’t know the layouts, get the addresses of the wedding and reception venues so that you can go and reconnoitre them, preferably at the same time as the wedding so that you will know where the sun will be. Look for some good backgrounds and especially a really nice place where you could take some intimate picture of the couple.
Preparation is the key, make sure that all the batteries are fully charged and that you have back ups. If you are using film, take along at least six extra rolls, if you are shooting digital make sure that you have enough spare memory cards. If you have the expertise, it is best to use RAW rather than JPEG as you will have a better chance to alter things after the shots are taken. You will be shooting at the highest resolution to ensure good print quality so memory capacity is crucial.
On the day, make sure you can identify all the key people. Ask each of the couple who are important to them, this means friends as well as family members. If you are doing a large group shot, grab everybody as soon as possible, particularly if there are any children involved as you want to get them before they start rolling around on the floor, bless them. Then you can gradually get rid of the different people until the final shot. This way people are not standing around whilst you are trying to herd a few stragglers into the picture.
One of the things often overlooked, is the background, your reconnoitre will have given you the right place but double check that there are no flag poles or other distracting items that can clutter up a picture. You may have purposely chosen a particularly pleasing back drop but it is always worth taking an extra shot using a wide aperture that will just blur the background and make the couple stand out.
People wearing glasses can be a problem especially if you are using flash, the best way of solving the problem is to try to get them to take them off. The trouble with this is that everybody who is used to seeing them wearing spectacles will be saying who is that bloke/girl when they look at the pictures. Far better to ask them to look slightly towards the couple to avoid any flare.
The reception photographs will inevitably be shot inside so you have to use the flash, which can lead to difficult shadowing. There are several strategies to avoid this. Either bounce the flash off the walls or ceiling, taking care that there are no strong colours that might alter the tone or an over high ceiling that will weaken the effect. You may be able to buy a plastic diffuser that fits over the flash or failing that, some thin tracing paper or a piece of plain net curtain over the lamp but always do some test shots before the wedding day.
Finally get your films processed as soon as possible or make sure you down load all the pictures to your hard drive as soon as possible. You may wish to do a quick run through and delete the really bad ones and put to one side those that might be saved with a little photo shop action and burn a selection of the best onto a cd to present to the happy couple. Now you have the taste, maybe you could think of turning a wedding photography pro !
