Wedding photography – Creating those special moments
Anticipation and timing on the photographer’s part is essential to getting those key moments on the wedding day. Certain moments will happen, so we have to be ready for them.
This relies on your keen observation and you ability to recognize important moments. You have to know your cameras and equipment, and you have to know the fundamentals of photography. You have to be ready. And you can only be ready if you know your equipment well, and know the techniques. No excuses.
But there is no need to passively wait for moments – it is also possible to make them happen. And even though the photographer is guiding the process here, what is captured is still very true to the day’s events.
Here is an example of how I nudge things along to make sure I get a wonderful moment.
As the bride’s preparation finishes up, there’s usually a lot of bustle and activity with family members looking in and giving hugs and advice. It can get a little hectic. So these beautiful last moments with a bride and her mom just don’t naturally happen. There’s just too much activity.
This is where I get gently bossy with everyone and get everyone out of the room – except the bride and her mom. With a gentle, “just talk to each other”, I turn around and half-close the door. They have a few minutes of privacy and the bride and her mom invariably will react. They will hug and hold hands. There might be tears. The emotions are very real.
And of course I am ready with my camera, which have already been set to the proper camera settings. This is not the moment to fiddle with the camera controls. A side note here: if you constantly chimp, you will lose the moments!
So does this enrage the hearts of the purist photo-journalistic wedding photographers who don’t interact with their clients? Who cares. The images look great. And the bride and her family will love this last glimpse of a mother with her daughter before the wedding.
Related links
- Wedding photography: controlling those found moments
- Anticipation and timing
- Portraits of the bride – Looking for the less obvious image
- More articles on wedding photography
- NJ wedding photographer
Hi Neil! I recently tried this created moment after being inspired from a seminar you presented at Unique Photo. The room was very dark. I struggled w/ lighting it. Are you using available light in these samples?
Thanks!
Jen, yes, these are all available light photos. It needs a fast lens and a steady hand.
I generally turn them to B&W because of the uneven lighting and uneven color balance.
From the viewpoint of someone who is not a wedding photographer: When I saw my wedding photos, I was disappointed because they didn’t look like all the other wedding albums I saw and hoped mine would look like as well.
Yes it was my wedding, and all the real stuff that happened, but brides and grooms don’t always know what they want, they want the photographer to help create the picture perfect wedding. They choose wedding photographers having seen what photos they took for other people.
After the so called “real thing” is over, the photos are all that’s left, and if a few moments weren’t created to make the memories even better, many people would be unhappy. And isn’t it all about the WHOLE experience?
A photographer “directing” the photos taken is part of what is real, it is also part of the “real” wedding story. And while we’re talking about setting anything up: isn’t the WHOLE wedding a set-up from the flowers, the venue, the table décor, every little thing is planned, why not the photos as well?
I always love this discussion. It has been going around and around since Denis Reggie started a great marketing campaign by harnessing the term to milk it. And good for him – choose something, make it into a marketing plan, and run with it.
I am no pro on looking up definitions to terms, but I always like to equate a couple’s understanding of how their photographer will impact their wedding day by using some slightly different terms:
1) The “silent observer” – no direction, no posing, no “shoot list”; photographer in complete control. If the best shot you get of granny is her diving into a big forkful of wedding cake, then so be it. Definitely no posed images. No direction. No consequences if a specific “group” is not recorded.
2) The “illustrative style” – involves some sort of participation by the couple. (This is often what we see in magazines.) I sometimes call it the “directed style”. “Take a walk, hand in hand down the beach”. “Stand here under this tree and look out towards the meadow – keep the chin up”. “OK – let’s have a big kiss”. And so on through the day. It sure doesn’t look like a bunch of trucks lined up in a parking lot (our fear of the term “posed”) but it sure has a definite “stamp” all over it. It’s directed. Photographer is not in exclusive control. Often involves the couple in demanding exactly who and what is going to be recorded (“we definitely want a shot of us arriving in the horse-draw carriage” or “we met at so-and-so restaurant – we need to go there and take some shots”). It almost has a flavour of some editorial work. One has to *create* something – in a controlled and directed way – to “illustrate” the story.
3) What I call the “artistic style”. Now bear with me for a moment before anyone rants off about how everything is art. These are the images where they are often entered into photo competitions. Highly stylised. Normally involves lots of *specific time* and *specific travel* to get to a *specific spot* and is often the *one* highlight shot of the day. Huge stamp of the photographer all over it. For sure – they’re beautiful, and, for sure, they normally end up as a huge enlargement on a wall, but the image is often “distant” to the happenings and story of the day. Sometimes I wonder if these images are more for the photographer, than for the couple.
In summary, many wedding couples have been surfing for months and years and are really wanting styles 2 and 3, but are hoping that they are created under the conditions of 1. They think they can get away with zero participation (or the dreaded word “posing”) and happily eat up the wording on so many photographer web pages where they promise “low intrusion” and “relaxed and informal” and “real images” and of course “photojournalistic style”.
The act of observing alters the outcome. That’s life. That’s well known. Just the fact that I’m there, I get people acting different. Posing, etc. If people want the best images from me, they’ve got to move into the best light, or at least decent light. They have to get away from the pizza boxes and the mess. And yes, sometimes they have to be told to go and talk. Or to put down the water or something. That’s not portraiture… it’s still in the style of being photojournistic. It’s not strict photojournalism, but I’ve shot weddings like that before where the bride said “no interaction… no formal… photojournalistic only” no matter how much I warned her. And then the bride was upset that there was no shot of her and her mom and there were no “epic” shots of her and her husband. Well, if she didn’t actually stand next to her mom, how can I have gotten it? And if her and her husband didn’t let me suggest going to an area to get an amazing shot (while not posing them) then how can I make that happen?
I’m shooting photojournalistic when I tell couples to walk and not look at me… just to be themselves. But I still tell them to stand where the sun is behind them and there are no cars from the parking lot. And yes, they are boring so I might have to suggest that they smile or have fun. And no, most of those “moments” that the couple would LOVE do NOT come natural.
I’m great at getting real moments. Only if they don’t happen, the couple will be less than thrilled with the images following the wedding. I can’t say “sorry, your wedding was boring. You didn’t interact with anyone, and your dad barely noticed you.” If the real moments aren’t happening, you can help them along a bit. That’s not posing. That’s not a portrait.
I like to do a mixture of both unobtrusive,some with a little guidance and a couple set up. I think there are dozens of “moments” to capture, capturing them is being in the right place and a little luck, but with experience you tend to get more as you know where to stand and what settings you should be on. But as Neil does a little nudge in the right direction goes a long way, especially when the wedding couple sees the images later. At the time (especially here in the UK) weddings are stressful for both the photographer and the couple and can be quite hectic and rushed, and the couple aren’t really aware of what your capturing apart from group shots as they are too caught up in the moment.
@ Karen:
A photographer “directing” the photos taken is part of what is real, it is also part of the “real” wedding story. And while we’re talking about setting anything up: isn’t the WHOLE wedding a set-up from the flowers, the venue, the table décor, every little thing is planned, why not the photos as well?
Excellent point.
Just lately I have been getting more clients asking ‘do you do *natural* photographs?’
What do you say? Generally I say: “I don’t pose you, I artistically direct you guys and you are acting naturally while I shoot”; they seem to accept that.
I also tell them that no movie ever made was ‘naturally’ achieved without direction and therefore many photo moments need a slight direction, especially during a wedding since even trying for PJ shots, they are often standing far apart and therefore many of the shots are landscape style and not great PJ portrait/group style.
There are no moments 95% of the time when taking ‘natural’ photos where all the elements come together in a shot without it having to a degree being contrived to reach that goal.
Nice post.
Love the true and raw emotion in these. Beautiful <3
Your first comment Neil, about making the images B&W because of the uneven lighting and weird color response struck a chord in me. That is EXACTLY why I have always done a very similar thing. Thank you for having the wherewithal to actually SAY IT out loud. Not sure it gives my work any greater validity, but it makes my self-esteem feel better.
A bit of topic – I came across an old black and white negative of a bride and groom. Of course the black suite becomes white and the white dress a sort of black.
I just wondered if anyone has got married that way, where the bride dresses in black and the groom in white. Has it every happened or an I just being weird?
Ooo that’s such a good idea… I hope the bridesmaids etc will listen to me when I suggest this at my weddings! Thanks Neil.