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When I first started as a wedding photographer, the\u00a0biggest hurdle for me\u00a0was feeling like I had a grasp over the entire day’s time-line. For 8+ hours, you have to balance so many things – being creative, working with people,\u00a0dealing with ever-changing environments and lighting situations, while still hitting every beat. You have to stay on top of things, and deliver the best images you can, as your clients expect of you. It felt over-whelming at the beginning, but eventually I found my stride\u00a0– my own rhythm where I could more effortlessly do my work as a wedding photographer.<\/p>\n
Here are a few of my best tips for wedding photographers … but before we even get there, let’s make this\u00a0even more interesting – I would like to hear from you, what advice you have for other photographers shooting weddings. Post your reply in the comments section.<\/p>\n
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\u2022<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Take control with the family formals.<\/strong> Don’t assign the task to someone else to gather people for you. That isn’t efficient. You need to take control and make sure everything runs smoothly.<\/p>\n \u2022<\/strong>\u00a0 Help keep things rolling along<\/strong>. Often enough\u00a0as the wedding photographer, you become the de facto wedding coordinator on the day who has to help keep things on track. So have an eye on the time-line, and gently guide events along. The church ceremony\u00a0should start on time, and the wedding reception will start on time – and this means you have to help keep everything rolling along or the time will be curtailed that you have to photograph the couple, and their\u00a0families and the bridal party. This is going to rouse\u00a0the ire of the wedding photographers who consider themselves to be purely photojournalistic, but I do believe that as a great\u00a0wedding photographer, you can’t be passive. You are there to help make the couple’s wedding day be fantastic.<\/p>\n \u2022<\/strong>\u00a0 Make sure that you get straight-forward portraits of the bride and groom<\/strong>, individually and as a couple, where they look at the camera. Regardless of how “photojournalist” you may think you are, and that these more traditional photos don’t fit into your style\u00a0–\u00a0getting these straight-forward portraits are quickly done, and is good practice since doing this will help keep parents and family happy. Trust me on this one. Also, when doing this, shoot full-length, half-length and portraits.<\/p>\n \u2022<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Shoot for variety. When you have the B&G set up for a pose, remember to shoot wide, medium and tight. Vertical and horizontal.\u00a0Sweep around and shoot from other angles as the couple interact with one\u00a0other. Change your composition, and shoot off-center compositions as well.<\/p>\n \u2022<\/strong>\u00a0 Have the bride and groom fill out a time-line and info sheet<\/strong>. But remember, you will invariably have to adapt. So consider the time-line as a rough guide. On that note, make sure beforehand that your GPS can find the various places you will be driving to. I am so paranoid about this, that in addition to my car’s built-in navigation, and the navigation on my phone, I have an extra GPS in my car. Oh, and my car has run-flat tires. Have I mentioned that \u00a0paranoia is a good thing?<\/p>\n \u2022<\/strong>\u00a0 Back to your shooting workflow<\/strong> on the day. However many batteries<\/strong> you think you may need during the day, double that. Same with memory cards.\u00a0Have enough memory cards<\/strong>\u00a0so that you can shoot two (or even three) weddings back-to-back, without having to erase memory cards for the next shoot. The ideal should be that you only format a memory card once the processed images are uploaded to the gallery – which then acts as your off-site \/ on-line backup. Oh, and never ever format a card on the job!<\/p>\n \u00a0\u2022\u00a0\u00a0Make sure you have back-ups.<\/strong> In fact, make sure your back-ups have back-up. This may sound like redundant advice, but I often see photographers post in FB groups about images lost, and other catastrophic failures – all because they don’t grasp the idea of ‘Single Point of Failure’, and how that is something you’d want to avoid.\u00a0Paranoia is a good thing when it comes to workflow.<\/p>\n \u2022<\/strong>\u00a0 Shoot on two large memory cards per camera.<\/strong> Not smaller ones. You run a huge risk swapping smaller memory cards out during the day. Two big cards in each camera, which never leave your body. The idea of not having too many eggs in one basket, and spreading the day over several memory cards, has become a useless and even dangerous practice with dual-slot cameras.\u00a0So, shoot shoot RAW+RAW as back-up in-camera. Memory and storage is so cheap now that it would be false economy to skimp on this. Think of how any single failure in your workflow might entirely disrupt \u00a0you – and then take pre-emptive steps to avoid that.<\/p>\n \u2022<\/strong>\u00a0 Know your gear!<\/strong> You need to be familiar with your cameras and lenses and your lighting. You should be so familiar that you don’t even have to think about camera settings, and that much of it comes from finger memory. Struggling to figure out\u00a0camera settings on the day, means you aren’t ready yet. I remember reading an article way way back in American Photo where a photo-journalist described how he would practice loading film in his camera while jogging in the dark. You want that kind of familiarity with your camera gear.<\/p>\n \u2022<\/strong>\u00a0Be sure to stock up on some essential items<\/strong> in your camera bag that will help in unforeseen situations:\u00a0What else is in your camera bag?<\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n I\u2019d like to hear from you what you\u00a0your best advice would be to make\u00a0photographing a wedding, a\u00a0more successful task. What are the essential things that you believe photographers should look out for or do?<\/p>\n So let\u2019s make it fun, and inspire each other.\u00a0Post your ideas and plans in the comments section.<\/p>\n The contest\u00a0closed\u00a0on Friday, July 15th, 2016<\/span> To make it interesting, two of the entries were\u00a0picked for a prize each. <\/p>\n In this book, Brett Florens and contributors show\u00a0techniques and lighting solutions \u2014 from reflectors, to LED lights, to flash \u2014 that will help you ensure that no important image is lost to poor light or exposure concerns.<\/p>\n From choosing and using the best camera settings to scouting locations with interesting, workable light, to creating gorgeous artistic effects, this book provides the skills you need to get THE shot at every stage of the wedding and in any locale.<\/p>\n You can either purchase a copy via\u00a0Amazon USA<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0or\u00a0Amazon UK<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\nRelated articles<\/h2>\n
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What\u00a0are your best wedding photography tips?<\/h2>\n
\nand the winners of the two prizes announced<\/a>.<\/p>\n
\n\u00a0\u2022<\/strong>\u00a0 Brett Florens’ latest book\u00a0\u00a0–\u00a0Shot In The Dark<\/a>.
\n\u00a0\u2022<\/strong>\u00a0 The other is a copy of Brett Florens’ tutorial video on Destination Wedding Photography<\/a>.\u00a0Totaling\u00a05.5 hours of material as Brett covers how he photographed a wedding in Dubai.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\t\t\t\t\t![\"Wedding](\"https:\/\/neilvn.com\/tangents\/images\/books\/shot-in-the-dark.jpg\")
<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\tShot in the Dark<\/a><\/h2>\n
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