Pro Wedding Photo Tips

Wedding photography tips

August 15th, 2010 by admin

Wedding photography is one of the most popular pro photography genres. Whilst it is not particularly hard for a decent amateur to jag a wedding job, it is also a great responsibility we take on, and there are plenty of things we must get right with no second chances. Weddings roughly follow a standard script to a degree, but a creative photographer will find inspiration in all the subtleties and differing personalities and find it to be one of the greatest creative opportunities in professional photography.

The wedding photography tips and articles we will be presenting will help you to get the best possible results from the job you are taking on, whether it is your first one or if you are already a seasoned pro.

wedding photography tips planning

Wedding photography tips -

1. Planning. Careful planning will ensure that you will make the most of every opportunity and have the best chance of averting potential disasters. Review timing and details carefully. Visit locations, ascertain lighting and space, choose where to photograph, estimate time and equipment needed. Have backup plans in place for bad weather etc. Be prepared to change your plans on the fly, weddings don’t always go exactly to plan. More on planning in this in depth article.

2. Communication. Find out exactly what your client wants. Don’t just rely on words like “casual” or “PJ” these can mean anything, look at photos with them. Tell them what is and is not possible, and be clear on how much time you need to achieve what is required. Make sure they know what to expect on the day and after.

3. Prepare in advance for possible problems. All equipment you cannot do without must have a backup in case of failure. Light may be very low and you may not be able to use flash. Time schedules may run over leaving you with little time to do your work. Still, excuses will not be accepted by your clients, you need to deliver regardless.

4. Find out from the priest/pastor/celebrant if there are any restrictions on movement, flash or tripods during the ceremony and plan accordingly and talk to the client if these restrictions will affect your expected results.

5. Enlist help. A guest or family member who knows the families can be a great help when doing the formals, have lists printed for them. An assistant to help you with gear and to remind you of the time and things that need doing is worth more than a second shooter IMO.

6. Timing details. Ensure the MUA and bridesmaids have the schedule and know how important it is to stick to it, these guys can put the whole day off schedule from the beginning. Make sure the flowers will be delivered before you arrive. Having maps for the drivers can help avoid time wasting misunderstandings.

7. Get familiar with any special ceremonies or traditions that are involved in the wedding.

8. There will be pressure on you to perform and deliver. The first 7 points are about planning, the more prepared you are, the less stress you will feel on the day, planning is crucial.

9. Keep yourself healthy and happy. Stay hydrated and fed, its a long hard day and you will be working flat out. Keep some breath mints on you as well, you will be in close to people.

10. Make sure your gear is all working properly beforehand, sensors & lenses clean. Have plenty of best quality memory cards and BACKUPS for anything you can’t finish the wedding without. This is one thing that all pro photographers agree on.

11. Use appropriate equipment. Any 6mp DSLR is adequate for most wedding work, but newer and better gear makes things easier for you and gives more scope. eg. a semipro SLR has faster AF and better manual control than an entry level SLR, generally speaking, and newer SLRs cope with higher ISO noise better than earlier ones. If you are using a flash in close, an entry level SLR with kit lens, a powerful external flash and bounce card or Lightsphere (see Gary Fong Lightsphere-Universal Starter Kit ) is totally adequate. If you are not allowed in close with the flash, you will need a longer, faster lens and a tripod will help as well. For low light, an f2.8 or even better, an f1.4 lens is essential. If you cant afford two D3Xs or 1Dsmk4, two D90s or 50Ds are a safer option than a single one of the best, backups are essential. See also camera for wedding and lens for wedding

12. Don’t be too hasty to try a new technique, or piece of kit for the first time on the wedding day. With experience you will find opportunities to stretch your creativity, as long as you have the must have shots already covered.

13. Get yourself a foolproof system for handling your memory cards, format them all before the wedding and don’t format them again until you have several copies backed up at home.

14. Low light situations are very likely. A fast lens and tripod are highly desirable at the least. Don’t be afraid to up the ISO, noise is better than blurry people in your photo.

15. Available light is not always the best light. Know when to use fill flash, and when to use flash as your main light to overpower the available light. ( Kill flash, I like to call it ) You can also drag the shutter, which means using flash as your main light but allowing a slow enough shutter speed to see detail in the background which is lit by a less intense light source.

16. Learn to see and to find the beautiful light. Take your subjects into the beautiful light if you possibly can. Learn to make the beautiful light, and take it to your subjects.

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Using a battery flash on a stand, (left) and dragging the shutter to get the ambient background light.

17. Camera settings: my camera is mostly on default settings, normal colour, normal tone curve etc. There are no secret professional settings, just whatever it takes to get correct colour and exposure. You need to learn how to do this in P, A or M. Personally, I use manual exposure whenever practical. RAW & jpg, was as touchy a subject as Nikon or Canon, raw gives you more options and more scope to fix up your mistakes. With better batch processing software and cheaper storage, RAW has less drawbacks than in the past. Whichever you use, getting white balance and exposure spot on in camera is very important. You can do this with careful metering in manual mode or with P and the exposure compensation dial. The end result is what is important and there is more than one way to get there. Adobe RGB or sRGB? Ask your professional lab how to set up your colour management, some printers, monitors etc will make better use of Adobe than others. (perhaps a post on colour management later?)

18. Lighting conditions will present challenges all of its own in weddings. Strong back-light can not only affect exposure reading, but can mess with auto focus as well. Flash exposure with a shiny white dress and a black suit is one of the scariest challenges for new wedding photographers. Practice, and don’t expect them all to come out right first go, you might have to turn the exposure comp wheel at times. Expect this. “chimp” a lot (check the picture on your LCD) and you will quickly learn how to handle some horrific exposure problems.

19. These technical caveats are pretty boring I think, so I just want to remind you now that wedding photography can be very FUN and rewarding once you gain some confidence. If it still seems scary, that’s good, learn more, put more into your prep work. It will still be a little nerve wracking. But think of the great locations, the gorgeous girls all dolled up in beautiful gowns, the excitement, the romance and there’s you, excelling at your art under pressure, and being paid for it.

13a6b5dd2b97146 Wedding photography tips

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How To Create Memorable Portrait Photography

November 5th, 2010 by cappsandy

When most individuals consider portrait images, they have a particular image in their heads; they envision an individual sitting on a stool, grinning before a nondescript background

The details of the person’s facial features may or may not be highlighted; the subject’s head of hair is typically ready; and very little of the arrangement incites the sensory faculties. In a nutshell, most portraits are fairly alluring, if not slightly boring.

If you’re concerned in injecting flavor into your portrait images, you may do so with a couple of basic strategies. Most demand almost no specialized talent; instead, they demand a minor adjustment in your point of view

Below, we will give you a number of suggestions that might add zeal to your portrait photographs, and make them more memorable to your target audience.

Guide Your Individual’s Line Of Sight

Typically, portrait people have gazed directly at the digital camera, which usually confirms a relationship with the audience. Eye contact embraces the viewer into the shot. But you can produce stirring effects by directing your model’s vision away from the digital camera.

For example, suppose your shot involves a guy and a girl. Instead of having them gaze toward you, persuade them to look toward one another. This indicates a dialogue to your audience; it implies an energetic conversation is happening between the partners; as a end result, the portrait comes alive.

You may generate comparable effects, even when photographing a single individual. Have your subject look at a vase, basketball, or any other item within your field of view. Have her glance toward a thing that lies outside your picture, and smile. This presents a sense of unknown into your photograph as your viewer may ask what has captured your model’s attention.

Use Light And Shadow Creatively

Your use of light and shadowing performs a critical role in how your target audience encounters your pictures. A well-lit picture that displays your subject smiling gives your viewer a sense of pleasure and optimism. On the other hand, a photograph ingrained with darkness may cast a hint of melancholy.

Most shooters never embark beyond the scope of traditional “guidelines” and strategies. Be innovative; be willing to take chances. For instance, shooting your subject behind a gate on a sunny afternoon can splash bars of shadow across her face, obscuring some details and concentrating on others. Such outcomes are memorable, partially because they are rarely created.

Move Your Subject To The Side

This is a simple approach, but can have a highly effective effect on your audience. Most portrait shots are taken with the model situated in the middle of the frame; this neutralizes the photograph, and generates a feeling of evenness.

Moving your model to one side generates an imbalance that appeals to the viewer’s curiosity. The lack of symmetry intrigues them, and draws them into the photo.

Have A Prop

Photographing your model with an unrelated item in the frame provides personality to the shot. It indicates a story that may be left unknown, but is still interesting to the viewers. For example, imagine the person you’re shooting has a toothpick sticking from the corner of his mouth. The person observing your shot is left to wonder whether or not your subject recently finished a meal. Or, does he usually have a toothpick in his mouth? What does it imply about his character?

The exact same impact may be accomplished with a piece of gum, a cigarette, shades tucked into the neckline of a shirt, or a pen stuck behind the ear; these kind of props, whether they are part of your subject’s personality or not, recommend a deeper story. In doing so, they personalize your picture.

If you want to shoot remarkable portrait pictures for use in photo poster print, experiment with techniques that seem to break current “principles” of arrangement. It is the most certain path toward cultivating a personalized trend of photography that yields spectacular, sometimes haunting, final results.

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