10 Tips On Shooting Your First Wedding

While my previous entry on "8 Tips on Preparing to Shoot Your First Wedding" dealt with the necessary preparations for a photographer before the wedding, here are a few tips on actually shooting your first wedding.

1.    Limit Flash Use

Your pictures will look more realistic if you limit your flash use so try to limit its use as much as possible during ceremony.  A higher ISO or aperture value may be needed although sometimes you can’t get away from using Flash if there is really no light to work with. Try to be respectful once they are on stage but remember you are there to capture and document the wedding. Ask the bride and groom if there are any flash restrictions as some churches do not allow the use of flash.

2.    Shoot in RAW Mode

I know I have said it before but shooting in RAW mode gives you a lot of room to tweak your images after the wedding. Just don’t give someone a DVD with the photos you took. You need to go through each one of them and adjust them accordingly for proper white balance or exposure or any other number of things. Maybe some of them will work better in black and white. Point is, don’t give them out without “developing” your photographs first.

3.    Know the Parts of the Ceremony

Most weddings have the same parts and last about as long, but discuss with the bride and groom to identify if there are changes from a traditional ceremony. This will allow you to know where to stand and take pictures and know what details to capture. You have to recognize when the end of the ceremony is coming so that you can move at the end of the isle.

4.    Shoot a Lot.

Shoot more than you think you will need. Each person that is included in the picture is another pair of eyes that can blink. You should set your camera for continuous mode or burst mode.

5.    D Is For Details

Don’t forget to capture the details. Some of those details may have been handmade and taken hours to create. The couple would definitely want to remember those. Also try to be creative you don’t want your photographs to look like Uncle Henry’s who just purchased an entry level DSLR.

6.    Capture Emotions

This is what will get people to remember the moment. If they look at your photograph and can say.. “I remember what I was feeling at that exact moment.” You did your job. You are having someone re-experience their emotions on a specific moment in time and that is very powerful. Sometimes these moments last but a few seconds so you have to be ready and know your camera like the back of your hand.

7.    Don’t Move Around During the First Dance

Exercise patience. They will eventually spin around and will give you different perspectives as they do.

8.     Smile

If you are smiling you become more approachable and people will not fear you. They will also be more relaxed in your presence and you will be able to take more candid shots.  Don’t keep the camera in your face all day. Weddings are supposed to be a party, have fun shooting and smile. Remember, it is an honor for you to be shooting at their wedding.

9. Lean on Me

Have the couple leaning into each other, touching or almost touching. Always try to have them leaning into each other to convey a sense of love. People who hate each other usually try to stay far away. You don't want that look in your photographs. Keep this in mind for any portrait work you do.

10.     Leave in Good Terms

Always a good idea to contact the bride and groom before leaving and ask if there are any extra shots they would like. Aunt Edna may have made it to the wedding after all and she was not part of the shot list.

If after you are done the couple or one of the parents of the couple come up to you and tell you that "You were Awesome! You were all over the place!" or "You did a great job." Its great. They haven't even looked at the pictures yet but they saw you working all day. You had your camera in your hand and you were snapping away when you saw something worth capturing. Trust me, people will notice.

8 Tips On Preparing Yourself To Shoot Your First Wedding

Sooner or later is going to happen. If you are serious about your photography, a friend or family member is going to ask you to be a photographer at their wedding or even be a backup photographer. How do you prepare yourself for shooting a wedding? Below are a few tips that will hopefully help you get started.

1.    Check Out The Location

Churches and other wedding venues can sometimes present tricky lighting situations. If you’re an amateur photographer get yourself acquainted with the location and take some test shots weeks prior to the event date. You may notice you will need to purchase additional equipment that will help you in your shoot. A professional photographer can virtually walk into any room and within minutes know how to shoot in that specific location and they have plenty of equipment to meet and photograph in almost any situation.

2.    Create A Shot List

Sit down with the couple and decide on a shot list. With a hectic day it is easy for the couple to forget who they want a photograph with. It is up to you to remind them of a particular photograph with a relative they had previously requested. Here is a sample shot list.

3.    Early Bird Catches The Worm

Be at least an hour ahead of schedule.  You can start taking pictures of details, of the venue and other ideas that you can use later. Plus it gives you a chance to set up and test out your equipment to make sure everything is working correctly.

4.    Take Extras Of Everything

For weddings you should take extra memory cards, batteries for both your camera and speedlights (flash) and even have a backup camera if possible. Have all your batteries fully charged. Remember this is someone’s very special and important day. If your camera runs out of battery how can you explain that to the bride and groom?

5.    Get Familiar With The Couple’s Family

Early in the event you will need to know who the bride and groom’s family members are. You will then know which people to keep a closer eye on. You may ask the bride’s or the groom’s mother for information if you are unsure.

6.    Dress Appropriately

This almost goes without saying. Try to fit in with the rest of the crowd and dress as the other guests. Use your best judgment. Remember you are selling a product and part of that product is your image.

7. Clean Your Camera's Sensor

If you've been taking pictures for a while, and have never cleaned your camera's sensor, chances are that your camera's sensor is dirty. Many DSLR's camera sensor will automatically shake now and then, when you power off the camera to try to clean itself but sometimes a little more help is needed. Cleaning the sensor is easy and takes but a few minutes at most. If you don't feel comfortable doing it take your camera to a professional to get it cleaned. A clean sensor will get rid of some speckles of dirt found in your photographs.

8. Research

The internet is an amazing place to look up other wedding photographers and to look at their portfolios online. This will give you some knowledge on common shots and poses as well as get you in the right state of mind to come up with your own. Wedding magazines are another good source to conduct your research. When you look at those photographs try to think on how the photographer took the shot. Where is the light coming from? Is it soft ambient light, like that of a window or flash? What made the shot? Why did you like a particular photograph?

What are some of your key preparations for a wedding shoot?

5 Tips On Shooting Engagement Pictures

Engagement pictures are usually taken several months before the wedding and are a great time to test the chemistry between the photographer and the couple. For the couple it is a good way to spend some quality time doing something fun and it allows them to practice in front of the camera, getting to know their photographer, hopefully calming some of the nerves down before the big day. For the photographer, it is a perfect way to engage with the couple and covey the trust they are seeking. The goal as a photographer is to make the couple feel at ease and comfortable during the shooting session.

The images from the engagement session are sometimes used by the couple for their "Save the Date" invitations or they can be printed for display at their wedding reception. So they are still important for the couple.

Here are my top 5 tips for shooting an engagement session.

1. Connect With The Couple

Being a wedding photographer requires you to have personal skills. You need to be able to connect with the couple and talk in a way that makes them feel comfortable. You will need to direct the couple to pose and work with you. Not too much directing, its more of you observing the light and if there is unflattering light, telling them to stand in a certain position, or look to the side and let them take it from there. Remember that these are not professional models. Encourage them by telling them that they are doing well and occasionally show them the LCD in the back of the camera so that they see for themselves.

One easy way I have been able to do this is by asking them questions. Ask them about their wedding details or how they met. How did he proposed? Keep the conversation going. They will start to open up to you.

2. Capture The Romance

Try to shoot images that have the couple heads as close as possible, leaning in towards each other, communicating and sharing with one another. Closeness conveys a deep emotional connection and it is this connection that you want to capture. You want to be able to capture the romance in the pictures.

3. Know Your Equipment

Have you read your camera's manual front to back? There is important information that is covered in that little book and you need to learn how to change settings in your equipment almost as a second thought. The amount of things your camera can do is truly incredible. Take the time to read the manual.

One setting that comes to mind is continues focus mode vs single focus mode. Most times, during an engagement shoot, the couple will be standing or sitting still, posing. You can break that by getting them to move and putting them into action. You may want them to be walking towards you or away from you on a sidewalk. One reason why you would want to have this kind of shot is because the couple does not have to  think about posing and it gets them to engage in a different way.

The easiest way to accomplish this shot is to set your camera to continuous focus mode. You will need to change your camera's setting to shoot in continuous mode. In continuous mode the camera will need to focus on different planes of field very quickly. You can use this mode to let the camera do the work. In Canon cameras this is called AI-Servo and in Nikon it is called AF-C mode. I would also recommend the use of a telephoto lens where most often times the lens used is a 70-200mm lens. You also want a quick shutter speed, something about 1/200th of a second or faster, to minimize shutter blur. So again, you will need to change a setting in your camera.

4. Shoot in Continuous Mode (Burst Mode)

This is related to number 3 but I thought I would mention it here. Continuous mode will let you fire multiple shots when leaving the shutter button pressed. Depending on your camera the amount of shoots per second will vary. The reason for shooting in this mode is because people make facial expressions or blink. When shooting a couple that factor is now multiplied by two (either person can blink). The difference can be remarkable in snapping an image with just half a second a part.

5. Use Off Camera Flash

If you leave the speedlight on the camera pointing directly against the couple, you will have harsh light on their faces creating very unflattering light. Instead, bounce the light against a wall or ceiling if you can. If you are shooting outdoors bring an assistant to help you carry a light stand with a speedlight and umbrella or softbox kit. If you don't have someone to help, trigger the light kit setup using a wireless trigger.

The photograph above was shot using a flash attached to a light stand with a softbox located on the right side.

Bonus Tip: Always Shoot In RAW

Future brides have enough stress, your work can bring reassurance that they picked the right person for the job. A great way to do this is with exceptional post-processing of your RAW files.

There is so much more you can do after you snap your pictures in post-production if you have a RAW formatted file to work with than a jpeg file. A RAW file captures all image data recorded by the sensor when you took the picture. You will be able to adjust your images to a higher level of quality than you would be anle to with a jpeg file. Jpeg files are only 8 bits while RAW files are as high as 14 bits, so you can imagine the amount of additional information that is captured.

What is White Balance?

The term "white balance", in fact, refers to color balance. Balancing the colors in your image will allow them to be represented accurately. The process of creating white or color balance is a simple adjustment that requires very little time and leads you to a better image.

The picture on the left uses automatic white balance (AWB). The camera made the picture too blue because it was not able to determine the light source. This picture was actually taken indoors under tungsten light. The image on the right had the white balance setting set to Tungsten. As you can see, the colors have been adjusted to be accurate.

5 Tips For Shooting Night Photos

These are some of the downtown Tampa area bridges permanently lit for the 2012 Republican National Convention.

When taking pictures at night there are some things you can do to make them come alive. Here are my top tips for getting great night time photos.