You've just been down to your local camera mart and are now the proud owner of the latest DSLR, your best friend was with you and thought hang on, you own a great camera, you can take their wedding photographs for them. You gasp in horror as she mentions the thought but how could you let your friend down? You say yes and smile, beneath the surface you are mortified! Will she still like me if I screw this up? Will she even like my photographs? You get home and jump straight on the net seeking advice, so here it is!
Your friend has promised her wedding will be relaxed, yet it is still a wedding, things never go to plan, someone is always late, the traffic is chaos or no one can find the rings. It's an unfortunate fact but when things don't run to plan the first thing to suffer is the photographers allotted time, it is for this reason that it is vital you can work quickly and under pressure.
It is vitally important to know your equipment. During the heat of the moment changing apertures, shutter speeds and ISO should be second nature, to hesitate is to miss a shot that you likely will not be given another opportunity to capture. You need to understand your equipment, know how it functions, have a feel for its metering in a variety of lighting situations. If you do not understand the basics such as aperture, shutter speed and ISO or don't understand how to utilise them you should first grab yourself some beginners photography books or rummage the internet for some tutorials. There is plenty of information out there for free these days.
So, you know the basic principles of photography, or I hope you do, now we must learn to understand such principles in relation to your actual camera. Remember that little white book that came with your camera, yeah that's it, the one you ignored. You may need to refer to your manual from time to time at first so leave it in your camera bag. Now armed with basic technical knowledge, your camera and manual get out and shoot till your finger hurts! Shoot during daylight, at night, indoors and outdoors, with the light source behind your subject, standing on your head. You get the idea, just keep shooting anything and everything all the time being mindful of using your cameras settings, ISO, aperture and shutter speed until doing so becomes second nature, you will gain a solid feel for how your camera behaves under various light conditions and ultimately will look upon your camera is a tool rather than an obstruction.
You now have a sore finger from all that shooting, on a positive note you feel you know your camera well, without too much hassle you can whip your camera out and obtain a reasonable exposure without twiddling and fiddling for 5 minutes first. So lets throw a spanner in the works, posing the lovely couple. No, now is not the time to scratch your head and think about those female body builders you saw on fox sport last week. Unless of course that's the look you aim to achieve with your wedding photography! Each of us have a personal style and taste, the way photographers pose subjects is very much influenced by such taste. So rather than learning a series of 1,2,3 steps jump back on the internet machine and start browsing photographs. Pay attention to how people are posed and to what look you like, you may find yourself liking relaxed subjects, traditional poses, perhaps static or candid work.
You have now found a bunch of poses you personally enjoy, it is time to dissect these poses, ask yourself what it is you enjoy about them, how are the bride and groom standing in relation to the light? how are they standing in relation to each other? how do they have their weight distributed, are they throwing their weight onto their back leg for example, perhaps leaning toward the camera a little. Next you should think about what the photographer may have done to elicit such poses, how would you go about posing people like this? What steps could you follow that may result in such a pose? Learning how to dissect images and really look at individual elements of them will ultimately be a much more powerful technique than simply telling you to follow steps A, B and C in order to achieve a specific pose.
By now you may be starting to feel on top of things, you can visualise some photographs you would like to obtain, you can see the lighting in your mind, the pose and you understand how to use your equipment in such a situation. As together as you may feel now, when the wedding planner says you've got 5 Min to get some photos unless you are used to the pressure everything you thought you had organised in your mind will wisp off into the ether leaving you standing with no idea what to do! To overcome this prepare a shot list. When things turn bad you can quickly refer to a shot list to remind yourself not only what shots you need to capture but how you may go about capturing them. I know photographers who use their smart phone to scroll through a list of predetermined shots, they have saved and ordered any photographs they love and when all else fails can quickly turn to the images in their phone for an ideas boost. By carrying some sample poses along with a list of the shots you wish to get you can have a quick browse of it in down time so you feel refreshed and inspired when the pressure is on.
Look back upon your boy and/or girl scout days and become a scout, a location scout. Grab your camera, con a friend into taking a drive with you by offering them free pizza and check out the location of the wedding well before the day of the shoot. Whilst you will not be sure of the weather conditions on the day of the wedding visiting the location at a similar time of day will not only allow you to see the location but also get an idea how the light may behave on the wedding day. Now, seeing as you were so nice as to provide your friend with free pizza it would only be fair if they pretended to be your bride and groom, right? Use this opportunity to create a list of go to ideas that you can draw upon during the heat of the wedding and know that when faced with pressure you will already have some shots in mind.
Last but not least ask your bride and groom for an outline of the day well before the event, take some time to familiarise yourself with the goings on, remember the list if you can so that come wedding day you will be in a position where you are educated and thus able to look forward upon what is happening, this is invaluable as a photographer, being in the right place at the right time is half the battle, as an added advantage you will feel more comfortable and at ease knowing what is about to take place.
Sure, shooting weddings can feel like utter chaos, but with good preparation you can at least feel as though there is method to the madness. Spending the time to be informed and in control of your photography will not only result in better photographs on the day, but a more relaxed and fun day for all involved.
Your friend has promised her wedding will be relaxed, yet it is still a wedding, things never go to plan, someone is always late, the traffic is chaos or no one can find the rings. It's an unfortunate fact but when things don't run to plan the first thing to suffer is the photographers allotted time, it is for this reason that it is vital you can work quickly and under pressure.
It is vitally important to know your equipment. During the heat of the moment changing apertures, shutter speeds and ISO should be second nature, to hesitate is to miss a shot that you likely will not be given another opportunity to capture. You need to understand your equipment, know how it functions, have a feel for its metering in a variety of lighting situations. If you do not understand the basics such as aperture, shutter speed and ISO or don't understand how to utilise them you should first grab yourself some beginners photography books or rummage the internet for some tutorials. There is plenty of information out there for free these days.
So, you know the basic principles of photography, or I hope you do, now we must learn to understand such principles in relation to your actual camera. Remember that little white book that came with your camera, yeah that's it, the one you ignored. You may need to refer to your manual from time to time at first so leave it in your camera bag. Now armed with basic technical knowledge, your camera and manual get out and shoot till your finger hurts! Shoot during daylight, at night, indoors and outdoors, with the light source behind your subject, standing on your head. You get the idea, just keep shooting anything and everything all the time being mindful of using your cameras settings, ISO, aperture and shutter speed until doing so becomes second nature, you will gain a solid feel for how your camera behaves under various light conditions and ultimately will look upon your camera is a tool rather than an obstruction.
You now have a sore finger from all that shooting, on a positive note you feel you know your camera well, without too much hassle you can whip your camera out and obtain a reasonable exposure without twiddling and fiddling for 5 minutes first. So lets throw a spanner in the works, posing the lovely couple. No, now is not the time to scratch your head and think about those female body builders you saw on fox sport last week. Unless of course that's the look you aim to achieve with your wedding photography! Each of us have a personal style and taste, the way photographers pose subjects is very much influenced by such taste. So rather than learning a series of 1,2,3 steps jump back on the internet machine and start browsing photographs. Pay attention to how people are posed and to what look you like, you may find yourself liking relaxed subjects, traditional poses, perhaps static or candid work.
You have now found a bunch of poses you personally enjoy, it is time to dissect these poses, ask yourself what it is you enjoy about them, how are the bride and groom standing in relation to the light? how are they standing in relation to each other? how do they have their weight distributed, are they throwing their weight onto their back leg for example, perhaps leaning toward the camera a little. Next you should think about what the photographer may have done to elicit such poses, how would you go about posing people like this? What steps could you follow that may result in such a pose? Learning how to dissect images and really look at individual elements of them will ultimately be a much more powerful technique than simply telling you to follow steps A, B and C in order to achieve a specific pose.
By now you may be starting to feel on top of things, you can visualise some photographs you would like to obtain, you can see the lighting in your mind, the pose and you understand how to use your equipment in such a situation. As together as you may feel now, when the wedding planner says you've got 5 Min to get some photos unless you are used to the pressure everything you thought you had organised in your mind will wisp off into the ether leaving you standing with no idea what to do! To overcome this prepare a shot list. When things turn bad you can quickly refer to a shot list to remind yourself not only what shots you need to capture but how you may go about capturing them. I know photographers who use their smart phone to scroll through a list of predetermined shots, they have saved and ordered any photographs they love and when all else fails can quickly turn to the images in their phone for an ideas boost. By carrying some sample poses along with a list of the shots you wish to get you can have a quick browse of it in down time so you feel refreshed and inspired when the pressure is on.
Look back upon your boy and/or girl scout days and become a scout, a location scout. Grab your camera, con a friend into taking a drive with you by offering them free pizza and check out the location of the wedding well before the day of the shoot. Whilst you will not be sure of the weather conditions on the day of the wedding visiting the location at a similar time of day will not only allow you to see the location but also get an idea how the light may behave on the wedding day. Now, seeing as you were so nice as to provide your friend with free pizza it would only be fair if they pretended to be your bride and groom, right? Use this opportunity to create a list of go to ideas that you can draw upon during the heat of the wedding and know that when faced with pressure you will already have some shots in mind.
Last but not least ask your bride and groom for an outline of the day well before the event, take some time to familiarise yourself with the goings on, remember the list if you can so that come wedding day you will be in a position where you are educated and thus able to look forward upon what is happening, this is invaluable as a photographer, being in the right place at the right time is half the battle, as an added advantage you will feel more comfortable and at ease knowing what is about to take place.
Sure, shooting weddings can feel like utter chaos, but with good preparation you can at least feel as though there is method to the madness. Spending the time to be informed and in control of your photography will not only result in better photographs on the day, but a more relaxed and fun day for all involved.
About the Author:
Sam is a Sydney wedding photographer with a background in advertising and fine art photography. For more tips and tutorials visit his website, Samuel Burns : wedding photography Sydney
No comments:
Post a Comment