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This is my "wish list" ... the things I wish every bride and groom
would try to do to make the photos better. These are not hard and fast
rules by any means - just suggestions from someone that's been there.
Group Photos
If you want group photos, plan your groups for an outside location with
enough shade to cover your largest group. Avoid places where there are
distracting backgrounds. While you're thinking about groups - make a
list of who is in each shot. Having a list makes everything go so much
smoother. Tell all your relatives (in advance) that they should be there
at a certain time then tell them again on the wedding day. Waiting for
the missing person is the only thing that keeps group shots from taking
more than about 20 minutes. If you want to do groups indoors, please
warn me days in advance so that I will know to bring the necessary
lighting equipment and have it all set up on time.
Couple Portraits
Make Time for Pictures! Plan on spending at LEAST 1/2 hour shooting
couple portraits. Ideally, that time should BEGIN about 20 minutes
before the sun goes below the horizon and then last another 20 minutes
or so afterwards. I would consider 20 minutes to be the absolute minimum
for this photo shoot. If you can plan more time... the more the better.
This is especially true if you are getting married in a location that
has a lot of variety with different locations for us to move around in.
Dramatic backgrounds are great for this photo shoot but many things will
work.... a forest, field of flowers, old buildings, barns, rocky
riversides, meadow, city streets, college campus, city park, etc. Please
don't plan your couple portraits for the middle of the day unless you
absolutely have to. Early morning and late evening light are the best
and the difference is dramatic.
Photographing the Dressing Room
Decorate the Bride's dressing room with care. This almost always gets
overlooked in the planning and decorating phase. First start by picking
a room with some ROOM. One with lots of natural light. And use light
gauzy fabrics over the windows instead of thick curtains or shutters
that cut out all the light. Having nothing on the windows looks almost
as bad as too much. Decorate the girls dressing room just as carefully
as you would any other part of the wedding location. And cover up
anything ugly with curtains or drape cloth. Have your girls clean up all
the non-wedding messes like piles of blue jeans and tennis shoes or
other clothing that are not wedding related clothing. Don't try to make
it look too neat. Messes are ok if they are wedding messes. Empty boxes
and bags should be placed somewhere outside the dressing room. It looks
wonderful to have all the dresses hanging around and shoes lying around
on the floor, but they look awful if they are still in the box or if
they have piles of plastic wrappers and cardboard boxes lying next to
them. Flowers also look much better in some sort of vases instead of the
cardboard boxes the florist packed them in.
Lighting is extremely important for the girls dressing room. If you
have no window light, think romance! Get creative. Try lots of candles
or little Christmas lights placed on and under things. You can't have
too much window light. However, you should try to avoid having direct
sunlight streaming into the windows. If you have direct sun, pick some
curtains that are a little thicker to diffuse it. You can also put light
cotton cloth over the outside of the window in order to cut down the
direct sun. Or better yet, pick a room with windows facing north so you
don't have problems with direct sunlight at all.
Don't be afraid to get photos in the dressing room. If you are self
conscious or modest, of course we will leave the room whenever you ask,
but personally I don't see what all the fuss is about. Some of the best
dressing photos happen when the dress is actually going over the bride's
head and your bridesmaids are helping to get it on. If you have your
photographer wait outside when this is happening you will miss one of
the most beautiful (and important) events of the entire day. Remember,
with photography, its easy to delete things later, but its impossible to
turn back time and do it again. Will the dressing pictures show up on my
website? My policy is this... if it shows more than what could be seen
if you were in a swimsuit, then I would never show it. Nobody will see
nude or partially nude shots but you and your husband. I could even put
them on a separate disk so that they don't go to the lab accidentally -
whatever you want, just try to figure out a way so that we can
photograph the actual putting on of the dress.
Putting on the Rings
This is one of the most difficult shots to get for a wedding
photographer because most couples are not aware of the fact that they
are blocking it either with their hand positions or with their bodies.
To turn this moment into a great photo opportunity, all you need to
remember is that as you are putting the ring on, you hold the ring so
that your fingers are on the top and bottom instead of on the sides of
the ring. This turns your hand so that the ring is visible from the
sides and now your photographer and your guests can see it go on.
Another thing to avoid is putting your free hand out and grabbing your
partner's wrist so that you can push that ring on there better. If you
feel it is necessary to do this, try putting your hand UNDER your
partner's hand and grabbing on from below. This keeps your wrist down
below so it doesn't block the shot. Practice this a couple of times and
you will see that it is possible to put the rings on while still leaving
the sides open to a clear shot for your photographer, and a great view
for your guests.
Lighting the Unity Candles
Unity candles are usually placed at the back of the altar. However, this
arrangement guarantees that you alone will witness the event because
your backs will be to the audience and the candles will be hidden
completely. Consider placing the candles out on the side of the altar so
that you can stand facing the crowd when you light them. This gives your
photographers a much better chance of getting a shot and it allows your
guests to see what you are doing.
Lighting the Reception
Light the reception! Personally I do not like having a black background
for dancing photos. A little bit if light in the background makes a huge
difference. Christmas lights and hanging bulbs and rope lights all look
good in the background especially if you hang them just above head high.
If you are having an outdoor reception, placing your dance floor under a
tent will make a world of difference because we can bounce our flash up
into the tent roof and make a much more even light than what we would
get with direct flash. A tent also gives you a structure to hang the
small lights in the roof which create a mellow warm background light.
Trees are also great for hanging lights.
If you hire a DJ and they use moving strobe lights on the dance
floor, every place where that strobe is hitting will be way brighter
than the rest of the image. And since the lights are usually moving
rapidly it is impossible for me to calculate them into my exposure. This
ruins many of the dancing photos and there is nothing I can do about it
except shoot a strong flash to overpower the disco lights. The bad news
is that if I shoot a strong flash, then the background goes black. I
prefer to get some room light showing in the dance photos by using less
flash, so if you can have the DJ cut the disco lights or use constant
colored lights that don't move, that would be a big help. Lights that
throw colors or patterns on the wall or roof are great but ideally you
would not let them hit the crowd. Outdoors... paper lanterns are
beautiful and mason jars with candles inside look wonderful hanging in
the trees.
Throwing the Bouquet
Don't rush through this part... take a minute to play with your crowd.
This gives us time to get a shot of you holding the flowers and looking
back over your shoulder at all the gang getting lined up. Before you
throw, I recommend chasing off all the little kids because they are
quick little rascals and they will almost always beat your bridesmaids
and friends out of the flowers. Now look up and make sure you don't have
anything low like lights and ceiling fans that are going to intercept
your flowers before they get to the crowd. When you throw, be ready to
call for a do-over if it doesn't go as planned. Many times I have seen
it go bad. One time I was standing beside the groom and he somehow
managed to turn far enough around to shoot me in the back of the head
with the garter, then it fell to the ground and a little kid grabbed it
and ran off. If something strange like that happens, please call for a
do-over and try it again.
Dancing Photos
Dance to the photographer! (not during the formal dances like the first
dance or the father daughter dance - ignore us completely during that
time.) Late in the evening when we come around to shoot the fun dancing
shots, it would be wonderful if you and your wedding party would
occasionally turn and dance facing a little bit towards us. Otherwise we
get a lot of dancing pictures with your backside showing. Don't worry
about doing this a lot - but once in a while.... if you just turn and
show off for the camera a little, the pictures usually turn out really
good.
Mealtime
Did you know it is customary to feed the photographers? We won't survive
a 9 or 10 hour day without dinner. We don't normally shoot constantly
during mealtime but we do shoot some and we will almost always have the
camera close at hand in case anything interesting happens. If you could
seat us about 20 feet from your own table that would be the perfect
distance to get candid shots of you and your bridal party at the table.
We usually eat near the end of the line so if you want to run off and
shoot portraits while your guests are finishing dinner, make sure to
warn us in advance and we can eat at the same time you do so that we are
all ready to go at the same time.
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