Article Advise

submitted: May 6th 2008 | by: SeanLamb | Total views: 1 | Word Count: 727 | |

Help, a good friend has loved your pictures of Swanage in the sunset and because wedding photography has not made it into the budget, is asking you to take the photos of the happy event. Like a fool, you have said yes and know you are wondering what you have let yourself in for.

You will need to talk to the couple to find out what are the most important shots they want to put into their album, try to keep them to a minimum so that you don't have too much pressure on yourself. As you probably won't know the layouts, get the addresses of the wedding and reception venues so that you can go and reconnoitre them, preferably at the same time as the wedding so that you will know where the sun will be. Look for some good backgrounds and especially a really nice place where you could take some intimate picture of the couple.

When it comes to the day, you need careful preparation to avoid any problems. Those using digital cameras may have to purchase extra flash memory cards, two 2 gigabytes are the absolute minimum, more if you can afford it or bring a laptop so you can download when the memory is full which, if you are shooting RAW not JPEG will quickly happen, remember that you need the highest resolution for perfect prints. Film users should think about taking at least 6 rolls more than they plan for, not forgetting that they will need films of different speed for inside and outside. Finally make sure the batteries are fully charged and that you have plenty of spares ready to hand.

Wedding photography is much more than the happy couple, many family and friends come together for the occasion so you must speak to the couple to ascertain who are the most important people to be included in the pictures. The group shot contains everybody and there are two ways to do it. First is to start with the couple and then add to them, the second and the preferable one is to get everybody together do the shots and then start discarding people until you end up with the couple who may not be able to smile at the end of it. Remember to shoot the children as soon as possible, whilst their clothes are still in pristine condition and they are not bored.

Just because you have checked out the scene, don't forget to look through the viewfinder and make sure there is nothing untoward, like trees or posts that will detract from the picture before taking the first shot. You may have chosen a particularly pleasing background but it is worth doing a couple of extra shots with a wiser aperture that will blur the back drop and make the people stand out.

When using fill-in flash you will probably encounter a problem with people who wear spectacles which will give you a quite nasty flare. The easiest solution would be to get them to remove the offending articles but then they may not be recognised in the final shots. Get the person or people to just move their head/s towards the couple, any other direction may give the appearance of disinterest.

The reception photographs will inevitably be shot inside so you have to use the flash, which can lead to difficult shadowing. There are several strategies to avoid this. Either bounce the flash off the walls or ceiling, taking care that there are no strong colours that might alter the tone or an over high ceiling that will weaken the effect. You may be able to buy a plastic diffuser that fits over the flash or failing that, some thin tracing paper or a piece of plain net curtain over the lamp but always do some test shots before the wedding day.

Finally get your films processed as soon as possible or make sure you down load all the pictures to your hard drive as soon as possible. You may wish to do a quick run through and delete the really bad ones and put to one side those that might be saved with a little photo shop action and burn a selection of the best onto a cd to present to the happy couple. Now you have the taste, maybe you could think of turning a wedding photography pro !

About the Author

Before you design your wedding feast, check Sean Lambs' wedding photography tips. There are a whole lot more ideas as well as wedding photography for anybody tying the knot.

Comments

No comments posted.

You do not have permission to comment. If you log in, you may be able to comment.