Top Tips On How To Master Wedding Photography

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIP 1 – GET ORGANISED

Few days before the wedding gig, you need to prepare to make sure the whole wedding photography process will run smooth.

It all starts when your client contacts you. The first question from a wedding couple is usually if you are free on the day of their wedding. They might contact you via email, phone or face to face. It is very important that your schedule calendar is in order or you memorize it all the time.

Carrying a physical diary with you is the thing of the past. Your customer will think you are not very computer, technology savvy.

A better way is to use a calendar app like for example ICal that syncs all your data on all your computers and phones.

After finding out you are free on the day of the wedding it is important to arrange a meeting with the engaged couple. This will give you a chance to get to know one another, it’ll also enable you to answer any questions the couple have and give them more info about your skills and wedding packages.

If the couple is living far from your place, or they are too busy to meet you face to face, you can always use video service like Skype. Even a phone call will do the job in the worst-case scenario.

Next step after successful meetup it is important to provide the couple a booking form, so they can submit their contact info and they can also read and agree to your terms and conditions of wedding photography service.

Booking form ensures that all the parties know exactly what to expect from the arrangement.

MOST IMPORTANT WEDDING BOOKING CHECKLIST DETAILS

Here are the most important elements of a booking checklist:

1. The date of the wedding
2. The number of hours that will be required for you to attend…
3. A list of all the group shots the couple would like
4. Phone numbers of the bride and groom.
5. The number of guests that will come to the wedding…
6. The address of the wedding ceremony and reception venues
7. Time schedule for the day of the wedding… most importantly the time of the ceremony, wedding breakfast, important speeches, cutting of the cake, dance etc…

   

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIP 2 – TOP  WEDDING ESSENTIALS

Be sure to always carry the right wedding photography equipment. I suggest the following:

• Two cameras, just in case the main one gets dies on you.
• Prime lense for example 50 mm F /1.8 lense is perfect to capture photos in low light.
• Zoom lens for moments you want to capture from far. I suggest a 70-200 mm lens.
• A wide-angle 700m lens (like a 24-80mm) to capture wide-angle shots
• Macro lens if you will photograph wedding jewelry rings on their own
• Wireless triggers for your flashgun for firing them off-camera
• Several spare camera and flash batteries in case you run out of juice
• Several SD cards to make sure you have enough GB to save all your images.
• Instead of a small flash, you can bring portable strobes with a light diffuser, I prefer Einstein from Paul Buff or Profoto D2 strobe.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIP 3 – YOU CAN SAY NO

A professional wedding photographer knows when the wedding gig is not suitable for them. In this case, it is important to know you can turn it down even though that is not an easy thing to d. If you really feel that you are not the right person for the ob feel free to turn it down.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIP 4 – USE A CAMERA STRAP SYSTEM

Do yourself a favor and buy some high-quality camera strap. A wedding usually takes lots of walking, standing on your feet for 12 hours, etc. It is very important you use a decent carrying system for your camera.

It is smart to invest money in a decent strap and not suffer from the sore back the next few days.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIP 5 – WORK WITH YOUR SURROUNDINGS

It is important to time your every move at the wedding. You need to solve the problems you might come across during the wedding photography gig.

Time will quickly fly by, so be prepared to take charge and provide solutions to any problems you might come across.

Even though the weather on the wedding day is perfect, the bad-looking venue might ruin your shots. In this case, you need to try and make the venue look good at least in photos.

In case the venue is not beautiful, use your telephoto lens to capture closeups of the couple. Or use the prime lens to blur out the background when taking the shots of the couple. In this case, set the aperture to the maximum to get a nice blur effect of the surroundings and remove and potentially unwanted elements from the shot.

Another tip is to find a nice background texture to shoot against. It could be the stone wall, brick wall, some trees, old building, etc. The point is to have little or no elements in the shot so the main focus will be directed to the married couple.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIP 6 – KEEP A SMILE ON YOUR FACE

You could come across angry or drunk guests that could ruin your wedding photography gig. The best way is to be nice to them and always be in good spirits. When a guest at the wedding is especially difficult, it is important to keep your calm and keep smiling. Getting angry and cause a scene might seriously ruin your reputation and cause problems with the clients.

Another suggestion is to check the venue before the wedding. If it looks bad and you are concerned about the visual quality of the wedding shots, you might ask if there are any good shoot locations around the venue. Or you can just drive around and check it out.

The best is to find a great location in a short walk distance so the couple will be able to move to that location and you will be able to capture great photos.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIP 7 – AMAZING WEDDING LOCATIONS

On the other hand, if the venue looks amazing, it is worth using it in your shots.

Again don’t just come to the venue on the day of the wedding. Scout the location beforehand and plan on how to incorporate the best spots in your shots in the upcoming wedding.

Try to call the venue owner, if you can check it out before the wedding to pick the best photo locations.

You can also ask the staff to show you the best locations, you might be surprised to find a hidden gem or two.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIP 7 – PROPER USE OF LIGHTS

Making the most of available light will dramatically improve your photography 

After the couple tied the knot you can take them to another spot to take some intimate photos. It is important you be quick because the couple does have other important things to do on that day.  The couple needs to return to their family and guests. 

In case you carry your strobes with you, quickly position them in the right spots and start taking shots. Adapt to your surroundings.

Or you can use natural light. If the light is low, use your prime lens and open up the aperture to get nice shots. I suggest F/2.8 or lower.

Taking pictures in bright light can work against you. Bright direct sunlight may ruin your shots. The harsh sunlight can cause hard shadows on the couple’s face and make them squint.

Instead, try to use some natural diffusion like tree leaves, or turn the couple so their backs are against the sun. In bright light, situation attach the hood to your glass so not bad flares will be formed in wedding photos.

In the case of the rainy weather, you will be limited to take pictures inside the venue, where the lighting is not best. This is where the set of strobes or flashguns come handy. You will be able to use your own lighting and direct it where you want to.

Only one professional strobe with high output can make a huge difference. Be sure to have a partner in this case who will hold and move the strobes if needed.

The new high-end strobes like Profoto D2 are perfect for this. They offer lots of power, remote triggering and battery power. Be sure to shape your light properly. In this case use lightboxes with some honey grids to direct the light properly. But more about that in another article.

USE TREES AS A SHADE If the sun is super strong and makes couple squint, use trees to diffuse the strong light from the sun.

TAKE PHOTOS TOWARDS THE SUN As I said before, move the couple so their back is against the sun and they will not squint. In that case use the hood on your glass or use a big diffuser to block the sun. The sun also needs to be behind all your photo subjects.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIP 8 – SHOOT FIRST, THINK LATER ON

The best moments in photography can be over in moments, so be prepared to shoot quick. Your reflexes need to be fast so you can quickly reach for your camera.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIP 9 – ALWAYS TRY TO ANTICIPATE THINGS

Try to predict what will happen next, for example, go to the back of the wedding hall to capture the bride and groom coming out.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIP 10 – ALWAYS SMILE AND BE POLITE

How you interact with all the guests and the wedding couple is crucial for the whole wedding to end with no errors. If people enjoy being around you, they will respond in a positive way.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIP 11 – PERFECT YOUR POST PRODUCTION

Create an efficient photo editing workflow to make the most of your time at the wedding is a must. Many times photographer end up with several thousand photos. It is very time-consuming to check all of them.

When you keep your images organized, you will be able to manage the huge amount of images much more easily.  Processing them easy will save you lots of time.

You need to keep a couple of external hard drives at bay. That way you will be able to quickly store a large amount of images.

Store your wedding images in folders and name those accordingly.

If you use Lightroom or Photoshop bridge, you are able to give images rating so and quickly rate the best shots you took at the wedding.

Next step is copying the best images to new folder before processing starts.

Here are top images adjustments I usually do when processing wedding photos.

WEDDING PHOTO IMAGE ADJUSTMENT 1 – CHECK THE WHITE BALANCE

Images usually have wrong white balance so fixing this in Photoshop is important.

WEDDING PHOTO IMAGE ADJUSTMENT 2 – REDUCE NOISE

If you shoot with high ISO setting, then you will get more noise that is necessary for your photos. This can easily be fixed with Photoshop noise reduction tool.

WEDDING PHOTO IMAGE ADJUSTMENT 3 – ADDING CONTRAST

Adding slight contrast to wedding images is always an option, to brighten them and make the pop-up.

WEDDING PHOTO IMAGE ADJUSTMENT 4 – ADDING MORE SATURATION

Adding a bit of saturation makes wedding images more beautiful. Do not exaggerate or your images will look unnatural.

WEDDING PHOTO IMAGE ADJUSTMENT 5 – SHARPENING THE IMAGES

This is a very important step. Use your Photoshop or Lightroom to sharpen your images slightly to assure the details to pop up.

WEDDING PHOTO IMAGE ADJUSTMENT 6 – USE LIGHTROOM PRESETS

Using Lightroom presets speeds up the whole process. You can make them yourself in Photoshop or Lightroom. Saving and applying presets as actions in Photoshop will help you processing images really fast. You can also purchase ready to be applied Lightroom presets.

SHOWING THE IMAGES TO THE CLIENT

Presenting your images for the first time can be nerve-wracking, but also exhilarating

ALWAYS HAVE A SMILE ON YOUR FACE

If you hand-deliver thee images to the wedding couple, your gesture will show, that you go an extra mile when dealing with customers. At the same time you will receive the much-needed feedback from clients.

TOP TIPS OF CATALOGUING WEDDING IMAGES

1 TRANSFER THE FILES

Be sure to keep your images safe and transfer them to hard drives ASAP. Keep the backups too on another drive if possible.

2 CATALOG THE IMAGES IN PROPER WAY

Use a system, where you put images into subfolders and organize them by date etc.

3 KEEP ONLY THE BEST SHOTS

Try to keep only the best images, to ensure consistent quality in your work as a wedding photographer.

4 USE PRESETS IN IMAGE PROCESSORS

In Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop, it is possible to apply presets to mass edit your images. This will make your images consistent and will speed up the whole process.

5 KEEP SMALL SIZE IMAGES

Instead of saving images as PSD, save them as TIFF or JPEG to save up space on your hard drive.

6 LEARN HOW TO RETOUCH JEWELRY

It is always nice to retouch the jewelry from the wedding on its own. Wedding ring is one of the most important things for the bride. She will carry it on her hand for the rest of her life. It is important to know how to retouch jewelry or outsource it to somebody who will retouch it for you like for example photoeditingreotuching.com.