Wedding Photography

DIY Wedding Photography Tips

1. Know your camera! Many people don’t know all the features on their new digital cameras and smartphones before they start using it. There are now a ton of cool features to make your wedding photos WAY more dramatic. These include high-dynamic-range imaging (HDRI or HDR) and custom contrast and color settings on the cameras. Test the settings and see which might work best for your wedding photos. If your wedding is on a cloudy day, that could be a plus if you use high-dynamic-range settings with the camera.

2. Scout and pre-shoot locations. Test the location sites and shoot off some frames with people in them at the wedding sites. The location colors, time-of-day, light, and shadows are totally different at different times of the day. You may want to shoot some wedding photos early in the day to catch the morning light. Generally, early morning and late in the day are the best time to shoot outdoor photos. In regions with extreme light you would never want to shoot in midday light, due to faces getting washed out in harsh glaring light. Regions like Hawaii, the caribbean, and areas near the equator tend to have the worst midday light for shooting outdoor pictures.

3. Wedding location backgrounds that people like. Some of the best locations may have large old fountains, speciality gardens, rustic fences, lawns, lakes, row boats, docks, brick or tile structures, classic cars, vineyards, beaches, rock formations, large trees, bicycles, horses, open fields, ocean bluffs, building/church steps, waterfalls, surf, barns;etc. For more location ideas, just Google “wedding photography locations” in Google’s image library.

4. Shoot a ton of photos! Photos are totally free now on digital cameras, you don’t have to worry about buying film. Shoot and experiment with those wild and different shoots. Remember, the best photos often have people blinking in them or mouth open and head turned. Most photographers shoot only color, since the color can be converted to black and white or sepia, but you can’t convert black and white back to color.

5. Framing photos. Frame your photos with different subject matter at the wedding and reception areas. Remember, you can always crop out features in Photoshop if you want, but adding missed features is impossible. It is best to shoot wide since you can crop high res digital now.

6. Buy a inexpensive tripod. Buy, rent, or borrow a tripod that stands at least five feet high. The reasons for using a tripod are many. First, your photos will be WAY sharper since you will eliminate camera movement. Second, you can also get in the wedding shots by using the camera timer. Also, try to always use the camera timer, since you are not touching the camera, photos will be much sharper. Third, when using a tripod, you will be able to take as much time to compose the picture(s) that you need, since you don’t have to constantly refocus the camera and settings. Amazon has a ton of good tripods for sale, they are priced well and have reviews. B & H is also a great place to shop and read reviews before buying.

7. Use a flash. If you have a nice full size digital SLR camera, you may want to use your flash, or rent one if you don’t have one. You will need a good flash unit for shooting indoors and face shots. Again, you will need to practice with a flash unit. Test and shot a lot of photos and see what works best.

8. Make a shoot list of what works best. This should include camera settings, portrait shoots, time of day, subjects, locations, weather, angles;etc.

9. Shoot both big and small. Frame wedding subjects both big and small for interesting compositions. These can include, invitations, place settings, the wedding car, hands, rings, flowers, patterns(close-up macro shoots) Again, Google “close-up wedding photos” in Google’s image library for more ideas.

10. Shooting wedding face shots are the hardest shoots to get right. You are dealing with eyes, lips, hair, perfect make-up, jewelry, and shadows. And you will want different moods from your subject that can include smiling, laughing, kissing, pouting, and naughty looks. Eyes and face can be closed, looking up, down, away;etc. There are a zillion combinations for shooting face portraits. You may want to do close-up face shoots during the best time of day for light, a few days before the wedding. Shooting both indoor and outdoor is a good idea, since the bride and groom would want both formal and informal. Shooting indoors usually involves using both a black and a white background for different formal effects and looks. Many photographers use lens filters (diffusion, star,flare, blur, graduated) for face shots to soften color contrast. Just Google “camera lens filters for portraits” to see what effects filters can give you. Many wedding photographers now just do all their filtering in Photoshop, since they already have the filters setup to process their photos. You can try both by shooting photos with and without filters.

11. If you have more than one camera, than use them all. If you have more than one digital camera you may want to set-up one for just videos. Most smartphones now shoot super high quality HD video. You may want to use yours, your partners, and friends smartphones on tripods to shoot wedding video from different angles. Remember, with HD video you can extract photos from video, so video can enhance your wedding album by catching the best moments of the wedding/reception.