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March 25, 2019 at 3:23 pm
#38025
Ezra Morley
Moderator
Good question! And you’ve already got some GREAT advice from @loganlamar, especially #1 and #6.
I just did my third wedding last Saturday, so some of these tips are very fresh in my mind… 🙂
- Pay attention to your light. If the sun goes behind a cloud for a few minutes it can totally change the dynamics of the light. Watch your highlights, and try not to “blow out” the whites of wedding dresses and white shirts.
- Wind can also be quite problematic. As Logan said, continuous shooting might be helpful here as well, for making sure you get a keeper shot.
- Of course you’ll want to pay attention to your backgrounds as well. Obviously you don’t have much control over what is behind the subject, but changing your angle/perspective can go a long ways towards hiding that distracting pole sticking out of the ground. 🙂
- When doing “official” posed group photos of the family and bridal party, make sure you pay attention not just to creative poses, but symmetry. If everyone on one side is close together, and everyone on the other side is spread apart, the picture just feels like it is lacking something. (Maybe as a lady you won’t have any trouble with that, but this is one area I have to really work on myself…)
- Another area that I really have to work at is acting confident, and just jumping right in and organizing poses and telling everyone where to stand, etc… The bride put you in charge of getting good pictures, so you need to make sure you’re fulfilling your end of the bargain, especially if you’re being paid for your photos. People will look to you for what they need to do, so don’t be afraid to tell them what you need for this picture to turn out right.
- It’s probably too late for this tip, but keep it in your hat for next time; external flash can be a lifesaver in situations where there is not much light. I am a very firm believer in good light. If you don’t have enough ambient light, you’ve got to “make” some better light! For this last wedding, I had 3 speed-lights. I used one (bouncing off the ceiling) during the indoor ceremony and reception, and all 3 of them outdoors for the portraits afterwards. You might think I’m crazy for using flashes outdoors in full sunlight,* but I was SO glad I had them along!
- Thanks to @jamesstaddon for recommending me these umbrellas for diffusers; they worked amazingly well! (You’ll probably need these mounts as well, for attaching your umbrella to a tripod/light stand.) If you don’t have a big budget for flashes, check out the Yongnuo 560 III. For less than $60 apiece they’re an absolute bargain!
*I was using the flash/umbrella combo to fill in the shadows on faces, since the subjects were standing with their backs to the sun.
Here’s an awful behind-the-scenes shot that shows what I was doing with the flashes.