Wedding Photography

[cliff123]

Hi, having done a few mates wedding pics (not as the professional but as friend with a camera) I have now been asked to do a few wedding photos as the main photographer (by friends of friends). I'm quite happy to do this and quite excited. My shots are traditional reportage with a few posed photos, but I've not done a lot of mass organised people shots which are often required at weddings. Can anyone recommend a particular book, website or other which could give me visual reference and advice on how best to set these photos up - thinking modern posed rather than old dull posed (if you know what I mean!) Thanks.

[poah]

you could check out fred mirdanda forums. they have a section dedicated to weddings

[marctwo]

This is also a good place...

http://photography-on-the.net/forum/f

[graham@reading]

I'm doing the same thing in a couple of weeks Shitting myself, frankly.

One thing I would advise, is get to meet the couple before hand and find out what they want from the day, not what some book or forum proscribes as the "correct" set of shots.

I spent an hour chatting to the couple the other night and found out the kind of stuff they're after

[cliff123]

Ah yes, have meet with the couple, and their requests and my style match, but there will be some formal posed shots, for which I wouldn't mind seeing/learning more about.

Edited by cliff123 on Friday 28th July 10:44

[jwyatt]

I did this last year, very similar, except that the couple were very chilled about what they did/didn't want, there were plenty of formal shots but it was just people standing in a line, only still for a few seconds as the couple wanted very little time wasted. The candids were much better - shoot plenty, from the whole day and dinner. Finding a good dry and wet weather backdrop is pretty important, make sure you visit the venue in advance.

For me the main thing to learn about was flash - you need a very good flash unit and to know exactly how your camera uses it and how it meters, on Canon's like I use the main camera settings differ widely in their use of flash - some set flash as the main light source, some use fill flash. The wedding I did was a winter one in bad weather so the shots were almost all indoors, I bounced the flash off the ceiling. If using digital, you will find RAW files very useful for flash work as they allow a huge range of post-shot exposure modification.

Apart from that, I discovered that the website I used to print the photos (photobox) made them pretty dark, I've been using digital and printing my own shots for years, on various screens/printers that seem well calibrated, but shots I submit to photobox come back really dark unless I overexpose them quite a lot (or make them look overexposed on my screen anyway). Do some test runs of prints.

Edited by jwyatt on Monday 31st July 14:11

[UKBob]

speak to david at www.davidheathimages.co.uk - he runs a wedding photography course which might be of interest.

[Bee_Jay]

Make sure you understand from them exactly what sort of posed shots they want, i.e. who should be in which shot and have a list before the day.

If you don't, on the day it will be a real mess and afterwards you will have missed pulling together at least one 'important group'.

Having a list to work through when the posed time comes is great e.g. "OK, now I need the bride's family and all their pets in this one"

There are loads of example lists on the web.

Also having a list of people's names and their 'position' makes things run smoother, it's more personal asking for 'Dave' rather than 'best man' people warm to you and it makes for better shots.