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Wedding Photography for Everyone: Fundamentals

Wedding Photography for Everyone: Fundamentals

with Chris Orwig

 


If you're a photographer (an enthusiast or a pro), you'll eventually be asked to photograph a wedding: a task that's both a privilege and a challenge. You're capturing one of life's most significant milestones. You're shooting an event filled with unpredictable moments that can't be re-created, and you need to be involved without being intrusive. It's a balancing act that professional wedding photographers work hard to perfect.

Chris Orwig has been in exactly this position, and in this course, he shares his experiences and creative insights, all liberally illustrated with examples from weddings that he has photographed. The course begins with details on preproduction—your gear and equipment decisions and the importance of talking to the bride and groom about their goals for your photographs. It also explores some key strategies for documenting the ceremony and the celebration afterwards. Lastly, Chris reviews some postproduction strategies for enhancing your images and delivering them to the happy couple.

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author
Chris Orwig
subject
Photography, Portraits
level
Intermediate
duration
1h 32m
released
Mar 01, 2013

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Welcome
Intro to wedding photography
00:03Hi, my name is Chris Orwig. I am photographer, and I am teacher.
00:07I am really excited about this course, which is the first course in our series, Wedding Photography for Everyone.
00:13Here we are going to focus in on the fundamentals.
00:15And I think that you'll find this course helpful if you're interested in capturing better wedding
00:20photographs, whether you're new to wedding photography or you captured some in the past.
00:25Photographing a wedding is a real honor and privilege, it's also a lot of hard work.
00:30So, we'll start off by thinking about how we can approach wedding photography, and then
00:35we are going to get to some images, some slideshows.
00:37Here we are going to look at some wedding photographs that worked, and others that didn't
00:41in order to illustrate important points about what we want to think about when capturing wedding photographs.
00:46Next, we are going to divide a wedding up into different phases or segments, and here we
00:51are going to look at how we can work within these different stages of the day.
00:54For example, we'll start off by looking at how we can capture images before the ceremony,
00:59How can we work with the bride and all of her bridesmaids, or the groom, and his groomsmen?
01:04We'll also look at how we can document the ceremony and capture that from different perspectives.
01:10Then we'll capture images just after the ceremony, you know, that special moment when it's official.
01:15How can we capture fun and meaningful photographs of the bride and groom at that moment?
01:20Next, we'll make our way to the reception, and there will photograph the groups of people
01:24who are there, the details, and all of the fun that happens during a reception.
01:29Finally, once the wedding is over, we'll ask ourselves what we do with all of these images,
01:34how do we work on them?
01:36There I'll give you a few strategies for working on your photographs in postproduction and
01:40also I will give you some examples of before and after images it we'll give you some ideas,
01:46on how you might process your images. Well, in closing, my hope is this:
01:51I hope that this course provides you with some insight and some inspiration and some
01:56practical ideas of how you can capture better wedding photographs.
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1. Planning and Preparation
Why shoot weddings?
00:01So here I want to bring up the question why photograph weddings?
00:05It's an important question to answer.
00:07I want to answer it myself by telling you a little bit of my story because I think
00:10it might give you insight into how you can formulate your own answer to that question.
00:15Well, for me, I'm a photographer and a teacher, and I photograph a lot of different things.
00:20If I had a chance of photographs say a world- class surfer like this, were world champions are for,
00:25or maybe I photograph the family down at a beach or a world-famous musician.
00:30I also like taking family pictures like taking pictures of my daughter Annika here, so I photograph
00:36many different things. Well, how do weddings fit into all of this?
00:40Well, in a sense, I'm a bit of the accidental wedding photographer.
00:44I didn't set out to shoot 30 or 50 weddings a year and to be a wedding photographer; rather
00:50situations like this came out.
00:51I had a camera and my brother said, "Chris, will you photograph my wedding?"
00:56Now he's one of the most important people in the world to me, so of course I said yes.
01:00Then a few years passed, another friend--a really close friends--said, "Chris will you photograph mine?" Of course.
01:06One of the reasons why I photograph weddings is because, you know, for me it's family that
01:11defines me most, and in a sense, weddings are a celebration of family.
01:18And also because weddings are meaningful, and I just sketched out a few of my ideas here.
01:22What I mean by meaningful.
01:25Sometimes it's like photographing your brother's wedding, other times perhaps a story is even deeper and more profound.
01:32Later we'll look at some photographs in this course of an amazing wedding and a little
01:36bit of the back story is this.
01:39There was a young couple husband and wife with the young daughter and tragically the
01:44dad or the husband was struck with terminal illness and died, he was a close friend they
01:49were, they were both close friends, and it was really sad, devastating.
01:54And around that same time there is another couple, young couple, husband and wife,
01:59the wife was struck with a terminal illness and died.
02:02And a few years later these people became friends, and the friendship blossomed into romance
02:07and eventually they wanted to get married. They came to me and said, "Chris, will you photograph our wedding?"
02:13Of course, how could I not photograph that? Weddings are incredibly meaningful, and that's one of the reasons why I do them.
02:22Another reason is because there is this trade secret that all wedding photographers know,
02:27and what they know is this.
02:28That one of the best ways to be a good photographer, to be better at photography is the photograph weddings,
02:33because weddings are so hard to photograph, the light is always changing,
02:38the people are always moving in different scenarios, and what else is really interesting
02:42is that at these occasions everyone wants to have their picture made. People want you
02:47to take pictures. It's a great place to grow and to learn as a person and as a photographer.
02:53Another reason is because weddings are incredibly unique, even in the past there were traditional
02:58weddings they were almost all kind of the same, when how weddings really reflect the
03:03personality of the families and of the bride and of the groom.
03:06That's what we brought all of these unique objects into this space.
03:10You know sometimes a wedding will be themed, like vintage, nautical, or maybe it will be
03:14at old rustic barn, or the wedding theme will be elegant and pristine.
03:20Each wedding is different, and that is so much fun to photograph.
03:24Another reason why I photograph weddings is because they are incredibly fun.
03:29Weddings are a celebration, a celebration of two people, a really important celebration,
03:34and at weddings you never know what will happen.
03:37Like one of my friends recently went to this wedding that was elegant and just perfect
03:42and at the ceremony that the flower girl came down the aisle.
03:46And after her it was time for the ring bearer, this little guy, he was 4 years old, wearing
03:51a suit to come down the aisle, and he was kind of stuck, he was nervous, he was at the top
03:55the aisle, people waved him, come on, come down, he started to walk.
03:59And he took three steps, returned to his left, "Roar!" and he growled, and everyone kind of laughed,
04:06and he took three steps and turned to his right, growled again.
04:09And he did that all the way down the aisle to the very front, when you eventually he
04:14passed off the ring to the groom.
04:16It was just this really cute moment, and afterwards the bride came up to him and said,
04:21"Thank you so much for bringing the ring up, for bringing the ring down the aisle," and he
04:24said of course, and he was very proud, and she said, "I just have to ask you one question:
04:29Why was it that you were growling, and he said, "Well, because I was the ring bear."
04:35And I just love that that idea, and I wish I was a photographer there, capturing the image of him as the bear
04:41growling at some grandma in the aisle. And you know, wedding are just fun, the unexpected happens.
04:48Another reason to photograph weddings is perhaps for income, you know, it's a great source
04:52of side income, or maybe it's a great way to live and thrive as a photographer.
04:56And other reason is because the wedding photography is a gift. You know, so much of the photography
05:02say that I do is for myself. I take pictures because I think something is interesting.
05:07Yet, wedding photography is a complete gift, and out of all of the photographs that we
05:12capture, these are the pictures which we passed on from generation to generation.
05:18Another reason perhaps for you is just that you're interested in weddings.
05:22You think they're fascinating and enjoyable, and you love the beauty in the art of those days,
05:26so you want to capture images because you're interested in weddings.
05:31Now, whatever your reasons are, I think one of the things that we can all agree on is this,
05:35weddings are significant, and wedding photography is significant.
05:39So, here in this course, our focus is on how can we capture more significant and more interesting and better wedding photographs?
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Identifying the goals of your photographs
00:00One of the things that often happens to us as photographers is because we have a digital SLR,
00:05someone will say, "Hey, can you photograph my wedding?"
00:08In the previous movie we talked about why we say yes to those requests, why is it that
00:14we photograph weddings, what motivates us?
00:16Well, here I want to shift our focus to another question, the question here is what type
00:21of wedding photographer do you want to be? You know, who you are as a wedding photographer, it's incredibly important.
00:28If you want to go to a wedding site or to look at a wedding magazine and to read about
00:32how to find, and hire a wedding photographer, you know what your will your discover is first,
00:36they will always say look for someone who has beautiful photographs, whose imagery you really like.
00:42Second, look for someone who you feel like you could connect with, who has the presence,
00:47because this person will be with you throughout the day.
00:50And as a wedding photographer, in a sense you are an ambassador for the bride and groom
00:55as you interact with so many different guests and bring those guests together.
00:59So, for us it's important to reflect upon who are we, who do we want to be as wedding photographers?
01:05In order to do that, I thinks it's helpful to sketch out some goals and concepts and ideas about this.
01:11So here I've done that.
01:12And what I want to do is share with you a few of my own goals or ideas surrounding what
01:16type of wedding photographer I want to be, and I want to do this to give you some ideas
01:20so, that you can then articulate and write out your own goals and your own ideas.
01:25All right, well, here it goes.
01:26One of my goals is to capture beautiful and unexpected moments, another one is to document
01:33the people, the place, and the events of that day.
01:36One of the reasons why I want to capture and document is because I just want to let the
01:40scene unfold in front of me, yet there's a flip side to that as well, right?
01:45A different goal is to craft unique, artistic, and breathtaking photographs, and crafting
01:51is different than documenting.
01:53When you're documenting, you're perhaps standing a little bit further back and just letting
01:57the scene unfold. When you're crafting, you are really bringing people together in a unique way,
02:02you're trying to contribute someone, you're directing, you are inviting.
02:05I want to do that as well.
02:07Another thing that I want to do is compose photographs that are simple, strong, and luminous.
02:12I want to compose pictures that are full of light.
02:16I also want to create photographs that stand the test of time, that allow the generations
02:22to savor and celebrate the people and this day.
02:25All right, well, what are some other ideas that I jotted down?
02:29Well, I mentioned that I want to create photographs that are timeless, I am interested in pictures
02:34that are luminous, full of light. I want photographs that are artistic.
02:38I like pictures that are authentic, that are meaningful, that are beautiful, that have sentiment.
02:44Now here's an important distinction.
02:45I want photographs to have sentiment, rather than the photographs that are sentimental.
02:49I want pictures that have emotion, rather photographs that are emotional.
02:52You catch the difference there? It's a little bit of a subtle shift, I like the subtlety of sentiment.
02:57I want photographs that are engaged and connected, that capture togetherness.
03:01I also like pictures that are simple and strong, that are filled with hope.
03:05I want to capture genuine happiness.
03:08I want to create photographs that are calm and relaxed, that are romantic, vibrant, and full of life.
03:15And so what I want you to do is to think about, well, what are your own goals, who do you
03:18want to be as a wedding photographer and then take some time to jot down your goals.
03:24Well, here are some of my goals.
03:25Jot down dome of the ideas and concepts that surround the type of images that you want make.
03:30And by being intentional about this, it can help to separate you from the mediocre.
03:35You can become a magnificent photographer, if you clarify who you want to be and what type
03:40of photographs you want to capture.
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Preplanning the photography of the event
00:00In preparation for this course, I came across this great quote about planning a wedding
00:06which I think is relevant to us here, and here's the quote.
00:09It said that who knew that planning a wedding would be akin to staging a Broadway musical?
00:14And it's really true, isn't it? Weddings are complicated.
00:17There are so many different stages and phases and people involved.
00:21And as a wedding photographer, we need to be keyed into that.
00:25In order to be keyed into that, we really need to plan ahead to think about who is
00:28going to be at this wedding? How we're going to photograph it?
00:31What are the different stages and phases of the day?
00:34You know, wedding photography is kind of unique in a way.
00:37Let me explain why. In most areas of photography, you practice,
00:41you practice and practice, and then you do the important shoot.
00:45In the wedding photography, it's completely the other way around.
00:48Perhaps you're good at certain type of photography.
00:51Perhaps you're good at architectural photography or food photography or kid photography, whatever it is.
00:55And so you say, "Well, now I'll translate to the wedding.
00:58I'll go ahead and shoot a wedding without any practice, without any pre-planning or preparation."
01:03And typically that doesn't work out. Just because you can play the violin doesn't mean
01:08that you can play the guitar. So, how then can we plan ahead?
01:12One of the things you can do is you can meet with the bride and groom.
01:15By meeting with the bride and groom, you can ask them, well, what are you interested in?
01:19What's the style that you want to go for here? What are the shots that you want me to capture?
01:24How do you want me to lead and direct and guide?
01:26How do you want me to interact with all that's going to be happening?
01:29Another great thing to do is to have an engagement photo shoot session.
01:33By doing that, the three of you--the bride and groom and you--you can figure how to work together.
01:38And in those moments, when you're doing the engagement photos, your goals are to connect
01:42and also to capture some usable images.
01:45What I mean by that is you want to provide the bride and groom with some images that
01:49they can use when they send out that save the date note to all of their best friends and family.
01:54Another way to prepare for a wedding is to take all of your ideas and kind of bring them
01:59together, and that's what I've done here.
02:02Remember in the previous movie we talked about our goals and our ideas, who do want
02:05to be as a wedding photographer?
02:07Well, I've taken all of these sketches, and I've brought them into this document.
02:11And this document is available to you as an exercise file, and what it's helpful in doing
02:16it is kind of bringing together some of the important details.
02:19And here you could see that some of the details that you could add to this are
02:23the Wedding Date, the Location, the Theme.
02:24Is the theme vintage nautical? Well, be cued into that so you can think about how you can capture those images.
02:30What's the sunrise and sunset for that particular day?
02:33You could also write down information about the different wedding parties.
02:36Who will be involved?
02:37Here you can see I have my goals and ideas that I've sketched out, they're now in this document.
02:43And then perhaps even more important is down a little bit further what you'll discover
02:47is that I've divided up the different stages of the day.
02:51You really want to think about weddings in small parts, because in each small part, you
02:56are going to play a different role.
02:57And if you think about a specific part, perhaps when you're going to photograph the groomsmen,
03:01you can focus in on that.
03:03You can say, well, what time of day will that happen?
03:06Where will the light be? What will the quality of light be?
03:08And what's my goal?
03:09What I'm going to try to accomplish during that small slice, during that small segment of the day?
03:16You know, one of the things happened to me as I mentioned is that I started photographing weddings by accident.
03:20And at first, I was a bit cavalier. I made some pretty big mistakes because of that.
03:26And as I think back on that, it was almost like painting a house without a ladder.
03:31I was doing it all by myself, and I was doing it without any pre-planning.
03:34Now, I want to photograph a wedding, I take time to think things out before hand.
03:39And I also bring someone along with me. In a sense, they are my ladder, so I can reach
03:45the high spots on the house, so to speak.
03:46And if you photograph a wedding by yourself without an assistant, again, all of that pressure
03:52is on you, and if something goes wrong, if your camera malfunctions, well, you are just stuck.
03:57But if you have a friend or someone with you, that can make all the difference in the world.
04:02And again, people photograph weddings in different ways, but most importantly, what I want
04:06to get you to think about is how you can plan ahead, because pre-planning is so important.
04:12And the more that you plan, the higher the chances that your photographs will turn out well.
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Reviewing essential gear
00:00In the next few movies, we're going to talk about gear, and here in this first movie we're
00:04going to focus in on some of the essentials, some of the essential gear that you need when photographing a wedding.
00:10And here's the good news. You don't need a lot of gear.
00:14Let's first talk about camera bodies and lenses.
00:16Now, if you have a camera body, almost anything will do, even if it's an entry-level digital SLR.
00:22Typically the images that come off those sensors are good.
00:25They're good enough for photographing a wedding.
00:27So, you want to have a camera body that you can rely on.
00:30You also perhaps want a couple of lenses.
00:33When it comes to thinking about lenses, you really want to think about your vision.
00:37What type of images do you want to capture?
00:40Typically what you will want is you want something that has the ability to capture a wider perspective of a scene.
00:46So that you can get those group shots, those family photographs, photographs of people
00:50at a table or just the establishing images which show the whole scene.
00:54So, again, you want something which allows you to go wide.
00:58You also want something which allows you to get close.
01:01Now, this is where it's really helpful to have a zoom lens, like perhaps this one. It's a 24-70.
01:06You could capture the wide-angle shot, and you can zoom in and capture something a little bit more close.
01:11Then I also think it's important to have a lens that allows you to get really close.
01:17Often at weddings, you'll see some action across the room, across the hall, or across
01:22the park or the field or whatever it is. You need a lens which allows you to get there
01:27quickly, to capture those candid moments.
01:30So in this case, perhaps a lens like a 70-200 might work well.
01:35Or maybe you have one of those lenses which covers everything from wide all the way to up close.
01:40Again, you want something, though, that allows you to kind of capture what your vision is.
01:46In other words, my vision is to get group shots and get the energy of that and also
01:50to get up close, so perhaps this combination will work well.
01:55Another thing to consider is emotion.
01:57You know, I think back to my own wedding day, and I think of locking eyes with my bride
02:03Kelly, and when I did that, everything else was a blur.
02:08All that mattered was her.
02:11And so in a sense, for me, the emotion of a wedding day calls for using a lens which allows
02:16you to create Shallow Depth of Field, where you're focusing in on one thing and everything
02:20else just kind of drifts off, everything else is out of focus.
02:25All right, what else besides say camera body and lenses do we want to consider?
02:29Well, a couple of other things. It's always a good idea to bring batteries.
02:34You can see that I have a lot of batteries, and I have a lot of batteries because there have
02:38been a few times when I've been shooting and my battery has died.
02:41And so, I want to make sure that I have twice as many batteries as I know that I need.
02:46Of course, you want charge those up before hand.
02:49What I do is once a battery is charged up, I put this little back on it.
02:54That tells me that this battery is fired up and ready to go.
02:57If this backing, the little piece here is off that tells me that that's dead. It's no good.
03:02So, you want some way to sort of organize your batteries as well.
03:06Next, you also want to bring battery chargers. I typically bring two.
03:11Again, if your batteries go, you are out of luck.
03:14So, I don't want that to happen.
03:16And then you need your CF Cards, and you want some way to organize those cards.
03:21Again, here, I recommend that you bring twice as many CF Cards as you think you'll need.
03:26You always want to be the doubly prepared when you're photographing a wedding.
03:29And in this case, this little wallet is really helpful.
03:32The cards which are good and unused on this side, once they've been used, I move them
03:36over to the side which is orange. And that way they're organized.
03:40That way I know that I'm always-- I can always reach for a good card.
03:44Then if you're photographing a wedding where it's going to be dark eventually, where it's
03:48going to be night, you may want to bring a flash like this one here.
03:52Because once the light goes down, there isn't going to be many options, unless perhaps you have a flash.
03:58And of course, if you have a flash, you want to bring batteries, bring twice as many as you need.
04:03Now, another thought in regards to gear is this.
04:06Perhaps you don't have two lenses, or maybe you don't have extra batteries or enough CF cards, what do you do?
04:13Well, you can always borrow or rent or buy, and sometimes for a wedding, you may need to do that.
04:19I think it's essential to have at least this gear here so that you have your bases covered
04:25so that you can capture the images so that you don't miss any of those important moments.
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Looking at specialty gear
00:00Now that we've covered some of the essential gear that you might want to consider when
00:04photographing a wedding, you want to take it to the next level.
00:07I'm going to talk about some specialty lenses and cameras that you might want to use when
00:12you get a little bit more advanced.
00:14When you're starting out photographing a wedding, you want to start with the basics, but then
00:18you may want to add in some other lenses in order to capture some creative or interesting shots.
00:24So let's talk about some different lenses just to begin to think about what are some
00:29of those specialized lenses that we might use, what are the looks that we would create
00:33or capture with those types of lenses or those types of cameras?
00:37Let's start off over here.
00:38Perhaps you want to bring 100 millimeter macro lens, this will be great for capturing close-up
00:43detail shots in a wedding, or maybe you want to try out an E5 millimeter lens f/1.2, it's
00:49a great portrait lens, and it allows you get this really interesting shallow depth of field
00:55or you could try perhaps a 35-millimeter focal length lens.
00:58This one is really popular with journalists, it's an f/1.4, it allows you to capture a
01:04wider angle shot, but you still have this unique shallow depth of field, and then there is the 50, 50 f/1.2.
01:11You know, I know a lot of wedding photographers that shoot with this lens and this lens alone.
01:17This one really defines their style. There are other lenses of course as well, perhaps like a fisheye lens.
01:23That's fun for those group shots where everyone is kind of packed into the scene.
01:28Other wedding photographers really like using tilt-shift lenses.
01:31Now I don't own one of those, but I think they're fascinating, they allow you to tilt
01:35and shift and focus in really unique ways.
01:38So again, as you get better photographing weddings, you may want to consider borrowing
01:43or renting one of these types of specialty lenses in order to create some distinct looks.
01:49Another thing to consider, perhaps, is using film.
01:53You know, film is incredibly popular in wedding photography, and here I have a couple of different
01:57film cameras, I have a Hasselbland which is a square format film camera, and I also have
02:02this Contax 645 which is more of a rectangle.
02:05And with these cameras what you could do is use different types of film, perhaps you can use Fuji Pro 408.
02:13This film has a really unique color palette, or you could use a high-speed black and white film.
02:18This one is Ilford Delta 3200, has a lot of grain in it, and it allows you to create distinct looks.
02:24You know, I know some wedding photographers who are literally at the top of the game, literally
02:29the best wedding photographers in the world. And you know what they do?
02:32They shoot all film and they use perhaps this camera here.
02:36So it's not that you need to use any of this specialty equipment, but it might be fun to experiment with.
02:42It might be fun to try to grow and experiment once you've gotten beyond the basics.
02:47And as you do that, keep this in mind, it's always about your vision, it's not about the
02:51gear, it's not about the excitement of a new lens, rather it's about, well, how can I use
02:56this lens to communicate and convey my vision, to capture beautiful and stunning and interesting wedding photographs?
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Exploring other gear tips
00:00Before we wrap up our conversation about gear, here I want to share with you a few tips,
00:05a few things that you might consider when you're thinking about what gear to bring when
00:09you're photographing a wedding. Let's start off over here on the right.
00:13I have two cameras set here on the table, and I have those two set here for a really important reason.
00:19Whenever you're capturing pictures of something important, you almost always want to bring
00:24with you a backup camera, because you never know when your camera might not function,
00:29and at a wedding, that would be catastrophic. Now if you don't own two cameras, no big deal.
00:35See if there's one that you might be able to borrow, well, of course you could always
00:38rent another camera, and even if you don't use it, it'll give you a peace of mind.
00:43It'll help you capture better images, because you're not worried about your camera, because
00:48you know that you have a backup.
00:50Another thing that you might want to consider is having a gear bag. You know, some of us
00:54don't have gear bags, and that's fine except at weddings I find having a gear bag is essential. Here's why.
01:00You're going to be shooting with one camera and lens, you want to put your backup camera
01:05and other lenses somewhere, and you want to be able to tuck those away so that they're safe.
01:09The camera bags that I tend to use are Lowepro bags, because they're simple they're strong,
01:13they discrete, and it gives me the ability to kind of tuck my gear out of the way, so
01:17I don't have to worry about it.
01:18But either way, whatever you decide regards to your own camera bags, choose something
01:23that you think will work and fit in the size of your gear so that you can protect and transport
01:27your gear in an effective way.
01:29Another thing you might want to consider is bringing some water and perhaps some snacks.
01:34You know, when you photograph a wedding, you are on your feet, and you are going and going
01:38and going, and that might help you out, it might give you a little extra boost of energy
01:42so that you're a bit more self-reliant and focused on capturing good images.
01:47Now in regards to capturing the images, you may need something which allows you to perhaps
01:51offload or store your images, perhaps if you have a compact flash card in your digital camera,
01:57and you don't have a lot of those, you could have a compact flash card reader and a laptop
02:01and hard drive so that you could offload and back up those images on location.
02:06Last but not least, you want to bring something to be able to clean your gear, like these items over here.
02:11I was photographing one wedding, and I was taking a picture of this little kid and he
02:16was so cute, he was eating wedding cake, and I was getting really close to him to get a
02:20nice close-up portrait and he reached out with cake on his hands and he smudged the front of my lens.
02:26Now at that point I needed to clean that off. I couldn't keep shooting.
02:30So just know that that's going to happen. At weddings, expect the unexpected, bring some
02:33supplies so that you can clean your gear.
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2. Before the Ceremony
Showing up early and starting right away
00:01As a wedding photographer, one of the things that you want to keep in mind is that your
00:05job begins before your official start time.
00:09In other words, you want to show up early, and you want to start right away.
00:12Now all you can do here is talk a little bit about that. You know, on your way to the location,
00:18really want to review your vision, your goal for the wedding, what is that that you want to capture?
00:22Do you want to capture timeless or luminous images?
00:25Do you want to create authentic photographs, do you want to capture genuine happiness?
00:30And then if so, you want to give yourself a little bit of pep talk, if you want to capture
00:34something that's genuine, well, you need to be genuine.
00:37If you want to capture authenticity, well, you need to be authentic and relaxed.
00:41So take a deep breath and then show up early so that you're prepared to capture some of
00:45those key moments before all the action begins.
00:49In order to illustrate the importance of showing up early and starting right away, I want
00:53to show you a few photographs which I think kind of illustrate this point.
00:57The first picture that I want to show you is this one.
01:00I showed up early, and I parked my car, and right after I'd parked my car, the groom pulled
01:05up in this amazing vintage vehicle.
01:08Now I didn't know that he had that car, so I quickly snapped the photograph.
01:13This isn't a great photograph, but it was my way to get towards a picture that might be good.
01:18I quickly jumped out of my car with my camera in hand and then captured this portrait, and
01:24again, you want to start before all of the action begins, because there are moments like
01:28this which are so important, it's a fun portrait.
01:31And then I walked inside to the house where everyone was getting ready.
01:34In this case I captured a few photographs of the bride's friends, and here they're just
01:39having fun, and while these pictures aren't photographically amazing, it's all about using
01:44the camera to make those connections and to document the day, and then I came across the
01:49bride's daughter, she was so excited about this day.
01:53And when you're photographing a wedding, many times you have some sort of connection with
01:57the bride or the groom or the family, and in this case I knew the family really well,
02:02and I knew Sydney, the daughter here, and I wanted to capture some of her excitement of this day.
02:06And so here, I'm just creating a few portraits of her.
02:09Well, next it was her time to get ready, and she was wearing makeup like she had never
02:14worn before, and she asked if I would snap a few photos of that.
02:18She's so proud I think and kind of beaming, and then I asked her to walk outside.
02:23We walked outside and she wanted pictures of her shoes, and also of here fingernails,
02:27and while I knew that those photographs wouldn't be stunning or portfolio images, they were
02:31important, because you want to take the pictures that other people want you to take so that
02:36you can ask for some of your own.
02:38Well, here were a few of my pictures of her, and what I like about this is you can really
02:43see her excitement, her excitement about the wedding, about her new family that's going
02:48to be formed as result of this day.
02:51And again, here are a few other pictures of where we are just walking around in the backyard
02:55and trying to capture a bit of who she is on this day and also her excitement.
03:01We are downstairs and while we were in this lower area of the backyard, we looked up and
03:06her mom, the bride, came out on this balcony, and we captured, or I captured a few photographs of her,
03:11and then we went back inside.
03:14When we went back inside, and all of a sudden she heard that her new dad, the groom was
03:19coming, and so she quickly hid behind this curtains, and I love kind of the excitement
03:24of her hiding behind the curtains there, looking out and waiting for her dad to show up.
03:28And then, of course, he arrived.
03:31And you know, as you seek to create interesting wedding photographs, you're always
03:35looking for those little moments.
03:37Now this photograph and the others, they were all captured before the official start time,
03:42that's why you want to get there early.
03:44You want to get there early, and you want to make those connections with the key people
03:48in the wedding, you want to start documenting those moments.
03:50Again, you want to get there early, and you want to start right away.
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Creating the shots of the first family group
00:01In the next couple of movies, we are going to be talking about how we can photograph
00:05the family and how we can photograph groups of people together.
00:09Sometimes you will have the chance to photograph the bride and the groom and the relatives before the ceremony.
00:15Other times it will be after.
00:17Regardless of when you capture these pictures, an important thing to keep in mind is that
00:21what you're trying to do here is to capture family togetherness.
00:25This is a really significant moment.
00:28Sometimes this is one of those moments where these family members are together for
00:32the first time in their lives, that may be the only time that you're together.
00:36Your goal is to try to capture this.
00:38So first we are going to talk about capturing the family, the bride and the groom together,
00:42and then we will look at adding in some of the other relatives.
00:46Let's take a look at a few photographs that I think will help us start to think about
00:50how we can capture good family pictures.
00:53Well, this first image that I am going to show you is going to make you very impressed
00:57with me, you are going to think that I'm a great photographer.
00:59Well, actually that isn't the case.
01:01This isn't a good photograph, but it's a really important photograph.
01:05In my mind it's a transitional picture.
01:08Whenever you're photographing more than one person, what I like to do is to capture
01:13a picture that doesn't count so that I can look at the back of my camera and double-check
01:17my exposure and my composition and just get familiar with how the scene looks when it's photographed.
01:24So this picture is one of those.
01:25Well, after the door was closed, after the transitional image, I then moved in a little
01:30bit closer and captured a bit more of a formal portrait.
01:34Whenever you're capturing family pictures, you always want to be thinking about the family's story.
01:40In this particular case, the family, well, they are really good friends, and the bride
01:45and the groom, they had gone through some really significant loss, and it was my privilege
01:50to now photograph the forming of this new family.
01:53I wanted to capture that togetherness.
01:56Next the groom showed up, and he showed up and all of a sudden his cell phone started
02:00ringing like mad, because one of his relatives was lost, and things like this happen in weddings,
02:06and you want to keep shooting, document those moments.
02:09I love the way that the bride is looking at her future husband here.
02:13Well, after the cell phone was put away, I then directed the couple and the family to
02:18stand together and captured this picture.
02:21Whenever you are capturing photographs of people or groups of people, typically they
02:26stand in natural ways, so what that means is they stand a little bit separate or apart.
02:32You always want to bring them together and capture that togetherness.
02:36Next, what happened was the daughter Sydney started to kind of have some fun.
02:41You want to shoot through those pictures, and here she is just goofing around.
02:45Rather than asking her not to do that, to stand still, I said, "Oh, Sydney, that's great."
02:50She had some photographs, I said come forward here a little bit, and I captured this image.
02:54I said, I want to capture a photograph that's all about you, and she loved that.
02:58And there are her parents in the background, kind of proud and smiling, and they loved this photograph as well.
03:04It was a fun picture which was an important part of this particular family story.
03:10And I captured some variations of it.
03:12Here you can see the bride and the groom are a little bit more out of focus.
03:17Next what I wanted to do is I wanted to get them to move, so I asked them to walk over
03:21to the other side of the yard, and here you can see they are standing on these steps.
03:25I'm a little bit lower, and I love this candid moment, and in this case the bride and groom,
03:31they wanted pictures which were formal. They also wanted some of those candid photographs
03:35as well, and I wanted to capture those.
03:37And you always want to get people moving because it helps you capture more natural expressions.
03:43Next, I moved. Rather than being at the bottom of the steps, I changed my position.
03:48Here I'm at the top of the steps.
03:49I had them turn around, and again, I am just capturing a different perspective.
03:54Well, after you capture a few photographs, say of some of the key family members, next,
03:59you start to integrate in more family members, the relatives.
04:03Let's take a look at some of the things that we can think about when photographing relatives in the next movie.
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Documenting the extended family
00:01Next, we are going to take a look at a few photographs that will help us think about
00:05some issues to consider whenever we are photographing groups of people together, when we are photographing family.
00:11In weddings, family is so important.
00:14In many situations, this may be the only time that these family members are together, and
00:19as time passes, these family together photographs become more and more valuable.
00:25So let's first start off with this picture here.
00:27This is another transitional photograph, it's out of focus, it's not well composed, but again, it's important.
00:34The bride all of a sudden noticed that some of her family members arrived, and I love her smile.
00:39I knew that there was a picture there, so you take a transitional image in order
00:44to get to the next photograph just recompose a little bit.
00:47Again, a great candid expression.
00:50And then of course, you capture the family members that are arriving, like these little guys, the kids.
00:56You know, kids at weddings are so much fun.
00:58They are dressed up, they feel the excitement of the day. You want to capture those pictures.
01:03Here, more family members arrived, a hug with a little girl and the bride, I love these little moments.
01:10They're nothing, let's say, incredibly artistic and perfectly composed, yet they're so important.
01:18You also want to look for kind of the side pictures, when one of the family members steps
01:23to the side, capture those images as well.
01:26Eventually, of course, you need to bring everyone together.
01:29Now this is a really complicated.
01:32In this case, you really need to direct and start to sort of position people.
01:36Say hey, let's capture an image here, and in this case everyone said we only have
01:415 minutes, we need to go, and I said before we go, let's just capture a few frames.
01:46The first image, it's not a success, and the reason is because the gentleman on the right,
01:51his face is blocked, and sometimes rather than asking someone to move as a photographer, you move yourself.
01:58Here you can see the next frame, I got closer, and I just changed my position so that I can see everyone.
02:03And really as you're capturing these images, you are almost sort of multitasking.
02:07You are trying to look at everyone, pay attention and capture a few frames, and you're always
02:12capturing more pictures than you need, because inevitably, someone's eyes will be closed
02:18or head will be turned in the wrong way. Let's take a look at a few more photographs.
02:22This one I think is important, and this one is important because we had the complexity
02:26of all of the family together, and then I asked a few people to step aside, and I just
02:31got a smaller, quieter, more simple photograph, those are important.
02:36Then from here I brought in different family members, and in this case it's the bride's
02:41parents, that's a really important photograph, yet I didn't quite like how they were standing.
02:46The bride and groom were separated.
02:47So I just said, "Hey, let's mix it up a little bit."
02:50I took this picture and then the next.
02:53And you always want to be thinking about mixing it up, shooting more than you need to shoot,
02:58directing people, giving them advice, why don't you stand there, let's come together,
03:01let's capture these photographs.
03:03Here is another family picture. In this case, I am down low and just capturing these family members and relatives.
03:10Next, it was the grandparents and their granddaughter, and they are goofing around and being silly,
03:16and in this case, you want to be okay with that, you want to even take pictures of that.
03:21It is because of course after you capture fun and happy photographs like this, you
03:26can always get those, more well- composed kind of formal pictures.
03:31You want to capture both sides of that. With this particular family, the bride and groom,
03:35they wanted those different types of photographs, and I wanted to capture them myself.
03:40Here's another picture of a family in a different place.
03:43Again, getting family to walk around is so important.
03:47Next, from there, I decided to photograph this mom and daughter,
03:52and I just thought it was a fun picture.
03:53So again, sometimes it's a group, sometimes it's those sideline photographs.
03:58From here we then went to this little cushion and captured another photograph of them,
04:03the bride and the groom were off doing something else, getting ready to head to the ceremony.
04:07And then I captured her by herself on this little cushion and she just looked so cute.
04:12And when I was taking that picture, I noticed over my shoulder that the bride was watching,
04:17everyone was watching, and I saw the lights on the bride, it just was beautiful, and I captured that photograph.
04:24And so, my point here showing you these pictures is to help you begin to think about photographing
04:29groups, photographing families and how sometimes you need to direct, you need to give advice,
04:35stand there, let's do this here.
04:36And other times you want to capture those candid in-between moments, because both types
04:41of photographs are equally as valuable.
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Shooting the bridal party
00:01Often before the ceremony you have the opportunity to photograph the bride and the bridesmaids,
00:06and the groom and the groomsmen.
00:08Well, here what I want to do is talk about how we can photograph the bride and her bridesmaids,
00:13and why these pictures are important.
00:15At a wedding, typically you invite and bring together those people who are most important
00:20to you, and when it comes to bridesmaids, these are the bride's best and closest friends,
00:25often it includes family members.
00:27So, how can we start to capture images which somehow capture the energy and excitement
00:33and closeness of this group?
00:36Let's look at a few photographs that I think will help raise a few points which will help
00:40us create and capture better bride and bridesmaids photographs.
00:44The first picture that I want to show you here is of a bride and her maid of honor,
00:49they were having a lot of fun and they love being photographed.
00:53At one point I handed them one of my cameras, and they started capturing a few photographs of themselves.
01:00The reason why I want them to include these pictures is because I think it illustrates
01:03this idea that when you're working with this group, you can have a lot of fun.
01:09I mean, this group has already been together a little bit, they've gotten ready together,
01:13and you wanted to start to have fun with them and try to capture unique and interesting pictures.
01:18Let's move to another wedding.
01:19In this case the bride and her sister were getting ready and the light wasn't good at all.
01:25It was florescent lighting indoor, but I captured a few frames just trying to get
01:30familiar with the scene, but quickly I knew I needed to get outside.
01:34Especially, because I'm using natural and available light, I needed more space, I need a better light.
01:40So, we walked outside, and outside they started to get her ready even more, fix her hair,
01:46and her veil, and here you can see just documenting a few of those moments.
01:50And I like these moments because they're tender, there is this closeness, and also
01:55there is this kind of calm excitement.
01:59Next, after having captured a few of these images, another little girl, one of the flower
02:04girls came up and was examining and taking a look at the dress, and I was capturing that.
02:10The bridesmaids were all behind him watching the scene.
02:13And eventually, one of them said, "Well, what if we lift up the veil and hold it over her head?"
02:18And we did that and captured this frame, just kind of experimenting.
02:21And a lot of times bridesmaids, or groomsmen for that matter, they are up for trying things out,
02:27and that's exactly what we did here.
02:29Well, eventually I knew that I needed to capture the whole group, here was my first attempt,
02:34it was a complete and utter flop, it didn't work at all.
02:38I thought, well, if I positioned them on the steps, maybe I'll be able to capture them
02:42all, but it just didn't work.
02:44So, I started to think on the fly. That's what you have to do when you're shooting weddings
02:48is you are thinking quickly, where is the light, what's the background, who are the people,
02:52how can I capture this togetherness?
02:56So, this next frame I asked them to get a little bit closer, it was working a bit better,
03:00and here you can see I'm getting even closer, this one, I think is really fun, all of their
03:05faces, smiling, their eyes, the colors, the flowers, it's much more simple, and it has
03:11a better feeling to it.
03:13And again, I'm just trying out different ideas, recomposing a little bit.
03:17Well, then after this, after having captured a few of these pictures, I asked them to go
03:22for a walk, and this is something that almost always works.
03:26Get people moving. This particular wedding was photographed in Carmel, California, and
03:31the bride was a good friend, she was from Carmel and so I said, "Well, let's walk across the street."
03:35She said of course, and they just naturally created this really fun procession,
03:41and I liked that idea of just kind of bringing them out to a new location.
03:45After we walked one way across the street, I directed them, I said, "Why don't you guys
03:49link arms and walk back towards me?"
03:52And I'm walking backwards, hoping there are any cars passing by and just capturing the frames
03:57as we were walking across the street.
03:59And again just some fun moments, and I think you can see that in their smiles, in their posture, in their faces.
04:06Well, then, this is kind of interesting. I ran ahead, and I climbed up the street.
04:11One of the things that good photographers will always tell you is change your perspective.
04:15I had a photograph where I was a little bit lower, and I had one where we're crossing
04:19the street, and then I saw this tree that could easily scramble up, and I climbed up
04:23and they didn't notice me, and I captured this frame, and then I called their attention.
04:28And I called their attention, because I knew there was an image here, these first two attempts
04:33weren't very good, but I kept working at it.
04:36If you look closely, you can see my other camera down there on the ground, and I said,
04:41well, okay, what can I do with this particular lens, it's sort of a normal focal length,
04:46I need to get a little bit closer, and so I've zoomed in a little bit, and I said,
04:49"Why don't you guys stand around and hold your flowers all around her face?
04:54It was a fun photograph, but it was a little bit too much about the bride.
04:58I'd cropped out the bridesmaids, so I tried some other versions of this, it didn't really work.
05:03So, then I said, "Well, why don't you just crowd around the bride?"
05:07And this is where I thought the pictures became kind of fun, and you can see them altogether.
05:13This was the image as it was out of the camera after cropping and rotating it.
05:18I think it's a really fun frame.
05:20The bride there, surrounded by all of her close friends, all of her bridesmaids.
05:25And so, as you start to seek to create interesting bride and bridal party photographs,
05:31think about how sometimes it's just a matter of changing a location, like just stepping outside
05:36of the door and photographing the scene out there, getting ready outside in this case
05:40it was so much better than inside, or other times it's taking advantage of the location,
05:45of the gardens, and getting them close and creating a little bit of variety.
05:49Or maybe it's about taking a walk, and getting people moving, or perhaps it's just changing your perspective.
05:55And a slight change in perspective in photography can help you capture so many different things.
06:00So, as you work on your own bridal party portraits, especially with the bridesmaids, really add
06:07some variety to what you're doing, because these pictures, they're so important.
06:11These are the closest people in the world to this bride.
06:15Explore different ideas and test some of these tips out, because I think they will help you capture better pictures.
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Documenting the groomsmen
00:01Photographing the bride and the bridesmaid is one thing,
00:04photographing the groom and the groomsmen is something completely different.
00:09This group of guys, well, they've somehow come together, and there will be a different dynamic or energy.
00:13Often what you have to do in these situations is you have to really lead and direct.
00:19You have to kind of become one of the gang, get them on your side in order to create some
00:24sort of an interesting photograph.
00:26So, let's take a look at a few pictures which will help illustrate some ways that we can
00:30work with grooms and their groomsmen.
00:34The first photograph that I want to show is this one here.
00:36It's kind of setting the scene. The guys are sitting in this room.
00:40They are kind of fidgeting, they are almost a little bit bored, they are just waiting,
00:45they want something to happen.
00:47So, I stood up on piano bench and just captured this shot.
00:50You know, it's these waiting moments which are kind of interesting.
00:54Well, after having captured this, I just started to chat and hang out with the guys,
00:59because I knew I wasn't going to make any great pictures until I got them on my side.
01:04So, I was shooting the breeze, I was having some fun.
01:07One guy said he played the piano, I said, "Well, can you play the piano for us?"
01:11And so he got up and went over to the piano and started jamming and playing some fun music,
01:16and I captured a few pictures of him doing that. That instantly changed the overall mood and tone.
01:23And then I said, "Hey guys, we got to take some pictures. Let's go outside and get this over with."
01:27They were like, yeah, let's do it.
01:29One of them said, "What if we take our jackets off?"
01:31I said of course, and so they took their jackets off, and they all kind of stood together.
01:37And then I climbed up on this little bench thing, and stood above them and just started
01:41to capture some images of these guys together.
01:44And again, all that you're trying to do in this case is just do something unique.
01:47You know, guys are interested, they are pretty stiff, they stand tall, and their shoulders are kind of straight.
01:52So somehow you have to position them in unique ways to try to create some sort of a group
01:58shot, and in this case I was doing that by trying to change perspective.
02:02Then after having captured those images, well, the bridesmaids, they came back, and we needed
02:07to photograph with the groom and the bridesmaids. That's one of the pictures that they wanted.
02:11So, I put the groom in about the middle and captured this image, it's okay, but it wasn't that fun.
02:18This was a fun group of people, and weddings typically are fun.
02:21So I said, "What about if you guys hold him?" They loved that idea, and here is the shot.
02:28So again, as you seek to work with these different types of groups, in a sense you have different roles.
02:34Sometimes you need to direct and lead, other times you need to hang out and just get
02:38people on your side, and then you look for creating different types of photographs.
02:42Some photographs will be fun and curious, others will be a little bit more formal and well composed.
02:48And by trying to capture different types of pictures, many times it will give the bride
02:52and groom and their families different options, different pictures to choose from, and also,
02:57it'll help you capture and even create moments that would have otherwise been missed.
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Making space for the bride and groom
00:01Creating good photographs of the bride and groom is obviously very important.
00:05And here in this course we are going to talk about that in two places. First, we are going
00:10to talk about it before the ceremony, because sometimes the bride and groom will see each
00:13other beforehand, and how do we capture images in situations like that?
00:19You know, a lot of times at a wedding, in an event, the bride and groom, they are like celebrities.
00:24They are the main attraction, people are attracted to them.
00:28What you need to do is to somehow pull them away from all of that attention in order to craft
00:35or create some space for them, to create some good images of just them.
00:39And also so they can kind of savor these moments of that togetherness that happens before the event.
00:45So, here let's take a look at a few photographs which will help us think about
00:50photographing the bride and the groom.
00:52This first picture obviously is of the bride and the groom and other people.
00:56What happened here is I walked them over to this location and other people came along.
01:01Eventually, I needed to get rid of them, but you can't just get rid of them right away.
01:05You kind of need to work through some pictures.
01:07So, I took a few photographs of these different family members, got it to a little bit more
01:12of just the core of the family, as we can see here.
01:16Then I got some great mom and daughter photographs. This is one of my favorite pictures from this particular day.
01:22I loved their smiles, how they are just glowing.
01:25But again, keep in mind that I was working towards getting the photograph of the bride and the groom.
01:30I just needed to kind of shoot through it or take pictures to get to that spot.
01:35After we captured these pictures, they started to goof around and be silly and have fun,
01:40again, I'm documenting those fun moments.
01:43Well, after we have done that, I've kind of given them that space, eventually, had the
01:49bride and the groom together for an important kind of significant picture, it's not candid.
01:57It's something where they're both present and they are engaged, and they are together.
02:01So as you are working to get to those moments, sometimes like I said, you almost need to carve that space out.
02:08You also need to help the bride and the groom save face.
02:11In other words, what you can do is you can kind of shoo other people away for them so that they don't have to.
02:19And when you're a photographer, a great way to do that is with camera in hand.
02:23Say, well, let me take a few pictures of you. Now, okay, now you step out, let me get a
02:27couple other people and then let me get this.
02:29Hey, now let me just get the bride and the groom.
02:31I think we are done with the rest of the photographs.
02:33Everyone else left, and you can kind of see that in this photograph, it's just them.
02:39It's a nice quiet moment of them together.
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3. Documenting the Wedding
Looking for transitional shots
00:01Here we're going to shift our focus to photographing the ceremony.
00:04Yet before we get to the ceremony, you want to capture those transitional images
00:09right before the ceremony happens.
00:11Perhaps it's the groomsmen hanging out like we saw in one of the last chapters, or maybe
00:15it's someone getting something ready.
00:17One of things that you need to do in order to differentiate yourself from other people
00:22who are photographing at the wedding-- because many people have cameras--is what you want
00:26to do is you want to capture those moments that only you have access to.
00:31All of the guests at the ceremony, they're sitting down.
00:33You're not, you're free to roam.
00:35And what you want to do is roam around and capture those small images which lead up to the ceremony.
00:41Let's take a look at a few photographs which will illustrate some of the ways we can think
00:45about capturing transitional shots right before the ceremony.
00:49The first image that I have up here is a photograph of people getting the Church ready.
00:54You want to document those people who are pitching in, helping out with the event.
00:59In this next photograph, you can see a detail of the door of the church.
01:02Again, capture any small detail shots, anything that you can capture which helps tell more of the story.
01:09In this next one, you can see that people are frantically getting bulletins ready and
01:12trying to prepare for the arrival of all the guests.
01:16You want to capture the hustle and the bustle of all of those moments, because there's
01:20so much anticipation and excitement.
01:23Here is another photograph, once the guests have arrived, and there's this little girl
01:28just standing there, and she was staring at me while I was taking pictures.
01:31So, I knelt down and captured this frame and also this one.
01:36It's always fun to capture these moments that in a sense are in between.
01:40You're not photographing perhaps the key players or the most significant thing, rather
01:45it's what's leading up to the ceremony.
01:47Here's another shot of a quiet moment between the bride and her mom.
01:52You know, it is that special moment.
01:54I think, there is a certain look of understanding in their eyes.
01:59Their eyes are smiling, and I love that.
02:02Other times, some of the photographs are like this, the groomsmen just waiting, waiting and waiting.
02:08They're ready to go, and again it's leading up to what's about to happen.
02:13So, as you work with these different scenarios in different weddings, you'll find that sometimes
02:18you capture different things. Here, I want transition to another wedding.
02:21In this particular wedding, you can see that a car has pulled up, people are bringing chairs to the location.
02:27And this is a photograph that I've captured from my car.
02:30I pulled up and looked out, and this is what I saw, and then I started to move in a little bit closer.
02:35Eventually, I wanted to use this car, I wasn't quite sure how, but I knew I needed to use
02:40it because it had so much character and personality, and then I kept photographing the events before the wedding.
02:48Here all the guests they were sitting down and the bride and her daughter are having
02:52a quiet moment together, and it was really sweet and really tender, and so you're looking
02:57for those moments again that other people don't have access to.
03:00Everyone is on the other side of those rose bushes and those shrubs, and here we're having this nice quiet moment.
03:06So, I'm just capturing that.
03:08And then eventually the father of the bride and the bride herself and her daughter walk
03:12up towards the event, and it's leading up towards what's about to happen.
03:17So again, here we're really looking for those leading images which lead us into the ceremony.
03:22All right, well, after you've captured those, you're of course ready to start focusing on the ceremony.
03:27So, let's take a look at how we can do that in the next movie.
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Savoring the moments of the ceremony
00:01Once the ceremony begins in most weddings, it's time for the photographer to disappear,
00:06to become invisible, to start to shoot from the sidelines.
00:09In other words, the main focus isn't you.
00:12It's not about you crafting or directing certain shots, rather it's about you drifting to the
00:18sidelines and capturing the events as they unfold.
00:22So here what I want to do is take a look at a few photographs and talk about some things
00:25you might want to consider when you're photographing a ceremony.
00:29In this first picture, you can see that we're inside of a church, and here I'm using a wider angle lens.
00:34Sometimes, you want to use those wide angle lens in order to establish the scene.
00:39It's really important, though, that you don't go too wide, because if you go too wide the church can look empty.
00:46You want to make it look full.
00:47You want to take this perspective that it makes the viewer look like they're there.
00:51Here's another photograph where I just moved over to the side, and you can see, again,
00:55we're just really capturing the scene.
00:57Let's move to another wedding. What if we're outdoors?
01:01Well, for outdoors like in a situation like this, I have a similar approach.
01:05Again, it's a wide-angle lens, I'm getting low to the ground, I'm trying to sort of establish the scene.
01:10I'm also trying not to show too much.
01:14As I look at some of my photographs and review, I think, oh, if only I had just moved a little
01:18bit off to the right, it would have been that much better. Well, I was there.
01:22I did take another photograph, and I had moved a little bit but in this case, I don't think
01:26this one is as telling.
01:28So as you review your pictures, you obviously want to be asking yourself, what could I have done better?
01:33Here I think I could have done a little bit better job with that.
01:35Nonetheless, I took those photographs, and then I moved to a different location.
01:39Here, now I'm behind everyone, and I'm capturing the scene.
01:42It's just sort of setting the stage, it's documenting the day.
01:46You want to look for different ways to do that.
01:49And sometimes you can do that with different types of lenses.
01:52In this case, we obviously have a wider angle lens, but if we change that to a more
01:56of a zoom lens, we can all of a sudden get really close.
01:59Here in this case, I've got close but the expressions aren't very good.
02:03It's not warm and inviting, so this photograph, it doesn't work.
02:07But you don't give up.
02:08You keep looking for those moments. Here I love their expressions.
02:11See we have the bride and groom and the officiant.
02:13You know, it's important to document the people who played an important role in the wedding,
02:18whether that's someone who played a song or read something or who was the officiant, you
02:23want to document those things.
02:25You of course want to focus on the guests as well.
02:28Here was a little kid who kept watching me while I was taking pictures.
02:31I couldn't help but snap this photograph. I like how it's full of so much personality.
02:36And I had mentioned before the importance of photographing kids at weddings because it's fun.
02:42But it's also worthwhile for another reason.
02:44You know, as people look at their wedding photographs over the years, they look back and they will
02:48see this little guy and say, "I can't believe Johnny was one.
02:52Have we really been married for 15 years?"
02:56Because you can see the passage of time so clearly when you look at photographs of kids,
03:00so again, it's an important thing to document.
03:02Look for those little moments.
03:04Of course, though, you want to focus on the bride and groom.
03:07Capture their togetherness, their expressions, this warm sunset light, and here it's a little
03:13bit more of a quiet moment as they are listening to someone read something.
03:17Next, as we move in a little bit closer, this is a different type of a picture.
03:21It's a little bit quirky. I think it's interesting or intriguing.
03:25I like the postures of their hands, and I like what that communicates and kind of focusing
03:30in on the details of the dress and the attire.
03:34Here, again, focusing on an important person of event, in this case the officiant,
03:38who was one of their best friends.
03:40Next, moving to a couple of other photographs just documenting these scenes as they unfold.
03:46What you want to do is shoot and keep shooting and capturing these different moments, whether
03:50it's the exchanging of the rings or different things that are happening.
03:53Perhaps a quiet moment like this, or maybe an important family hug.
03:57And then of course, it's over, and it's official, the bride and groom are married.
04:02Now the ceremony is a really important time--as I mentioned--to sort of drift to the sidelines and document.
04:09And what you want to do as you document is think about how you can change things up,
04:13whether that's using a wide-angle lens or a more zoom lens to get in close.
04:18You also want to walk around.
04:20You really have freedom to change your position. The rest of the guests, they don't.
04:24They may have the same camera as you, but they don't have the ability to move and change their position.
04:30You can work from this sideline and that one and move back and forward.
04:34Yet as you move, you don't want to draw attention to yourself.
04:37You want to make your movements minimal and slow and slight.
04:41And then finally, you want to get prepared for the end of the ceremony.
04:45Like here, I'm behind everyone, knowing that the bride and the groom are going to come
04:48down the aisle this way.
04:50Now of course, this is going to lead the capturing those photographs right after the ceremony is over.
04:55Those are really important pictures. We'll talk about those in the next movie.
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Capturing the emotion after the ceremony
00:01Here we are going to take a look at a few important elements to consider
00:04when capturing photographs just after the ceremony. You know, after the ceremony it is
00:09such an important and unique time for the bride and the groom, it's their first chance
00:15to breathe, to relax, it's official, we are married, and for the rest of the guests as well, it's equally as exciting.
00:23Everyone has a story, you never know how long someone traveled to get to this wedding.
00:28How they got ready and hurried to make it to the ceremony on time, how they sat through
00:32the ceremony, and now the celebrating begins, and so here I want to talk a little bit about
00:37how we can capture some of that unique emotion in that time.
00:42Let's take a look at a few photographs from a couple of different weddings to illustrate some ideas to consider.
00:48Here with this first wedding, the bride and the groom and their daughter, they are walking
00:52down the aisle, and here I'm just continuing to document that. I'm continuing to be a fly
00:57on the wall and capture the events as they unfold.
01:00They are really happy and excited, and eventually there was this big hug and big tears.
01:07Whenever there is a moment of emotion, typically you want to try to photograph that quietly.
01:12You want to give them their distance in order to kind of savor and enjoy that moment,
01:17but you also want to document it.
01:19Other things that you want to document are the friendships and relationships, those hugs
01:24and greetings and all of that that happens, and of course you want to capture the people
01:28who are there, the people who are so important to the bride and the groom.
01:32Here we have the bride's daughter and her friends or other guests who are at this wedding.
01:38And again, all of these photographs help tell the story of this particular wedding.
01:42All right, well, let's jump to another wedding.
01:46Here we are going to take a look at a different scenario, a wedding that was out in a beautiful field.
01:51Here is the bride and her dad, her dad who is so proud, and you want to document that, that tender moment.
01:58You also want to get creative with this.
02:00Sometimes you are capturing family like I am here and the light was a little bit too harsh and direct.
02:05If you just turn around a little bit, in this case now shooting into the sun, it takes on
02:10a whole new flavor or feeling, and again, in these situations you are really focusing
02:16in on sentiment or emotion or capturing the unique characteristics of this time.
02:22Here we have a bride and the groom and a few of the bridesmaids, and what's fun about these
02:27moments is that people will literally glow.
02:30They are so excited at this moment. They also will have a lot of fun.
02:35Here you can see the bride and a couple of her really good friends just goofing around and having fun.
02:41And so as you seek to capture images during this key time, right after ceremony,
02:47keep in mind that really what your goal is is to document the overall excitement and emotion of that time.
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4. Photographing after the Ceremony and the Reception
Photographing the couple
00:01After the ceremony and before the reception begins is a great time to capture photographs
00:06of the bride and the groom. You really want to take advantage of this window of time.
00:12Often you'll set it up beforehand, you'll say after the ceremony, let's take 5 minutes
00:17or 30 minutes or whatever you can get, and let's create some interesting portraits.
00:21And in weddings, one of the things that's so unique about them is that people want to
00:25have their pictures taken, whether it's the guest, like we saw in the previous movie,
00:30or it's the bride and the groom, and you want to take advantage of that, and you really
00:33want to explore how you can capture the emotion of this unique time.
00:38For the bride and the groom, you also want to carve out some space for them, because
00:42weddings, they can often be a blur.
00:45Your job as photographer is to add some clarity to that event, so they can really savor and remember it.
00:52So let's take a look at a few different weddings and a number of different photographs,
00:56that will help us think about capturing good bridal portraits.
01:00We'll start off with this image here.
01:02Here I asked the bride and the groom and their daughter to step away from the guest,
01:06and you can do that as a photographer, come over here for a minute, and let's capture a picture
01:10of this new family.
01:12And then I captured a picture of just the bride and the groom, and I love the expression,
01:17the connection, the passion, of this picture.
01:19It's so fun, I asked her to give him a kiss, and they're so happy, literally, they're glowing.
01:24And as you capture these pictures you want to keep shooting. You never know what type
01:29of slight nuance you'll catch, like this covering the kiss, I think that's so fun and then
01:34this picture of this new happy family. You also want to try out different locations.
01:40Here I said, "Let's take a walk. Let's go back to that car."
01:43So we went back to the car, and I captured a photograph of it, and we were talking about it.
01:48And the groom loves this car. He restored it, so fascinating, I said, "Well, let's do
01:53some photographs in front of it."
01:55And they were glad to do that, and again, it's all about just capturing these little
01:59small moments of them together.
02:02And when you're in this moment, one of the things that you can do is you can direct,
02:06you can put on that director's cap and say, why don't you climb into the car, why don't
02:10I capture a picture of you driving it? And she said, "Heck yeah.
02:13I am going to be driving this car now," and she was excited.
02:15This car was previously her fiance's, and now it was hers as well.
02:20I also had both of them get into the car, and again, we were just having fun.
02:25Afterwards we stepped outside of it, and I love this image and this one as well.
02:30And so what you're looking to do here is to really make the most of this time.
02:34You're no longer documenting, rather you're directing, you're crafting, you're inviting,
02:39you're trying to create unique handcrafted photographs that capture the sentiment of these moments.
02:45Let's jump to another scenario.
02:47In this particular wedding, the reception had already started, everyone was enjoying themselves.
02:52I asked the bride and the groom to go for a quick walk.
02:55I just wanted to give them some space to breathe and to be together.
03:00And as you do that, often you can capture these little quiet moments, which I think are so important.
03:07Here we walked to another area, and again, I think you really just get the wonder and
03:11the connection of this particular moment.
03:15Often the light in these situations is great, because it's near the end of the day, or it's
03:20some sort of situation where the light is good, sometimes it isn't, like with this situation,
03:24the light was harsh, you can still work with that.
03:27Go for a walk, have the bride and groom stand with their back to the sun, and it takes away
03:32all of the harsh edge, and you can still create beautiful pictures like this.
03:36All right, well, let's jump to one more wedding.
03:39In this wedding, it was out in a field, and the sun was setting, it was gorgeous.
03:44The bride and the groom were so happy.
03:46Here the groom has his coat on, and you can see the warmth of their expression, and as
03:51you capture these images you want to mix it up, I move to the other side of the couple.
03:56Now I get something completely different. Then I change my exposure and recompose.
04:01I love this photograph, I love their connection, how comfortable they are in each other's arms.
04:09You really have to work it.
04:10You have to work for those photographs and see if you can experiment and direct and invite
04:15in order to get those images.
04:17And we tried other things as well, the bride by herself, the bride and groom together kissing,
04:22the bride and groom silent, side by side.
04:25And as I'm capturing all of these different images, I'm just looking for those special moments in between.
04:32It's a mixture of directing and looking for perhaps that decisive that moment.
04:37And as you work with this scenario, you also may want to try something which is a little
04:41bit more formal, try the informal, try the formal.
04:44Here you can see they're really present, or maybe you want to capture some images where
04:48they are side by side, apart, holding hands, ask her to look at him.
04:55Perhaps you have a vision to create some compelling and strong black and white photographs, like this one.
05:00I love the intensity of this picture. And try other things out.
05:05In this case they're standing in front of an arch, other times they're kissing, and again,
05:09if you have a vision for certain photographs, try to make those happen in these moments.
05:15Other times what you might try to do is introduce a prop, whenever you introduce a prop sometimes
05:21it puts people at ease, because they can focus on that rather than on having their picture made.
05:26With this first image the prop didn't work.
05:29I love the handmade sign, it's beautiful, but their expression isn't good, and I don't
05:34necessarily like the composition, so I tried to get them to smile and to laugh.
05:39That's a much better photograph.
05:41And then I got a little bit closer, but I wasn't quite getting the picture that I had
05:45in mind until I changed my camera orientation, that's what I needed to do.
05:50This picture is better, but still the expressions aren't there.
05:53I said, why don't you give each other a kiss, and voila, there is the photograph.
05:58And so as you're working with the bride and the groom in these moments know that it's
06:02a special time, and know that it's your time, it's your role to direct and invite and try
06:07to craft or create photographs, and as you do that, make the most of the time that you
06:13have and shoot a lot of pictures.
06:16You want to shoot a lot of pictures, because you never know when you might capture that special moment.
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Photographing guests
00:01In the last movie we left off with photographing the bride and the groom, we talked about
00:05how we can pull them aside and capture some unique photographs of them.
00:09Well, eventually you'll want to bring them back to the reception.
00:13As you do that, photograph that process, create one of those transitional photographs.
00:17Here you can see with this image the bride and the groom standing together and the reception,
00:22it's starting in the background, up those steps.
00:25In other situations what you'll want to do as you start to photograph the reception is photograph the guests.
00:31Sometimes that means the bride and the groom and the groom's dad.
00:34In other situations it may be photographing everyone, all those people who have crowded
00:39into that downtown restaurant to have a wonderful dinner, and you want to capture the energy of that,
00:44or maybe you get close and you photograph specific people interacting.
00:49Other times, in other weddings, you may follow the bride and the groom around as they talk with their guests.
00:55I love this picture, the bride there visiting this table and talking with some of her friends.
01:00I love her posture and the way that she's interacting with these friends.
01:05As you work to capture the different guests at the wedding, sometimes you're capturing
01:09groups of people, other times just one person.
01:11Like my daughter Annie, who came with me to this wedding.
01:14Here she is standing in front of this giant chocolate cake. You want to capture all the
01:19people that are at the weddings, like these guests here, which are so cute.
01:24Other times what you're going to do is capture those classic table photographs.
01:28In these situations you need to use a wider angle lens.
01:32And your goal here isn't art, rather it's to document who came to the celebration.
01:38Often I've talked with couples who have reviewed these type of photographs and said, you know,
01:42I am so glad you photographed that one table, because I didn't realize that Sarah was at
01:47my wedding, I didn't even get a chance to talk with her.
01:50When I saw that picture it made me want to call her and reach out to her and reconnect,
01:55and again, it's just a great way to document who is there.
01:58Other times what you might do is you might photograph people who are really special,
02:02like the bride and her sister.
02:04Other times you may photograph one of their relatives and their relatives' friends.
02:09You know, you never know these guest's stories, you never know how far they have traveled
02:13in order to come and celebrate this special day.
02:17Your job is to photograph and to document the guests who are here, enjoying the celebration.
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Capturing the details
00:01One of the reasons why it's fun attending a wedding--or photographing a wedding--is because
00:06often when you arrive at the wedding, especially at the reception, you get to see a reflection
00:11of the bride and the groom in all of the details, in all the ways that they planned this event,
00:15and as a photographer it's your job to capture the personality of this event,
00:21to capture those little small details.
00:24You almost want to approach the event from the perspective of an anthropologist.
00:29You want to look at it and say, well, what's interesting here, what am I noticing?
00:33You may pick up on the fact that perhaps there is a vintage nautical theme, and there are
00:37small hand-painted boats on the center of each and every table.
00:42Well, you want to photograph those details, because maybe one of the bridesmaids, she
00:49stayed up all night painting these, you want to capture that small detail.
00:53Also, perhaps the bride and the groom they love the ocean, they love sailing, again, photograph those details.
01:00So here what I want to do is talk a little bit about how we can capture details, and
01:04I want to do this because one of the things that I've found as I've reflected on my own
01:08photography is I'm not good at capturing the details.
01:13I typically get really caught up in photographing the people, and I'm working with gear,
01:17like a 70-200 millimeter lens so I can capture all of the people and the energy and excitement of the event.
01:24Meanwhile, I'm overlooking something really important right underneath my camera.
01:29Many times what you need to do to capture these details is just shift your perspective,
01:33or maybe even change the gear that you use.
01:36All right, well, let's take a look at a few photographs that I think illustrate how we
01:40can start to capture the details at a wedding.
01:44This first photograph you can see is this fountain.
01:46It was a huge fountain, and it was pretty ordinary except that they had this candle
01:51floating in the middle of it, and all of these rose petals, and this confetti, and it was
01:55just beautiful to capture this image.
01:58I had a wide angle lens, and I just looked down, I cropped out all of the other people.
02:03In other situations, maybe you notice they have a unique guestbook.
02:07Like this bride and groom, they loved surfing, so they had this surf photography book and
02:12everyone was signing it, you want to capture that small detail, because it's important to them.
02:18Other times maybe you're going to notice the cake, and there are so many different types
02:21of wedding cakes or cupcakes or who knows what, pay attention to that and capture that.
02:26Like with this one, the chocolate frosting and all of these natural flowers, still in
02:31other situations, maybe you're just looking at the table settings, and you want to photograph
02:37those in any way, shape, or form that you can.
02:40Other times perhaps it's a sign, a hand-painted sign like this one which says
02:44Grow Old with Me The best is yet to be...
02:48Or perhaps there is a sign which announces the wedding.
02:51This was out in front of the wedding location, Walton Wedding.
02:55Still in other situations, maybe they've kind of set something up in a curious way.
03:00Here was a place where people could leave cards or sign the guestbook.
03:03The theme of this wedding, it was natural and rustic and vintage.
03:07Again, these details matter.
03:11The place settings also always tell a certain story.
03:14I love this one with the mason jars, with these wildflowers that the bride and groom had picked that day.
03:20Photograph these details before the wedding or during the ceremony or perhaps as the light
03:25changes once it's night. You want to capture these details in any way that you can.
03:30And as I reflect upon my own photographic journey in regards to photographing weddings,
03:36I've realized that one of my weak points is photographing details.
03:40I usually miss the details.
03:42And as I've reflected on that, I've started to study other great wedding photographers.
03:47One of the things that I've noticed is that when they capture details, they use a really
03:52shallow depth of field, so they can focus in on the detail.
03:56Often they use a macro lens.
03:59So the next time that I photograph a wedding here's what I'm going to do.
04:02I'm going to have my long telephoto lens on, photograph the people and then for a few moments
04:07I'm going to put on my macro lens.
04:09In a sense I'm going to change my hat and say, you know what Chris? Now is the time
04:13to focus in on those details.
04:14I'm going to then do the rounds and photograph all of the small little details, because
04:19I find that those, they really matter, they really reflect the bride and the groom, and
04:23it's such a special way to kind of capture the unique personality of that bride and groom and of that wedding celebration.
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Staying hungry for the magic shots
00:00As your photograph the reception and the guests, inevitably you'll notice that food is being served.
00:06And, you know, at that time it's your job to figuratively and literally stay hungry.
00:13What I mean by that is when everyone else is eating and enjoying themselves, it's your
00:18time to stay hungry and to look for those photographs.
00:21What you want to do as wedding photographers is you want to bring your own water and snacks and food.
00:25You can always eat later. You don't want to miss those opportunities.
00:28Every once in a while a bride or a groom will say, "Hey, why don't you get a plate of food?
00:34You can say, "Sure, I'll do that in a second. I'm going to grab this shot."
00:36Again, you have to stay hungry.
00:39What I want to do here is show you an image which I think illustrates this point perfectly.
00:44Here we have a beautiful photograph of the bride, and I like this profile, the way that
00:49she's looking down to the side.
00:51In a sense, this looks like a picture which maybe was set up.
00:55But let me show you the process of how this image was made.
00:59Here was the first photograph that I captured in the sequence.
01:02It's not very good.
01:04This is the image straight out of the camera, and I was photographing everyone while they
01:09were eating, standing in line, and waiting for food, and I knew that there was an image here.
01:14I captured another picture, and I liked the profile perspective and then she looked down.
01:20And while I couldn't get close enough to her because there was a table in the way, I could
01:24still get that shot, and I was hungry for that shot.
01:28The next moment the scene had passed. Again, the picture was gone.
01:32Yet, when I was reviewing those images I saw that little image, and I just recomposed this
01:37by cropping it in Lightroom and then modified the overall color and tone.
01:42I think it's a beautiful image, and again, it illustrates that whole idea that your job
01:47as a wedding photographer, yes, is to celebrate and to have fun and to enjoy what's happening,
01:53but also to have that edge, to continue working, to stay hungry for those shots throughout the entirety of the reception.
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Documenting the events unfolding
00:01When photographing a wedding reception, one of the things that you want to a plan for
00:05ahead of time is what events will be taking place during the reception.
00:10You can easily find this information out beforehand by talking to the bride or the groom or maybe the wedding planner.
00:16What I mean by events is this.
00:18Typically, there's a certain flow to a wedding reception.
00:21Perhaps first there are appetizers and then there's dinner, there's a meal.
00:25During the dinner the best man will stand up and give a toast or maybe the maid of honor
00:30will stand up and share a few a few important words or maybe one of the bride
00:34or groom's parents will say something.
00:36Then of course there is the cutting of the cake and the bridal bouquet toss or whatever
00:41those events are, you want to make sure that you're documenting those events, because typically,
00:47it's really significant people who are involved.
00:50Let's take a look at a few photographs that I think will help us start to think about
00:53capturing the events which take place during the reception.
00:57This first photograph that you can see here is a picture of the best man, and here he's giving a toast.
01:03It's not an image which is incredibly artistic, but it is an important document.
01:08Then we have another picture where I moved to a different angle in order to capture this again.
01:13Again, here I'm just walking around trying to document this.
01:17After he shared his words, there was of course a toast.
01:20You want to capture the response to that.
01:23There are other things, too, as I mentioned, like say the first dance.
01:26You want to capture that unique moment between the bride and the groom.
01:31Each wedding reception will have different events.
01:34Yet most of them have some sort of a cutting of the cake.
01:38Here I try to photograph this in a little bit of a creative way you can see the bride
01:41and the groom cutting the cake, and then you can see in this next shot that she's about
01:46to stuff the cake into his face and eventually the cake went all over his face, and here I'm
01:52using an on-camera flash with a little bit of a slower shutter speed just to try to capture
01:57the energy and excitement of this moment.
02:00Then at this particular reception another event that photograph was the toss of the bridal bouquet.
02:05Again, here you can see I'm using an on-camera flash in order to capture the toss of the bouquet.
02:11All of the girls jumping up to try to catch it.
02:14Then finally, the one lucky winner who got the bouquet.
02:17So as you work to photograph a reception, you have to keep that in mind that there are these different stages or events.
02:24Often, it will just feel like one big party, yet if you know ahead of time about the different
02:30events or stages of the reception, it can really help you out so that you can capture those key moments.
Collapse this transcript
Having fun
00:01You know, sometimes when you're photographing a wedding, one of the things you're trying
00:04to do use create simple and beautiful photographs, photographs that are quiet.
00:08Yet other times what you want to do is capture the excitement and the fun of that day,
00:14and that is definitely true with wedding receptions.
00:17After all of the events and all of the food, eventually there will be some sort of dancing or fun.
00:21You are going to ready with camera in hand to capture those moments.
00:26So here let's look at a few photographs that I think will help us start to think about
00:30capturing the excitement and the fun that often happens at wedding receptions.
00:35In this first photograph, I really like it. I like how the bride and the groom are in
00:39the center of the circle. They are dancing. There surrounded by all of their friends.
00:44This picture, I think it's well composed. It's really fun.
00:47It captures the excitement of this moment.
00:49Here I want to show you another photograph of dancing.
00:52This one photographically speaking isn't as good.
00:55It's a little bit blurry, but it still captures that excitement and that fun.
01:00Sometimes your pictures, they don't have to be perfect, but what you want to do is capture the fun of the day.
01:06Let's look at another photograph, this one here.
01:08Near the end of the evening they got out some sparklers.
01:12I noticed that and took this first frame. It didn't really capture what I was looking for.
01:16Then I saw this little guy with these sparklers running around having a ball.
01:21This was the photograph that I wanted to capture.
01:23At a different wedding as you can see here we have the bride and the groom and their
01:27daughter downtown outside of the restaurant where the reception was, and I like the fun moment here.
01:34It's a little bit more subtle, but I still think it's fun.
01:37Often when you are looking to capture fun, what you want to do is perhaps try a photographic technique like shutter drag.
01:43That's what I did with the kid with the sparklers.
01:46Or perhaps like with this photograph you just want to tilt your camera little bit.
01:50It creates a little bit different perspective and excitement in a picture.
01:54Then a few moments later the bride and groom's daughter joined her friends and they are
01:59in front of this theater and they started goofing around.
02:02I was ready with camera in hand to capture the excitement and the fun that these kids were having.
02:07Here I will move to another wedding which was in the backyard, the reception was in
02:12a backyard with a campfire, the roasted smores, and it was really fun.
02:16I'm just capturing the guests there.
02:18Then later in the evening they brought out some sparklers and here I'm just experimenting
02:23with different exposures like with this one.
02:25It's a long exposure, but it's not too long so I can focus in on the bride and the groom
02:30and some of the guests.
02:30In other exposures, well, you can't really see anything. You just capture.
02:35Or the images captures the overall energy and excitement the fun that they all were
02:39having with these different sparklers.
02:42So as you're working with photographing receptions keep in mind that, yes, you want to capture
02:47the guests, the details, the different stages, and events, but you also want to capture the
02:52fun and capture the magic of those moments that often happen at wedding receptions.
Collapse this transcript
5. Postproduction and Delivery of Images
Exploring postproduction strategies
00:01After you've captured all of your wedding photographs, now is when the work really begins.
00:06Because with weddings, typically we capture a really high volume of images, maybe you've
00:11captured 500 or 1,000 or 2,000, who knows?
00:15How are you going to process all of those photographs?
00:17Well, at this point what you really want to do is take advantage of a tool like Lightroom.
00:22Lightroom is a photo management tool which allows you to import the images into it, organize them,
00:27add keywords, group them together, process those pictures, and also export and back them up.
00:33Using a tool like this is literally essential, because you have so many photographs to go through.
00:39Now if you're new to a tool like Lightroom you may want to check out one of my other
00:42courses, Lightroom Essentials, where I focus in on how you can start to use something like
00:47this in order to process your photographs.
00:49Again, as you think about this postproduction time when you're working on your images,
00:55what you really want to do is think about this is part of the overall artistry of what you're doing.
00:59In other words, creating good photographs, it isn't just about the capture.
01:04It's about the capture but also how you process and develop those images, how you bring those
01:09to life in postproduction as well.
Collapse this transcript
Reviewing postproduction examples
00:01In the previous movie, I mentioned the importance of using a tool like Lightroom
00:04in order to process your photographs.
00:07And here what I want to do is show you some images, so you can get some ideas about how
00:11you might use a tool like this in order to process wedding photographs.
00:14One of the things that you have to keep in mind is that when you're working with a high
00:17volume of pictures, a lot of times the adjustments that you'll make, they're going to be more
00:23global rather than specific because you don't have the time to get into all of the little
00:28details of each and every image.
00:31Let's take a look at a few photographs which I think will illustrate how you might
00:34want to post-process your photographs using a tool like Lightroom.
00:38This first photograph is one that we've seen previously, and here you can see it's this
00:42portrait of the groom as he just drove up.
00:45Here is the image after it's been processed and then now here you can see the image as
00:49it was captured straight out of the camera.
00:51Now, straight out of the camera the composition was okay, but I didn't really like the colors or the light.
00:56So, you can see that basically I used the adjustment brush to paint in some light on
01:01the face, and then I also modified the contrast and overall color and saturation.
01:06Here's another photograph.
01:07This one, it's a little bit more subtle. You can see this is the before.
01:11Again, the color temperature was a bit too cool, so I just made some simple adjustments
01:16by brightening and warming this image up.
01:19When you're photographing people, often you want to lean a little bit too to the warm side of things.
01:25It's always nice to have something that's a bit more warm than a bit more cool.
01:29Let's look at another photograph.
01:31This one here, you can see the daughter of the bride and she is hiding behind this curtain.
01:37I really like this moment, yet the composition wasn't quite bright.
01:41So, here you can see that I recomposed that, and I did that by simply using the Crop tool.
01:46Now, once I recompose to reduce and simplify, I notice that there was this little bar coming
01:52down right in front of her head that was distracting.
01:54So for this particular image, I brought it in the Photoshop, and there I removed that,
01:59and then I also modified the overall color and tone.
02:02So, sometimes you need to get specific. You need to focus in on those little details.
02:06Other times you're making broader or bigger adjustments.
02:10Let's look at a few more photographs.
02:12Here's another picture from that particular wedding.
02:15And again, I just love the moment of this.
02:17Now, if we look at the before and after, you can see that the before, the tones are just
02:21a little bit more muted and then here is the after, simple adjustments.
02:26Sometimes simple is best. Here, we will look at one more photograph.
02:30I love capturing images at night, and I love the excitement of this.
02:34But the image that was straight out of the camera, it was too dark.
02:37I had made a mistake a little bit with my exposure.
02:39So here, bringing it to Lightroom, boosting the light up, makes this image much more interesting to look at.
02:47Here's another photograph of some wedding guests, and here's the before and then now the after.
02:53These adjustments are pretty simple.
02:56Sometimes it's those simple yet significant adjustments which make all the difference in the world.
03:01Let's take a look at another photograph.
03:04In this one, the adjustments were a little bit more dramatic.
03:07Sometimes you need to work on an image a little bit more.
03:10And with this photograph, I love the mood, expression, emotion.
03:14Yet, if we look at the original file, you're not going to be very impressed.
03:19The color temperature, it's cool.
03:21You can't really see the subjects very well, the exposure isn't great.
03:25But by bringing that into Lightroom and by using the Basic Panel, and the adjustments
03:29that you can perform there, you can see that you're able to really bring those images to
03:34life in a really important way.
03:37Another photograph which I think illustrates that point, you can see this picture.
03:41Here is our before. Again, it was too dark and then now here after.
03:45It just feels better.
03:47And as you're working on your photographs, a lot of times you're thinking about how can
03:51I change the overall mood or sentiment or feeling, because I want to have images that
03:55are beautiful and compelling?
03:57All right, well, let's look at just one more photograph here straight out of the camera.
04:01And you know actually, I like this. I think it looks good.
04:03But when I was capturing it, I wanted to convert this one to black and white because
04:08I had this vision of an image which was really strong and dramatic.
04:12And so in Lightroom, I was able to do that.
04:15I removed the color, I added some film grain, and increased the contrast a little bit.
04:20When you're working on your own wedding photographs, you are always thinking about how can I somehow
04:25make these images come to life, because good photography, it's not just about the capture,
04:31but it's about completing those images, and you can often do that in really compelling
04:35and interesting ways when you use tools like Lightroom.
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Delivering the wedding images
00:01After you've processed and finished your photographs, it's time to consider how you're going
00:05to deliver these files to the client.
00:07How are you going to get them off your computer and give them to the bride and the groom?
00:12There are so many different methods that you could use.
00:15You could burn them to a DVD, you could copy them to a hard drive and give them the hard drive.
00:20There also are many online services where you can upload digital files so your client
00:25could view the digital proofs and order prints.
00:29Regardless of whatever method you use, one of the things that you want to do is you want to make it personal.
00:35Whenever you're delivering photographs like this that really have value, that mean something,
00:40what I like to do is I like to print out a few pictures like this one here, because I
00:45think there's something important about that tangible print, the final artifact,
00:50at least give them a few prints. I also like to write a handwritten note.
00:54Again, make it personal, express something that perhaps was meaningful to you in their
00:59wedding, say, "Oh, I really enjoyed this part.
01:01It was so fun to see that. It was a great honor to photograph your wedding, thanks."
01:06And when you do that, it will make that delivery process that much more meaningful.
Collapse this transcript
Conclusion
Next steps
00:01We've covered a lot of great content in this course. Well, what's next?
00:05What are some next steps that we can take in order to be better wedding photographers?
00:10One of the first next steps that I think that you can take is to revisit some of the content
00:14that we've covered in this course because we've raised some important questions like,
00:19why capture wedding photographs at all? I think you want to articulate an answer to that question.
00:24We also talked about the importance of planning ahead, and I referenced that PDF file
00:29where you can write out your goals.
00:30What are your goals when you're photographing a wedding?
00:32What type of images do you want to capture?
00:35And on that document, we divided the wedding up into different stages or phases as we did throughout this course.
00:41You want to start to think about those, and by doing that, you can plan ahead
00:46so that when it comes time to photograph a wedding, you're ready.
00:50Another way that you can take another next step is by practicing.
00:55Perhaps the next time you go to a wedding, why don't you bring your camera with you
00:58and photograph from the sidelines?
00:59Rather than having all of the pressure of being the main photographer, shoot images
01:04from the sidelines at someone else's wedding, or another way that you can practice is by
01:09focusing in on a specific area of wedding photography, perhaps creating bridal portraits,
01:15maybe you have a sister or a friend with a wedding gown.
01:18Why don't you go out with them to a scenic location and explore how you can capture compelling
01:23and beautiful bridal portraits?
01:25Well, that's exactly what we're going to do in the next course in this series.
01:29We're going to explore how we can do that on location.
01:32So I hope you join us for that course.
01:34Well, in wrapping up this course, I hope that it's given you some insight and ideas of how
01:40you can capture better wedding photographs.
01:42I hope that it's built your confidence so that you've seen that you, too, can create compelling
01:47and interesting wedding photographs.
Collapse this transcript


Suggested courses to watch next:


Family and Group Portraiture (1h 28m)
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