PHOTOGRAPHER’S WISH LIST
This is a “wish list” of all the little things we wish every bride and groom would do to help make the photos better.
Be yourself.
This may seem like common sense, but it can be more difficult than you might think. Most people aren’t used to having a photographer document their every move. Though they may not realize it, people tend to carry themselves and act differently as soon as a camera is pointed at them, which looks very unnatural in photographs. Others just freeze up altogether. Unless your photographer is giving you specific direction, the best thing you can do is relax, be yourself, and act as if the photographer wasn’t even there. Pay special attention to your hands and shoulders, as they are a good indication of how tense you really are. Relax your hands and the rest of you will follow. No need to put on an act, simply be yourself.
Don’t rush your wedding day.
When planning the schedule of the day, allot a realistic amount of time for each separate event. Planning a shorter, more casual wedding is one thing, but attempting to squeeze an eight-hour event into four makes everything feel rushed and stressful. Not only does it make it difficult for everyone involved to enjoy the day, it makes it more difficult to capture natural looking photographs. Pace your day and cherish every moment, it is, after all, a once in a lifetime experience (hopefully).
Look for examples.
Look through magazines, on-line, and, of course, through your photographer’s portfolio for specific examples of images, scenes, and body positions that appeal to you and share these ideas with your photographer before hand. It will give both you and the photographer a better sense of direction when working together. Also, if you internalize these ideas and are able to carry and position yourself in a similar way, without having to be completely directed by the photographer, the photographs will look much more natural.
Communicate with your fiancé about the photography.
Often photography is of much greater importance to one half of the couple, typically the bride, but occasionally the groom. Sometimes the photographer won’t even meet the groom until the day of the wedding (which is not how we work), as everything related to photography was arranged and booked by the bride. This usually translates to the groom and groomsmen standing around in complete disinterest. If you communicate openly with your fiancé, and, even better, the core wedding party, beforehand about the photography, it will make it much easier and enjoyable to achieve your desired results.
Enjoy your wedding day.
Again, this may seem like common sense, but with the anticipation and stress involved in planning the perfect day, it can be difficult to actually enjoy it. While there is certainly no way to eliminate the stress and worry completely, you can minimize it. If you don’t have a professional event coordinator, appoint someone you trust to handle the logistics of the day and let them worry about the details. You have been planning this day for months, even years, once it finally arrives, relax and enjoy it. You should focus on enjoying your party not being the host of it. You certainly deserve to and doing so will translate to more natural looking, joyous images.
Tips for Group Photos
Group photos are not required but they seem to be a necessary part of almost every wedding. If possible, plan your groups for an outside location with enough shade to cover your largest group. Avoid places where there are distracting backgrounds and make sure everyone is in the shade. While you’re thinking about groups – make a list of who is in each shot. Having a list makes everything go so much smoother. Tell all your relatives (in advance) that they should be there at a certain time, and then try to remind them again on the wedding day. Waiting for the missing person is the only thing that keeps group shots from taking more than about 20 minutes. If you want to do groups indoors, please warn the photographer days in advance so that I will know to bring the necessary lighting equipment and have it all set up on time.
Make Time for Pictures
Plan on spending at LEAST 1/2 hour shooting couple portraits. I would consider 20 minutes to be the absolute minimum for this photo shoot. If you can plan more time… the more the better. This is especially true if you are getting married in a location that has a lot of variety with different locations for us to move around in. Dramatic backgrounds are great for this photo shoot but many things will work…. a forest, field of flowers, old buildings, barns, rocky riversides, meadow, city streets, college campus, city park, etc. Another recommendation for amazing photos is night time. Night photos make very dramatic end to the day. If there is a great outdoor location close by, set some time aside for a quick 20 minutes photoshoot.
Decorate the Bride’s Dressing Room
This almost always gets overlooked in the planning and decorating phase. First start by picking a room with some ROOM and one with lots of natural light. And use light sheer fabrics over the windows instead of thick curtains or shutters that cut out all the light. Having nothing on the windows looks almost as bad as too much. Decorate the girls’ dressing room just as carefully as you would any other part of the wedding location. And cover up anything ugly with curtains or drape cloth. Have your girls clean up all the non-wedding messes. Don’t try to make it look too neat. Messes are ok if they are wedding messes. Empty boxes and bags should be placed somewhere outside the dressing room. It looks wonderful to have all the dresses hanging around and shoes lying around on the floor. Having these items still in the box or having plastic wrappers and cardboard boxes lying next to them makes for very unflattering photos. Flowers also look much better in some sort of vases instead of the cardboard boxes the florist packed them in. If you have an option to do so, simply designate a room in the house with the most elegant feel.
Photos in the Dressing Room
If you are self conscious or modest, of course we will leave the room whenever you ask. Some of the best images from the entire wedding happen in the dressing room and especially when the dress is actually going over the bride’s head with all the bridesmaids helping to get it on. If you have your photographer wait outside when this is happening you will miss one of the most beautiful (and important) events of the entire day. Remember, with photography, it’s easy to delete things later, but it’s impossible to turn back time and do it again. Will the dressing pictures show up on my website? My policy is this… if it shows more than what could be seen if you were in a swimsuit, then I would never show it. Nobody will see nude or partially nude shots but you and your husband (unless approved by you). All the photos are always done tastefully and to enhance your beauty.
Light the Reception
Personally I do not like having a black background for dancing photos. A little bit if light in the background makes a huge difference. Christmas lights and hanging bulbs and rope lights all look good in the background. If you are having an outdoor reception, placing your dance floor under a tent will make a world of difference because we can bounce our flash up into the tent roof and make a much more even light than what we would get with direct flash. A tent also gives you a structure to hang the small lights in the roof which create a mellow warm background light. Outdoors… paper lanterns are beautiful and mason jars with candles inside look wonderful hanging in the trees.
Videographer Spot Lights
Videographers often use a bright spotlight while filming at the reception. This light basically has the same effect as the moving disco lights and it will ruin many good images. I can occasionally use this light to my advantage and get some great photos out of it, but in general, it will do more harm than good for me. And unfortunately the videographer will only turn on this light when something important is happening. We will try to communicate with the videographer to ensure that we work together to capture all those important moments.
Throwing Flowers
Don’t rush through this part… take a minute to play with your crowd. This gives us time to get a shot of you holding the flowers and looking back over your shoulder at everybody getting lined up. Before you throw, I recommend making sure that little kids don’t beat your bridesmaids and friends to the bouquet. Now look up and make sure you don’t have anything low like lights and ceiling fans that are going to intercept your flowers before they get to the crowd. When you throw, be ready to call for a do-over if it doesn’t go as planned.
Dance to the Photographer
During the formal dances like the first dance or the father daughter dance you should ignore us completely. However, late in the evening when we come around to shoot the fun dancing shots, it would be wonderful if you and your wedding party would occasionally turn and dance facing a little bit towards us.
Putting on the Rings
This is one of the most difficult shots to get for a wedding photographer because most couples are not aware of the fact that they are blocking it either with their hand positions or with their bodies. To turn this moment into a great photo opportunity, all you need to remember is that as you are putting the ring on, you hold the ring so that your fingers are on the top and bottom instead of on the sides of the ring. This turns your hand so that the ring is visible from the sides and now your photographer and your guests can see it go on. Another thing to avoid is putting your free hand out and grabbing your partner’s wrist so that you can have a better hold on the ring. If you feel it is necessary to do this, try putting your hand UNDER your partner’s hand and holding on from below. This keeps your wrist down below so it doesn’t block the shot. Practice this a couple of times and you will see that it is possible to put the rings on while still leaving the sides open to a clear shot for your photographer, and a great view for your guests.
Lighting the Unity Candles
These are usually placed at the back of the altar. However, this arrangement guarantees that you alone will witness the event because your backs will be to the audience and the candles will be hidden completely. Consider placing the candles out on the side of the altar so that you can stand facing the crowd when you light them. This gives your photographers a much better chance of getting a shot and it allows your guests to see what you are doing.
Videographers
Some inexperienced videographers will occasionally get right up in the middle of the altar area during the ceremony. If you don’t want their backside to show up in all your pictures, please tell them to stay at least 15 feet away during the ceremony. With the right equipment they could get the same shot from 15 feet. Tell them to stay back and to be aware of where the photographers are so that they don’t block all the shots of any event.
