Wedding Photographer Tips
Best wedding advice you’ll ever hear: Don’t just shoot to shoot. Don’t just shoot to shoot. Don’t just shoot to shoot!
The bride and groom that hired you do not need 2000 snapshots of mediocre photos. That’s what their Grandma is there for! Trust me, I had the collection of snapshots from my family cameras. What I hired my wedding photographer for was to tell the story. Be intentional with every snap; tell their story. They won’t care if you give them 200 photos, or 600 photos as long as their day is covered from beginning to end.
Not only will this create a more beautiful wedding gallery or wedding album for the bride, but it will make you LOVE your job even more. I promise. Quality over quantity. So how is this done?
SLOW. DOWN.
Obviously the wedding day can be very busy. Some moments are rushed. Sometimes things are intense, or go faster than you were expecting. At times big moments happen quickly and it takes all your concentration to just capture it without thinking about all the other things — settings, angles, creativity, etc. This is why it’s VERY important to be comfortable with your settings and gear before you start shooting weddings.
You HAVE to take time on the wedding day like you would in a portrait session. Be intentional with your settings, with good light and with your angles. Before every section of a wedding, I do test shots and adjust my settings (never relying fully on the meter.) Before getting ready, before the ceremony (from each angle – walking in and at the front), before the reception, etc. Settings change CONSTANTLY. You must be able to adjust them quickly and correctly.
(Over the next few months, we’ll cover many tips on how to get good lighting in all conditions, must have gear and how to move around during ceremonies.)
CLEAR THE BACKGROUND
Remove all possible distractions from the background. Believe it or not, the neighbor’s house was in the background of this backyard wedding, but you can barely see it in any of the photos. By making sure the angles didn’t show the neighbors home and trailer, their wedding pictures were much more intimate and special. Be intentional with your angles and find the ones with the least amount of distractions.
Move forward, or take a step to the right to get a clear, close shot. You wouldn’t believe how long I have to stalk the cake table to get a shot of just the cake. No people in the background. Ever. I constantly am moving people’s jackets, keys, phone and literally garbage, to make sure my details are just details.
WAIT FOR THE EMOTION
I hold my focus on my bride or groom’s faces and just wait. Wait, wait, wait. Instead of clicking 100 times and hoping I got a good picture of the moment, I wait for a laugh, a sweet smile or a tear. It’s like a game. You can have the most beautiful backdrop and a stunning couple, but it’s the sweet smiles that make the biggest difference between a snapshot and a story. Be intentional with what you capture.
The Wedding Photographer Tips is for photographers new and old looking to improve their wedding photography business. Tell us what you want to read next! If you don’t want to miss a post, make sure you join our FB group:
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Kylee Ann Maughan is a family and international brand photographer based in small-town Northern Utah. She has been a business owner for 13.5 years, and also runs a successful and award-winning associate team. Kylee hosts semi-annual retreats, speaks at conferences and teaches online courses about running a small business and marketing. Her niche in coaching is helping moms turn their passion into profit, while being the mom they dream of.
January 28, 2019
Kylee Maughan
