Introduction
Wedding photographers are the one who are officially contracted by the the Bride or/and Groom to capture the whole event of their weddings. The event can go from a day to several days. Capturing a wedding is a hectic and fun work. IT depends upon how you take the craft. Here are some tips that can make the craft little easier. Everyone has their own style but here there are some common tips that is necessary.
Are you a wedding photographer? Even if you are just a photographer, you must have captured the wedding of some friends/relatives, Right?? Wedding photography/videography is among the best way for earning money from photography. Even if it’s not your genre or the one you like, if you are a photographer who has just started a career, you must have done it, or should do it because it is the medium that will feed you in your initial days and after you earn some you can follow what genre you love for, or can take it side by side like documentary photography, Street photography etc.
General Tips
Wedding is the most important day/part of anyone’s life and people are paying you to capture the moment, hence, you can’t ruin it. There is no any retake (although these days they try retaking some part). That is why you have to always be ready, beforehand. You have to be ready with the lenses you need, batteries fully charged and also backed up batteries, formatted memory cards, charged pairs of batteries for flash. And for preparation part, last but not the least know the camera you are going to take for an event. Yes, you may take the camera you frequently use, but sometimes it happens that for sudden wedding you need to take some another camera or you need 2 cameras, at those times have a good study of that camera before the event starts. Study the settings and buttons, and practice it. Best is having 2 cameras. And then comes knowing the Exposure triangle. You can’t go to the wedding and say omg I know other stuffs but ‘how to set the exposure’, aperture and all.
Know your wedding destination, wedding culture of the client you are working for, and mainly know the closest family of the bride and grooms. All this will make your work easier.
Sometimes you need to be prepared for the equipment’s you would need on the wedding day hence you must know where the main events of the weddings are happening. By doing so, you can have all the kits ready, lenses might vary according to the distance/space you would have while shooting the events. Their may be times you need tele lenses and sometimes wide and prime, and your location can be a crucial part.
Knowing bride and groom and their family is also equally important because they are the one who would want to see the photos the most. And their photos must be clicked in every events they are around bride and grooms. It is also easy at the time of family portraits if you know who is who. We can ask bride and grooms that who are the most important family members so that we don’t miss them.
The major technical thing you need to keep in mind at the time of group family portraits is the f-stop. The value of f-stop should be little higher than you use while clicking portraits. This goes wrong in many beginner photographers as in group all the people are not in same plane, hence one might be on focus and rest out of focus. The f-stop should be 3-4 stops more than your smallest f-stop value (widest open) or according to the depth of field you want. It also depends upon the distance between you and subject and also the lens you are using, so you have to be careful about that.
The major tip you need to keep in mind is regarding the backgrounds. Yes, it is hard to control the background of some random events but when you can have a control you should , by either you moving here and there or making the subject move or even sometimes the things that are seen in the background. Because at last no excuses work just your photographs. Even the excuses are genuine, no ones gonna listen to them. hence, just try to take best photos with all amount of efforts.
Rest , be cheerful to everyone in the event, don’t let any person control your style, if possible you always need 2 cameras each and 2 person one on videography and one on photo.
