Wedding Photo help!!!

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SlickPixPhotography

SlickPixPhotography

New Member
Hello I am shooting a wedding in two months and want to get a sense of what kind of photos to take. Are there any good helpful websites that I can check out for wedding poses that have photos on them. I want an outline that I can print out that has photos of poses from a wedding to get a visual on how to do it. Please let me know and thank you.
 
Thats gonna be tough. Each wedding is different, each bride and groom are different. What works for one would be a disaster for another. The key is to take the shots that your bride and groom are looking for.......How well do you know them? The kind of photo's you are going to take will depend on WHO they are. Google wedding photography in images and put together a scrap book of images
 


Oh and it can be very valuable to go early to the locations to scope out nice posing spots. Get a feel for the lighting before you're in the middle of a wedding. I've done 3 weddings secondary and I'm just starting to get comfortable.
 
It sounds like you haven't done a wedding before. If that's the case, I'd try to shoot as a second shooter between now and then. Maybe even a couple of times if you can manage it.

Since "wedding" can mean anything from a quick service on the lawn to an hours long service in a church lit only by candles (and no flash allowed), it's hard to be specific about your situation without more info. However, some poses and shots are pretty much standard.
 
There are a few shots that are common to almost all weddings that you MUST get:
- walking down the isle
- first time groom sees bride
- the ring
- first kiss
- cutting the cake

Nearly everything else is secondary.

Go visit the venue ahead of time so you can get a feel of the layout so you can plan shooting angles and the light you will need. Some churches do not allow flash, so you may need to be prepared to shoot the ceremony with available light.

Ask the bride and groom about formals (posed pics with all the wedding party and a parade of assorted relatives). Some will not want formals and just want casual journalistic style shots. Others will want a full set of formals. Sometimes the bride and groom are more casual, but the parents will insist on formals. This can take some time, and they will need to schedule time for this; it becomes part of the wedding planning. Some will shoot these before the wedding, some will schedule it between the wedding and the reception. Plan on an hour or more for these, depending on the number of relatives. I find it helpful to designate someone to insure that no relatives get missed, and to help herd wandering relatives (like maybe the bride's maid or best man, never the bride or groom).

Talk to the officiant (the minister/priest/rabbi/monk/whatever) ahead of time. Ask them to give you a rundown on how the ceremony will look. They've done this before, and they'll be expecting you to ask. They can guide you through it, and let you know when and where the critical shots will be, and any rules they impose on photography during the ceremony.

Beg, borrow, or steal a backup camera body and at least one backup lens. It is grossly irresponsible to shoot a wedding without a backup body. You absolutely positively cannot reshoot a wedding if you screw up. You CANNOT fail at a wedding due to equipment malfunction. I knew a photographer who was flown out to Hawaii to shoot a wedding. His DSLR body died right at the start of the ceremony. He had no backup. The resulting lawsuit was ugly and expensive.
 
Scott makes some good points. Please keep in mind that a wedding is an important event, and one is often literally a "once in a lifetime" event for many people. It's not something that can easily be re-created.

Speaking of lawsuits, PPA offers insurance for just that sort of thing, and yes, people DO sue photographers when the wedding pictures aren't what they expected. Not just the "Oops, my camera broke" but even just "I don't like these..."

If this is your first wedding, please be honest with both yourself and the couple, especially the bride, about your skills. Make sure she is comfortable with the situation. Presumably your fee reflects this, which should give them a clue, but honesty before the shoot can prevent problems afterwards.

A few years ago I shot a wedding for a friend. When she asked if I'd shoot it, at first I simply said no. She thought it was about payment and said "I'll pay you for it!" to which I replied, "It's not about the money! I'm not a wedding shooter, and not qualified..." She persisted, and I agreed to shoot it with one condition. I insisted that she have somebody else shoot it as well.

I did this for two reasons:
1) I wanted a backup, in case I had equipment problems or just plain didn't get good shots due to inexperience.
2) It's good practice to have a second shooter at a wedding, since sometimes you're not in position to get a critical shot. With a second shooter, he/she would be in a different location, and hopefully get the shot you can't.

Another factor that helped was that this was her second marriage. The wedding was nice, but not the big huge formal affair that some are. She didn't want the "story book" images some brides do, and was OK with a "photojournalist" approach to the shots. (I did try and do some creative shots as well though.)

We ended up having 3 shooters. Myself, her sister and another relative. The sister did pretty well, and my shots met her expectations. The 3rd shooter had problems and didn't have anything useful at the end of the day.

I don't know if you can find somebody to shoot with you or not. If you can, it might be a good idea. A second shooter means you have backup gear (theirs) another angle, and often a different approach to shots.
 
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As I mentioned, my reply to "Do you shoot weddings?" is usually "Heck No!", so those of you that do please jump in and provide some help on this one!
 
Bob said what I mentioned earlier. 2 shooters when you're starting out is better. I have my first solo wedding on the books but I wouldn't be doing it by myslef now without several other weddings shooting secondary. There are too many things to miss, you need experience to shoot weddings. And yes no chances to redo.
 


Insurance isn't a bad idea. Wedding photographers are sued by more clients than any other genre of photography, and by a wide margin. Expectations of performance are very high, stress is very high, the expense of putting on a wedding is very high, and there are NO do-overs. This is why many photographers won't shoot weddings. Way too high-pressure for many people.
 
Scott hit the reasons I don't do weddings. That sweet young lady can turn into Bridezilla on wedding day, and her Mom expects you to be in 3 places at once, shoot everyone and everything from 4 angles, and not only get a shot of Aunt Martha (who's hiding in the shadows in back where you'll never notice her) but make her look 20 years younger and 20 pounds lighter while you're at it!

I'd rather be chased by a crazed Chihuahua. ;)

All joking aside, I honestly think wedding photography is some of the most high pressure shooting there is! To do it right you have to be a pro photographer, part wedding planner, part cat herder (getting everyone together for the formals) part politician and above all else a consumate diplomat. It's not easy...

As for the insurance, when you sign up for PPA (Pro Photographers of America, an industry organization),. if you tell them you're a wedding shooter, they require you buy the insurance as part of your membership. Granted, this could simply be a way for them to earn a bit more revenue, but it does seem like a good idea.
 
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I did a couple of weddings as a second shooter for REAL friends. I told them my time was FREE because they were friends and you can't argue with free ;) I asked the other photographers what angles they weren't covering and covered those. I did it for the experience and told the couple that any prints would cost them. I would go to all the weddings I could and look at as many wedding albums as you can to get a feel for the traditional shots as well as get some creative ideas.
 
BOB said:
I agreed to shoot it with one condition. I insisted that she have somebody else shoot it as well.
Click to expand...

ME TOO!!! My son has been my number one fan for years. When he was engaged, he wanted me to take photos. I had been telling people for YEARS "I don't do weddings". For me, because it IS that once in a lifetime event, and so much can go wrong in people shots (little Jimmy picking his nose, Aunt Gertrude glaring at that ONE millisecond you snap, Uncle Billy being sloshed and having difficulty keeping his eyes open, etc). I don't welcome that responsibility and I know so many people who hated their photos by 'pro's'.

So, I got to be a second photographer to a 'pro' they hired. I had NO stress whatsoever, had a blast and got some beautiful photos for them.

I have been asked to do other weddings since by people who have seen those photos. I still say no. I don't do weddings. But, I would welcome second photographer far before I would first photographer. I enjoy doing the candids and some back-up work a lot more than the formal stuff anyways.

And to answer your question: Don't forget the value of candids. Even if you have to stage them. Mom helping the bride get ready, the groomsmen lounging about with the groom in their room, a bride sitting by a lit window waiting for the ceremony to start, that kind of stuff.
 
I just finished my third wedding, the first I did for free and it was crazy. 14 hours of coverage. I was very nervous about it as I had not shot really any people at all, so I looked on Google, Flickr, and others for Wedding pics for about 2 months, found a wedding contract and a shot list, I then went to Craigslist and asked if anyone wanted to do some formal couples shoots. I got 2 couples and shot around the location I was going to be using for the wedding, so I got my poses and lighting down.

I would recommend going to the rehearsal and taking some shots.

Check out the area and get an idea of shots to take and how you are going to set them up.

The second shooter is a good idea, however make sure they know what they are doing.

if you look online there are many wedding photo check list, these are nice to have, even if just for reference, because stuff can and will get crazy.
http://www.shutterfly.com/wedding/to-do-list-photography-checklist.pdf
 
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