What your portfolio should contain

Most photographers worth their salt would automatically cover all the important aspects of a wedding – the traditional ceremonies, the character shots, the family captured together, the bride on her most beautiful day. An essential ingredient to a successful wedding photography, that many miss though, is to capture or try to capture the essence of the day, the atmosphere, the mood. That is the ultimate test of a good portfolio.

Getting dressed

Some photographers prefer not to shoot before the ceremony, citing (sometimes valid) reasons of excessively strong light, no time etc. However, meeting with the bride and shooting a few portraits and capturing the usual chaos surround this stage of the day helps the photographer build rapport with his subject. Provided, of course, he does not cause her to be late and stressing the wedding party!

Shooting indoors, the photographer normally has perfect control over his lighting to do proper portrait work. The idea is show the bride’s freshly done make-up before wind, rain or the inevitable tear gets hold of it!

500 Poses for Photographing Couples: A Visual Sourcebook for Digital Portrait Photographers

A very inspirational book for creating portraits

Sample Pages from 500 Poses for Photographing Couples

The bride is normally assisted by her best friend or sister as bridesmaid, which holds a lot of emotional meaning to both. It’s good to be around with a camera to capture some of this.

Photography Tutorials: Wedding Photography

The ceremony

This is the bride’s great moment, walking down the aisle on the arm of her father towards an expectant groom. The photographer should not get in the way of the videographer and spoil his shot of her walking down the aisle.

Moments of emotion as the father hands over the bride. All eyes, including the photographer’s, normally rest on the dad to see how he handles this moment.

The photographer should never intrude on the actual ceremony unless asked and arranged with the minister. It most cases it is accepted that he moves in during the final stages of the ceremony and photograph the exchange of the rings. Couples should ask their minister about his preference and thoroughly brief the photographer about this aspect.

Signing the register frequently brings smiles of relief as the ceremony is finally over. This is also time for a formal portrait – one in which the minister normally expects to appear, for the record.

Experience

Experience is the key word in wedding photography. The best place to learn it is at the side of  an experienced photographer. Simply put; there are no shortcuts  to becoming proficient in the trade and experience makes the wedding photographer.

There are many people who plan to photograph a wedding or would like to try one. It is always best to refer people to a professional wedding photographer if you are not one. If however, you are going to take someone’s wedding photos take the time to think about the following points. If you can meet these standards,  you may then consider taking on a wedding. Alwasy bear in mind that wedding photos can only happen once in a lifetime and are very importatn to the parties invloved. If you mess it up, there will be no second chance.

Do you have the technical knowledge to do this? If you have been asked, do not agree to do it until you have discussed fully with the parties involved that you are not a pro. outline your capabilities for them and show them some of your best work.  make sure they understand the results could be variable. Even pro wedding photographers are sometimes caught short with equipment that doesn’t work, labs that ruin film or any number of foibles.

Experience, the hallmark of a professional wedding photographer usually makes up for lesser misfortunes.

Captured by the Light: The Essential Guide to Creating Extraordinary Wedding Photography

Best Wedding Photography Book Out There

The layout is excellent, with logical chapter breaks, informative call-out boxes, and full sections devoted to natural light, on camera ETTL flash, off camera flash, ceremony workflow, reception workflow, and a few more. Also, some books are pretty dated as far as equipment, but the author refreshingly describes using his Canon 5D Mark II AND 7D. If you know what you want to charge, but want to take your wedding photography to the next level, this is the book.

Assess your own work

If you are an advanced amateur with an extensive knowledge of photography and some experience in portraiture or photojournalism, the odds are in your favor for a successful shoot.  If you have been shooting high quality work for a number of years and your collection of photos proves that, you can probably handle this job if you use the right approach and educate yourself about what meets the needs of a wedding photography session.

Only Pro level 35mm SLR and medium format equipment will do.  If you own a Nikon F series camera, or anything comparable, you are on the right track. Consumer level, point and shoot SLR cameras and anything APS, digital or 110 will NOT work. I repeat: WILL NOT WORK. At a minimum, you will need some sort of pro level equipment with a very powerful flash. Mid-level consumer equipment, fine though it may be for many purposes, will not be at all suitable for wedding work. Be honest with yourself and spare you and the bridal party any grief that may ensue from the fact that you only own an APS point and shoot camera which you have only used on vacation twice a year and once at Christmas.

Not all wedding photographers use a medium format camera but they are best  for any posed shots and is a part of every professional photographers arsenal Can rent one and should at least know how one works. If you do not have even a passing familiarity with medium format equipment whether you use or own such equipment or not, it could indicate a lack of sufficient knowledge about professional level equipment.

Fine Art Wedding Photography: How to Capture Images with Style for the Modern Bride

Great book for wedding poses and film photography

Acclaimed wedding photographer Jose Villa was a pioneer in fine art wedding photography before it became a trendy buzzword. Here, he shares his secrets for bringing a stylized sense of composition, lighting, posing, and most important, design, to your images, while still keeping them organic and narrative. You’ll learn Jose’s trademark technique of capturing the more natural moment after a pose, and tips for getting images right in-camera to avoid the need for heavy postproduction. Final chapters show you how to integrate design through the delivered product, whether an album or slideshow, and continue nurturing clients after the wedding by expanding to baby and family portraiture.

List of Required Shots for Wedding Photography

Before the Ceremony

• Mother and bride together adjusting dress and veil
• Bride with the flower girl
• Bride putting on garter
• Corsage being pinned on mother, grandmother
• Pinning on fatherís boutonniere
• Portrait of bride and mother
• Any other shots of bride and close immediate family (Usually brothers, sisters close cousins and aunts but no more than about 5-8 unless the bride has a lot of siblings and wants photos of more)
• Shot of Bride and bridesmaids together
• Group shot of bridesmaids
• Bride accompanied by bridesmaids and father going to car or limo
• Father escorting bride into car
• Groom and groomsmen group photo
• Groom and best man together talking
• Groom and father
• Bride and maid of honor
• Bride with parents alone and one photo of each individually
• Bride kissing father on the cheek
• Bride and bridesmaids in vestibule or dressing room
• Bride’s mother being ushered to seat
• Groom’s mother being ushered to seat
• Grandmothers being ushered to seats
• Other guests who are ushered to their seats.

Ceremony Photos

Each church has itís own rules regarding photography during ceremonies. Learn what they are before starting to shoot, and work from this list accordingly. Anything missed or impossible to get during the ceremony, can be made up after the ceremony while shooting the posed photos

• Shot of groom and groomsmen waiting at the alter
• Bridesmaids
• flower girl or junior bride and ring bearer coming down aisle
• Father escorting bride down the isle
• Father giving bride away
• Blessing (if any is given)
• Two to three photos of bride and groom looking at each other during the ceremony
• Shot of Bride and groom praying or kneeling if applicable
• Two shots of bride and groom lighting candles. One close up and one wide angle
• Shot of ring exchange. Be sure to get both bride and groom giving each other rings
• Any shots of special events during the ceremony. (This depends on religion and other cultural traditions which you should take the time to learn ahead of time.)
• The Kiss
• Two or three overall shots of the sanctuary during the ceremony.
• Bride and groom coming down the aisle after the ceremony
• Each groomsman and bridesmaid coming down the aisle
• Officiator coming down the aisle
• Bride and groom signing the certificate with the officiator looking on
• bride and groom looking on while best man signs certificate
• bride and groom looking on while maid/matron of honor sing certificate

Setup Poses in the Church

This is the time to recreate any missed ceremony shots and all posed and formal shots

• Two poses of Bride and groom kissing at alter; one close up and one wider angle 3/4 shot (this will ensure you get a shot of the kiss since this is the most difficult shot of the ceremony.)
• Bride and groom with minister or officiator
• Bride and groom and bridal party, officiator, maid/matron of honor and best man
• Bride and bridesmaids
• Groom and groomsmen
• Bride and groom with bridal party (One with Bridesmaids on the brides side and groomsmen on the grooms side and one with bridemaids and groomsmen alternating )
• Bride and groom with bridal party including ring bearers, flower girl and/or junior bride in front of brides maids and groomsmen standing on either side of the bride and groom
• Matron of honor and best man standing together with bridesmaids and groomsmen lined up on either side.
• Matron/Maid of honor and best man together
• Bride and groom with ring bearer
• Bride and groom with flower girl or junior bride
• Bride and groom with all junior members of bridal party
• Bride and groom with the Brides family
• Bride and groom with grooms family
• Bride and groom with bride’s parents
• Bride and groom with grooms parents.
• Bride and groom with all parents
• Any shots of the bride and groom with special family members, grandmothers etc.
• Bride and groom getting into car or limo

Reception Shots

• Bride and groom arriving and getting out of the limo
• A few shots of the receiving line
• Wedding cake
• grooms cake
• Punch table
• Guests signing guest book
• Gift table
• Wedding party entrance
• The toasting of the bride and groom b y the wedding party
• bride and groom toasting each other
• First dance
• Bride and father dance
• Groom and mother dance
• Parents dancing
• Bridal party dancing
• Various candids Everyone dancing
• Several of crowds dancing. Take several of these throughout the night.
• Flower girl and ring bearer dancing and eating
• Bride and groom in front of the cake
• bride and grooms hands together showing wedding rings. With flowers.
• Cutting the cake
• Bride and groom feeding cake to one another
• Bride throwing the bouquet
• Catching the bouquet
• Groom taking off garter with best man looking on
• Groom throwing the garter
• Catching the garter
• Group shot of bride and groom with whoever caught the garter and bouquet
• Bride with person who caught bouquet
• Groom with person who caught garter
• Departure shot of bride and groom before making the big exit (posed)
• Bride and groom leaving reception area
• Bride and groom running for their lives through bird seed flower petals, bubbles etc.
• Bride and groom in limo waving goodbye
• Back of departing car or limo, especially if it is decorated

Shoot-It-Yourself Wedding Video Guide

• typical wedding shots
• full length wedding poses