Wedding Day Advice | Wedding Photography

Chances are that you’re planning to take plenty of pictures at your friend or relative’s wedding. In all likelihood you will be using a digital compact ‘point and shoot’ camera. Nowadays, these cameras produce very good quality shots, with even entry level digital compacts having a capacity of more than 6 megapixels. Being super-easy to use, you don’t really need to know all that much about photography to achieve crisp, clear, colour saturated images. But following these seven tips will improve your images to the point that people will think you’re a professional…

Photo Courtesy of Green Wedding Shoes

1. Ensure that your camera batteries are charged and that you have spare memory cards. Turn off the sound on your camera prior to the start of the service.
2. Look for spontaneous moments. Your best pictures will be those in which the subjects were unaware that you were taking a picture – think the flower girl dozing off in her chair, or the best man nervously reading over his speech outside the reception venue. A bunch of cheesy posed pictures smacks of the mundane.
3. Look for detail and be creative. Take close-up shots of the icing on the cake, the bride’s shoes or the knives and forks at your table…
4. Wherever possible, use the natural light. Flash light is harsh and can leave ugly shadows behind the subject. Avoid direct overhead sunlight if it’s a mid-day wedding – not only does it cast difficult shadows but subjects tend to squint into the bright light. The best photo opportunities are in the late afternoon where the sun is at a lower angle and the light is warmer, which yields better tones.
5. Think about composition. Amateur photographers tend to put their subject matter slap bang in the center of the frame. However, the ‘Golden Mean’ or ‘rule of thirds’ states that images are more pleasing to the eye when divided into thirds. So, don’t put vertical or horizontal elements in the centre of your image, but rather in a third or two thirds of the space. If there’s a horizon line in the shot, make sure it’s level. Avoid competing elements – the focal point of the image must be clear, with no doubt in the viewer’s mind that they’re looking at a picture of the bride and not the pink bougainvillea next to her.
6. Don’t be afraid to experiment. Try different camera angles. Try shooting overhead with your arm stretched up or stand on a chair. The general rule says don’t shoot into the light, but doing so can make for interesting silhouettes. Remember, the beauty of digital is that you’re not wasting film, sp if the image turns out awfully just bin it.
7. Store your images correctly and make back-ups and prints. Save your images onto your hard drive in properly labeled folders (for example, Brett’s Wedding August 2010) and make a backup copy on DVD or CD and store in a safe place. Learn to use a programme like Photoshop, particularly the basic tools like colour saturate, crop, contrast and how to make sepia and black and white images.

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