5 WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY TIPS YOU SHOULD KNOW

Wedding photography are a hot topic for beginner and professional photographers alike because this genre of commercial photography is one of the most highly demanded. However, knowledge and skills are not enough to achieve remarkable success.

Some interesting and fun artistic ideas are quite difficult to implement without a set of proper gear and very precise camera settings, not to mention the model’s poses. In this post, we have tried to explain all the most important aspects and tips for wedding photography that will help you take professional photos at the beginning.

1. Create a ‘Shot List’ 

Start by creating the ‘shot list’. You need to ask the couple to think about all the types of photos they would like to have to remember the day by. On the wedding day, you will come with a handy checklist to refer to and will simply cross the ‘shots’ out as you go.

Here are top 10 must-have shots for the wedding:

1. Macro shots of the main wedding attributes (rings, dresses, flowers, jewelry, etc.)

2. The bride and her bridesmaids and the groom and his best men getting ready

3. Portraits of the closest family members alone and with the bride and groom

4. Shots of the empty wedding venue

5. The groom waiting at the altar

6. The moment the bride appears and the reaction of guests

7. The moment they exchange rings and their first kiss

8. The guests waiting outside the venue to congratulate the newlyweds

9. The couple on the back seat of the car

10. Photos of the newlyweds with their family and friends at the wedding reception

It is one of the most important wedding photography tips, especially if the bride and groom have a large extended family and there is a risk of you not taking the photo with the favorite aunt, for example. Don’t forget to create a separate checklist for the necessary wedding photo props, and make sure you have them ready ahead of time.

Also, you shouldn’t forget about the legal side. You must draw a contract that will include every single aspect of the wedding photoshoot, such as the responsibilities of both sides, your fee, contact and payment details.

A contract is your insurance against any disputes you might have. You can download and use special wedding photography contract templates. 

2. Use Proper Equipment 

The camera. The main characteristic of a camera for a wedding photoshoot is its speed, especially when it comes to focusing and continuous shooting features, which will help you capture the necessary moment.

The weight is also important. Since you will carry it around with you all the time for quite a while, the camera should be fairly light and easy and fast to use. Finally, being able to change lenses on the go is also an important aspect, as you will be taking different types of photos, after all.

We can recommend the Nikon Z series cameras. They are lightweight and very convenient devices with simple operation and silent mode. Another great value-for-money camera is Nikon D750. It gives an amazing picture with an unbelievably high dynamic range. The biggest advantage of D750 is the flip screen you can use to take shots even from the most unusual angles.

Lens. As a rule, beginner photographers start with the so-called kit lenses, i.e. the one that came with the camera when they bought it. It is good enough for amateur photography, but you shouldn’t expect the best results with wedding photos.

We recommend using it together with zoom and fixed aperture lenses. The kit lens could work for the more general photos, the ones that don’t need to have great artistic value. The 50mm or 85mm fixed lenses will add to the series of photos some beautiful portraits of different sizes with well-blurred backgrounds, thanks to their high-aperture quality.

For this photography genre, we believe that NIKKOR Z 24-70mm f/2.8 S, AF-S NIKKOR 14-24mm f/2.8G ED, and NIKKOR Z 35mm f/1.8 S are the best lenses. Ideally, you should have at least two cameras to avoid possible hiccups and to be able to change the lenses quickly. In case you cannot invest so much money into the high-quality gear, you can rent it.

Light. At an evening reception, we recommend working with three sources of artificial light. Two of these should be on stands in opposite corners of the room and camera light. You can also use one or two flashes that you will direct at a person. We believe Nikon Speedlight SB-700 and Canon Speedlite 600EXII-RT are the best ones.

Accessories. When you have an approximate plan for the wedding photoshoot, you can decide which gear and accessories you will need. Experienced photographers know exactly what should be in their minimal ‘toolbox’. If you are a beginner, here is a list to help you:

• A tripod to make a camera steady.

• Several memory cards and fully-charged batteries. Note that some cards that have a capacity of more than 16GB may be quite slow as they are filled with images. You should better have ten 16GB flash drives than struggle throughout the whole wedding with just two 64GB ones. This is one of the wedding photography tips that is often overlooked by inexperienced photographers.

• Reflectors are absolutely crucial when you work on a very sunny day or take portraits. It can be a sheet of foiled paper or something similar. True professionals always have handy double-sided reflectors.

• A special bag to store all the gear and accessories properly.

3. The More Natural Light You Use, the Better 

Wedding photography is literally a cross between portrait, landscape, and even macro photography. At the preparation stage, you need to think through all the details concerning the background, light, and composition. When taking the bride’s-getting-ready photos and photographing the dress, use natural light from the window. This will be the perfect soft light for the scene.

During the ceremony, you have to use the capabilities of the lens, the proper settings and the light that gets inside. Sometimes you aren’t be allowed to use flash during the vows.

The outside photos will look amazing if you take them during the Golden Hour, you can use special apps to find out the exact time (for example, the “Golden Hour” app). In other cases, you can put the pair between the lens and the sun to create backlight.

Light from the window is not the only thing you can use. Don’t be afraid to use lamps, floor lamps, basically anything that can be a source of light. Modern cameras allow you to shoot with high ISO.

Photographers will often shoot with ISO set to 10,000 and there will be absolutely no noise in the photographs printed at 12x16 inch size even if you could notice it at 100% zoom on the monitor.

4. Don’t Forget About the Camera Settings 

Despite the name of this section, it will be rather difficult to give you a single set of wedding photographers tips connected with camera settings. If you think about it, wedding photography includes such a great variety of genres, like single-person and group portraits, action photography, landscapes, selfies, still-lifes, nighttime portraits and many more.

However, there are a few standard basic settings we can talk about that are applicable to the most common wedding scenarios.

When photographing outside, try setting ISO to the minimum and attempt to shoot in aperture priority mode if you are not photographing dynamic scenes. To get the blurred background, set the aperture to f/1.4.

If you need the background to be mostly in focus and the portrait to be extra sharp, set it closer to f/8. Following these wedding photographers tips, you can get really sharp images.

When photographing inside, use aperture 1.2 or go as wide as your lens allows. The wider your aperture is, the more light gets through the lens. Set ISO to any value between 800 and 1,600 (the latter should be used only if the light amount is pretty small).

These settings will give you the least amount of noise in the pictures. Talking about shutter speed, choose 1/15 when you use a tripod and from 1/60 to 1/200 when you take photos with your hands.

When photographing the reception in the evening, we recommend using the following basic settings: ISO from 800 to 1,600, shutter speed from 1/20 to 1/30. But you should always look at the final images and adjust the settings accordingly.

5. Use a Trusted Photo Editing Software Program 

So, now you have all the images you took during the wedding and it is time to edit them. This is the second most important task every photographer should do.

Typically, you need software that is reliable and will help you work as efficiently as possible. We recommend using Photoshop or Lightroom, which are the most popular and comprehensive photo editing programs.

One of the most essential wedding photography tips for beginners is not to follow any trends that are currently popular. The trends are usually fleeting while classical wedding retouching will look good for years to come.

However, if you are a beginner, we would recommend using professional photo retouching services. It will not only save you a lot of trouble but will also mean that color correction, skin retouching (removing unwanted blemishes and other defects), as well as artistic retouching of your shots, are done professionally. Besides that, photos will be improved quicker than if you do everything yourself.