Pictures are an integral part of any wedding. Newlyweds are usually thrilled to get their pictures back from the photographer so they can relive their special day. But there are many special activities you can build into a wedding that involve photos.
One fun idea that many brides employ is to take photos of everyone as they arrive at the wedding, almost like you do at a high school prom or company Christmas party. You can provide a backdrop and couples can pose either for a paid photographer or for whoever happens to pick up the camera. These pictures can be taken with a Polaroid camera for instant fun or with a disposable camera. If you want slightly higher quality photos, go for a digital camera.
This can be an excellent way to keep guests busy and happy until the "official" reception begins with the arrival of the bride and groom.
As an extension of that idea, you can take instant photos and create scrapbook pages or memory book pages with the photos. There can be supplies on hand so guests can create pages on site, or pages can be pre-made and photos simply placed into the prepared spaces. If guests don't want to create pages on site, or the bride doesn't want this particular activity going on, the photos can be saved for later. As a gift for the bride and groom, someone can create memory books with these photos.
If Polaroid cameras are used, another option is to have the people in the photo sign the Polaroid photo and place that in a basket somewhere. The bride and groom will enjoy looking at the photos later.
While it's not a particularly unique idea, many brides like to provide disposable cameras on each table at the reception so guests can capture candid shots of the reception and the table guests. These photos can be added to the newlyweds' wedding album or they can be placed into a separate album showing the wedding from the guests' perspective.
Another fun activity sure to be entertaining is to create a "silent photo guess" area. Here's how this works: before the wedding, someone close to the bride and groom collects pictures of the bride and groom at various stages in life. The photos should depict the bride and groom doing things, not at Christmas or with their first birthday cake. In other words, the photos should include some action, but it shouldn't be obvious in the picture what has taken place or where the person is.
Much like a silent auction, people will come along and look at the photos, then take a silent guess as to what the photos show. They can write their guess on a piece of paper and put it in a numbered basket that corresponds with the number on the photo. Reading these guesses during the reception is entertaining and sure to be amusing. The bride or groom can provide the real answers. This is a particularly fun activity at a relatively small, family wedding where the participants know the bride and groom very well.
If you want to provide an area for guests to have their photos taken but aren't thrilled with the "prom night" idea, how about having a photo corner set up somewhere in the reception hall or facility. Here, the wedding photographer will take candid shots of wedding guests. They might be couples, but could also be entire families, friends having a good time, or the groom being carried on the shoulders of the best man. Whatever the pictures end up being, they provide a fun, "let it all hang out" area for the wedding guests and a surprise for the bride and groom. Since they will likely be busy with all the reception details and having the time of THEIR lives, they might appreciate knowing their guests had a pretty good time too, as evidenced in the photos.
Fun Wedding Photo Ideas
ADVICE FROM WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHERS
You should visit the ceremony and reception sites prior to the wedding date. This enables you to scout out the locations and have ideas in mind for photos which helps this go more smoothly the day of the wedding.
- Linda of LS Originals
Fridley, MN
If you have a large extended family that you would like photographed during formals make a short list so that no one is left out during the fast paced formals time. Keep in mind, the shorter the list the better because that will give your photographer more time to photograph the most important couple.
- Todd of Thamer Photography
Brookline, NH
Find a photographer who will walk and talk you through positions and actions that will achieve romantic images. Candid shots are wonderful, but the bride and groom's active involvement in many of the pictures will produce elegant and romantic portraits. The bride and groom's enthusiastic and active participation is the only thing that will ensure great portraits.
- Patricia of Artistic Visions Photography
Centreville, VA
For those photographers who shoot with Canon digital cameras, don't feel shy to crank up that ISO and shoot wide open. You'd be surprised what your camera can produce. If you question my rational then check this link and keep in mind that almost all these images were shot at 3200 ISO at 1.8 to 2.0. http://jeffnewcum.com/DWF/DWF07
- Jeff of Jeff Newcum Photography
WORKING THE CAMERA ANGLES
Wedding photojournalists will agree that the most important aspect of their craft is telling the story of the day in an authentic, unplanned way. A key element of that basic definition is how the story gets told—and that’s where the photographer’s individual character and point of view come into play. One of the most defining tools in shaping that unique perspective is angles. Working the angles lets you express the way you see the story unfolding.
Three of our accomplished members share their techniques and real-world experiences on using architecture, elevation, positioning and pure creativity to get unique shots and capture memorable moments.
CONCEPTUAL ANGLES: THE STORIES WITHIN THE STORY
Angles can be multi-dimensional, encompassing conceptual perspective and focus, as well as geometry. As WPJA member Melissa Mermin says, conceptual angles help tell the little stories going on within the big story. “I’m always looking for different angles on the same subject. I’ll find something interesting in the background or the foreground,” says Mermin, who is based in Northern California, USA. “I look around at my surroundings, and think ‘what could make this more interesting?’”
If she’s shooting the couple’s vows, for example, once she gets the mandatory shots of the bride and groom at the altar, she’ll start looking around the room for a story within the story.
Mermin thinks good wedding photojournalism takes the ordinary and makes it a piece of art. “I’m always trying to see the humor or the darker side of a picture,” she says.
WPJA member Dave Robbins agrees. “I like irony in photography. I love humor in photography,” he says. “And humor is all about juxtaposition and context.”
As a wedding photojournalist who works in the urban setting of New York City, NY, USA, Robbins also likes using angles that juxtapose the beauty of the bride or the groom and the grittiness that surrounds them. “What makes a photo interesting is not only what the subjects are doing, it's what they are doing in the context of where they are.”
TIPS AND TRICKS FOR A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE
Storytelling is also directly related to pure physical perspective. As North Carolina, USA-based WPJA member Corey McNabb points out, “shooting from a different angle can create a really nice image that otherwise might have been ruined by a distracting background.”
As an example, he invokes an often-experienced situation in which the bride has just arrived at an unattractive parking lot. He wants the quintessential shot of her stepping out of the car, making her grand arrival, but the uninteresting—if not totally distracting—background is a problem. “I jump on a balcony at the hotel, looking for a different perspective. Maybe there’s interesting ground cover or puddles. Bring the horizon out of the image and create a more uniform background, isolating the subject instead of distracting from it.”
Of course, there may not always be a balcony handy. “Anything that is a departure [from the norm] is going to be interesting,” McNabb advises. “It’s more rare for me not to be looking for that angle. Even if I can’t use architecture or a rock to get higher, I’m moving the camera higher or lower. I’m shooting off the hip, or laying on the ground. Basically, I’m doing anything I can do to deliver a different perspective.”
“By just moving slightly to the side, or up, or down, I can find backgrounds that don’t distract from the image,” he continues. “While shooting once in a rather mundane hotel room, I decided to lie on the floor and shoot up at the bridal party toasting.” The result: a circular view of the bride, groom and guests, their arms reaching out for a toast like the spokes in a wheel.
McNabb also used angles to achieve unexpected—and stunning—moments, like a bride’s portrait reflected in the surface of a body of water or her shadow, cast on a long beach patterned by footprints.
Mermin adds, “I’m five foot three. When I’m shooting the drunken reception, I’ve learned to manually focus my camera, shooting over my head. I try to get up high. If I can’t do that, I try to do the opposite and get some really interesting shots looking up at the ceiling.”
Her best piece of advice: Avoid doing what other people are doing with their point-and-shoots. Her award-winning cake-cutting photo is a perfect example. “The reason I could get that shot was because there was a balcony. I was really lucky they were cutting the cake right underneath,” she says. “I had a bird’s eye view. It was a perfect angle.”
Mermin has also learned to crouch down behind something that gives an unexpected foreground. “It's funny when people say ‘Oops, I'm in your way, I'll move,’ when I've actually moved behind them to either conceal myself from my subject (so they are unaware) or I am using the person as my foreground or as a compositional element to the photo.”
“There is no handbook,” says Robbins. “Keep shooting. Experiment with angles. Angle with purpose, angle with arbitrary abandon and see what the photos say to you in the end.”
He says he loves experimenting. “Some experiments work, some don’t. But unless you’re down for doing something new, you’ll find yourself taking the same pictures time and again.”
He knows from experience that there’s always a good shot. “Finding it is the art.”
—by Meghan McEwen for the Wedding Photojournalist Association
Freelance Photography: How To Begin Your Career
By: Colin Hartness
Photography is a vast world. There are many different types of photography and many different kinds of people that enjoy it. It’s a hobby that be relatively inexpensive or one that you can invest a lot of money on. Photos are so special because they give us memories of times and places and events in our lives. We can hold onto these memories forever with a photograph.
As much as people love photos, many people love taking them even more. Whether it’s a mother who takes photos at every of her children’s moments in life (first smile, first step, first spaghetti meal) or maybe it’s the father who never forgets his camera for a football or basketball game, or maybe it’s the young girl who loves nature hikes with her camera; these people are not exceptions. They all have an eye for those special moments and they all appreciate the camera’s ability to capture that moment and freeze it in time forever.
What is Freelance Photography?
What if you love photography so much you wish you could do it for a living? I mean, you actually get paid for your photographs! But you work solely for yourself, selling each photo or series of photos individually. You don’t have a boss. You work sometimes on assignment and you may sell to magazines. That is freelance photography.
Freelance photography may be your entire career or it may start out as something you do in your spare time but begin making money from it. It’s just like freelance writing in this sense that many people turn it into a career and enjoy the freedom of working essentially for themselves on their own time and making money doing something they love doing anyway.
How to Build a Portfolio
To start getting jobs as a freelance photographer, you need a portfolio. A portfolio will show samples of your work. Even if you have never had photographs published or publicly displayed, you can start a portfolio of your best work and then add onto it if you win photography contests or start receiving paid work.
How to Get Jobs
As we mentioned, building a portfolio is the first step in submitting your work for pay but when it comes right down to it, it’s the quality of the photo that will determine if you get paid for it. Some people have more of a natural talent for taking great pictures than others but it is a skill that anyone can learn. There are schools dedicated to the art of photography and you can even get a degree in it. If you are just getting started, you can look into classes provided by your local community center or community college. Some cities have photography groups that meet to share photos and tips. There are also many groups online dedicated to photography and freelance photography.
You need to view as many famous photographs as possible. Take a look at what is getting published and compare it to your own photos. This allows you to compare and learn from other’s work. It takes more than just point and shoot to get a great photo. You need to learn about focus, lighting, colors and backgrounds and much more.
Once you start learning about photography and creating a portfolio, you can start submitting your photos to contests and magazines. Get a list of photography markets and start submitting to ones that accept your type of photos. Don’t expect to make it to the big times right away. Few people actually achieve this but you can start small and eventually make your way into a nice living from freelance photography.
Professional Wedding Photography
By: Eric Hartwell
The steady, ongoing work produced from wedding photography generates the majority of new clients for most photography studios and freelance photographers. A wedding photographer will need to comfortable with the following activities & skills:
Candid shots (photojournalistic) and posed shots
Making slides, prints, and slideshows (digital or otherwise)
Traditional albums
Taking shots in the outdoors at a party, beach, or rustic locale
Snapping shots indoors at a temple or church
In the late 1860's in America, couples started hiring photographers and posing at the wedding. The art form of photography for the wedding was created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826. However, the idea of live action shots and of capturing the event itself came up after the Second World War. Often, the photographers would just show up inconspicuously at a wedding, snap the photos, and venture to sell them later on to the family. This forced studios to start covering the events, lest they be booted out by freelance photographers.
After the wedding is over, a small time lapse is incurred, and, thereafter the photographer shows "proofs" to the couple. The proofs can be in the form of prints, thumbnail galleries, or all of the images on CD-ROM. They may also make separate galleries or slideshows, and they're sometimes themed.
Photographers may sell additional prints to the couple through a web site with thumbnail galleries and an e-commerce back-end, often in conjunction with a vendor or broker website that charges a commission for each print purchase.
The common types of wedding photography include the photojournalistic realism and spontaneous photographer behavior of some, the classic or traditional posed method, and a hybrid of the two called fashion-based wedding photography.
In big cities, there are often studios devoted to wedding photography because photography for the wedding is such a mammoth market in metropolitan areas. People are always moving in and out and getting married. Take a look at a portfolio of the photographer's former work for assurance.
The Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI), the Professional Photographers of America (PPA), and, especially, the Wedding Photojournalists Association (WPA) offer training, professional support, and tips to member photographers.
Wedding Photography
By: Seth Willis
Wedding is not just an event but it is journey that two people have decided to take. Wedding photography may not be a mainstream or commercial photography but it is still an art. It should not be considered to be anything less than serious photography. In fact it is one of the most demanding disciplines of professional work. If you are an aspiring wedding photographer then there are certain key areas that you need to understand. One of the key areas is strategy. Even before you can think about the camera to use, the film roll, the lighting and the background, you need to work on a strategy.
A sound strategy means that you would be able to create opportunities by the numbers. You will have to create an opportunity in every situation. Most wedding photographers take two versions of the same shot to eliminate blinks and at the same time they are able to introduce variety. The norm of wedding photography is to shoot a full-length photo, which is followed by a head and shoulders or half-length photo. Secondly, you will have to create a list of photographs that should be or can be taken during wedding. The list drawn by most professionals include photographs of Bride at home, preparations/wedding dress, parents, bridesmaids, bridesmaids – group photo, bride and bridesmaids, bride and chief bridesmaid, bride and family, parents and bride, mother and bride, father and bride, brothers, sisters and bride, parents and bridesmaids, extended family and any special request.
These will be followed by photographs in the church or outdoors after the wedding ceremony is over. One of the favorite shots is where the bride walks through the aisle. You can take good photos using a tripod so that the flash can bounce from a reflector at around f/5.6 followed by a shutter speed of 1/8 or 1/15 of a second. This will allow ambient light to seep in. If you are not using the tripod then you will need to have one stop less than the normal where the flash will reflect on an 80mm lens and the shutter speed will be 1/30 of a second.
There are basically two types of cameras used for wedding photography. One is the 35mm and the other is a medium format. The 35mm cameras create grainier appearance when the photograph is enlarged as compared to a medium format. Another aspect of photography that you need to know about is the camera film. The camera film is available in both B&W and color. The color film is the most popular one but off late B&W photos are coming to the forefront. The good thing about black & white film is that you can create an artistic look. Secondly, the B&W photos last longer than their colored counterpart. The salient point of color films is that they are more versatile. If you shoot with a color film then you will be able to portray the details of the wedding day. If you are using a 35mm camera for the occasion then your best bet will be 100, 200 or 400 speed film. The 100 speed film gives best quality prints in strong sunlight, the 200 speed film can be used in sunlight as well as shade and the 400 speed film is the best for low light.
The Basics Of Digital Wedding Photography
By: Low Jeremy
The wedding is considered to be one of the happiest moments in the life of two lovers. Though this can happen again should one of the spouses die or decide to have a divorce, there is nothing compared to the first time.
Since the wedding may last less than an hour while the reception may go on longer, the best way to preserve this memory in time is through pictures taken by a talented photographer.
People who want to start a career here should first take classes on the basics of photography. Some think it is just a matter of looking at a lens and pushing on the button but there is more to it than that. There are factors such as lighting, color and timing has to be considered to be able to get the right picture especially for the candid ones.
When the person has learned this, it is time to get that camera. More people are using digital cameras these days that can hold more than 200 images or more depending on the size of the memory card.
This makes developing faster than the conventional one, which is taking out the film from the camera and working on the pictures inside the dark room.
Some people who want to become digital wedding photographers do it because of the money. The individual must realize that it is only through devotion that the quality of the shots taken is consistent.
It takes awhile to be a good wedding photographer. It may be months or even years so during this time, the photographer will be able to develop a certain style or technique that will surely be remembered by the client years after the wedding took place.
Some of the lessons in digital wedding photography can be self-taught. Since there are other ways to shoot pictures, it is best to talk with other artists or to attend seminars.
Another way to excel in this art will be to enter in competitions. The individual may not win but there are valuable lessons that can be learned which can be incorporated into the style used in taking those photographs.
Research has shown a good wedding photographer can make $24,000 annually or more. This means serving one client well will open the doors to others such as the friends and relatives of the couple who will also be getting married in a few months or years.
Professional Styles And Techniques During Wedding Using Art Digital Photography
By: Low Jeremy
When photographers are hired to do a wedding, these professionals know what it takes to get the right shot. These people may not always tell the client to strike a pose and shoot but wait patiently to be able to catch that memorable shot.
There are a lot of great shots that can be taken during a wedding. Here are a few basic styles and techniques for those who also want to capture the event using a digital camera.
1. The individual should take these pictures with a good background or in a not so crowded place so the attention will focus on the newly weds or those who are the intended targets in the shot.
2. If there is a nice background in the back and it is hard to get both, the photographer should shoot the couple from shoulder up. Everyone will be happy and pleased when the pictures come out.
3. If some of the guests are wearing classes, these people can be advised to stand sideways or tilt the head down a little to avoid the reflection that usually occurs when the flash is used.
4. The individual should zoom in or out if there are only two or a group of people in the picture. This will also catch everyone in the shot instead of only getting half of person’s body when the print comes out. This will be embarrassing so the image has to be reviewed at once and deleted so another one can be taken.
5. Proper lighting must be observed at all times. The person must not shoot the couple or the gusts against the light because only a dark image will appear after the picture has been taken.
6. The photographer should also get some stolen moment shots. This should be done when the husband or wife is doing something else or is not looking. This is the trademark of many professionals that is done during the ceremony or the reception.
People will enjoy shots such as the cutting of the cake, the toast and the first kiss or dance. The pictures taken can’t be done again so the individual must be alert and present to get these images on camera.
Photography is truly an art. The person must practice the basics and learn from others to be able to do well in a wedding.
Working As A Wedding Photographer
By: Hana Lee
One of the most rewarding aspects of a photographer’s career can be capturing moments and memories from the weddings of loving and happy couples. In fact, making sure that each and every shot, whether candid or posed, is just right can be both amazingly difficult and uniquely rewarding at the same time. As a wedding photographer you carry an awesome responsibility. The events that you are recording on film will occur for these two particular people only once and the way that they remember their wedding will be directly affected by the job that you do. Because of this, the wedding photographer’s task, while not as glamorous as that of a fashion, sports or news photographer, may be the most important in the craft of photography itself. Photographs like those of the flag raising at Iwo Jima, the unnamed sailor kissing his unnamed girlfriend after the end of World War II, and the New York firemen raising the US flag on 9/11 may have dramatic impact on the entire world, but the wedding photographer has the ability to impact the lives of individuals in a unique and profound way.
Wedding photographers must learn to be able to catch the smallest details of the wedding occasion in a way that will create lasting memories. The focus, of course, is always the bride and groom, but the wedding photographer is also charged with recording those moments that the busy couple may not even have been aware of. While the couple is sure to cherish the photographs of themselves at the altar, reciting their vows or stuffing that traditional first piece of wedding cake into each other’s mouths, it is the photos of a happily drunken Uncle Jack trying to do The Chicken Dance or of a small child’s reaction to the sheer enormity of the event that will be looked upon and remembered fondly by the couple and their family for years to come.
The key to being a successful wedding photographer lies in two concepts: ability and invisibility. The skilled wedding photographer will use her ability to set up poses that result in beautiful and memorable images, to use correct lighting and filter effects on the final product that create breathtaking images, and to make everyone she photographs look better than they do in life. She will use invisibility to be able to catch all those candid moments and get incredible shots of the ceremony in process while remaining unobtrusive and almost completely unnoticed by the wedding party and guests. Mastery of these skills takes time, training, and a certain amount of instinct, but the best wedding photographers have it down to an art.
If photography is your field of choice, you could certainly do worse than opting to work as a wedding photographer. You’ll get to see people at their happiest moments; looking as beautiful and radiant as they can, the memories you help to create and maintain will last for their entire lifetimes, and they will always remember the incredible work of the photographer at their wedding.
