I share some of my top tips and techniques for shooting a wedding.
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Wedding website:
40 Comments
I share some of my top tips and techniques for shooting a wedding.
Links
======================
Flickr:
My personal website:
Wedding website:
Great advice Jamie! Thank you so very much. Toronto, Canada. Alfie.
BRILLIANT. As usual.
you're a bloody legend mate
you have the worst energy.. I literally dozed off twice in the video to get through it.
5D mki, £350.00 not many left alive ;~}
excellent list Jamie, always interesting and incredibly informative
Jamie enjoyed the wedding tip ,Big thankyou,John
I remember one time I was in a dark bar and I was trying to take pictures, but my camera was really struggling with the low light. Either the pictures were too dark or the flash was too harsh. At one point, not expecting much to come of it I randomly decided to use flash but still slow the shutter speed. I took a picture of my drink, and it became my favorite picture from that night, and probably my favorite picture of that whole time period. Now I know what the technique is called haha (and that it is a real technique).
Hi Jamie, thanks for the good information. I'm currently working through your body of work on Youtube and finding it so interesting!
I have a question, how does one become a photographer's assistant? I am an amateur but I would really love to work as an assistant, even voluntarily, just to be able to learn the trade and get some experience. I'm based in England (Coventry area).
Thank you for this great video 😉❤
Two tricks I used as a second shooter for my best friend's wedding was (1) attend the wedding walk through the day/night before….it'll give you a great opportunity to scout the venue for size and lighting. (2) If the reception hall has a tier, use it to your advantage….it makes for some great above & below shots. Do shots of the bride or couple standing up on the tier or shoot from above while people are dancing, and use a wide angle lens like a 10-20 mm…it'll give you great shots of everyone dancing and having fun.
Thank you Jamie. All very good point for first time wedding shooter. I think the point about having a second shooter or an assistant is really good. Some people will think that there will be less money for the main photographer, but I think it's better to cover all the base and take the pressure off the main shooter, and also get lots of different angles. And no 2 photographer will take the same photos, and it's interesting to see how someone else look at the same things.
I'll be shooting my first official wedding with 2 other people. The only thing that I'm worried about is getting sharpe photos when they come out the church. They are going the have a garde of honneur with sparklers. Do I use flash or not? That is the question. The wedding will start at 3:30 in the afternoon on the 9th of February. Thank you for any advice you can give me.
It's really interesting hearing all this. Not only do I completely agree with your event shooting philosophy, you describe several things I do that I thought I only did because I'm a novice.
1. shooting 4000 photos (more like 1500) rather than a more manageable set
2. related to 1, needing 40 hours of post. Even just whittling down to the 70-80 top shots is incredibly time consuming.
3. Relying mostly on candids, rather than being more active and engaged with guests. (I just like the results more. It's such a bummer to go through a card and find hundreds of identical shots of people looking dead into the camera smiling.)
4. shooting primarily with 35 and 50mm primes instead of telephotos
5. Barely ever using flash.
I thought these things were what made me an amateur, but it sounds like maybe it's just a different shooting philosophy.
Thank you for your videos.
Shooting people into the sun? What are you doing to them? It's their wedding day….. Not murder them horribly day…. 😉
Jamie, I think your photography is top notch. Love hearing about your experience and perspective on photography. I'm a big fan!
Good advice here. Also I would add: Get a portrait list from the bride and during your pre wedding meeting ask the bride to appoint a family member to call out each persons name on the portrait list when you're shooting the family portraits. This way if anyone is missed you're off the hook to a degree. It also helps move the portraits along faster too because it's a family member who knows everyone. Also check your camera settings. LaAmadaPhotography.com
Great info, thanks for sharing.
Your advice is generally excellent. BUT "Shoot into the sun" is terrible advice unless you know exactly what you're doing (and have some kind of reflector behind you or really know what you're doing with fill flash). Even then it can be risky unless you like noisy shadows and lens flare. Your example shot had the sunlight diffused through trees at least.
massive help
the food thing – oh yeah, super important. I usually pack my own food, I had one experience where the food at a venue gave me a nasty case of food poisoning.
awesome, refreshing and very real comments. Thank you so much for sharing!
Thank you for this, what a awesome job you did!
Always nice to see so many points you know, made (initial) mistakes with or you are constantly advising others. Great video.
Thanks Jamie, I’ve got my first wedding shoot tomorrow so thanks for the great advice🙏🙏🙏
Trancent and Kingston card are any good cards? I see them very cheap in the states, I haven't purchased one, in fear getting what I paid for it.
Tip # 20: shoot backgrounds at the venues, great for filler if you also make a book of the pictures.
I wish there are SD cards made of steel, because I broke so many of these plastic things allready. Many split over time, others I stepped on or I left them in a bag together with something heavy.
Hahaha Weddings aren't even for the marrying couple. The Wedding is for the family of the married couple. You better get shots of everyone.
Don't take photos of people eating unless your at an asian wedding 😂😂😂
What size of memory card capacity do you use mostly?
Thanks for the great tips. I'm not doing wedding photography but I think this genre is perhaps one of the best for how to achieve beautiful, artistic shots that have thought that goes into them – techniques and skills that can be applied to other types of photography. My thought, anyway. I liked your video setup for this vid too – nice.
You good man. tell the story of the wedding.not just take pictures
Super Helpful Tips Jamie. Thank you so much! Subbed! 👍🏻❤️
When everyone is eating I usually sneak into the kitchen and do closeups of the wedding cake.
Kids last is VERY helpful. They can make or breake the shots!
Thanks Jamie. Really helpful as ever. Have my first wedding shoot coming up in August and this has really helped!
I had a 64gb Lexar just fail on me and my 128gb SanDisk extreme has started to crumble to dust and fall apart inside my camera but all my other cheaper cards are still going strong.
Take an assistant, or two. Impress upon the wedding planner or venue that you get food right after the couple and if there are choices of entrées, you (your team) get one of each. Also impress upon them that your dishes are the ones that will be in the photos. While the rest of the guests are being served, you have some time to take good photos of the food.
How do you sync your (and others) pics in Lightroom ?
“How’s the dog? He’s a lovely little guy!”
Bride bursts into tears and runs away
The groom turns slowly to you and says coldly “He died”
Doh!
When you have an assistant come with you, do you give them half of or a certain amount of what you were paid for the wedding? Or do you have the person paying you, pay extra for the assistant?