The Best of Wedding Photography.pdf - Free

More documents

Recommendations

Info

THE BOUQUET Make sure a large bouquet does not overpower your composition, particularly in your formal portrait of the bride. The bride should look comfortable holding her bouquet and it should be an important and colorful element in the composition. Give the bride some guidance as to how she should hold her bouquet for the best effect. It should be placed in front with her hands behind it, making sure it is held high enough to put a slight bend in her elbows, keeping her arms slightly separated from her body. THE BRIDE SHOULD BE CLOSEST When you have a choice—and the photographer always has a choice—position the bride closer to the camera than the groom. This keeps the (usually) smaller bride in proper perspective and allows her dress to be better seen. A CASE OF THE NERVES The wedding day is usually a tense time and people tend to wear those emotions on their sleeves. Your demeanor and professionalism should be a calming and reassuring presence, especially to the bride. Be calm and positive, be funny and lighthearted—and above all, don’t force the situation. If you can see that demanding to make a picture is going to really upset people, have the will power to hold off until later. Remember that positive energy is contagious, and can usually save a sticky situation. THE DRESS In most cases, the bride will spend more money on her wedding dress and more time on her appearance than for any other occasion in her entire life. She will often look more beautiful than on any other day. The photographs you make will be a permanent record of how beautiful she looked on her wedding day. Do not ignore the back of the dress—dress designers incorporate as much style and elegance in the back of the dress as the front. Be sure to get the bridesmaids’ gowns as well. DRESS LIKE A GUEST This is award-winning photographer Ken Sklute’s advice. A suit or slacks and a sports jacket are fine for men; and for women, business attire works well—but remember that you have to lug equipment and move freely, so don’t wear restrictive clothing. Many wedding photographers (men and women) own a tux and wear it for formal weddings. ABOVE—It is important to capture shots that display the dress in all its splendor. Here, Tibor Imely used the beautiful rays of the setting sun to show the form and folds of the gown. FACING PAGE TOP—Little moments like this one make the overall coverage of the wedding day richer and more meaningful. Photograph by Bruce Dorn. FACING PAGE BOT- TOM LEFT—Positioning the bride in front of the groom keeps the size relationship consistent and shows off the wedding gown. Photograph by Jerry D. FACING PAGE BOTTOM RIGHT—Brett Florens captured the couple by a pool and added mist rising from the water to give the image a very dreamy, romantic effect. He made the image with his Nikon D2X and 70–210mm f/2.8 lens. FLASH SYNC CHECK Check and recheck that your shutter speed is set to the desired setting for flash sync. This is particularly important with focal-plane shutters, because if you set a speed faster than your X-sync, you will get half-frame images—a true nightmare. It has happened to everyone who has ever shot a wedding, but it’s certainly preventable with a little vigilance. Check the shutter speed every time you change film, lenses, or CF cards. If you’re like most photographers, you’ll check it more often—every couple of frames. GETTING THE BRIDE INTO A CAR This tip is from Monte Zucker, who says, “I learned a long time ago how to help the bride sit in a car without wrin- HELPFUL TIPS 101
LEFT—A popular shot is the gown hanging on the back of the bedroom door. Frank Cava captured this shot with the white balance set to daylight under the tungsten illumination to get a warmer rendition. RIGHT—Charles Maring is a master at photographing the decorations on wedding day. He employs a tripod, available light, and bounce flash and detailed post-production treatment. FACING PAGE—Here, Mauricio Donelli wanted to capture the textures of the gown and the rope in the bouquet, so he employed a softbox outdoors to give soft, side lighting. He overrode the daylight exposure (making the flash the main light) so that it looked more like dusk. He then posed his bride like a top model. kling her gown. I have her lift up the back of her gown and put it around her shoulders. This forms a sort of cape. It also picks up the back of the gown, so that when the bride sits down she’s not sitting on her dress and wrinkling it. Here’s the final trick. She has to back into the car. Now, even if she were to pick up some dirt as she enters, it would be on the underside and never show.” FLOWERS While waiting around to go upstairs to photograph the bride getting ready at her home, don’t just stare out a window. Arrange for the flowers to be delivered early and use the time to set up an attractive still life for the album while you wait. LATE BRIDES If the bride is late (as brides usually are), do not hold things up further. Simply make a series of photojournalis- 102 THE BEST OF WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY tic images of her arrival and plan to make the previously arranged shots later in the day. THE KISS Whether you set it up, which you may have to do, or wait for it to occur naturally, be sure to get the bride and groom kissing at least once. These are favorite shots and you will find many uses for them in the album. For the best results, get a good vantage point and make sure you adjust your camera angle so neither person obscures the other. LIGHT BULBS Many hotels use coiled fluorescent bulbs instead of tungsten-filament bulbs in the room lamps. Be on the lookout for them because these fluorescents will not have the same warming quality as tungsten bulbs and could turn things a bit green. You may have to change your white balance, or use automatic white balance in these situations.
Page 1:
WEDDING The Best of PHOTOGRAPHY Amh
Page 4 and 5:
INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 6 and 7:
T his is the third edition of The B
Page 8 and 9:
1. THE EVOLUTION OF WEDDING PHOTOGR
Page 11 and 12:
WEDDING PHOTOJOURNALISM: A MODIFIED
Page 13 and 14:
things happen spontaneously and use
Page 15:
2. THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER’S MIN
Page 19 and 20:
Joe Buissink has been known to work
Page 21 and 22:
ABOVE—The photographer must be al
Page 23 and 24:
LEFT—Greg Gibson has a finely hon
Page 25 and 26:
Michael Schuhmann created this wond
Page 27 and 28:
The slower the film speed or digita
Page 29 and 30:
of four or five areas of the viewfi
Page 31 and 32:
30 THE BEST OF WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
Page 33 and 34:
ity or file size, it does affect le
Page 35 and 36:
From outside the reception, Jerry D
Page 37 and 38:
flash. Falloff is less than with ot
Page 39 and 40:
4. CAMERA TECHNIQUE Whether you’v
Page 41 and 42:
TOP—J.B. Sallee used a 70mm lens
Page 43 and 44:
TOP—With a 17mm lens on his D1X,
Page 45 and 46:
LEFT—A tricky exposure situation
Page 47 and 48:
Since most wedding photographers op
Page 49 and 50:
This is a beautiful pose created by
Page 51 and 52: LEFT—Marcus Bell created this han
Page 53 and 54: Tom Muñoz has a great deal of resp
Page 55 and 56: LEFT—There is something special a
Page 57 and 58: form the pattern. They are used to
Page 59 and 60: Marcus Bell is brilliant at posing
Page 61 and 62: On location, sometimes you can find
Page 63: LEFT—The natural lighting pattern
Page 66 and 67: from the camera lens. It is a drama
Page 68 and 69: ecommended unless your only concern
Page 70: Backlighting with direct sunlight c
Page 73 and 74: TOP—David Worthington created thi
Page 75: ABOVE—Melanie Nashan captured the
Page 79 and 80: Metering and Exposure. Here is how
Page 81 and 82: Al Gordon is a virtuoso of flash fi
Page 83 and 84: the light, you’ll find that it is
Page 85 and 86: BUILD A GOOD RELATIONSHIP Alisha an
Page 87: his best man. Bridesmaids will arri
Page 90 and 91: As part of the wedding photography,
Page 93 and 94: LEFT—Working as a pair or trio of
Page 95 and 96: What couple would not be thrilled w
Page 97 and 98: LEFT—Joe Photo always makes it a
Page 99 and 100: 10. HELPFUL TIPS The following is a
Page 105 and 106: REMEMBERING NAMES Photographer Fran
Page 107 and 108: 11. PROOFING AND PRINTING T here ar
Page 109 and 110: ABOVE—Very few truly romantic ima
Page 111 and 112: Learning to recognize shapes as pag
Page 113 and 114: Three very simple images and a bold
Page 115 and 116: album-page layouts in Photoshop. Th
Page 117 and 118: Dream a Little. With digital, we ha
Page 119 and 120: David Williams brings sophisticatio
Page 121 and 122: THE PHOTOGRAPHERS T o illustrate th
Page 123 and 124: Charles and Jennifer Maring—Charl
Page 125 and 126: INDEX A Albums, 109-18 design princ
Page 127 and 128: Also by Bill Hurter . . . OTHER BOO
Page 129: Joe Buissink Ron Capobianco Anthony
show all

The Best of Wedding Photography.pdf - Free

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?