10 Years Of Wedding Photography Tips And Ideas

I’ve asked myself what would be the most helpful wedding photography tips I would want to know if I was just starting out shooting weddings.

Instead of just listing a few quick and helpful hints and suggestions (hopefully you’ll still find a lot of those too though), I’ve tried to give an overview of the key areas that I concentrate on to get wonderful photographs, but also to make sure the bride and groom and all the wedding guests enjoy you, the photographer, being there. And importantly, applying these ideas will remove some of the stress of the day for you as well. Hell, it might even be fun!

I’ve been a wedding photographer for 10 years and remember my first wedding vividly. I still get a few nerves which I guess is a good thing – it keeps me on my toes and gets me excited and focused on the day. But that first wedding shoot was pretty scary. There’s no avoiding it to some extent, but it could have been a lot easier if I’d already known some of the wedding photography tips and ideas I’ve picked up over the years.

Many of these suggestions are for a photographer new to weddings, but I know I’m always getting new ideas from seasoned professionals, so hopefully everyone will find something useful here. I hope you enjoy this article, and please feel free to comment or ask questions at the end – they’re always great to hear and where possible, I’ll put together new articles and resources to cover any gaps in what you’ve read so far.

1. Be Prepared

Sounds kind of obvious, but I know I am much more confident and much less nervous when I’m properly prepared. Here’s a selection of ideas that should help you out.

Always always get to the venue with plenty of time. It’s sooo stressful if you think you’re going to be late, and you’ll not be long in the profession if you’ve got a reputation for missing the bride going up the aisle. Seriously though, so many little things can slow you down, so leave lots of spare time.

If you’ve got plenty of time at the church or venue before you’re due to meet the bride or groom, you can get a few location and detail shots under your belt first. I always do this and it definitely helps to ease the nerves. Just like doing a speech, once you get going, a lot of the anxiety vanishes. And you might not have time for some of these shots later on, so get them in the bag as soon as you can.

Get wide angle shots of the church for example, along with details of the flowers at the lych gate and inside the church, and anything special that’s been organized for the day. It can be a great time to shoot details inside the church because often the tungsten or fluorescent lights aren’t switch on at this stage (or you can just turn them off). They create a strong colour cast, which looks quite unpleasant for a flower shot, so you can use daylight coming through a window instead. You might need a high ISO in a dark church, but a little bit of graininess is far less of an issue in my opinion.

The orders of service or the confetti might already be there, so you can get a nice shot of them too, or a shot of the cake before it gets a chance to sag or lean to one side. Lots of them do by the end of the wedding breakfast, I promise you.

If guests are there and helping set things up, it’s nice to introduce yourself too, and wish them a lovely day, especially if you manage to bump in to the parents or siblings of the couple. As well as helping remind you who’s who, it makes them feel special and generates an affinity towards you. More on this later, but half of the job is getting along with the wedding party and guests. It makes for amazing photos.

You might also be able to fit in talking to the priest, vicar or registrar, although they often tend to get there just in time in my experience. If you can agree on photo etiquette during the ceremony with them early on, you’re not going to waste time just before the ceremony when you’ll want to shoot the groomsmen and the guests arriving.

2. Get The Right Kit

I don’t want to go in to massive depth here about the exact types of camera bodies, lenses and accessories you might need, but a few things are essential and the advice here largely focuses around having backup should things go wrong.

You really should have 2 camera bodies just in case the shutter jams on one, or some other malfunction occurs. If you are shooting many thousands of images with your cameras, as you will over time, it is not so much a question of ‘if’ but rather ‘when’ something breaks, what kind of contingency plan do I have?

In the same way, you will need at least two flashguns, two lenses and spare batteries. Keep the battery chargers in your car for double the back up. I once went to a wedding years ago having fully charged my batteries the night before. Nonetheless, when I got to the venue, one set was completely flat – turned out they had a fault – and the other set had run down overnight – when I put my camera back in the bag, the camera’s on switch had been tripped. Fortunately I had the charger so quickly plugged it in whilst I was doing a final check of the location.

Another time, I went head over heals down a muddy hill and watched one of my flashguns bounce down with me and shatter at the bottom. I’m glad to say these things don’t happen all the time, but they will once in a while, you can count on it.

I like to take a lot of memory cards with me too. You can get massive storage cards these days one or two of which will cover a whole wedding, but I prefer to use smaller cards and more of them, so if one gets damaged or lost, I haven’t lost such a large element of the wedding. Some cameras will also take two cards at the same time, so one can act as an immediate backup source.

Some other essentials are a lens cloth, satellite navigation or at least a good map, money if you have to pay for parking, and contact details for the wedding party and venue.

3. Bring A Photo List

Have a list of all the key people at the wedding, and make sure you get a shot of every one of them, and lots more of the very important people – obviously the bride and groom, bridesmaids and groomsmen, but also the parents, siblings and their families, and grandparents for example.

Also, although I don’t really refer to it so much now, I always take along a list of wedding photography ideas and poses. I often used to check through it during a quiet moment to make sure I wasn’t missing some good shots and if you do have a mental block and just cannot think of the next pose for the bride and groom, tell them you’re cleaning your lens or something like that and have a quick look at it.

I will be creating a downloadable book soon which you will see mentioned on this site. Amongst other things, it will list and describe around 250 classic wedding shots and how to take them in various lighting conditions. This might be a good starting point for doing your own.

4. Lighting And Posing

Learn before your first wedding how to cope with different lighting and weather conditions, and how to pose the bride and groom and guests. what camera setting to use and the locations to go to. Go to a local church, a hall, and definitely the park with a couple of friends to be the ‘bride and groom’ and test your lighting and posing methods in these different locations.

Pose a group of friends, ask your girlfriend to get out of a car and simulate arriving at the church, shoot a birthday cake or bunch of flowers, whatever helps you get used to your camera settings and composition options.

Another great idea that really helped me before I did my first wedding was to follow around other wedding photographers at friends’ (or friends of friends’) weddings. Offer to give the couple all your photos on disc for free in return for them allowing you to be there on the day and use the shots for promoting your services further down the line.

5. The Wedding Day: What To Shoot And How To Do It

Most of the rest of this article lists the key elements of a wedding day, what to focus on, what to anticipate, and includes some nice tips on lighting and posing advice along the way. Some days run differently and the ceremony may be at the reception too, but most of the ideas will work just as well in those cases.

• Getting ready shots

If I’m meeting the bride before the ceremony, I like to arrive about half an hour before the she is due to get in her dress. This gives me time to quickly say hello to some of the important people, and also gives me a chance to shoot some detail shots. Classic shots are the bride’s and bridesmaids’ flowers, the dress hung up, jewellery, tiara, veil, shoes, and perhaps a wedding card from the parents or a message or present from the groom.

I really try not to get side tracked and concentrate only on these, but take the time to do them well. They really complement very well the portrait shots that come next.

I don’t tend to do any shots of the bride’s party in their pyjamas or gowns unless they specifically ask for this. The party rarely look at their best at this point, and these kind of shots are hardly ever ordered or chosen for inclusion in the album.

Instead, I arrange to come in to the bride’s room as she’s getting in to her dress. I request that the bridesmaids are fully dressed and ready by this point, and get a combination of calm very beautiful shots of the bride, perhaps holding the partly done up dress to her, but also some fun ones with the bridesmaids helping her in.

Once the bride is completely ready, I do a 10 minute shoot (always plan for more but this is what it normally ends up as) with the bride on her own, again lovely soft peaceful, thoughtful shots of her, close up and showing off the dress in full if possible. A few lovely smiles too.

I finish off with some group combinations, for example the bride and bridesmaids, and her with mum and dad.

As far as lighting goes, I always look for natural light, near a window or door and sit or stand the bride there. Same for the groups but you need a little bit more light do allow you to get away with a slightly higher aperture setting which allows for more of the image to be in focus. In comparison, for the bride on her own, you can have a very low aperture setting of something like f/2.8 so only the area around her eyes is completely in focus.

• At the church shots

I will generally leave some time before the bride does, so I can be in place and ready at the church or wherever the ceremony is being held. This also allows me the chance to meet up with the groom and groomsmen, and mirror some of the shots I’ve taken of the bride’s party earlier.

If possible, I like to get some shots of the guys pinning their button holes. This is rarely easy for them, and normally leads to a few jokes and laughs, and allows you to get some informal shots of the groomsmen all together.

Then concentrate on getting some close ups and full length shots of the groom on his own, and details like the button hole, and then the guys posing in classic groups poses and more informally. A shot of them walking towards you has never failed me, and it’s not too artificial. Don’t be too serious about it and they’ll definitely have fun doing it. You can always ask them to be as ice cool as possible and they’re bound to crack up. And a shot of the rings is always good, either in the best man’s hand or on or in a nice box.

Get shots of the groom with his parents and siblings as well if everyone is there and there’s time. Thinking about the album, you then have several spreads with the bride’s party followed by something very similar for the groom – it works perfectly.

Plenty of shots of guests arriving too, generally what you see rather than setting too much up. But I think it’s fine to mix it up by politely asking the odd couple for a quick shot as they walk past you. If a party of ladies arrive together, tell them charmingly (definitely be charming) that they look lovely, they’ll light up and you’ll get a lovely shot of them. And remember to tell everyone that you hope they have a great day.

• Inside the church

A little bit before the bride is due to arrive, get in place hopefully having worked out which direction the car is coming from. A shot of the car on its way to the church, the bride in the car, bride with dad and walking to the church are DO NOT MISS shots. In fact, the next hour includes almost all the one-off and sometimes very quick moments that are a vital part of the story of the day. This is where you have to be at your most alert and focused.

I don’t like over managing things, and certainly not this element, but I do normally ask for the car window to be opened, or for the bride to pause inside with the car door open to get a lovely shot just before the day proper begins for her.

Quickly get to the front of the church and shoot the groom and then the bride entering and walking up the aisle, another DO NOT MISS shot, not that you needed me to tell you that.

Balance getting every possible great shot in the church with being too overbearing and in the way of the intimate parts of the service. If you’re unsure, back off. Again, for me, keeping the couple and guests happy overall gives me a much better set of shots, even if I miss a few opportunities now and then.

Generally I don’t use flash during the ceremony, other than sometimes during the walk down and back up the aisle, and during the signing of the register. This means you might have an ISO setting as high as 1600, but modern digital cameras can still produce clear images at this level.

Even with ISO 1600, you might get a little bit of movement blur in some cases. But most of the service is low on fast action, so you don’t miss much. And there is a brief pause as the couple kiss which should allow you to avoid the problem here. This is another not to be missed shot, so if you’re unsure, use flash for the kiss. It’s an uplifting moment, often accompanied by cheers and claps – no one minds a bit of flash then.

• After the ceremony

Unless the couple have specified some formal group shots, I just shoot what I see, and keep out of the way. Congratulations and kisses are flying around, people are arranging their own little group photos, so just let it all happen and get some lovely natural shots. You can get some very special shots at this time too – a flowergirl half hidden behind the bride’s dress, confetti flying or a proud parent kissing the bride or groom.

A word on lighting, if the sun is shining brightly, I try to shoot towards the sun where possible. You can get some lovely halo effects as the bride’s or flowergirl’s hair is backlit and you’ll avoid those nasty shadows around the eyes. The alternative is to use some fill in flash for a key shot to lift the shadows.

• The car

Try and get the window down so you can shoot in to the car, and climb in briefly as well for a shot or two of the couple together. It’s great if you can shoot back out of the car at guests with their final messages before the car whizzes off to the reception.

• The groups

So on to some other outdoor wedding photography tips and the groups in particular, which I normally take fairly early on during the drinks reception. If it looks like it’s going to take a while for the guests to arrive though, it’s sometimes a good idea to do the bride and groom shots first.

You can spend ages setting up the most perfectly composed group shot, positioning arms and legs, perhaps sitting some people on chairs, but I’ve tried it and it simply takes too long. Plus, with the bigger groups, some people just don’t want to play ball. I much prefer a quick and simple method, that is much more fun, keeps people from getting bored and still gives you great photos.

Where possible, I ask people to line up boy girl boy girl, then showing them with my body, turn inwards slightly towards the bride and groom at the centre. I do it all quickly and you find there is lots of lively banter between the group members which you can comment on or join in with, rather than cracking a joke yourself to get a smile – it’s far less forced that way. I might simply and brightly say, ‘can I have a lovely smile, please’ or something similar to help them along if need be. It works. If the wedding party is very formal and not jokey at all, no problem, just go with that. Don’t push them to be something they’re not.

If it’s a relaxed fun wedding, I often ask the key groups to really squash up together, it always makes them smile doing it, and get a much closer shot. This style is normally the one they go for in the album.

In terms of the lighting, try not to face the group in to the sun. This creates dark shadows on the face and makes them squint, not to mention that it feels uncomfortable. Find an area of nice open shadow, or if you have to, have the sun behind them. Exposure here is a little more tricky but the results are definitely better.

• The bride and groom shots

Depending on the couple’s preferences, this can take anything from 5-10 minutes to an hour or more, although I normally spend around 20-30 minutes. This gives me a chance to get a lovely variety of great shots, lets the bride and groom have a moment to talk about the day, and still allows time for them to mingle with their guests before the wedding breakfast.

I think the drinks reception is one of the nicest parts of the day, everybody is buzzing, families and friends are meeting up again – sometimes after a very long interval – and the bride and groom are jumping from group to group, chatting, being congratulated and posing for lots of impromptu photographs.

It’s a shame to fill this entire period with just the group shots and bride and groom shots, plus I can get wonderful images of all those things happening. And it’s one of your few opportunities to get outside shots with a bit of space to work in and different backdrops to be creative with.

Anyway, back to the bride and groom shots. I will go in to more detail elsewhere, and you will hear good advice suggesting that you must always consider the lighting first rather than find a good location. I prefer a more ambiguous method, as you can pretty much always pose a couple to cater for any lighting situation.

So if you’ve got the perfect backdrop, why not use it. Looking for areas of shadow to shoot in is definitely the safest route and I’ll do lots of that, but you can always put the couple in bright sunlight too. A great looking image I like is for the couple to hug each other with the bride lifting her head towards the sun and with her eyes shut. The white of her dress will reflect some light on to the groom who is facing away from the sun, and the lighting on the bride highlights her cheekbones and mirrors a modelling light used in a studio. It looks stunning.

Equally, if the bride is backlit, her hair and the edge of the dress are highlighted and give an amazing magical effect.

Make sure there is good variety to the images. Include different backdrops, portraits of the bride and groom on their own as well as together, full, half length shots and head shots, walking, standing and sitting. Kissing, smiling, laughing, hugging, holding hands.

• Speeches and wedding breakfast

From now on, most weddings move inside. Here are some great indoor wedding photography tips centred around the speeches.

As an aside, I don’t tend to photograph guests eating. For one, it just doesn’t look nice with cheeks full of food, and they also need a break from you pointing the camera at them. Some clients ask for table shots which I’ll then do of course, but if not requested, I limit myself to a single wide angle shot of all the guests at their tables. I’ll try to get up high for this one.

So, out comes the flash for the speeches. I try to bounce my flash off the wall that the speaker is facing. The highlight and shadow areas of the subject’s face are more pronounced this way, so it creates more depth to the face. If that wall is too far away, I bounce my flash off the ceiling. I set the aperture at around f/3.2 or f/3.5 so the subject is in focus but little else. The background is often full of people, items of the table and so on, so I like to throw all of that out of focus.

I also make sure I get lots of reaction shots from the guests, especially key wedding party members and any guests that I think I may have missed earlier in the day.

The trick is to try to anticipate a joke or light-hearted moment, and get the shot of someone’s reaction to this. Equally, photos showing a loving smile and happy tear or two balance out the fun shots really well. So wait for the times when the bride’s father says how amazing his daughter is, or the groom (hopefully!) says how much in love he is.

• Evening guests

Generally these guests take a bit of time to get in to things, and if I’m staying until around the time of the dancing I might miss that. The best thing I find is to catch the moment when they meet the bride or groom for the first time. They will always crack some jokes, hug and kiss, and this gives you an opportunity to get some good shots.

• The dancing

Shots of the first dance of course, followed up by the parents dancing, and the best man and bridesmaid performing their last official duty of the night. I am normally booked until the first dance, but I always stay for a few extra dances to catch the whole crowd joining in and going for it.

This is the only circumstance when I take some shots with direct flash rather than bounce. I also use a fish eye for some shots, again with direct flash. You get a great effect where the centre of the image is well lit but the surroundings are much darker. This really adds to the atmosphere. A whole room evenly lit by bouncing a flash above the couple doesn’t have anywhere near the same impact.

• Departure of the Bride and Groom

Things are a little different in other countries, but in the UK it was more than two years ago that I was at a wedding where the couple were seen off by everyone part way through the evening reception, to head out on their honeymoon. Shoot it if it happens and you’re still there of course. Also, then or preferably earlier when there’s more time, try to get a few low light night shots, perhaps with an off camera flash rim lighting the couple from behind.

Certainly, a romantic shot of the couple embracing as they look out in to the night or over a lake at twilight is a great final shot for the album.

6. Some Other Great Wedding Photography Tips

• Be at your best

Be nice, be polite, be friendly, be approachable. Don’t be bossy! If you’re stressed, don’t show it. If the wedding party like you, they’ll smile and be themselves because they’re relaxed, and they’ll probably go along with what you say too.

If a guest gets in your way during the group photos because they want to take a shot, let them, make a joke about it if you want. You might take 30 seconds longer to finish, but the guests will be smiling and you’ll get a lovely shot.

• Be different

Make sure your shot doesn’t look like a holiday snap. Think composition, get higher than everyone, get lower, shoot at an angle if it feels right (but not for the sake of it), shoot through or past objects for an intimate photo of the couple. Remember the rule of thirds – if the subject is 1/3 of the way from the top, bottom or side of the image, it tends to look just right. It’s fine to break the rule, and I wouldn’t do it for the groups, but keep to it for the most.

When to get really creative? To an extent, all the time of course. But once you know you have your key shots for any location in the bag, try something a little different if you want. I mentioned planning something during the wedding breakfast – that’s a great time to do a few testers, and there’s nothing wrong with grabbing a passing usher or bridesmaid and asking them to pose quickly whilst experiment with the lighting for the couple later on. You can even tell the couple you’re trying something new at the end. It will make them feel special, and they’ll probably understand if it doesn’t work out perfectly.

During the meal some of the parents with young children end up outside too. You can sometimes set up a great shot of the flowergirl and pageboy then.

• 2 cameras at once

I go for a 2 camera set up. I have one wide angle (17-40 mm) lens on one camera, and a telephoto (70-200 mm) lens on another so I can chop and change between the two quickly and at will. I hate scrambling around in my camera bag changing lenses and slowing things down. And the more waiting time for the couple or groups, the more bored and stiff they get. I do use other lenses at time – see the dancing below for a good use of a fish eye lens – and also have a macro lens for some of the detail shots.

• Be efficient

Shoot multiple shots with a single set up. So, if I’ve got the bride and groom posing together, I can move my position to shoot in to the bride’s eyes, and then the groom’s eyes, I can shoot a full length or just a head shot. I can then ask the bride to look over at me or at the groom, and I’ve got another shot. I can ask them to kiss or smile, or hug tighter, which often makes them laugh. I can ask the bride to put her hand on the groom’s cheek or put her arms round the back of his neck. Lots of shots very quickly without them having to move hardly at all.

• Take stock

Review during the wedding breakfast. I check the photos I’ve taken, refer to my list of important people, and note which shots and informal groups I’ve still got to do. Often, I’ll also plan some low light shots of the couple, perhaps inside or outside, and providing they are up for it.

• Digital or film?

A note on digital wedding photography tips as compared to film. All these tips apply to film or digital, but I only use digital and I don’t know any other wedding photographer who still uses film. Both have pros and cons, but I love being able to play around with some creative night shots for example, and see the results on the back of the camera whilst I’m doing it.

If a bride is particularly nervous, I might also show her a really nice shot of her early on in the day to show how great she looks.

• Think about the album as you shoot

Think about your album design whilst you’re photographing the day. I talked earlier on about getting shots of both the bride and groom as they are getting ready. This is a great way to start telling the story of the day, and gives them equal attention. Another example might be to shoot a full length landscape shot of the couple in a nice setting, followed by two portrait shots of them together or one of each of them, in the same location and lighting. This would make a great spread in the album, the landscape shot on the right hand side page, and the two portrait shots side by side on the left.

• Shoot to sell

Linked to this, always remember that this is a business too, and it’s about selling lots of photos, whether in a bigger album or through reprints, framed shots, whatever. All my photos go online once the couple have had their viewing, and I try to make sure I have shots of the wedding party with their partners too, shots of all the children on the day, and anything else I think people might like. Why not shoot a nice family portrait of the aunt, uncle and cousins, or the mother of the bride with all her sisters?

• Backup!!!

One of the most important of all wedding photography tips – backup everything. As soon as you can. As I said earlier, some cameras have two memory cards which is great, although changing them round takes a little longer.

You can get portable storage devices and backup your work to date during the meal, but either way, I like to download everything to my computer as soon as I get home, and then make another backup on disc the next day, and store that at another location – just in case a fire wiped out your memory cards and computer at the same time.

• Finish the job

Finally, I like to completely edit the wedding whilst it is still fresh in my mind. I leave a couple of days to recover from what is a very intense and busy day, then get to work. I know some photographers that leave their post production until the end of the summer for example, and then storm it all at once.

Personally though, I would definitely lack motivation to do a great job if I was ploughing through one wedding after another. To some extent, I’d just want to get it over with. Plus I would tend to forget who’s who, and how the different elements of the day fitted together.

Plus, the couple don’t want to wait an age for their photographs. This is one of many parts of the customer experience that you need to do right. And from a commercial perspective, they are more likely to buy more photographs or a better album closer to the wedding date when they are still reflecting on what an amazing day it was and are very much emotionally attached to the images.

That’s it, in a nutshell

I hope these wedding photography tips and tricks, ideas and suggestions, call them what you will, have helped, but please comment if you would like to discuss anything in more detail.

Although this is quite a long article, there are masses of things I’ve not been able to go in to fully, but there will be lots more articles and resources on their way soon.

Oh, and good luck…

Stefan