Shots during a wedding ceremony

Diddy2theJJ · Jul 19, 2011

I'm kind of struggling a little bit with artistic shots during the wedding ceremony. I of course get photos of the main moments, but they are usually from down the aisle from the couple so I get both of them and not focus on the face of one and the back of the head of the other.

I don't really know how to get up close and personal other than have a second photographer on one side of the couple, and me on the other side....so I would get the bride's face, and the other photog would get the groom's face.

I feel like the photos I'm getting right now are pretty standard and they don't really blow me away, but I'm not really sure what else to do. I have a 70-200 IS L series lens that I shoot with so I can at least fill the frame up with them. But I want to get both of their faces in the shot, so I stay centered down the aisle...and I don't want to get in people's way by being up front with this too. Maybe those photos are fine too and I'm just over thinking all of this. I generally will do the artistic and fun shots before the wedding with the couple and the bridal party.

Thoughts?

Robin Usagani · Jul 19, 2011

Yeah man.. it is hard. One thing that someone told me is to focus on the subject and wait for a 5-10 seconds until you see "that" moment and snap. If you dont see anything then snap away just to make sure you cover the event. While you are doing this also think about how the frame will look and dont always put the subject in the middle. What you want to include in the background ... stuff like that. When you find the trick, let me know.. im struggling too.

EPPhoto · Jul 20, 2011

I do the same thing Schwetty said. Hold my focus and just wait for the moment...sometimes it happens...sometimes it doesn't. The ceremony is hard to get artsy with. I usually look for a balcony I can get up to get a different angle or shoot a shallow DOF with the parents in focus with the bride and groom in the background slightly OOF. Just gotta be creative!

Big Mike · Jul 20, 2011

In many cases, yes...it's hard to be artistic when you are limited by where you can shoot from and when you're not in control of the goings-on.
I'm usually shooting weddings with someone else, so we can each cover a side, and then one of us will also cover the 'from the front' shots.

Part of a wedding photographer's job, is to document the event. Wedding ceremonies are usually pretty boring events. Of course, the are the most important part of the wedding, but there isn't usually a whole lot going on. I first make sure that I document the event with photos, in a way that captures the 'feel' of it. And secondary to that, I'll try to get artistic shots to compliment the documentary shots.

And it's not unheard of to re-stage some of the important moments from the ceremony, so that you are free to photograph them from whatever angle you want.

The last wedding I shot...it finally happened. When the bride was reciting her vows, instead of saying 'Lawfully wedded husband'....she said 'Awfully wedded husband'. The whole place as in stitches.

joealcantar · Jul 20, 2011

I know you are struggling for a different look , have you considered having a second body with a different lens on it to give you that different perspective? Alot of folks learn on a DX frame and step up to a low light capability camera whether DX or FX and the other body is just laying around. You just have to think of the deadly combination for that body that always got you great results and use it. I have a D700 and that is the primary camera but the D200 with a 17-55mm and flash is a great combo and still use it.
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Shoot well , Joe

Diddy2theJJ · Jul 20, 2011

Thanks for the comments guys. I did just purchase a secondary body, a 5D mk II which has been a great low light camera. I've been using this with my 70-200 f/2.8 lens and leaving the 15-85mm on my 7D to change things up. I'm glad you brought up that secondary body with a flash. I have been trying not to use a flash during the ceremony...it seems like it it too intrusive during the ceremony, especially when I like to take alot of photos to make sure I don't get them blinking etc. Do you guys use flash? I have seen some people use it and some not at ceremonies.

Mike, I bet you got some great reaction shots with that! Good point about documenting it as well. That's what I've been doing, as well as trying to get a few artistic shots to compliment them.

I tried buying a light sphere, but I haven't had time to really play around with it enough to get comfortable with using it during a ceremony. I think some flash would help considerably with the ceremony shots, especially the initial ones of them coming down the aisle. They tend to get a bit noisy when without it, but that can also be a nice look as well.

jake337 · Jul 20, 2011

How about setting up your second camera on a tripod with a remote shutter release? If you could mount a lens with a close enough hyperfocal distance you could set it in a place to get document the vows with the pastor(or whomever), bride/groom, wedding party and the whole audience. In my head I picture it behind the pastor head. What I'm really thinking, although I don't know if possible, is a UWA tilt shift above/behind pastor to get a symetrical view of the bride/groom and having the lenstilt/shifted to keep evereything straight. You could be hitting the remote shutter randomly or even set the camera to take photos every few seconds for the whole ceremony. But lets say the ceremony was an hour long, if you did 1 every second youd have 3600 photos to go through, every 5 seconds would be 720.

Now I've never done, nor would want to do a wedding but brainstorming ideas is fun.

Diddy2theJJ · Jul 20, 2011

I've been thinking about doing something different like that, I never thought of a tilt-shift lens though. What I have thought about is using my GoPro...but it's only like a 2 megapixel camera. It's got an extremely wide angle lens and never needs to be focused. And you can mount it pretty much anywhere. It's made more for video than stills, but it will work. I don't think you can get a very large print out of it, but it would make for a cool photo for them to have digitally I would think.

Diddy2theJJ · Jul 20, 2011

I wouldn't be too concerned about the amount of photos...They would all be so similar that you could probably go through them pretty quickly and delete the rest of them. (even though I have a really hard time deleting any photo).

Big Mike · Jul 20, 2011

Maybe those photos are fine too and I'm just over thinking all of this.

Maybe.

When I think of/see creative wedding photos...or when I look through photographer's website....I seldom see photos of the ceremony. There are so many other ways to get creative during the day.

I know that we don't really think of it this way anymore (most of us anyway), but back when wedding photographers made their money by selling prints & reprints, it was very easy for them to tell which type of shots sold and which didn't. They had their 'money shots', that would get a lot of print orders and then there are a bunch of photos that never make it past the 4x6 proof stage. The pros who were smart, would concentrate on the money shots and not worry too much about the artsy-fartsy shots that didn't sell anyway. That is certainly smart business, but I think it also led to an era of boring wedding photography...were all the photographer was required to do, was to document the wedding and get the standard posed formal shots. It was only the really good photographers who experimented with dramatic lighting and 'epic' shots.
These days, in the digital era, it's easier to get creative and try different things. Partially because more photos don't cost more on film processing, but also because we don't make all our money on re-print sales. So as long as we give them the 'standard' shots that they need...we are pretty much free to go after those epic shots that may or may not be good sellers...but they sure look better on a web site than a posed shot of the bride with her parents.
Of course, the best photographers are still a step above and probably do make plenty by selling prints of the epic shots....but at the end of the day, I think the 'money shots' are still the same. Posed photo of B&G. B&G with parents/family etc.

And getting back to my point (I think I had a point :er: ), shots of the ceremony probably were never as high on the list as the formals. Sure, it's nice to have a great photo of the bride being walked down the isle by her father...but the shot that they buy/print, is still going to be the posed shot of the bride and her father.

IgsEMT · Jul 21, 2011

LIGHTING

If you want to take your photography to next step, improve your lighting.

jimmyander · Jul 22, 2011

i agree that lighting is very important to improve your photography.

Big Mike · Jul 22, 2011

That's part of the trouble with shooting the ceremony. You often have little control over your lighting. I've been allowed to set up off-camera lighting once or twice for a ceremony...but usually it won't be allowed, or you just don't have time/room for it. There are several techniques you can use with on-camera lighting, but that is still fairly limiting.

Overall, yes of course, better lighting is the key to better photos...but when talking about the ceremony, you often just do what you can with what is available and get creative afterward.