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Home >> Learning >> e-Book on Wedding Photography Table of Contents Wedding Photography e-Book - Wedding Day Workflow and Putting it all together
As the hired photographer you generally do have the run of the show – within reason. Your job is to take photos at key moments which means that you will get in someone’s way or view, but you do what you have to do while keeping your behavior and attitude in good taste and harmony with the way the day is unfolding. Remember your professionalism and a few excuse me’s and apologies help along the way too. The length of time you will spend at a wedding and the type of coverage you will provide will depend on the wedding package the couple has agreed to purchase. You may find yourself running on your feet from 8 am to 1 am, or you may be requested to show up for a four-hour stint of ceremony, formals and partial reception. Most of the preparation notes I covered are oriented for a full day wedding, so adjust according to the actual package you will provide. Some brides will request that you show up at her parents’ house to photograph her getting made-up and dressed for the wedding. The general coverage will include make-up application and oftentimes the bride’s friends and attendants are present, so some good buddy-buddy shots can be taken of them getting made-up too. Get them nice and close for some face shots. If the bride’s parents are around, get a few informal shots of them alone and with the bride. The bride getting made-up is also a good time to use a really fast lens to isolate just her face with an extremely shallow depth of field. Seeing such photos taken with a Canon 85mm f1.2 wide-open were incredible. The bride’s dress should be available before the bride puts it on, so check out the dress for any special details that would avail itself for a macro shot. A few “found” shots of the dress would be good coverage to have, found meaning finding it hanging on a hook or laid out on a bed. Including the shoes with the dress would be a good setup shot.
After the bride has put on the dress, her helpers will be fussing and smoothing it over and will make for more good coverage. You may wish to suggest that the bride’s mother become involved for the finishing touches for some intimate photos of the two. For the traditionally minded the bride will shortly pin a boutonnière on her father’s suit jacket’s lapel. When the bride, her helpers and her family are ready, the car or limo should be coming soon if not already present. The general rule of thumb is if it looks expensive take a photo of it for record keeping. This applies not only to cars but anything that looks expensive, from the catering, floral display, table settings, wine, etc.
Photos of the bride entering the car and exiting at the church or ceremony location are standard, but slap on the wide-angle zoom or fisheye and get some fun shots inside the limo. Try and get some once the groom is along for the ride too. After that, meet up with the bride at the church. If the timing is good, you should have a few moments at the church before the bride arrives, so get photos of the groom and his attendants along with guests coming in and signing the guest book.
This also a good time to meet with the minister or justice to go over any do’s and don’ts that may apply for the person and/or church. As mentioned elsewhere, certain churches (Catholic and Anglican) have rules on when to use flash and when not to. Individual ministers may also have their own rules of what is appropriate and not for photographic coverage. These rules have developed over time because of the boorish behavior of some photographers in the past that have served to mark all wedding photographers as boors. By stepping up onto the altar during sensitive parts of a ceremony, to firing a flash in the minister’s face, and just generally not being discreet is what has been some of the no no’s that today’s wedding photographer should avoid. I know that many photographers want to push the boundaries for the “shot”, the must have killer that could make a huge sale, but not at the expense of angering the subjects involved. You don’t hear about the good behaving photographers, just the bad ones and they stigmatize the whole industry. As a beginning and part timer photographer, you especially want to ensure your name is sterling.
Most ministers, even with rules, are good to deal with as long as you don’t cross the line. By following their rules it is much easier to have them involved in the photos after the ceremony and be in their good books for a future job that involves them again.
Sometimes the bride and her party will head directly into a dedicated waiting area inside the church or simply wait in the car until the music starts and it’s time for her to take her walk down the aisle. If the former, there will be a last minute once over of all the girls that you can get some shots of. Be sure to get some photos of the flower girl and ring boy if present. Close ups of the rings on the pillow are nice to have, but these are usually fake because the real rings are held by the maid of honor and best man. If time permits, obtain the real rings and do some setup shots after the ceremony during a lull. When the ceremony begins in earnest, the groom and his attendants will walk up to the altar. Sometimes they walk down the aisle and sometimes they just come out from a side door. If you did not attend the rehearsal you’ll have to find out beforehand how the men will appear since you well know how the women will come out.
Once the groom and his attendants have appeared and positioned themselves at the altar, the parents of the couple will often walk down the aisle first, then the flower girl and ring boy followed by the bride’s attendants. If the father of the bride escorted the mother down the aisle, he usually scampers away down the side of the church to escort the bride. Other times, someone else may escort the mother down the aisle. Needless to say you must take photos of all of these people walking down the aisle. Always be aware of your film count to ensure you have plenty of frames for the bride’s moment. If you’re getting near the end of the frame either shoot them off quickly on the preceding subjects or else rewind and insert a fresh roll before the bride appears. It is also needless to say that you as the photographer will not be walking backwards down the aisle in front of the bride. Stake out your position at the front of the aisle on one of the sides and take a middle position at the beginning of the walk and then move to the side again when she is near the front of the aisle. Do this for all the main subjects walking down the aisle. When the bride has reached the altar, get up and walk backwards away from the subjects to capture the father handing off the bride to the groom and any lifting of the veil and kissing moments.
With a two-camera system, I start with the 70-200 lens when the bride is at the beginning of the walk and then switch to the normal range lens when I can no longer fit the whole bride in with the 70mm focal length, about midway down the walk. I may switch back to the longer lens to do tighter close-ups of the bride though. At this point, it’s all instinct and intuition as to which lens to use and what kind of photo I want to take based upon what I see transpiring in front of me. When the minister begins his ceremony, the action is in a lull and this is the time to head to the back of the church and try some tripod-mounted ambient light shots. If there is a balcony, have the tripod setup before the ceremony so that you can quickly go up and down for some overhead photos. Catholic ceremonies usually have members of the wedding party or a guest head up to a podium to do some readings and prayers. Usually four or five readings are done and there is no objection to having flash photos taken of them. While flash is allowed during the beginning of a church ceremony, you still do not want to go overboard and start strobing up the place, choose your photos wisely for discretion.
After the minister or justice has said their opening comments and prayers, the vows are exchanged, the rings placed on the finger and then the kiss. All require photos, but especially the kiss, so again, be mindful of your film count and be sure to have enough to cover multiple shots. A word to the wise about flash and motor drive for such photos, the moment only lasts for a few seconds (usually) and while your pro-grade camera can rip through 5-10 frames per second, your flash cannot if you use lowly akalines. Even expensive lithium cells can have it tough to recharge quickly enough to throw adequate light for a motor driven sequence of shots. The best choice (in my experience) for fast recycling are high-power NiMH rechargeable cells that crank the juice and may give you just enough power to recycle fast enough for the second and third shots. If not, then your first shot will be properly lit followed by underpowered flash shots in the motor sequence. Nikon users now have the option of using the new SB800DX that add a fifth cell to the flash to really improve the recycling performance of the flash.
After the kiss, the minister or justice will sometimes introduce the newly married couple to the guests, but the ceremony is not actually over yet, as the signing of the registrar and marriage certificates are required. The signing is presided over by minister or justice with the bride and groom and one witness for each, the maid of honor and best man signing the papers. This is when photographers are allowed up to the altar to take photos. After the signing, take a group photo for record keeping.
Now the couple will be officially introduced and the guests rise and clap. After a moment, the bride and groom walk down the aisle followed by their wedding party. It can be difficult to get shots of all of the wedding party as they come down because a single photographer really has to walk backwards out of the church and capture the couple emerging from the church doors. This is where a second photographer really helps out in the coverage so that the primary photographer focuses on the couple while the second takes the walking down the aisle shots of the wedding party, flower girl and ring boy, and then the parents and guests.
Mingling, handshaking, backslapping, cheek kissing all occur as the couple receives their congratulations from the guests. Plenty of candid moments will be available. After the initial euphoria, the time comes that a large group shot of the wedding party and guests can be taken in front of the church. Use whatever natural or manmade props are available to organize the group. This could be a staircase in front of the church where you shoot from a down position looking up or an open space in a garden or lawn that is best for you to be high up on a step ladder and tripod fully extended (not by the centre column though).
After that, the wedding party will head for the cars and depart the church. Car shots from outside and inside are available here. If the car has a sunroof, more photos are available of people sticking their upper body through it. It’s best if the sunroof shot is a spontaneous act by a member of the wedding party, but if not, it does not hurt to “encourage” the use of the sunroof.
In my city of Vancouver, there are a couple of areas that are very popular for taking wedding photos. A garden set in an old quarry called Queen Elizabeth Park often results in lineups of bridal parties trying to get some shots beside a small waterfall that I personally find dismal and ugly, but does fall into a very small pool that offers potential. Another location in my local suburb at an old heritage building near Burnaby’s city hall also has many bridal parties going in and out of the garden paths and green space. Gardens are popular because they are pretty, but pretty also means popular and you have to accept that your awesomely scouted location might also be also be a favorite of dozens of other photographers. Beaches offer another classic location for wedding photos, but be mindful of the mess that can arise from the sand and water. Also, whenever you are photographing in the public, crowds form to watch the shoot. It’s no big deal and I enjoy the good vibes that arise when people look on while you work. They usually stay out of the way and sometimes they can even be called into assist for holding up a background, so don’t sweat the gawkers.
Always ensure that the couple provides a list of group photos they want taken and try to have a family member designated as your go between. This person is the one you talk to help you out with the groups and who’s next and so forth. They’re also the ones to talk to family incase of language barriers between you and the family and the directions you need to give to organize the group. With such a person coordinating which groups come next on a list, you can work pretty quickly and efficiently to keep everyone happy because taking photos is actually pretty hard work for everyone involved. For certain ethnic groups, the family photo is paramount and you should respect this. Chinese for example may not see some family except at weddings and funerals and the parents of the couple consider this moment as a key highlight of the wedding. Take plenty of photos here because film is cheap compared to the wrath of a Chinese mother who will complain incessantly about the photo you didn’t take or flubbed over the ones you got right.
If an elderly member of the family seems to be receiving extra attention, be sure to get some candids and formal portraits with the couple and extended family. Work the group photos with the older members first so that they can leave early and rest up for the reception. You can try some variations for groups photos such as arranging men on one side and the females on the other, but most people expect that family groups and couples remain together for a large group photo. If the group arranges itself naturally and you try to bring about a little more harmony in the structure, you may end up ruffling some feathers, as I did one time when I suggested that one woman without a male companion move to the other side of the group for better balance, only to be “told” by another woman from the other side that she was not a part of “their” family. Er…aren’t we all family? I left the woman where she was and took the photo as is rather than annoy the other woman further, but I felt bad for the lady I asked to move because she was willing and then had to return to her original space after the rude rebuttal about “family.” Babies can be difficult because their attention is not on the camera but what’s happening two or three feet on either side of them. Toddlers and young kids can at least be cajoled into paying attention to the photographer acting like an idiot, so let the kid or clown in you out when the kids are present. Just make sure the grownups receive instructions to keep their eyes on the lens and not you. And take plenty of photos when babies and kids are involved, double, even triple the number of regular shots with just grownups in them.
Once the groups have been taken care of, you can move onto the couple and the bridal party only photos. If time and coverage permits, individual, couple and group photos of each member of the party is nice to have and offer. The couple may decide that they would like to give such photos to the party members as gifts, meaning more potential revenue for you.
Posing is what I find to be the most challenging aspect of wedding photography. Candids seem easy enough because it’s about gut reaction to a scene and being quick enough to capture it. It still takes skill in composing quickly and efficiently to photograph candids, but I’m more at ease with this style than intimate setup photos of the couples. Even groups can be simple enough because you want some symmetry for the group and you generally have the time to move people around to achieve that symmetry in the viewfinder – a second opinion from the second photographer or assistant is also nice, so if available, be sure to ask. Posing couples for their intimate formals is where butterflies float inside my stomach and sting me like a bee, as I work through my limited repertoire of poses. I’ve even taken to scanning some poses and then saving the small JPEGs in my Pocket PC for instant recall when I run into a brain-dead moment. One does whatever is necessary to get the job done.
One specific tip that I can provide is be sure to get enough tight close ups of the couple and of the bride and groom alone. I use to cheat with medium format and take relatively wide shots of the couple on the basis that I could crop more intimately for an enlargement, but the 5x5 proof print would still show a wide view and this leads couples (brides usually) to think that it was not intimate enough. In essence, fill the frame to maximize the quality of your film format instead of cheating. The bride will feel that she got more of her money’s worth for it.
Don’t forget the groom alone. Because so much of the photographic coverage is of the bride or of her with the groom, the groom is often forgotten. A wedding may be one of the rare opportunities he has to be fully decked out in formal dress and few good portraits of him alone should be good sellers. Some less formal poses of him without a jacket would also be good – you know the GQ thing with the jacket held by the fingers slung over the one shoulder. Also, shots of him with the best man and also with any other attendants – you know, the fellas.
After all that a break should present itself for the wedding party and the photographer. This break between the ceremony/formals and the reception can be quite lengthy if the ceremony is early in the day and the reception is at normal dinner party hours. What to do with the break depends on the couple, culture and traditions in place.
For other cultural groups there may be nothing expected of the photographer during this lull and it is a good time to check up on battery power and usage. I’ve found that my 70-200 VR lens is a voracious power hog and I like to change batteries midway through a long day to ensure I have enough juice for the night. The other camera and flash units do fine on the same set of rechargeables. The break is also a good time to reflect on how the day went, how the photos might turn out and what or whom you may have missed and need to take more photos of during the reception. Any equipment breakdowns or issues need to be resolved then and there and what alternatives are at hand if the problem cannot be resolved. Get some food and water into the body, rest up if you can, change clothes if required and prepare for a potentially long night of partying. Receptions and/or dinners can differ based upon ethnic groups. For the Chinese couples, a huge dinner is what the reception is all about and while plenty of events occur during the dinner, by around 10 pm, most guests straggle out of the restaurant as dancing and continued partying is rare. As a photographer, you know that you’ll be out of the place by around 11 pm, once the last round of family photos have been taken. Often times, the couple will ensure a seat at a table for you even though you did not request such a benefit, a sign of cultural politeness.
It’s a nice gesture to offer to stay for the first set of formal dances so that the bride gets a photo of her dancing with her father and the groom with his mother and then bride and groom alone, but beyond that, if you’ve met your hours, the more you do means the more money coming out of the profits. It’s a fine line to straddle because the more you do, the better your name will be and the better the potential for referrals, but do too much and you’re eating into your bottom line for time and film used. For those receptions where you are in attendance till the end, there are a couple of events to make note of, all pretty straightforward and pretty obvious. The cake cutting sometimes happens at the beginning and sometimes at the end of dinner and is distributed as dessert to the guests. Champagne accompanies the cake cutting in most cases and little bit of intertwined arms drinking is the norm for the couple. Because this is a significant event, many guests will come up to take their own photos. Don’t be worried about these snap-shooters, just make sure you are up early and have staked out the best position to take your photos. Your best position is not directly in front of the cake because then you have the cake between you and the couple, but off to an angle that allows you to see the whole cake and the couple cutting the cake.
Bouquet tosses happen after dinner and an ultra wide-angle lens is good to have for these shots. I like to show the bride at the extreme of the frame on one side and the girls wanting the bouquet on the other side. Because of the lack of room to maneuver in most restaurants or halls, the wide-angle is what works to capture all the action. A motor sequence of shots allows me to get shots of the bride in preparation for the toss, the bouquet in mid air and then the arms reaching for it and the lucky girl who got ultimately got it. It makes for a great series of shots because no one pays attention to you and all eyes are on the bouquet, pure candid. Afterwards, get a shot of the girl alone and with the bride for the record.
The garter toss follows the same guidelines as the bouquet toss, except that shots of the groom getting in close to his new wife’s legs precedes the tossing of the frilly lace. Afterwards same MO, wide perspective and motor sequence of shots to catch all the action. Take a photo of the lucky guy with the groom afterwards. Often times at receptions, stories are told and incidents occur, so be on the lookout for facial expressions on the couple and the most important guests. The truly candid moments always make for excellent photos and despite you hovering around, the couple will express surprise that you got such photos because they will have hardly noticed you at all.
During the dancing, get creative and experimental with your flash and shutter speed and knock off a few frames with a slow shutter (aka dragging the shutter) with regular, slow and rear curtain flash sync. You may only get a few good shots out of it, but they can be a great capper to the coverage for the night.
Optical wireless means that the flash triggering is line of site and because the trigger is usually a weaker flash unit that is either white light or infrared in output. Because it is line of sight for operation, the remote flashes will see any other source of white light flash or infrared and will fire without any command from you. A channels based system can be radio controlled for excellent coverage over long distances, but is very expensive, or can also be infrared (cheaper), but is tunable to work within certain channels. This allows the flash to be triggered by you only instead of somebody else using a point and shoot. If you are in a large venue with other photographers using the same brand, it is possible that there will be interference or channel sharing and your remote flashes can still be triggered without your signal. While you are forced to use flash for most of a reception, you can try some ambient light shots with high speed B&W or use a VR/IS lens to work with slow shutter speeds. After finishing off the night, it's time to pack up and head home for some R&R. |
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Correspondence & About this website Copyright © 1998-2008 Edwin Leong |
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As a wedding photographer you are obviously
at an event to take photos. This is your job and why you were hired,
that you had the kind of style and vision that appealed to the couple.
This is not the time to be shy and if you’re introverted, best to
find another type of photography to get into, like landscapes.
If the timing is really good, you’ll be able
to arrive at the church well before the guests do, which will allow
for some ambient light shots of a nice looking church, or other setup
shots if it is not a church wedding. The church or ceremony location
is often when the groom’s side of the family gathers together and
hand out and pin on the boutonnières. All good photo ops of course.
You’ll want to familiarize yourself with the groom’s family and who
the important members are for later photos. 
Generally, the ministers are the ones with
the rules to follow whereas the justices are much more relaxed. I’ve
met a few justices that gave me carte blanche to do what I needed
to cover the event, even if it meant being right on top of the guy,
as one explained it. These justices understood that while marriage
is a formal ceremony filled with tradition, it was not for them to
impose restrictions because they saw it as a celebration of the couple
and it was more important to ensure the couple had good photos than
to follow strict tradition. Obviously, these justices made for an
excellent photographing environment that freed me to take the photos
I needed from wherever I had to be. 
A
few shots of the guest arriving are good record keeping moments, but
the real action begins when the bride arrives. Shots of the limo,
carriage or car are part of the coverage, as are the bride stepping
out of the vehicle. Again, if the mode of transportation looks special
or expensive, get a shot or two of it. If you have time, get creative
with the angles after taking the standard record keeping shot.
I was shooting
a wedding in which neither myself nor the main photographer knew exactly
how the men would appear in the very large modern style church. We
saw ushers escorting the guests in and asked them about the entrance,
assuming that they were members of the wedding party, but they surprised
us by saying they did not know. Not until the ceremony began when
the groom and his real attendants emerged from a non-descript side
door near the front of the church did we know how they would appear
and it was a frantic moment of rushing to photograph the entrance
when we saw them. The ushers were simply ushers and not wedding party
members.
Things to watch for are emotions from the
bride and perhaps even the groom, i.e., tears falling. This is the
time that some high-speed B&W film adds a different look than
flat, flash lighting and also helps to reduce the amount of flash
required to capture the events. Be sure to watch the guests as well
for any emotions or expressions on their faces. Little kids and babies
are always sure-fire “aw” moments when the bride looks at the proofs,
followed by comments such as, “we have get copies of the baby pics
for so and so”, cha-ching, the sound of money 
For many couples, right after the ceremony
is when formal portraits are taken. If the church is large enough
and nice enough, the formals and groups photos can be taken right
on the grounds, but if not then a suitable location has to be determined
by the couple. 
Before the intimate couple’s photos are taken,
it is best to get all the group formals out of the way. Guests don’t
like hanging around for hours waiting for their turn, so get the non-family
guests out of the way first then move onto extended family and then
immediate family. Immediate family may not like waiting around either
but they would be more tolerant of having to wait then regular guests
and other extended family members.
My wife, who is now a Chinese mother three
times over, has always groused about the amount of money I have spent
pursuing photography, but mysteriously goes quiet whenever her family
has an event that is a prime picture taking moment and at times will
even request that I bring my best equipment for the photos. I of course
make her “beg” for my willingness to take her cherished family photos
– hey, I take my victories where and when I can 
Of course, the key photos are of the bride
and groom and again be sure to take photos of both alone and together,
with a heavy emphasis on the bride. Full-length photos of the dress,
torso shots and the close-up photos of the head and shoulders will
ensure proper coverage. Most photos will be setup with you directing
the positions and posing, but do be aware of the candid moments that
occur such as you futzing with the camera and the couple talking,
cooing and kissing intimately. If you work alone, it’s a good idea
to keep a 35mm rig on your shoulder to quickly catch these moments
while you are getting a tripod mounted camera ready, otherwise, make
sure your second photographer is aware of catching these photos while
you get ready.
Chinese couples often use the break to do
tea ceremonies for the parents. Convenient if all of it is at one
house, but other times the couple has to rush from one parent’s house
to the other to do two sets of ceremonies. A lot of film can be used
during these moments depending on how many relatives there are to
present tea to. Chinese brides can receive wrist and neck breaking
amounts of jewelry during the ceremony when the mother, grandmother
and aunts present their gifts.
For couples following western tradition,
dinner is followed by dancing and celebrating with a DJ or live band
to get the people into the swing of things. Unless you’ve been specifically
told that you will not be needed past the first set of dances, you
may find yourself there to the end, meaning the wee hours of the AM.
This is obviously dependent on the number of hours agreed upon and
it’s best to make your exit as quickly as possible once your hours
have been met, so that family or guests aren’t coming up to you passed
the set package time and requesting photos to be taken.
It goes without saying that the majority
of your photos during a reception will be flash lit due to the low
ambient lighting of most restaurants and halls. While ISO 800 is great
for such times, I do find that anything larger than 4x6/5x7 gets grainy,
so if group photos are requested, use a slower film and utilize more
lights if possible. Studio lights might not be possible, but an assistant
or spare guest holding one or two flash units can allow you to use
slow film with small apertures to hold depth of field. A flash system
that allows for easy wireless TTL would be great for such moments.
Wireless TTL should also be channel dependent, not optically based
otherwise other people taking photos will trigger your flash units.
The Canon 550EX is a capable channels based wireless TTL system for
film and digital. The new Nikon SB800DX looks great too, but at this
time, it can only be used with cameras supporting the new iTTL standard
(D2H and D70 digital bodies as of this writing). Minolta was a pioneer
in wireless flash channels capabilities, but I believe the flash mode
is Auto and not TTL as with Canon and Nikon.