Transcript
The staple of any good wedding photography album is the classic posed portraits. Bride and groom, bride and groom with Aunt Josephine, Uncle Henry. It can be kinda challenging, bang, bang, bang, bang, bang, doing all these portraits at once. There’s a couple really simple ways you can ensure that you’re going to get a great picture of everybody in the family.
The ways to do that are try to shoot in natural light. Shoot outdoors, shoot by a window; somewhere where you know that they’re going to be lit well and they’re going to look good. You won’t have to deal with a flash. Obviously if worse comes to worse, use a flash. Make sure you bounce it up and off the ceiling so it falls down in a much more natural pattern. That will be great too.
Obviously avoid having your subjects look directly into the sun or into a light source. Tilt their heads. Have them shimmy over one way or another.
The best way to ensure that everybody is looking good and has a good smile is to bang off a bunch of frames. The way I like to do this is I’ll take my camera, usually with a lens attached, and I’ll stand there, and I’ll get everybody posed. I’ll line up the photo, and I’ll go, “OK. I’m going to take it in 1-2-3.”
As I’m saying 1-2-3, counting down to take the photo, I’m taking photos before, and I’m taking photos after. I might shoot in total of eight photos for the one portrait. That way, because they’re so quick, chances are you’re going to get at least one image where everybody’s eyes are open, everybody has somewhat of a natural smile, and it just makes it a whole lot easier.
People often tense up when they think they’re getting their picture taken. Shooting frames before they think you’re shooting the frame and after ensures that you get a little bit more natural of a look. Those are just some tips to get good portrait photographs at a wedding.
