How to wedding photography
Wedding Photography: 7 Tips for Photographing your First Wedding
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so let's go over some tips for your
first wedding
[Music]
what's up
this is john from drawbacks for
photography and if you're new to the
channel i'm a fujifilm creator and
wedding photographer and have been for
seven years now one thing i'm always
getting questions about is how to handle
your first wedding day and obviously i
have full wedding day behind the scenes
videos which will help you out and give
you some tips y'all can check those out
right up above but let's go ahead and
just straight up get into seven tips to
help you all out with your first wedding
now keep in mind before you do your
first wedding there's definitely some
things that i believe you should
understand first so let's talk about the
prereqs before you start getting into
wedding photography first and foremost
you definitely need to understand the
exposure triangle or how to get a good
exposure obviously you don't have to be
a master of this but if you're still
struggling on how to get a good exposure
in nearly any situation you probably
want to slow down on weddings and either
second shoot or practice doing portraits
or street photography or something of
that sort again people are paying you
money to capture a special day you can't
be sitting there messing around like i
don't know how to get exposure you need
to you need to at least understand it
next up is you have to be very
comfortable with your camera again you
don't need to know all the secret in and
outs of your camera but if you don't
know how to get to places quickly and
change your settings fast you also need
to practice on your camera a little bit
more before you start doing weddings
again wedding days can be fast paced and
when there's no time and someone's
asking you for something and you're
trying to make changes and you're back
there chimping on your camera because
you don't know what to do
no you cannot do that at weddings so you
need to understand your camera also make
sure you're shooting in raw
this one is a given and i'm sure
everyone has heard this before but the
main reason that you're shooting in raw
is so that you have more flexibility in
your edits now i will argue shooting in
jpeg is possible but if you're not able
to shoot jpeg and raw and have the raws
as backups you need to just shoot raw
never never go into a wedding shooting
only jpeg and last but not least use a
dual camera setup or at least have a
backup body so you all have seen in my
full wedding day videos that i use a
dual camera strap system so i have two
cameras on me exact same bodies
throughout the day now the main reason i
do this is because i use prime lenses
but honestly you should have a backup
regardless basically if one of my
cameras gives up on me for whatever
reason i have another camera ready to go
so even if you are shooting with zooms
and you're using one camera have another
of that same body in a bag somewhere
that you can go grab in case something
happens
so those are the prereqs if you don't
have all of that down first
don't get into weddings seriously take
some time to practice do portraits with
friends do engagement sessions do street
photography because honestly in my
opinion street photography is probably
one of the closest things to weddings
and if y'all want me to make a video
about that let me know in the comments
below so once you've hit these prereqs
now let's get into the seven tips i have
for you for shooting your first wedding
starting out with the hands down most
important which is pre-wedding
communication
now you may be thinking john this has
nothing to do with using my camera and
all of that type of stuff but again you
should already know how to do the
majority of that
your pre-wedding communication is the
absolute most important part of being a
wedding photographer if you're not
meeting with your couple multiple times
if you're not setting expectations with
them if you're not making sure they know
what you're about and how you like to
approach photography you're setting
yourself up for disaster i meet with my
couple at least three times pre-booking
in the middle while we're waiting for
the wedding and then right before the
wedding maybe like a week or so this way
we can set expectations and also just
talk over the day and make sure that
everything is in stone and they know
what i want from them and i know what
they want from me seriously if you've
seen my behind-the-scene wedding day
videos you're like wow how are his
wedding so smooth it's because of
pre-wedding communication generally for
communication i use honeybook because it
keeps everything in one nice thread you
can see it here we talk through
everything and if something comes up i
can just scroll back through the thread
and see it right there i got away from
just using email or gmail or something
of that sort because there'd be all
these threads that everyone would start
and i have to go through and search
through things so seriously definitely
check out honeybook i have a 50 off code
in the description below for you all on
your first year
all your communication should definitely
go through there you can also ask them
questions through questionnaires and
line up everything so that your
communication is smooth and you have a
smooth wedding day and speaking of using
honeybook for sending questionnaires you
also need to be writing your own
timelines so this may be one that you
didn't think about at all because
usually most photographers will just let
the planner handle all that stuff but in
my opinion you really really need to
write your own timelines so that
everyone knows where you are and what
you're going to be doing if you have a
planner for your wedding day make sure
you don't step on their toes at all
write your timeline so that it fits
within theirs and if there's anything
that conflicts with how you would handle
the wedding days for photos talk with
your planner about it again don't fight
with them talk with them about it see
what they want see what you can do and
say hey i like doing my wedding days
like this it works out for most of my
couples can we adjust here and there but
always always write your own timelines
again when you do this you become the
authority of the wedding day you don't
want your wedding day to run you
you want to run the wedding day so that
now when you have a timeline and the
planner is on the same page with your
timeline everybody knows okay we're
doing these portraits here we have this
much time for that now it's time for
family portraits so on and so forth
never just show up to your wedding days
and be like okay guys i'm gonna take
photos don't
don't you will run into headaches really
handle your wedding days and write your
own timelines this next tip is hugely
important as well which is having a list
for your family portraits so in my
opinion one of the most stressful parts
of a wedding day is the family portrait
time mainly because you have all these
family members and you want to get them
together you don't know who anybody is
and then there's usually a mom or an
aunt or a dad or somebody asking for 50
billion photos and 60
000 different combinations and it's just
too much so ask your couples for a list
for the family photos basically the way
i do this is through honeybook i send
them a questionnaire with a shot list
now for me shot lists are not
specifically what photos they want
because i want to still be able to be
creative it's more so for special and
important things that i may not know
about again i tell my couples i've been
doing weddings for seven years i know to
take pictures of the bouquet in the
shoes in the dress in the first kiss i
know that stuff so what i want to know
from my couples is more so we have a
special family heirloom or my grandma is
very important to me or make sure we get
a shot with these cool shoes that we're
going to change into at reception time
that's what's on my shot list and also
the family list and when i ask for a
family list i mean it's totally totally
detailed it's not just me and mom and
dad i need their names and i need every
combination that you want so
couple and parents
couple and both parents couples and
aunts and godmothers and so on and so
forth and make it a long list this way
when you get to family portrait time
there's a list no one can tell you all
these extra combinations because the
couple's already on your team they're
like this is the list we want we don't
want family photos to take forever this
is what we're gonna do you can give the
list to your second photographer they
can call out the names and because you
have the names on your list as well
you're not going to run into any weird
divorce parent type situations because
trust me you don't want to be there
doing family portraits and be like okay
mom okay dad and they're divorced and
yeah it gets weird don't
don't do that so again your family
portrait list should be very specific
and i mean i'm serious like
bride and groom and mom bride and mom
groom and dad like the whole list should
just be totally listed out like that and
should have their names if y'all want to
see this in action definitely head over
to my patreon i have a whole video
showing me doing behind the scenes
family portraits so definitely check
that out there'll be a link in the
description below and since we're
talking about group portraits and family
portraits the next tip is to make sure
that you stop down when you're shooting
groups so if you're new to photography
stopping now we're talking about your
f-stop or your aperture basically when
you stop down your aperture things get
sharper all the way through your depth
of field is not as shallow so you're
going to get sharper photos when people
aren't on the exact same plane of field
now again the reason you want to do this
in group photos is when you have people
standing and they're not standing
exactly next to each other if you're
shooting at f1 you know
some people are going to be out of focus
so make sure you're stopping down to 2 8
or 3 2 somewhere in that range just to
keep things nice and sharp now since i
shoot fujifilm in this crop sensor and i
shoot with the f2 lenses a lot of times
i don't really have to stop down too
much you can see in my photos here most
of these i'm shooting wide open at f2
but f2 on a crop sensor lens is more
like 3.2 on a full frame so everything
is nice and sharp and it looks good but
sometimes if i do have the available
light i'll definitely stop down to 2.8
or 3.2 so make sure every time you're
doing group portraits to stop down a bit
now couple portraits is fine they're
normally going to be close to each other
their heads are going to be closed
they're going to be kissing and loving
and stuff so you don't need to stop down
as much for that but definitely
definitely for group photos so this next
tip is one that i'm pretty huge on and
honestly a lot of people don't think
about it too much but don't shoot in
continuous autofocus now the reason i
say this is because i feel like nowadays
with our cameras being so amazing that
we depend on them a little too much and
then we'll complain when the focus won't
be where you want it to be if we have
this whole mentality of you need to
shoot everything in manual and don't
shoot in auto i think you should also
apply that to your focusing as well now
obviously i'm not talking about shooting
full manual
but you should move around your focus
point in my opinion especially on a
wedding day do not depend on your
continuous autofocus face autofocus eye
autofocus because what will happen
especially if you're doing it during
ceremony there's a lot of people there's
a lot of faces your camera has no idea
what it's focusing on so generally what
i do is set it to single point autofocus
and i will move my focus square and or
do focus and recompose and i know
everyone's probably like focus and
recompose that's like old school it
works y'all just do it you know it works
it's fast and it's never let me down
whereas continuous autofocus sometimes
just has no idea what it's doing on that
same note however if you do have your
couple walking towards you or away from
you that's a great place to use
autofocus so generally during a wedding
day those are the only times that i'm
going to use continuous autofocus i
don't use face autofocus because again
when people are walking away or towards
you and there's a lot of faces around
autofocus is going to have no idea what
it's doing but if you set your focus
point to zone focus so it's a larger
square in the center and then
continuously auto focus from there you
know it's going to be focusing exactly
where you want it and it's going to
catch your couple coming towards you or
away from you so that would be my tip
for using autofocus on a wedding day for
tip number six this is very important to
me but make sure you're paying attention
to your backgrounds now i love capturing
moments i love being more
photojournalistic and just kind of
capturing what's happening on the day
but y'all if you can move some stuff go
ahead and just move it i've seen too
many people who just show up to wedding
days and take photos as things are
rather than moving things to make them
look nice so for instance when you're
dealing with the getting ready section
of the day if your bride is in a spot
and there's all kinds of like water
bottles and people's clothes and dresses
and bags and stuff either move her
somewhere else or have them clean up the
background you should always always take
your shots based on the best light and
also the best background again if you've
watched my full wedding day videos
you'll see that i take the time to try
and clean up the area around where i'm
going to be taking photos because again
people are paying you lots of money for
their weddings they don't want to see
that stuff and yet it may take away from
the moment but it really doesn't don't
be afraid to control your wedding day
and make choices and decisions and move
things and tell your couples hey this is
gonna make things look much better let's
clean up this room just a little bit
before we take photos no one's gonna say
no to you so again don't forget to do
stuff like that because it's easy to
just jump in and be like oh something's
happening and taking photos and it's
fine when you do have a couple of photos
like that with stuff in the background
but again just make sure you're cleaning
up stuff when you can and last but not
least
do not let anyone else run your wedding
day now what i mean by this is while
you're at a wedding and you're the
wedding photographer everybody and i
mean everybody is going to be making
suggestions to you about what you should
do for your photos where you should take
your pictures so on and so forth and you
don't have to be mean to anybody but
just let them know i know what i'm doing
i have this handled it's going to be
great the best way to get this to work
is again with the pre-wedding
communication with your couple when you
get the couple on your team and they
understand what you're doing and they
trust you it's much easier to have them
be your guard for anything during the
day so for instance there's a lot of old
school classic type shots that i just
don't take and my couples are also like
yeah nah we don't like that stuff so
when mom or the planner is like oh it'd
be so cool if you took this picture the
couple is like nah we're good and i'm
like
they said it you know like don't tell me
to do that anymore so really get the
couple on your team make sure you all
are on the same page and that way if
anyone does try to be pushy about what
needs to happen on the wedding day your
couple's gonna back you up and then no
one's gonna like argue with the couple i
mean really it's their day you know a
great story i have of this exact thing
was i had a couple and we were at a
wedding right it was coming up on
reception time but i needed to take
their photos before it got dark so the
food planner or the venue coordinator he
was so so adamant like they have to get
some of these hors d'oeuvres they have
to get him right now they have to get
him they have and i'm like we need to
take photos and he's like they need the
hors d'oeuvres when they're hot and it
has and i'm like we really have to take
these photos and we're kind of kind of
arguing i don't like to argue at
weddings because i don't want my couple
or any of their guests to see me like in
a yelling match with someone so i'm kind
of like bro we're not gonna do this and
he's like we're gonna do it so you know
i just caved and said you know what
whatever it's not going to totally
destroy my day and i should be able to
get what i need we come up he comes up
to the couple oh we got to get you these
this food and da da da and literally the
couple was like no
we want to take these photos with john
we will get your food later and this
dude's heart was broken his face was
like
[Music]
but again that's a great example of
someone not running my day and also the
couple backing me up so again if you
have your pre-wedding communication you
have your timelines written out you have
shot lists for family stuff
you know what's happening during the day
the couple trusts you for light so when
you're like let's go take this photo at
this location that most people are like
this looks dumb you're gonna be like
well i know what i'm doing and your
couple's gonna say i trust you because
i've seen your photos and they look good
so again don't just cave to whoever's
around and do whatever they ask you to
that's how a wedding day gets out of
your hands and turns into a whole
cluster and falls apart and then stuff
gets left out and then you will be more
stressed than you need to be so those
were my seven tips for your first
wedding and i know you may be thinking
none of it talked about photography but
honestly in my opinion wedding
photography is 80 customer service and
if you don't think that's the case you
need to reevaluate and look at wedding
photography because it might not be for
you yes that is true wedding photography
is eighty percent
customer service first and foremost the
other twenty percent is taking photos
but no one cares about what you're doing
your couple doesn't the planner doesn't
the venue doesn't they just expect you
to make magic which is why again those
prereqs that i talked about at the
beginning of the video you have to have
that stuff down you should already know
how to take pictures because no one else
will care they will take you to a dark
loom with no windows and expect you to
make magic so again you need to know all
of your stuff first and foremost and
then work on your customer service
mainly let me know if you all have any
other tips down below for any new
photographers as well if you've been
doing weddings for a while leave it down
below let's share as much information as
possible so that we can all be great
wedding photographers make sure to hit
that like if you like this information
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photography tips behind the scenes and
just more stuff on creative
entrepreneurship in general thank you
all for hanging out again and i'll catch
you all next time all right
peace
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you
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