PHOTOGRAPHY

As part of your preparation leading up to the wedding, do a scout for nice locations with a decent backdrop. I was lucky for this wedding as the hotel where the couple got married was right on the beach.

I used a 70-200mm lens set to 100mm. A great focal length for portraits and being outside, shooting full length is not a problem. I always take a bunch of shots as the couple walk towards me, it can be difficult to get the right expressions and stop them from looking at the camera.

The image was shot at just after 8pm in June, in Spain, so the light wasn't as harsh as it is at midday and it gave a nice golden glow. Personally, I always Photoshop out any distracting items such as overly large leaves, twigs or litter from the scene. It makes for a cleaner image. 

If you do a reccie visit long before the wedding day, which I recommend you do, take some photos whilst you are there. If it is a nice day, I usually try and incorporate these into the actual finished wedding images.

This small montage was made up of images taken over a week before the day. I wanted to use them as a leader for the couples album or book and show of the hotel and location of their wedding.

To get the background colour of the page I simply used the eyedropper tool to pull the two dominant colours...the blue sky and peach building. I then used the gradient tool to make the blend. It ended up looking like a sunset of sorts so I was quite happy.

Always try and throw in some extra work if you have time. It doesn't take too long and the couple will thank you for it...you may even get extra reprint orders out of it! 

Canon EOS 5D - 500th/sec - F6.3 - ISO 100 - Aperture Priority - Posed

What a great couple from Norway. This was a very small, two person wedding (I think they were "eloping" to Spain to get married in the sun) held in a Norwegian church in Andalucia.

If you spend even a little time getting to know the couple you can usually get them to reveal themselves and their characters. No problem in this case, they were a very friendly and fun-loving couple which makes wedding photography all the more enjoyable.

This was shot with the 70-200mm 2.8 L at 135mm. Again, I shoot a bunch using servo focussing to ensure at least a few are in focus and useable. 

I felt this shot showed their true characters and shows happy onlookers in the background. I added a bit of spot colouring just for the hell of it. As I have said before, to a photographer this technique can seem a little dated but it is surprising how many couples still ask me if I can do it for them!

If it gets the job and more reprint orders, who cares if you are deemed to be dated! 

Canon EOS 5D - 125th/sec - F6.3 - ISO 320 - Aperture Priority - Posed

For this shot I used the 24-70mm 2.8 L set to 24mm. On the full frame 5D, 24mm is perfect for these wide angle shots as well as church interiors.

We spotted this stairway in the hotel when we were looking for somewhere to shoot the boys as their room was quite small.

I shot hand held and used only natural light. Flash here would have caused far too many shadows from all the detail and the ceiling was too high to bounce from. I pulled whatever detail I needed out in Photoshop later.

I always take a couple of formal shots for posterity and then let people do what they want. I sometimes make out I am doing something other than taking pics and watch the subject out of the corner of my eye...they start to loosen up and I start shooting again. 

I like this shot. We were on our way to the swimming pool for some group shots of the bridal party before leaving for the church and I turned and noticed the sun beaming through the bride's veil from behind.

I probably said something really "cheesy" whilst walking backwards which made the bride smile.

The background was already dark due to the drastic changes in contrast of a sunny day and shaded areas of the building, although I did push it a little further in Photoshop to make the bride really stand out.

I shot at 160 ISO as we had been shooting a few indoors and the camera was still set to that. No matter, exposed correctly and the grain is non-existent.

Lens 24-70 2.8 L at 45mm

Sometimes the setting can be far from attractive so I try and make up for it in different ways. This was taken in the old town of Marbella in Spain.

These girls were waiting for the bride to arrive and obviously enjoying the attention they were getting from onlookers. The thing that stood out to me was the bold mix of colours which also worked well together.

I did my best to make each image as identical to each other as I could with respect to the composition and just shot different expressions.

The images looked great in the finished album. If you are looking to "tell a story" rather than just shoot the wedding, make sure you get three or four shots of certain scenarios so you can put these triptychs together.

P.s. Don't ask why I shot at 800th/sec at F3.5...I think I had just come from the dark church and didn't have time to change the settings before shooting this scene. I normally have two cameras on the go for just this reason.

Lens 24-70 2.8 L at 35mm

It was a real pleasure to shoot at this location. It is the Ritz Carlton "Villa Padierna" 6-Star Hotel in Andalucia...a beautiful place.

This occasion was very up-market and planned to a "T" so using flash for this shot was a no-no, hence the settings. I also didn't want to clatter about with and be tied to a tripod so I shot hand held.

ISO 800 on the 5D is a breeze and I knew the noise wouldn't be a problem. Whatever there was is barely noticeable and easily dealt with using Neat Image.

Shooting a slower shutter speed and natural light also allows the "nooks and crannies" and shaded areas to be slightly better lit. Using flash and higher shutter speeds would have turned these to complete darkness.

The beauty of this wedding, and the images I obtained for my portfolio, is that it secured me a contract with the hotel to be their official wedding photographer for 2007 wedding season so making the effort pays off in the end.

Lens 24-70 2.8 L at 24mm

This was taken from the same wedding as the previous image. Once the ceremony was over, I ran outside whilst changing lenses and settings to match that of the daylight and waited for everyone to emerge.

This is the time when the couple get swamped by well wishers and you can do nothing but stand back and shoot everyone. Control here is very difficult so let them get on with it for a few minutes plus it gives you some time for some great candids and reportage style shooting.

By using a longer telephoto lens, the crowds are unaware that you are shooting which also leads to more natural looking images.

Converted to clack and white as the colour image had too much "going on" for my liking.

Lens 70-200 2.8 L at 120mm

Canon EOS 1D MkII - 400th/sec - F8 - ISO 160 - Aperture Priority - Posed

Yes, yes, same wedding as the previous two but why not...it was a great location like I said!

I used a higher ISO to give me fast enough shutter speeds to use with the telephoto lens and prevent camera shake, and a small enough aperture for depth of field, especially as the light was fading.

By standing way back and zooming in a little, not only do you bring the couple closer but you give greater emphasis to the building behind.

Again, I have used spot colouring which I am getting bored with, but clients still like it. Just remember to colour the reflection in shots like this too for better effect.

Lastly, always watch your composition. If I had taken off the top of the building behind, it would have killed the shot. If you are setting up shots and have time, look around the entire perimeter of your viewfinder to make sure you have everything in that you want.

Lens 70-200 2.8 L at 70mm (x 1.3 for the Mk II) 

Canon EOS 5D - 80th/sec - F5.6 - ISO 320 - Aperture Priority - Posed

Here is one of those mistakes, lack of time/professionalism or "momentary lapse of reason" moments that I said I would also tell you about.

The reason I am showing this image is for more what I did post-processing rather than during the shoot. We were running out of time as the couple were about to eat so we found a reasonably nice setting in the reception venue for some time out shots but the area was extremely cluttered.

No time to set up a tripod or change camera settings. No time to fanny about with studio lights, white balance or manual settings. I simply set a reasonable ISO, aperture priority, bounced the flash and took a bunch of wonky shots.

The first thing I did was to straighten and crop the image to a square, medium format style shape to match the surroundings. Why crop before working on the image? I do that so that when I make changes to white balance and exposure etc, I am doing it for just the areas I want in the final image, and not taking measurements from bits I will discard anyway.

What I also did was to clone out part of a chair, adjust the white balance (which is a cinch using RAW images...you DO shoot RAW don't you?), levels, curves etc, and generally cleaned up the shot.

I have also cloned in (for the purpose of this tutorial, not for the client), a nice roaring fire in the background. Just go to a good, cheap microstock agency like Shutterstock, buy a suitable image for a dollar or so and use it to clone or paste in. Or use one of your own stock images.

Oh, go on then...here is the original RAW image just to make a point of how bad I was. Learn from this and take your time but if that just isn't possible, learn how to deal with it later. Finally, no! I am not a "shoot now and fix later" kind of photographer, although if it works for you...! I like to get it right at the time of shooting to save time on messing about like this later on.

Lens 24-70 2.8 L at 30mm

Canon EOS 5D - 80th/sec - F5.6 - ISO 250 - Manual - Natural

Most Jewish weddings can be fast paced and lots of fun, especially like in this image where the bride and groom are hoisted into the air on chairs after a serious bout of dancing to the "Hora".

Once again, I knew the shooting area would be pretty constant so I set the camera to manual, speedlight to auto (and bounced) and just fired away.

For some of these shots, it was difficult to get near the couple so I held the camera above my head and aimed in the general direction with a 24mm lens.

As I mentioned somewhere earlier, I keep one hand over the viewfinder when doing this as the light coming in otherwise can affect your metering for the flash. Cameras like the EOS 1D mk III have a switch for closing a shutter over the eyepiece for such situations...very handy.

Once again, a black and white conversion won the day and for me, adds a real contrast of happy people with quite sombre, moody lighting.

With fast paced weddings it is good to be prepared and know exactly what is going to happen. Then you can set your camera "ready to go" and just enjoy your work.

Lens 24-70 2.8 L at 24mm