# So You Want to Shoot a Wedding



## manaheim (Nov 15, 2013)

I've been meaning to post a thread like this for a while.  I figure we can all toss in whatever useful advice we have for people who want to shoot a wedding and then just try to refer them over to this thread whenever we get any of those posts.

The idea here is to keep this POSITIVE.  Make the rash assumption that the person is not going to do anything... well... rash.. and that they have some technical clue and aren't going to get themselves in trouble.

Also feel free to argue with any of my points if you like... I'm not a seasoned pro like some folks on here.  I've only done twelve or so weddings.

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Ok, so I've shot probably twelve weddings as secondary and a couple as primary. I'm going to tell you what I've learned...



You must know your gear inside and out, and it has to be ROTE. I don't just mean you know to know how to work the controls, I mean that you have to know EXACTLY what setting you're going to need for every possible situation. High movement, low light, both, etc. You need to understand the quirks of your gear when put in extreme situations and how to compensate quickly.
Your gear must be able to handle the situation. You're going to hit very low light situations and your camera and lenses need to be pretty much the best you can get to compensate. You're also going to need multiple focal lengths, and unless you are VERY fast on your feet and have multiple bodies, primes are not going to handle it.
You must pre-screen your locations. Visit them, get a sense of their lighting situations, search the web for examples that other wedding photographers have to get ideas or spark some of your own. Have some shots planned before you arrive on scene. Talk to the proprietors to understand any requirements or restrictions they have. Ask them about suggestions. Lean on their experience. Be super nice. Relationships here can make the difference between same ol' shots and "Oh hey... you know I always thought it would be cool to get one of these weddings from that balcony over there... would you like me to let you up there?"
You must be good at moving quickly without breaking your gear, yourself, or anyone else. Imagine trying to do an obstacle course at top speed with about 30 people within arms length at all times with cameras and bags and all sorts of things hanging off various parts of your body.
You need to have backup gear. Camera should be writing to two cards at all times, you need to have multiple cards and switch often (particularly if your camera can't dual write). You need to have multiple bodies, multiple flashes, backups of at least the critical lenses, etc. If you shoot a wedding with only one camera available, you're insaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaane.
Have all your locations mapped out ahead. Print paper maps/directions as a BACKUP but USE A GPS. Don't have one? BUY ONE. 10 minutes late to any part of a wedding=death. Review your directions and locations the night before. Make absolutely certain you have all locations.
Have plenty of shots planned. Understand the must-have shots and be ready for them. Bride with bride's family, bride with grooms family, bride with whole family, yadda yadda yadda. Have a roster in your head you want to go through.
Try to get at least one solid shot of every guest at the affair. You can do "table shots" where you get the groups of people at their tables, but try to get candid as well.
Ask the bride and groom if they have any particular shots they want for the event- sometimes there is an aging grandmother or something and she wants to be super sure to get pictures with her or something. Just ask. Write these down and STUDY them. Bring the list with you, but try to have them rote before you go. Be ready to try to minimize the list gently if the bride creates a list of 8,000 pictures she wants. You may just remind her that it's her big day and the last thing she wants is to spend all of it smiling for a camera. Be ready to lose this argument and do what she wants anyway.
Be mindful of sensitivities. This is a big family event and people will be drinking. Carefully watch the flow of the people around the room and how they are interacting. Sometimes something can blow up, and while generally as the photographer you want to be where the action is, this is pretty much the LAST place you want to be.
You must be able to be a diplomat under fire. The priest has told you that you can't shoot where you expected to. The priest has informed you that you cannot use flash and the church is darker than you ever imagined and it's cloudy outside. The mother wants pictures and the bride is trying to enjoy her day. The uncle is drunk. There are kids in the wedding party dressed in AF shirts and sneakers. The bride wigged out last night and took downers and today is drunk to boot. Etc.
You must be an urban survivalist. You are going to be on your feet for at least 10-12 hours, and possibly more. You will get probably two and MAYBE three breaks. Most of those will be five minutes. You'll get to sit and wolf down dinner for fifteen or so. The rest... on your feet and moving. No lunch. Bring protein bars, peanuts, and two medium sized bottles of Gatorade. Drink and eat constantly. This may sound gross, but I will tell you I have gone a 16 hour day and drank THREE of those bottles of Gatorade and didn't go to the bathroom ONCE.
You must be MacGuyver. Bring duct tape, masking tape, clear tape. Bring a multi-screwdriver. Bring all purpose glue. Bring a black marker and a pen. Put anything potentially destructive (black marker- glue) in TWO sealed zip loc bags. Ever seen a bride with a smear from a black marker from the photographer's hand on her dress? You don't want to.
You must have appropriate clothing. YOU NEED TO WEAR A SUIT... or AT LEAST dress pants, white shirt and tie. You need to look respectable. No green pants and SpongeBob ties. NO SNEAKERS. You will need clothing that is conservative, moves well with you when you crouch and such, is comfortable enough temperature wise that you won't die (expect to be VERY hot during this because you're going to be moving), and can withstand the abuse. For example... standard wingtip shoes are going to pretty much end your feet and knees after a long day. You need shoes made to be dressy but withstand 12 hours+ on your feet.
You need to be healthy. I know this sounds odd, but if you're out of shape, this will kill you. I did my first wedding pretty overweight and being pretty much a couch potato, and I was literally so beat that I still felt it four days later. After a summer of biking aggressively and losing 30 lbs I was a little worn the next day, but overall fine.
You need to understand portrait photography rules pretty well. Posing, lighting, etc. You're going to be taking pictures of people here, so you want them to look their best.
You need to get pictures of the scene and the day as well as the people. The bride and groom put great effort into picking and arranging this... flowers, the church, the reception site, the favors, the centerpieces, etc. You need to capture the character of the day as well as the activities in it.


There's probably more... I'll add as I think of it, but this was off the top of my head.


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## D-B-J (Nov 15, 2013)

Hell of a start. Lots of good suggestions/ideas there. I've yet to shoot a wedding, and I'm not sure I'll ever want to. I'm interested in seeing this thread develop!

Jake


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## robbins.photo (Nov 15, 2013)

manaheim said:


> I've been meaning to post a thread like this for a while.  I figure we can all toss in whatever useful advice we have for people who want to shoot a wedding and then just try to refer them over to this thread whenever we get any of those posts.
> 
> The idea here is to keep this POSITIVE.



So what thread do I go to if I'm POSITIVE I don't want to shoot a wedding?  Lol


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## SnappingShark (Nov 15, 2013)

I would like to suggest 2 more things.

1) Ask bride/groom for a rough timeline of events - it will help to know at what point you need to be somewhere to capture a moment which you may not know is coming.
2) Have a weather watch app for places with inconsistent weather. I suggest Dark Skies for iPhone, or Arcus for Android. This is based on experience, and although some people may not like it, when a thunderstorm heads overhead, embrace it, and don't let it dampen spirits, make use of it


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## tirediron (Nov 15, 2013)

One thing that I've found to be invaluable is to bring the maid/matron of honour onside; she is generally incredibly useful for herding the cats for formals, and other wedding chores.


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## manaheim (Nov 16, 2013)

robbins.photo said:


> manaheim said:
> 
> 
> > I've been meaning to post a thread like this for a while. I figure we can all toss in whatever useful advice we have for people who want to shoot a wedding and then just try to refer them over to this thread whenever we get any of those posts.
> ...



That would be the other 30,000 threads on this topic on TPF.


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## pgriz (Nov 16, 2013)

What about the contractual stuff, the post-processing and delivery, the operating-a-business requirements?  Unless you're doing it for a family member or friend for free, the other stuff is pretty important to allow you to keep your sanity and financial well-being.

And Chris, what's that about posting at 1:58 am?  Insomnia or a kid who can't sleep?  (either case, you've got my sympathies...)


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## Mach0 (Nov 16, 2013)

One thing I've seen is that events never go according to plan. You have to think on your feet, remain calm, and adjust to any changes on the fly. I know that Manaheim said to have backups but he's not lying. Speaking from personal experience, I've had light stands go break, umbrella break, lose a battery cover to a flash, etc. If you are getting paid, it doesn't matter what goes wrong. You are still expected to deliver.


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## manaheim (Nov 16, 2013)

pgriz said:


> What about the contractual stuff, the post-processing and delivery, the operating-a-business requirements? Unless you're doing it for a family member or friend for free, the other stuff is pretty important to allow you to keep your sanity and financial well-being.



Oh yes, good one.  Always have a contract!  (Seriously... no matter it be family, friends, your dog, whatever... ALWAYS HAVE A CONTRACT. It not only protects you, but it sets clear and reasonable expectations on BOTH sides of the agreement.



pgriz said:


> And Chris, what's that about posting at 1:58 am? Insomnia or a kid who can't sleep? (either case, you've got my sympathies...)



Heh.  Friend of mine saw me post at 10PM saying I was tired and said "LETS GO TO DENNYS!" So we did. And we wound up talking about my next novel for a good while, so we didn't get back till laaaaaaaaaaaaaaate.


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## Robin_Usagani (Nov 16, 2013)

I wear converse sneakers when shooting a wedding.  Silly me .  No suit jacket either. 

Also there are tons of awesome photographers that shoot only primes.  I did it for almost 2 years.


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## manaheim (Nov 16, 2013)

Robin_Usagani said:


> I wear converse sneakers when shooting a wedding. Silly me . No suit jacket either.
> 
> Also there are tons of awesome photographers that shoot only primes. I did it for almost 2 years.



Well, I was thinking of you when I made the comment along the lines of "others know more than me", so don't be snarky about it... share! Tell us more!

After all, probably one of the key things in this is "there isn't just one way to do this".  It's all about taking in a lot of wisdom and making your own smart choices about what works for you- your market- your customers.  Right?


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## Derrel (Nov 16, 2013)

Don't forget the Leatherman tool, 100 feet of parachute cord, space blanket, and the waterproof matches!!! ;-)

Manny's gotcha' covered!


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## TheFantasticG (Nov 16, 2013)

I skimmed it. Looked pretty good. Basically written in other threads and whatnot. Found a lot of the information here in previous threads and on other forums and articles. Nice to have it centralized though.


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## kathyt (Nov 16, 2013)

I generally don't do table shots of all the guests. Nor do I get pictures of _all_ the guests when there are 300+ people. I shoot where the action is. This is in my contract, and I go over it too. Unless the B/G ask for it, and then I will have my second shooter do it.


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## manaheim (Nov 16, 2013)

Derrel said:


> Don't forget the Leatherman tool, 100 feet of parachute cord, space blanket, and the waterproof matches!!! ;-)
> 
> Manny's gotcha' covered!







TheFantasticG said:


> I skimmed it. Looked pretty good. Basically written in other threads and whatnot. Found a lot of the information here in previous threads and on other forums and articles. Nice to have it centralized though.



Yeah that was actually what I was driving for... I didn't articulate it that clearly though. I'm tired and I don't feel good. Brain no workie.


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## 12sndsgood (Nov 16, 2013)

Novice here but I'll add my two cents on things I've learned from the 3 weddings I'm up to.

1. Contracts, have them written up, ready to go and make sure they are what you can manage. Doesn't help your case If you specify delivery in 1 month of you may be a busy person and need more time then that. Don't promise what you can't adhere to.

2. Timeline.  Someone mentioned this earlier but I wanted to add to it.  Don't ask the bride for the timeline. sit down with your bride and set your timeline. This is your chance to help in the planning of her day and it also means you can add time in you need to get the job done. I try to work the timeline to get shots done ahead of time if possible.

3. know your venue, and if you don't know check them out, not only find spots you can shoot at, but find shots you can shoot at if your first shots aren't available.

4. know the vendors and who your working with. become friends with them. so when things go wrong (and they will) you can have help with the situation.

5. plan, plan, plan and then plan some more. and then when things go wrong be able to just move into your backup plan like it's no big deal. more I plan the less nervous I get, the less nervous I am the better off I am when things change.

6. watch your bride. Usually until the reception kicks in they are about the most stressed out people you will find a lot of times. so be someone that is there to make the brides day less stressful not more. don't go to the bride with problems, go to the bride with solutions and you will be seen as a great person.

7. 2nd photographers/assistants are a great help. sometimes you can't be everywhere at once. I always have one with me, they are backup, another set of hands, and another creative eye to catch a different view. I personally like having the ability to have different views of the cake cutting etc. and having that 2nd shooter means I'm not running from the left to the right to try and get a different shot. and you just have those things at a wedding that you will miss and another set of eyes is great.

8. Have a second shooter or use two cameras? make sure your time is synched up as is the date so when you upload all the photos they are all in chronological order.

those are just a few off the top of my head.


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## udit318 (Nov 19, 2013)

Well, as being a non-professional photographer ,the information provided above will be handy for me. Thanks a lot for making me equipped with such vital information regarding "capturing stills".   Sure, it will make any wedding moments memorable by me.....


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