10 Tips For First Time Wedding Photographers

So a friend or family member noticed that professional looking DSLR you have hanging around your neck, or they have seen some of the great photos you have taken. It wont be long till some one asks for you to be the photographer on there wedding day. Great! you should be flattered that they trust you with the responsibility of photographing there special day. First thing you have to do is decided if your ready to accept this responsibility. You only have one shot at photographing a wedding, if you don’t feel that your up for the task then be honest, for your sake and there’s.

Get Organized

Talk to the bride and groom (or wedding coordinator) find out were everyone will be during the entire wedding day, find out were the brides limo will be pulling in, were the groom will be waiting with his groomsmen, find out the times everyone will be arriving. Make yourself a schedule of were everyone will be and at what time.

Also make yourself a shots list (find one here) you can go over it with the bride and groom to see what shots there most interested in getting.

Bring as much memory as possible

Bring at least 8GB of memory, if not more. I took only 6GB of memory to my first wedding. Trust me you don’t want to be deleting images to make room during the reception.

This is a life saver. Organizing family members, brides maids, groomsmen and children can be as difficult as wrangling cats. Having some one who is in charge of making sure that everyone is there to have there formals taken with the bride and groom frees you up to concentrate on the photography.

Scout the location

Be sure to go to the venue before the wedding. Familiarize yourself with the location of the ceremony, find a good location for the formals. Also make sure to go at the same time of day that the wedding will be, that way you can see what position the sun will be and what sort of shadows you will be dealing with.

Shoot the Details

If you find that your in a position were you have no one to shoot, shoot the details and shoot plenty of them. Shoot things like the tables floral arrangements or the band and there instruments, shoot

some of the food that is there, find a wedding invitation and shoot that with the wedding rings on it. Lots of detail shots are great for filler in a wedding album.

Remember who the main subject is

You can take terrible shot of every one at the wedding, as long as you have great shots of the bride (slight exaggeration). You have to remember who the wedding is relay for, the bride

. The groom would probably be happy with getting married in a court house, but this is the day the bride has been dreaming of since she was a little girl. Its your job to take great photos of everyone, but if there’s a moment that you have to chose the bride or someone else, go for the bride.

Have Confidence and Relax

Have confidence in yourself and don’t be afraid to speak out. It can be hard to get everyone to listen when your trying to organize them for a shot. Don’t be afraid to speak up (or scream) to get peoples attention, be load and clear. I’m usually a quite guy, but when your photographing a wedding you soon learn to be loud and take control.

Relax when your photographing people. If your freaking out and stressing then chances are so will you subjects, keep calm, smile and your subjects will return the favor.

Have Backups of Everything

You need to follow Murphy’s law when photographing weddings (if it can go wrong, it will). Bring spear batteries for your camera and flash, I strongly suggest bringing two camera bodies (borrow one if you have to) not only does it serve as a back up in case the unthinkable happens but its great to use two cameras wile shooting, one with a longer lens and another for portraits or closer shots. This will save the pain of juggling lenses when changing them and possibly missing the shot.

Don’t underestimate yourself

Don’t underestimate your worth. Even if it is your first wedding don’t undercut yourself. Working a wedding is a full days work, not to mention the sorting of thousands of photos, editing them then putting an album together. Make sure your getting a fair amount, if they wont more then one album made then make sure they pay for them separately. Otherwise just hand them a CD/DVD with all their photos or maybe even a sideshow with their favorite song.

HAVE FUN!

You have to love what you do, and if what you do is wedding photography you have to go out there excited and ready for a fun day of photographing people. After all there is nothing better then seeing the look on their faces when you present their photos to them (that and receiving your check). Make sure your organized and ready, charge and pack all your gear the night before, relax, smile and have a blast.