Take an assistant, or two. Impress upon the wedding planner or venue that you get food right after the couple and if there are choices of entrées, you (your team) get one of each. Also impress upon them that your dishes are the ones that will be in the photos. While the rest of the guests are being served, you have some time to take good photos of the food.
Visit the venues (church, town hall, reception venue) before the wedding to check for the light, location... Store the adresses in your gps. See if you need to buy a parking ticket ... Is there parking space or will you have to walk 500 meters ...
I know Im randomly asking but does anyone know a way to get back into an instagram account?? I was stupid forgot my login password. I appreciate any assistance you can give me
@Ellis Elisha i really appreciate your reply. I got to the site on google and I'm in the hacking process now. Takes a while so I will get back to you later when my account password hopefully is recovered.
I'm shooting my first wedding next year for my brother-in-law. The practical tips I found most useful and the planning aspect. Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. If you ever get a chance, it would be superb if you videoed a wedding and perhaps narrated over it in post.
Regarding the food... i have had caterers forget about me so many times and sometimes i went without food ALL day :-( So i normally take a back up lunch with me incase i am forgotten again haha
I'm 2:49 into this video, one of several today, and I can't understand why with the thinking, quality and value of your advice, you have only 4.8k subs? YT is just unfair! Some points I do, but this has lots of "damn, I should have thought of that" moments... Point 7 is interesting as I worded it as needing to know the "shape of the face", when the smile is finished and when it is still being formed... did this for a vid on Rock Concert photography... there is so much overlap. Cool, really cool. I loved the bit at the end "Allow a lot of time for your group shots. [...] you can't find everyone" - the facial expression spoke volumes! Wonderfully entertaining. Alex.,
Thank you. I'm gaining subscribers every day. It seems to be speeding up. Although I've had the channel a while, I've only recently been putting the effort in recently. I've been really busy for a while so haven't done anything for a month or so. I've got another going up now about portraits. I'll just keep focussing on making videos and not worry too much about subscriber numbers at the moment. I enjoy making videos so it's all good.
Just subscribe after seen how few people follow you and how awesome your advice is. Im even inspired to keep working and deliver the same kind of quality you talk about in your vids
Another advantage of having a second shooter is getting them to shoot straight on and I get to shoot them "doing" things rather than posing for me. So you get a great mix of candid and posed and also I can use depth of field to emphasize the couple. Really love your videos Jamie
Nice set of tips. I like the food tip and yes do not shoot images of people eating, not a good look but don't miss the toast! I always like to if I can goto the location before I shoot at that location if I have not shot there before. Yes the group shot are for family, Nice Tip! I like to get a list of who I need to shoot? I use the wedding planner to make sure I have all images of people on a list. I am not a big wedding photographer but when I do I still work with a contract of what I will and will not do! Nice video of information Jamie, all the best!
Two tricks I used as a second shooter for my best friend's wedding was (1) attend the wedding walk through the day/night before....it'll give you a great opportunity to scout the venue for size and lighting. (2) If the reception hall has a tier, use it to your advantage....it makes for some great above & below shots. Do shots of the bride or couple standing up on the tier or shoot from above while people are dancing, and use a wide angle lens like a 10-20 mm...it'll give you great shots of everyone dancing and having fun.
Thanks for the great tips. I'm not doing wedding photography but I think this genre is perhaps one of the best for how to achieve beautiful, artistic shots that have thought that goes into them - techniques and skills that can be applied to other types of photography. My thought, anyway. I liked your video setup for this vid too - nice.
I remember one time I was in a dark bar and I was trying to take pictures, but my camera was really struggling with the low light. Either the pictures were too dark or the flash was too harsh. At one point, not expecting much to come of it I randomly decided to use flash but still slow the shutter speed. I took a picture of my drink, and it became my favorite picture from that night, and probably my favorite picture of that whole time period. Now I know what the technique is called haha (and that it is a real technique).
Fantastic! It's always nice to get somebody else's take on weddings and portrait photography. Sometimes it reiterates what you're doing, other times you might pick up something new. I've covered 3 wedding's now and like you said, they're big days. And ive had 4 people look into me for next year too. I do a lot of landscape, seascape, and cityscape photography with nothing but satisfaction out of it for myself. So portrait photography is primarily where ill pick up a few dollars outside my day to day employment. Long way about it, but I appreciated that video man. And I like a lot of what you cover. What was that ladies name that you covered a few weeks ago??? when you spoke about art being subjective. The lady who purposely leaves things in a scene that we would generally remove and often uses images out of focus etc.
Andy Weddings have got super low barrier of entry and it is very easy and affordable to get a backup but still... so many photographers with just one camera :(
When everyone is eating I usually sneak into the kitchen and do closeups of the wedding cake. Kids last is VERY helpful. They can make or breake the shots!
Thank you Jamie. All very good point for first time wedding shooter. I think the point about having a second shooter or an assistant is really good. Some people will think that there will be less money for the main photographer, but I think it's better to cover all the base and take the pressure off the main shooter, and also get lots of different angles. And no 2 photographer will take the same photos, and it's interesting to see how someone else look at the same things. I'll be shooting my first official wedding with 2 other people. The only thing that I'm worried about is getting sharpe photos when they come out the church. They are going the have a garde of honneur with sparklers. Do I use flash or not? That is the question. The wedding will start at 3:30 in the afternoon on the 9th of February. Thank you for any advice you can give me.
Good advice here. Also I would add: Get a portrait list from the bride and during your pre wedding meeting ask the bride to appoint a family member to call out each persons name on the portrait list when you're shooting the family portraits. This way if anyone is missed you're off the hook to a degree. It also helps move the portraits along faster too because it's a family member who knows everyone. Also check your camera settings. LaAmadaPhotography.com
What I do for time sync is I have everyone take a picture of the same watch including seconds. That way we don’t have to take it at the same time between multiple cameras and shooters.
Hi Jamie, thanks for the good information. I'm currently working through your body of work on RU-vid and finding it so interesting! I have a question, how does one become a photographer's assistant? I am an amateur but I would really love to work as an assistant, even voluntarily, just to be able to learn the trade and get some experience. I'm based in England (Coventry area).
the food thing - oh yeah, super important. I usually pack my own food, I had one experience where the food at a venue gave me a nasty case of food poisoning.
TajaS Smartish. Don’t look like a guest but don’t rock up in trainers and a t-shirt. It has to be practical as you’ll be running around, jumping onto chairs to get group shots and lying down on the floor with the young kids. (Most couples get married just before they have kids and they are often feeling broody and ask you to get lots of kid shots of their nieces and nephews who will be bridesmaids and page boys etc. so you’ll often end up crawling under tables and rolling around on the grass to get shots of them). For men: a shirt, maybe a casual jacket, trousers like chinos or something and proper shoes. For women I’m not as knowledgable. Whatever the equivalent is. You’ll get hot. You might sweat. You need to be able to run.
Guy? Typical? Black dress shirt, black slacks and sneakers. Yup, sneakers. You’re on your feet all day and wearing dress shoes is a recipe for disaster. You’re a creative, not the grooms father. Don’t risk injuries due to slipping on spilled wine or rainfall on church steps. You don’t have to wear Chucks, but definitely wear something with a nice bouncy insole and carry extra socks.
Lady photographers - I’d go for navy rather than black. But definitely go for something dark and comfortable shoes (nice, quality sandals). I prefer a loose dress to blend better with guests (second or 3rd shooter) but if you’re a crawling on the ground, climbing up stuff type shooter then a neat pantsuit and blouse might be better. Like you get pants specially for traveling (merino wool?) that will stretch when needed but look smart / not crease / be a bit dirt proof (coating). Wool is also great for like sweat wicking / antibacterial properties etc so if it’s a long / heavy / hot day....
I wish there are SD cards made of steel, because I broke so many of these plastic things allready. Many split over time, others I stepped on or I left them in a bag together with something heavy.
Danny B For weddings in cameras with a single card slot I use 16gb cards and change them regularly. For my cameras with dual card slots, I use two 128gb cards and don’t change them (as they’re backed up).
johan bauwens sync timestamps before the shoot on all cameras. You can later sort by time shot in post from your import of all cards in the same collection.
Your advice is generally excellent. BUT "Shoot into the sun" is terrible advice unless you know exactly what you're doing (and have some kind of reflector behind you or really know what you're doing with fill flash). Even then it can be risky unless you like noisy shadows and lens flare. Your example shot had the sunlight diffused through trees at least.
If you are shooting a wedding that you're being paid for then you should already have some level of understanding on shooting into the sun. I understand what you mean though and luckily we have instant review of our shots now so we can check and reframe where necessary.
Enlist the Best Man or equivalent's help as they generally know the people. I was a guest at a wedding where the dickhead photographer kept calling for the Bride's father to get in the shot. He had died some years before. Went down like a lead balloon ;-(
I had a 64gb Lexar just fail on me and my 128gb SanDisk extreme has started to crumble to dust and fall apart inside my camera but all my other cheaper cards are still going strong.
