Groom prep is SO HARD! I'm a female photographer and am not naturally an outgoing person, so connecting and photographing the Groom and guys is hard and I'm never quite satisfied. I'd LOVE to see a video on it!
Brooooooo!!!! Behind the scenes... this is amazing! I'm always doubting myself wondering if I am doing it the right way and this just helped my confidence so much... Now to get better where I am not as well off. Thank you so much Katelyn! Looking forward to the rest of this series!!!
LOVE THIS! So helpful. I would really like to see reception behind the scenes. Primarily how to deal with either wonky lighting, indoor ballroom. Managing on/off camera flash. Just all about the reception! thank you for sharing your wealth of knowledge and empowering many. Love your work!
I’m so excited for this series!!! I would love a video on your writing skills for your blog. Do you recommended classes? How do you write a blog explaining the day that’s not 100 pages long 😂
Can you talk about/give some tips for how to deal with a bride/bridal party that pushes back when you give direction and take control? Like I try to take them to a location with great light at the venue and they immediately say they don’t want photos there, and want them somewhere else that looks horrifying on film and I try to say the lighting is too harsh or it’s to busy if an area for the photo to portray the way they’d like it too and they actually fight me and talk back. And also bridesmaids trying to direct the bride. This one happens more than people like to admit. How do you shut that down while still maintaining a professional vibe. I’ve only had a few weddings where this has been an issue but trying to find the balance of still being professional but trying to explain that I’m the professional in the situation and I know what I’m talking about and I’m trying to give them the best photos I possibly can give them, tends to be difficult.
I've been watching from the beginning as a "hobby" photographer. This fall, though, my husband and I are shooting our first wedding! We are excited and nervous, but have gained a lot of confidence through all of your resources, KJ! Thank you SO much for sharing such informative and educational content!!
"Just remember this. Light matters more than anything. If you do not have good light, you will not have good images. This trumps any other decision" Abso-freaking-lutely. I have only shot a few weddings as well as a lot of bands at shows and light is THE MOST IMPORTANT ASPECT of the image. If you don't have light you don't have an image. Direction, hard, Soft, color, amount? Shooting at a venue with garbage light is THE WORST. It makes it insanely difficult to get decent images because you have to jack your ISO waaaay up and your keeper rate goes waaaaay down. I mean at the end of the day if you have no choice but to deal with garbbo light, it's better to jack that ISO up so you can raise your shutter speed to capture sharp images with out significant amounts of blur than to shoot at lower iso and get unusable dark and/or blurry images.
I get that light is the most important factor in getting amazing portraits and I definitely prefer natural light. Does this mean you turn away brides that have evening weddings?
We tell people we average 80- 100 delivered images per hour we shoot so 800- or 1000 delivered photos for a 8-10 hour day... we shoot about 4000-5000 total images on a day.
Such a series is really very very nice and informative to know what is happening behind the scenes to make us a better photographer. Can you also do more videos on how you would capture great compositions during a photo shoot and what to watch out for you get those great compositions.
I’d love to see some situations where you have to do a first look outside and it’s very harsh light, with absolutely no option for shade. Love this new series!!
This may be a dumb question: How would you recommend a male photographer handle this? Would they just skip this part? Or would the bride get into the dress, and then someone would let the photographer know it's safe to come in and he would do some staged shots with the dress partly unzipped, or even just leave it fully zipped with the mom or whoever holding the back of the dress to make it LOOK like they're zipping it?
So excited for this!!! I'm headed into my very first wedding after starting with mainly family sessions. My biggest concern is how to shoot the ceremony in dim, mixed lighting with no flash. It also involves a stained glass window that greatly complicates things with different light in every spot of the church.
The best advice I can give is get the fastest aperture lenses you can afford. It really makes a huge difference with shooting in low ambient light. Lenses with apertures smaller than f2.8 in low light is reaaally kind of pushing it but It is doable. It is also better to raise your ISO high and get sharp grainy images than to miss the action with a low ISO and get blurry 100% guaranteed unusable images. I would try and aim for f1.8 prime lenses and the holy grail f1.4-f1.2 lenses are the creme de la creme of low light hoovers lol. the f2.8 zooms are good but in certain situations sometimes even f2.8 doesn't cut it. I shoot Nikon and I always have the older 85mm f1.8D, 35mm f2 D and the 50mm f1.8D in my bag for the ridiculously low light situations. I used to have a canon 85mm f1.8 when I shot canon and that is still one of my most favorite lenses I have ever owned. It is crazy good for low light. they are relatively affordable these days too since everyone is going mirrorless. If an image is too grainy you can always make it black and white to get rid of the color in the noise. For fast moving subjects you really can't drop your shutter speed below 1/250th of a second to keep the image sharp. If a subject is relatively still you can get all the way down to 1/60th of second but you'll have to time your shots right with when the subject comes to rest from a movement. Best of luck and may the light be with you!
I have my first wedding coming up in Aug. I have a 15-35, 50, 100, 70-200… all RF glass on an R5 and R6. I’m excited, but nervous. It’s a small 70 person event. This video helps. Thanks for sharing it. Also… could you share some insight on male photographers in the bridal suite for those getting ready shots. IE. what’s appropriate to shoot. Obviously, I think you’d have a conversation with the bride and bridesmaids to ease any concerns or uncomfortableness. We’re still doing a job just like a female photographer. We’re all professionals here.
I’m loving your videos. I struggle with the camera settings; always wanting my people sharp yet obtaining blurry backgrounds. Can you answer this please?
I have photographed tons of weddings, but the hardest part for me and with most of the local 'historic' venues, is they are light sucking dark venues. Nearly impossible to capture great photos without using direct flash. All pine wood, very orange, and dark ceilings hard to bounce...
Katelyn congrats on your new baby by the way. so I have a question I really love my 85 prime lens but I never seem to have the time to use it at a wedding everthing always seems so rushed. I use to cameras one with 35 prime or 24-70 and my other camera has my new 35-180 which I love but its heavy. When do you use your 85?
I love this series idea!! I dont think I've seen much of your content related to the actual ceremony and checking off the must have photos for that part of the day. For me its high stress because it is once and done. You have to get all the shots and not interrupt at all, so any tips about where you put yourself and how you make sure to capture everything you need would be amazing!
I know KJ already chimed in, but definitely check out KJ All Access! It’s amazing and one of the best investments I’ve made for my business! There’s a new episode each month and she takes you behind the scenes for full wedding days and compiles it all together so you see what she does in real time. (Including any internal freak outs that we all have and can’t let on to our couple!) Then she does a voiceover explaining why she did what she did, what she wishes she did different, etc. It’s like shadowing someone during the wedding day, but without feeling like you have to get out of the way, wanting to ask questions but too afraid to, etc. Okay, I sound like an ad, but for real, check it out! It’s very reasonable price wise and well worth it!
Loved this Video! The ceremony, everyone wants different angles, and some people don't want us in the middle to capture straight on shots. So I struggle with that a bit !
So helpful Katelyn. Thank you so much, your photos are incredible and these videos are so helpful. I would love to see how you set up groom getting ready shots as well!
Thank you a million times for your generosity and time you give to so many of us to learn from the best. The way you teach is so easy for me to learn. from, its fun, its real and full of expert tips. you are truly an amazing and beautiful person. Also thank you to your team who also are amazing.
I love the way you give friendly and gentle commands to direct your clients! Would love to see more videos on doing group shots on wedding day and how to get epic portraits in really small spaces. I shot a wedding and we had such a small area to work with for photos in the house.
I agree, but disagree, I don't believe all shots need natural light or a whole body light. If you look at you upper body shot, OCF would work and give you a better looking shot. With the wide shot, you could of used OCF with it in the room, dropped your exposure and had the door and hallway much darker focusing the subject as the brightest party of the image. I will say the biggest issue I see with bride portraits is overexposure of the wedding dress, you can't see the detail in the very expensive dress the bride has chosen. I do feel it is the fear of using flash, if you use speed lights it can be Done very quickly. Get a better controlled exposure and have a better portrait of the bride without relying on natural light. Or the problems with backlighting
This is fantastic!! Thank you for doing this series! Things I’d love to see in this series… First looks (groom & bride, bride & bridesmaids, father & daughter). I also struggle with angles and where to shoot from to capture it correctly with lighting 🤪
