Five Tips for Amateur Wedding Photographers

Weddings are expensive, and families often ask a friend or relative to take wedding photographs in lieu of hiring a professional photographer. If you accept such an assignment, use the word BRIDE to help remember these 5 tips for success:

Be Prepared
Required Shots
Interesting Candids
Dress
Everyone else

Be Prepared -- Wedding photography is stressful enough as-is, so be smart and make certain you have everything you might need. If you are the only photographer, carry two cameras with large, empty memory cards. If you need to borrow a camera, get it a few days in advance and practice shooting on all the settings until you can work it instinctively. You need fully charged batteries, and spares...all those flash shots will suck the juice out of batteries, so have your spares immediately accessible. Auxiliary flash is very desirable, to give people a more 3-D appearance than simple on-camera flash.

Required Shots -- There are some photos that must be taken, no exceptions. Couple and priest/minister, first kiss, tossing bouquet, etc. Make a written list of them and (mentally or physically) check them off as you do them. If you miss one, consider having a re-enactment later to get it.

Interesting Candids -- While many photos of the bride and groom will be formal and almost stage-managed, you will want to try to capture some candid photos of them also. Try for photos of the bride adjusting her veil, or the groom looking pensive, or anything else that captures your fancy.

Dress -- The bride's dress is extremely important. Vary the exposure on some shots to make certain the dress isn't just an overexposed white blob. Shoot from different angles, and try shooting from low as well as eye level.

Everyone Else -- While the bride and groom are the most important persons at the wedding, don't forget the moms, dads, attendants, siblings, etc. If someone came from far away to attend the wedding, be sure to get extra pictures of them.

By remembering B-R-I-D-E, and with plenty of advance preparation, an amateur can shoot very good photographs. Let us here at 399Retouch fix up any that don't quite make the grade, and you will help the couple preserve the memory of their most special day. 

(written by Miles Abernathy)