Tips on shooting weddings

Recommended gears:
• Camera body (best to have 2 bodies so you don’t have to keep on changing lens)
• Wide angle lens and telephoto lens
• Flash
• Memory cards

Recommended camera settings:
• Aperture Priority
• ISO 400-800 ( just watch out for the grain if your camera produces grainy photos on higher iso)
• Jpeg or Raw + jpeg
• Auto white balance

What to shoot:

during preparation of bride:

• Bride while having make up
• Bride beside the dress
• Rings, coins, Bible, array, etc…
• Bride with family and Maid of honor
• Bride’s portraits on her gown. Experiment with some dramatic lighting, shoot with and without flash, silhouette is always a winner






In church

• Document the entourage march
• Watch for emotions from the groom and people in the church
• Take a portrait of the bride looking out the window
• Take a photo of the back of the gown of the bride before the march. This is best taken using a wide angle lens to include the church doors
• Look for details in the church such as flower arrangements, flowers of the entourage. Things that are normally ignored but important to the wedding
• Take pictures of the bride while marching, this is also the best time to look at the grooms emotions and the parents of the bride
• Look for candid moments in church, this is the best time to shoot candids.
• Shoot the ceremony
• Don’t forget to shoot the “kiss”
• Shoot the recessional and the throwing of confetti. Be creative, you may ask the groom to carry the bride or let them kiss while taking picture .

In reception:

• 1st dance. Try different angles
• Cake cutting
• Reactions of people during programs and video presentation
• Get the portraits of all the people who will give the speech
• Garter & bouquet part


Remember to always get to know the people who are getting married, by doing you build a rapport with them making the couple easier to document. You also need to ask them what they want their pictures to look like, more candid shots than posed, a lot cheesy moments than laughing moments. If you give them what they want the couple will definitely be happy.

Be creative and different. What I put here are just guidelines, guidelines you can improve.