The art of shooting weddings
starring Zoe and Theo
Most photographers will at some point give weddings a try. Typically it’s the first step from hobbyist to professional. The first paycheck made with their camera. Some stick around and some run for the hills. It took me a few seasons for things to click, and there was a time when I thought I was done with weddings altogether due to what I call the rat race.
The rat race. Photography has never been more accessible than it is right now. There was a time when operating a camera was likened to a knowing a trade. Balancing exposure using quick math and a light meter, manual focusing, film processing, film editing. This created a demand for talent and technical expertise combined, for example you may have been able to operate a camera, but were the photos well composed and unique? While this is still true today, so much of the process can be automated. Does the real deal look better? Absolutely it does. But what I tell my photography students is that the only people that will notice is other photographers, artists, experts. At least most of the time. The problem is that’s not your audience.
Your audience is “people”, people who aren’t photographers, probably looking at the image on their phone, not a framed 18x20. So, why does any of this matter? It matters because there are a lot of wedding photographers out there now. Demand is not in your favor. In fact, the demand is for clients. This often results in photographers lowering their rates to be more competitive. Makes sense right? If you’re cheaper you’ll definitely be booked every weekend for the wedding season. So let’s race to the bottom, what could go wrong? Well now you’re not an artist, you’re not a creator, you’re not even a person… you’re a number. You’re the right price, on the right date and the client is going to work you like a puppet. More, more more. You’re just a service and they want their money’s worth. When they hired the caterer they went to a sampling with food provided by the Chef that was in their budget. They looked at what they offered and they picked a few things they liked. They didn’t go into the kitchen and tell them when to stir, what temp to use, when to emulsify. They sat at a table and waited with anticipation, and trusted the professional they’re hiring to make something they’ll like, based on a list of things that they do well. So why does a member of the family get up from their table, walk over to the photographer and start telling them what to do? Because it looks easy. Because you take a picture on your phone every day and it looks pretty good.. so how hard could it be to shoot a wedding?… and like I previously mentioned, it’s never been more accessible. So what’s the point then? How do you break out of this rat race?
A photographer at the wedding, not a wedding photographer. Instagram is cool right? Before it turned into a weird dollar store quality TikTok you’d follow artists and photographers, creatives of all types. Some names would really dominate the creative industry. The downside to this is an echo chamber. You’re work gets impacted by what you see every day on your social media feed, and so does everyone elses… it’s probably being impacted by the same people. You’re inspired by what you just saw. So you go out and make your version of it. Maybe you make a color choice, or a composition decision, you’re not ripping off what you were inspired by, you’re just adding it to your toolbelt of skills. And so is everyone else. Work becomes homogenized. It looks like everyone’s work because you’re all in the same instagram pool. Look at photo books. Get inspired by great cinematography in movies. Paintings. Break out of your pattern any way you can.
Recently I was at a meeting with a prospective client and they said what every artist wants to hear. “Your photos are unique, everyone else who I looked at all looked the same, like it was sears photography, but yours were so different”. Now we’re onto something. How do we get from puppet in a loop to respected artist?
Take the photos you have to take first, then take the ones you want to, include them in the finished album and feature them on your portfolio. If you have a second shooter, put them in charge of details and staged photos while you get to work. If not, bang those out yourself and then start taking the more unique shots. Be a photographer at the wedding, not a wedding photographer. Wait for emotions. Get close. Capture motion.
In movies there is a formula; event, react, speak, react. It tells us how to feel about what has just occured.
Fake movie scenario:
Character running and sweating in a race, half trips but keeps running.
Cut to coach on the sideline, coach tenses, eyebrows raise in concern, hand quickly to mouth.
Character grabs leg and stops abruptly, the other racers are rapidly approaching, pain is visible on character’s face and clutches the cramped leg.
Coach: “Damn it! Remember what I showed you! Stretch it out, breathe, don’t let it get in your head”
Character takes a deep breath, visibly calms down, the other racers are now passing character, character stretches and breathes slowly, and begins to run again, returning to the lead.
Coach smiles and nods, tears up slightly and looks down.
How do we translate this to shooting a wedding? Event, react. Someone is giving a speech, capture reactions and emotions. The couple is dancing, shoot the laughs as they whisper to each other, the excitement of being dipped, the sharing of relief that the hard parts are done and now they get to dance. Their emotions show us how to feel about the photo, just like the movie formula. If you stand back and shoot the person giving the speech you’ll get their mouth hanging open as they speak and them holding a microphone. Not very flattering or interesting. If you shoot the first dance from far back you’ll have successfully documented that they danced, but it won’t have any emotional impact at all.
Environment. I’m a big advocate of scouting, light hunting, knowing my environment. I like to attend the rehearsal, then walk around the location, make note of where the sun is at what time. Find natural frames and archways, backgrounds, and weed out parking lots, electrical equipment, anything distracting or ugly. I’m in Vermont, and my favorite thing about photographing Vermont weddings is finding the natural beauty of the location and utilizing as much of it as I can. I shoot a lot of landscapes, so maybe this comes naturally to me, but if you can add an element to your work using the right tree, or flower, or natural shape you’ll immediately pull ahead of the pack. Try to have the subject of the photo interact with what’s there.
Raise your rates. Being cheaper, or cheapest isn’t helping you. It’s making you a number, not an artist. Pricing competitively, but not cheaply filters out anyone looking to take advantage of you. Will you miss out on being hired a few times? Yes. But those aren’t weddings you want to shoot. Those are 100% the clients that you may as well hand them your camera because they’ve already decided what you’ll be shooting that day. This was the hardest lesson for me to learn. The wedding industry is a beast, and there’s a full spectrum of price and talent. Don’t be at the bottom.