Top Tips for the Best Wedding Photography

Whether it is your first wedding, or you have several years of experience under your belt, being trusted by the happy couple to take photos of their special day can be a nerve-wracking experience. The bride and groom are putting their trust in you to take photos of one of the most important days in their lives, one that they have spent a lot of money on and probably spent several months planning.

If you are relatively new to wedding photography then you may want to look around for inspiration and see what works. Free photo sharing sites are a good place to start and will offer you the opportunity to take a look at a lot of photos that could help you.

Here are our top tips to help you create the best wedding photography.

Check out the locations

Even if the happy couple lives locally to where you are based there is a good chance that they will have chosen a venue you may not be familiar with. It is really important that you check out the location, and this may be a wedding venue as well as a reception venue so that you know what to expect. This will also give you a good idea about the lighting conditions that you can expect and offer you some insight into some of the best places to grab some spectacular shots. It will also give you an indication of any issues you might encounter so you can be prepared.

Bring spares

A great wedding photographer is one who is prepared for everything so leave nothing to chance. This is one occasion where you need to make sure that you have spares of all your equipment, even if you think your camera is working properly you don’t want to risk something happening, this is one occasion you can’t reschedule. You may even want to consider a spare photographer in the form of an assistant, someone who can take over from you if an accident occurs.

Go over the schedule

Talk to the happy couple before their big day. You want to know exactly what the schedule for the entire duration is. Every wedding is different so you need to know if they have planned some personalization to their day that will make it extra special for them. This is certainly something that you will want to capture for their album.

Be prepared

No matter how much planning goes into a wedding there is one thing that you can’t control and that is the weather. The Bride and Groom may well have planned for inclement weather with umbrellas for the wedding party and you will need to as well. Remember that should it rain, you will need to ensure your camera doesn’t get wet so bring several large umbrellas just in case. Just because it rains doesn’t mean you have to stop shooting, if the bridal party has umbrellas, particularly ones that have been chosen for the big day, then you may be able to incorporate that into your photos.

Capture the small details

Finally, wedding days can pass in a bit of a blur for the Bride and Groom so take some time to take photos of some of the smaller details that they have planned for their wedding but have probably not had the time to appreciate. This might be simple things like place cards, table arrangements, even intricate wedding hair. These small details play a huge part in the big day and whilst they may not make it into the end photo album the happy couple is sure to appreciate them being captured in photos for memories sake.