Wedding Photography 1: How to Shoot a Wedding

1. Introduction: Hey, what's up? Skill share? My name is Phil dinner, and I'm excited to bring you a new series of courses on wedding photography. In this first course of the Siri's were talking about how to shoot the wedding. I think that's the very basic thing that you need to know, so that you can really tell yourself whether you want to do this or not. So when this cores have partnered with Will Carnahan, a great wedding photographer, to show you exactly how to shoot each moment of a wedding, so we walk through an entire wedding. We talked about the technical, creative, compositional aspects of every photo that he took during the weddings, and hopefully it will inspire you and teach you how to shoot a wedding. So this is a great Siri's to get started. If you want to be a wedding attire for you could make thousands of dollars each week, and it could even become a full time job in the next two courses in the Siri's will talk about how to oppose couples for either wedding photography or engagement photos, and then in the last cores, Part three. We're talking about setting up your business. So all the nitty gritty of creating a brand website Quran your packages pricing your packages so that they sell competing in a saturated wedding photography market so that you can get your first clients and much, much more. So I'm so excited to have you here and role in this class now, and let's get started with wedding photography. 2. Project: Dessert Photos : so the cores project for this wedding photography part one of the Siri's is to take photos of a desert. Taking photos of the cake or whatever desert is at a wedding is a very important part of being a wedding photographer. Capturing what that cake looks like is so important, because they've not only spent a lot of money, but also time figuring out what tempered desert they want to serve to their guests. And you get to capture that moment of them cutting the cake, but also just the before it's cut. You got to preserve what it looked like so that they can look back 2030 40 years from now and see what they're beautiful cake looked like. So since all of you aren't wedding photographers yet and you might not be going to a wedding, I want you to just take a photo of some type of dessert. It can be at a wedding that you're attending. It could be also at a wedding that you have shot or will shoot. Or it could just be at your home or at the restaurant. Wherever you go and have dessert. Take a photo of the desert take a wide shot to establish what the entire desert is, and then take it close up to show some sort of detail. It could be the frosting. It could be the topper of the the cake. After you've taken those photos, post two of them the wide and the close up to the course page, so that other students and I can check out your amazing work. So that's the course project for this class, and in the next lessons were going to be showing You have to take photos of an entire wedding and some great lessons. We'll show you how to take photos of the cake and deserts and other details during the reception and then also the cake cutting itself. So I hope you're excited and let's get straight to it. 3. Pre-Ceremony Details: Okay, I So let's start with details. The first thing that you need to knock out are the details. It's a good way to get into the day. It's a good way to start practicing. It's a good way to get to know what's going on. We'll get into the Brighton Groom prep here in a second, but first details. You want to cover exactly what's going on these air good filler shots for, like, a photo album, these air good filler shots to see other vendors work like the flowers. They're just good to capture the moment and the day. We really want to kind of capture a story. The big thing is storytelling. You're gonna hear me saying that a lot, but as a big collective thing, you want to get those little detailed insert shots. It's kind of like a movie. When someone you know does something big. You want to get an insert shot of like that key inserting into the lock or that hand opening the door stuff like that. So here is Ah, here it fills wedding. We're gonna use these two weddings. Uh, fills. Wedding is having a bouquet here, tied to one of the pews. It was one of the first things I shot. I walked in, checked it out, just testing my exposure, but also capturing a really nice detailed shot. We'll move on kind of quickly. Here, here is a box. This is a little out of focus. I think the next one's a little better, but you can see here that I'm trying to capture exactly the details of the day. They created a box with Isabel and fill on the top here in the heart and then the day of their wedding. So they're able to really kind of make something special out of their rings. This is the ring box, so you can see I try to bring it out to the where the ceremony was. You hear me talk about it a lot, but here's a blue hue that was coming from the ceremony. It's kind of a nice way to kind of conjoined all the photos because a lot of them have that same little blue reflection again. Here's a better, even closer macro shot of the box. 3 18 This shot could be used as a very fantastic cover for a photo album. It says. The day it has the Bucks, there's a lot of story. You can see that it's hand painted. It's it's just it's really cool, detailed, kind of have, um, here is part of the wedding. There's this big window in there, a couple of windows that really had a lot of light shining through. I'm trying to get details of the actual venue to kind of show exactly what it kind of looks like and kind of create a sort of atmosphere because there's tons of light here. I kind of opened up. I'm sorry it closed down to 320 of a second to kind of silhouette it a little bit just to go back really quick. You can see here that I'm shooting at a to eight in a 400 again, making things look professional. The best ways to put things really in focus and really add a focus. That's that cinematic professional Look, the look that I phones and phones won't get, and I talk more about that in the next section. Here we go. This is kind of the bride in the groom's family getting ready. You can see one of these bouquets across the back of the pew. You can see the groom's mom, and everyone is kind of getting ready with the veil. Everyone's kind of planning out and putting these on the back of the pews. It's a good detail shot, and it's also good to kind of start telling the story. When you move into the bride's room, you're gonna want to start to get shots of the dress. The dress is kind of a big, big deal for a lot of people, and it's kind of a once in a lifetime thing. It's very traditional. You want to try and get a wide shot, medium shot and more of a detailed shot. I'm gonna skip over the strings really quick. But here's a more close up shot of Isabel's dress before she puts it on. It definitely looks different on the person than it does on a hanger you want to. Sometimes I carry a nice wooden hanger with me. Luckily, they had a nice a nice one, but sometimes have a wooden hanger or a black felt anger because sometimes there might be an ugly wire hanger or an ugly plastic hanger, and you want this toe look really nice. You want the presentation toe? Look, um, you know, elegant. So here's a more close detail shot. Um, you can sell. I'm a little bit more Mac Road in here, but we're at the 2.8 to kind of have that fall off, but it really like the detail of the stress that you can see all the little lines that are going on along with all the little crystals and stuff like that. So again, get a more of a wide a medium, a detail close and then maybe another variation of a medium. Um, I also kind of use the available light from here again. In retrospect, I don't know if I like these blinds still, but it's a nice little composition of the of the dress. Here's a more close up shot of their wedding rings before they put it in the box. They had him in these little in these little rings here I use the available light from the window. I felt like this went through with the theme pretty well, and you can see that they're they're very nice and close up and a little bit in focus about you can see this one's out of focus. I was focusing more on Phil's here. Um, here's another variation. I opened up a little bit more to get a little bit more light in. You can say I also switched up the lenses. Here's a 24 to 70. I felt like that covered it a little bit easier. Not as much fall office faras focus goes, because this is a detailed shot. It's a little bit of a better shot here. I took them out and ah, I think it's a little nice to see them here. There's a lot of room and the cameras I'm using so you could cut in and crop in if we needed Teoh. Just beautiful available light coming, and you can kind of see the reflection of me and there, which you could take out if you really wanted to get more detail. But I don't think you need to. There's a pretty clear, concise shot of their rings that they're gonna be wearing for the rest of their lives. 4. Groom Preparation: Hey, guys. So right here. I have two weddings that I've shot most recently. I kind of like both these weddings as examples, mostly because they're smaller weddings. And chances are if you're starting out, this is the type of wedding you're gonna be shooting. One of them's fills, as we can see here. And the other ones are my friends, Donovan and Kourtney. So I'm gonna go through these and show you exact examples of what we're looking at. So let's start with Groom Prep. So here, we're gonna go ahead and I'll let you know exactly appear in the left corner my f stop and my shutter along with my S o and what lens I was using for this wedding. I had two cameras. I had a D I two d eight hundreds actually had a d 888 10 both night cons, and I was rocking them both. One of them had a 24 to 70 and I believe the other one had a little bit of a longer lens. I can go look at that later, but here we go. So best thing to do for groom prep is to get their when they're prepping. Chances are they're gonna be getting ready a little bit later than the than the bride. So you have a little bit of time to go. Kind of see what they're doing here. I found Phil outside. He had just arrived. He was getting ready for the day. Real excited. You can see one of his groomsmen are over here on the right. Um, I am using a 24 to 70 because I don't know what the situation is gonna call for. I'm using a higher shudder at 1/16 16th of a second. Um, or 1600. Um, mostly because I want to be able to capture stuff very quickly. And a lot of these weddings I shoot as wide open as I can. So that would require me to use a faster shutter. So 2.8 What? My lenses. I'm out of 52. You can see I was trying to get what I can. Let's just move on really quick. So here we go. Here's another one of the groomsmen. They're getting ready. I'm using a valuable light. You can see from the right side. There's a window. I'm kind of exposing to that, you can see I dropped down a 2/100 of a shudder. I moved back to a 35 millimeter on a 24 to 70 staying at a two point, and I moved up to 800 mostly because I just wanted to get all the light I could get in there so I could. I can edit that later. But the big thing, as Faras composition in one day, is you see, we're using the rule of thirds, but we're also trying to capture the moment we're trying to see. Look how much of life and stuff is in your here is Sam, who is also a friend, putting on the hooks. He's getting ready, get dressed, fill in the background, putting final touches and another groomsmen brushing his teeth. Um, were in a hotel. We're not in a hotel room or in a room as part of the church, so I'm really just trying to get so many different levels of emotion and stuff, and I think we got here. That's really important in people getting ready. Here's our next photo. We are here with Phil. This is edited a little bit, basically feels put on those coverings and again, I'm using available light coming out of the O coming out of the window. And the big thing is, here is I'm kind of letting it fall off. I've gotten up to a four, mostly because I'm trying to get a little more things and focus because we're so close. I'm also trying to stop down, so there's a little bit of fall off. You can see here on the dark's shadows here, so it's a little more contrast. See a little more epic you can see here I went back up Thio, Thio 60th of a second because I want to get the light back in and get the faces in the background. Had I shot this photo with the same exposures? Is this photo This all would have been dark and a little more dramatic? You can see how I can switch from like a dramatic look very quickly by just adjusting the shutter Thio more of a like coverage journalistic photo year. So he's looking in a mirror here you can see his groomsmen are looking on. You know, that sequence kind of kind of continues to go and the best thing is like, you can kind of have fun with them. You can kind of just kind of jump in and be like, You know, you kind of have to have fun, make them smile, make them laugh, maybe make fun of the guys. They tend to think that that's funny. Um, and that's when you kind of get out the rial smiles and who they are. I was in a small room, so you can see that I'm sticking to my 24 to 70 quite a bit in here. Um, even on these little close ups, I kind of punched in a little bit just to get the details here. I think on retrospect, when I look at this shot, the video crew looks like they have already tapped him up here. I probably would have tried to avoid that. Avoid that in the first place. A big thing here is you want to get the details of the groomsmen, right? So these ties air specific to what they are showing as their wedding. And trust me, the bride and groom are really gonna like those details later on, especially if it's colors that they really want and they want to use later as, like a memory or or something like that. Here's the couplings. I'm not sure where Phil got his couplings from or if they meant anything to him in the second wedding, I'm gonna show you some more important couplings, but again, detail shots. I'm here to 45 I think most because I was, I was zoomed in. I think it could go to a 2.8, but again, 1/60 of a second. I was probably I usually shooting manual because I'm so used to changing everything and sometimes that will get me in trouble. I probably would have rather shot this at a to eight and shuttered up a little bit. But again, I got it. I got it. Working the light meter was fine. It might be easier for you guys to shoot an aperture priority and stick it at a 2.8 or a four, depending on your lens or what not so that you get that like, really cool cinematic look, a big thing that I wanna I wanna emphasize. Er I think things look great and we'll show that more of the details, but this is a really good example. There's really only an inch probably less than an inch in focus. So we want to create this really out of focus look, but this really in focus, look, and that's what's going to make things look professional, make things look really cinematic and really good. Um, and I think that's what's going to separate yourself from other photographers who may put everything and focus in a more traditional sense or kind of like those instant cameras or even on your iPhone or a photo phone. Everything is in focus. The great thing about a longer lens if we shoot a 70 millimeter and four were really kind of achieving that look. And I think that's really important to making things look good. Um, here, again is just more coverage of one of the groomsmen. He's like checking out. I probably wouldn't use all these photos and showing them Ah, final selects. But, uh, you know, trying to tell the stories is a big deal here, so it's bounce over his other wedding. This is Donovan. He's the other groom, and he was getting ready in the same sense. I kind of pulled him aside. Did a couple of portrait shots of him again, using very available light. It was a little bit darker in his room than Phil's room. You can see I s owed up to 1000 still a 2.8. Still, in my 24 to 70. Um and really, just you can see again, very little in focus thons out of focus, right? And that's what makes it look very cinematic again. Even worse. So this is 24 to 70 again to point A. I s owed up to 1000 so I could achieve the 2.8 was was pushed down to a 1 80 life on Mars. That's from my song. And it was really important for Donovan to kind of capture that mostly because his wife got him these cufflinks because that song means a lot to them. And so he had to wear them in the wedding, and he has him forever. And we kind of covered it. And they love this shot. They can't express how much that he's so excited that we've kind of captured that you could kind of share that. So that was really great. Again, Details is the same shot we did with Phil. You can see bowtie versus tie these air really just standard detailed shots that you kind of want to grab in order to kind of show the details of the day again. It's the same thing. And if you look at these again, you'll be like, Oh, you're doing the same thing over and over again. But remember, these couples are really only looking at their wedding, so this is the first time they're seeing it again. Here's another portrait, Donovan. Same thing. Very little in Focus. Shot it a 2.8. Again. Again, With my 24 to 70 my shutter went up a little bit and I'm still 1000. I s o the D 800 handles that really well. They are big files, So I have some room. But you can tell here that it falls off very quickly right here. And that's because of that 2.8. And because we're kind of at a long 62 year, Um, I know that his wife really love this photo. Those air posed shots. I kind of put him in this area available light again. I think they look fantastic. I took him out with his with his buddies. We went outside, and I just told them to stand around until jokes and kind of make each other laugh. And again, you just be a fly on the long you capture this shooting at a 4/100 of a second, um, which is really important because I got him. I captured it very quickly again. I'm at a 2.8 to make all this look really nice and soft. And this looks professional to me. To my eye, this looks like a professional photo available light 24 to 70. Very easy to achieve. Andi very quickly Again. They're having phrase there, having a good time. You want to capture this? I mean, look at this. Like what? How much emotion is in this photo that you can kind of tell what's going on? He's a little wary. They're trying toe, you know, do the phrase and stuff again with the four in the second. I didn't change anything here. I just captured the moment. Saw it turned shot. Auto focus. Very good. I did get the groomsmen bow tie. You can see it stayed at that 2.8. I went a little bit up on my 24 to 70. You can see here. I'm at 70 0 I guess I only went to 62 year, but again, here's that fall off. But in a closer manner, you can see like this is already out of focus, and this is in focus. There's hardly anything in focus, and this looks very professional and very good. Detailed shot. 5. Bride Preparation: All right, so let's look at the bride prep section. Here's Isabel. This is Phil's wonderful wife, and we are going to kind of go through exactly what you want to be shooting with the bribe . It's a little more involved in the groomsmen, mostly because generally brides tend to like to see them getting ready. There's a lot more details, as far as you know, something blue, something old, all those kind of sort of things. So let's go through real quick, General telling story photos you can see here. I'm rocking my 80 to 400 on my D 8 10 This is so I can step back and kind of get those pretty shots. When you zoom in a lot, you'll get that depth of focus that I was talking about. Um, it was really important that you kind of shoot their family members that are here. Here's Isabel's mom. She's gonna be very involved with them getting ready. Um, Isabel also got a letter from Phil, of course, because he's a hopeless romantic. Ah, and you want to capture the story here, right? So she's reading the letter. She's smiling, were stepped back at 120 millimeters. So we're not in her face. We're not intruding, but we're still capturing the moment. Um, here's one that's a little edited. This is kind of important. I think this is more important for, you know, loving photography. But here's her mom putting on her wedding dress like, How awesome is that? You want to capture that story in a great manner again, I'm a little further away. 80 millimeters isn't terribly far, but we're still able to step back, achieve the look we want with that longer lens. Shoot it a 4.5 and still make it look professional. Capture the moment, um, you then to step to the side, get another quick angle of that and over the shoulder. Here we have more on her mom, and I know that I would love so photo like this when I was, if I was getting dressed to have my dad or my mom behind me on one of the most important days of my life. So this is more of a really good photo to capture for the couple again. A just zoomed in so you can see here I was at 80 millimeters 252nd. These are a little edited, so they're not color correcting showing you exactly one after another. But this was immediately after that. I punched in at 130 millimeters and you can see we kind of just got another angle. Another look. Variety way to tell a story is the best way coming out. Isabel laughing, having a good time, Still on the same lens, just zooming out a little bit. You can see how a zoom can really let you achieve the moment you in that moment. Um, here's her dad. Same thing telling the story, trying to get what's going on. She's pinning on his his boot in here for the day. Um, again, after that, they're going to be interacting. You're going to step back. I'm using available light. You can see it blew out these windows. I like that. Look, I think it looks fantastic. Um, I'm here again with my 80 to 400 step back with my eighties so I can get both of them in. Um, and here's Isabel looking at another at another letter. Basically, I'm trying at this point. Get coverage of her dress of her getting ready, just telling the story. I know I say that a lot, but really, you want to get as much as you can to then cover an entire story. Basically, she got she got a president from someone you want to cover exactly what's going on here. This is when one of her bridesmaids to try to do her hair again details, details. Very big, and you can step back with your 80 to 400 with a longer lens and kind of zoom in. So you're not intruding, not in their way again with the makeup. We want to be getting details of the day of her getting ready and really getting prepared. Um, let's see. So after she got ready, I kind of took her aside and did a couple of just her shots just to coverage and get good coverage of exactly what she was wearing. So we can reference those on the day again in like, 40 or 30 years. She's going to be showing her grandchildren and whomever what she looked like on our wedding day, and you are a part of that. You want to cover exactly what's what's what's being shown so I took her way. I like this. Look, I think in retrospect, I probably would have tried to get these blinds out. But you can tell here that, like I'm blowing it out, I'm really focusing on her for the details. I zoom in very quickly. You can see we went from a 98 millimeter on the same lens all the way into its 270 millimeter on the same lines to try and pick up this detail. We kept our exposure generally the same. We went up a stop here. Um, and then we kind of step back, and I'm using the available light to kind of just softly come across her and her face. Um, 175 millimeters achieves this fall off. You can see she's in focus or Isar and focus. And this is fall off here and fall off in front. Um, we want to try and achieve this nice, pretty professional. Look, um, turn to the side, turn your camera, get variations. You want to try and see what she's looking at and kind of like, exactly tell if you can capture her motion. I had a look down because Definitely. When you have someone look down, they tend to reflect in the number themselves, and you contend to kind of try and pull out who they are when they're looking down. You can see me doing this technique a lot I go from, Look at me, look down, Look at me, look down And that's really helpful. And faras like telling a story and really achieving stuff. Another thing I did was I lined up the bridesmaids to try and have a picture of them together. But I kind of took my time and with slow and was having them tell jokes. And I was like having them check their teeth and stuff like that, and that just leads to them laughing and having fun. Um, and that's when you're shooting. You shouldn't be waiting for them to pose. You shoot when you have them line up, and when they're starting to get together and they're looking at each other and you can tell you can see the emotion here. I mean, look, this is great. And again, step back 155 millimeters were close enough to make it look great, but we're not in their face same thing here. They do all these things naturally. She was just doing this naturally, and I just step back and shot away. It's really easy. You really don't have to do much if you can tell them to it, relax and have fun and stuff like that. Here's one of Phil's brothers. He came in to give her that note from earlier. You know, capturing the day. Same thing. This is a little bit the wider lens you can see I have my other camera on me. So I would jump out to a 24 to get a wider than passing things out. Um, again, going back to telling the story. There's a lot here. Before, when we were shooting her dad, we would step around and I jumped in on my other camera and just really grabbed a quick one of her face. Looking at her dad. I think that works great for details. Here's another detail shot, just like we did with Phil. We're at a 70 millimeter here, just grabbing that again. Quick, fall off looking very professional. Same thing with their just. This is more my style. I really like hitting and with people's faces because I feel like it really tells emotion again. Going back to what we were looking at when she was opening here is an edited shot. I'm a big I really like the rule of thirds. You can tell like there's a lot of negative space up here, and so we kind of put them at the bottom of the frame because I feel like this frame has a lot more emotion. You can see that they're connected. But then you can also see that there's this big open spaces kind of unknown world. This philosophy behind this photo is really great, um, again covering the mom and what she's doing. What, she's getting ready for this for this activity. This is more of a style, a style choice. I tend to shoot a lot of negative space. I tend to shoot, sometimes a symmetrical as I can. I feel like that speaks out a lot. As as photos. Here's Isabel again. We took her away just to do a couple of quick, just portrait shots. Very simple. This is kind of before she's got everything done and ready to go. I had a friend working on her hair and now they're bouquets there. Herb okay was gorgeous and we had to get it in there. And here is when you need to be doing detailed shots again having her hold it. So she's in the background, We can see the dress, but we can also see the flowers on the day. Um, again, here's another one of her looking down. We're going back to these portrait of her. Um, I tend to cut people's heads off sometimes on accident, but I feel like it's more intimate when you're a little bit closer and you're able to step back. Here's another technique again. Down, up, down, up. Have them look down. Have them look at you haven't looked down. Have a look at you. You get to gorgeous shots when they're independent of each other. Um and you never know when you're gonna need something like that again. Same thing having your friends interact, Um, and having her look past you, you can really kind of capture these very nice soft look, the details in the dress and whatnot. Here's the shot that I have them post for in the first place. Eso we came away with the shot But we also came away earlier with another candid photos having them go cheek to cheek. That's something I tell them all the time. All right, this is great. This is wonderful. Supposed. Let's go cheek to cheek. A little more intimate, A little more fun. Um, and a little more. A little more crazy. Here's them getting ready just again. Going back to your wide to cover. Nice, good story and seeing what's going on. Another detailed shot. I tend to again add this negative space because it says more if you put things all in one frame, it doesn't really have an impact as much as something with a lower kind of thirds attitude to it. Let's jump to this other wedding very quickly. Um, this is Courtney here. I actually had my backup camera on me. I had 30 cameras on me and I was using my little Fuji camera that you've seen me, um, show I got really close and just uses available light. She has gorgeous, gorgeous eyes, and you can see that there's fall off from here to here. This photo is not really edited as faras. I would take it. Probably smooth out her skin just a little bit more. But I know Donovan loved her husband. Love this photo to see her eyes again. With the getting ready, I'm back on my 80 to 408 10. Getting using available light. You can see that it kind of softens and shows the whole world. Here's her looking to Amir. You can just you not just barely see me, but this is actually her. And we're looking into a mirror and I'm trying to cover her looking down. Um, again, she's kind of reflecting on what she's about to go through all that again. Same deal. Having her bridesmaids get ready to take a picture together, looking at each other, joking around, checking each other's teeth. That's always a good one to make people smile. You see, her sisters have the same eyes, is her. There tends to be maybe, like a little maid of honor, junior maid of honor or a flower girl in the room. Try and capture that. This one was hamming it up for me. A very easy got lucky again with the negative space. I'm on a 70 millimeter here. Um, here we are, back in the room. Just trying to get coverage again. Back to the wide. You can see I'm doing the same exact style of photo in each weddings. Um, this is a little little fast for me. I wish I was a little higher shutter here, but it was a dark room. Probably wasn't fast enough for this, but yeah, they're sisters. They were twins. They were trying. Teoh kind of get twin shot together. You can see here. She's a focus. She's out of focus. But you know, how often are you gonna get your twin sister fixing your veil at your wedding? This is a fantastic shot. A thing. Here's Courtney in the portrait shots like we did with with Isabel again, I went to a big, giant white window. I exposed to the wind, the center point right here of her getting exposed by the window. Fall off is great. You can see it starts to go into the shadows here a little bit and again her face is in focus. This is out of focus. The backgrounds not my favorite, but it's out of focus. It works great for her because she has such light skin and she has colored eyes, so she pops a little bit more from the background. You can see once you get that one normal shot. I kind of messed with the framing. This says a little more, a little more artistic. Um, And then I turned around and how to get faced The window. They got married at the college. They met at LMU, and I hear exposed for the outdoors so we can get this kind of silhouette a dramatic look. So whenever you're shooting out a window like this, look around turn and you can see Here's a great fantastic shot like How wonderful is that? That her future Children grandchildren will see a silhouetted shot, Um, of their mother again. Okay, Same thing. I shot this at a 2.8 24 to 70. You could see the fall off. Looks very professional, used that available light from the window. And then we had time. So I kind of went in and shot a longer lens 70 millimeter. Had her look down, had her look up how to look down, how to look up. Great. Two shots, soft light, same exposure. Looks beautiful. And then I just kind of like, you know, have fun, play a little bit like, you know, tell her she's good at I tell her, you know, your natural, your great. So you just kind of have to have that personality and trying to get them to laugh a little bit. Step back, get another shot again. Same backer of same Fall off. Um, and then, you know, just hang out, get a get a good wide shot of them getting ready and hanging out and making sure that you get coverage of all of them as they're hanging out. Um, here's when I had them poses the entire bridal party. Great to do that just to kind of warm them up and get them going and see who you are. So that's Ah, that's bright prep. 6. Walking Down the Aisle: Okay, so let's to get into the ceremony. So what happens first? We're walking down the aisle, Um, so you know what's what's really happening here? The big thing is, this is where they're entering, and this is where they're kind of being left to go on their own. And it's really the start of their journey after they've gotten ready. So you kind of want to capture that. The story is, this is the start of their journey. This is the first steps they're taking to getting married today, right? So let's start with Phil's winning a much smaller venue than the other wedding. But it's It's good. It's good to see here. You can see here. Phil's gonna walk his mom down. His mom's gonna walk Phil down. This is a little edited, Um, you can see I was kind of in a tight spot, so I had to shoot what I could as faras them coming out. There's a small little doorway before they had come out, so I started with them, shot them, got another shot as soon as they came out. This is not edited in the same manner, and then I kind of turned and then you can kind of see you can decide if you want to shoot every person coming down the aisle. You may want to have a conversation with the couple beforehand because not everybody necessarily wants to get everyone coming down the aisle. You definitely want to get the key people, Um, and you want to shoot as much as you can, but it also depends on your card space on how much time, how big the event is, where you need to be at what time. So this was important to me because I wanted to get filling his mom coming down. I think obviously the couple coming down is very important. Here is the best man and the other groomsmen. You can see there's a moment when this one was being a little goofy, so I was able to capture that very quickly. Then he got very serious, and I got a shot of him shot of the other groups been looking right at me, so it kind of depends on what you're kind of going for and how much space you have. This is a extremely tiny venue, so I didn't have a lot of room to run around. I was kind of posted up in one spot. Couldn't really move. It was also having to jockey for position with the videographers as well. Here is the mother of the bride as well as the brother of the bride. And again, I think this is an important important photo for especially the bride to see her family getting ready to be prepared. There, you can see he's walking his mom down the aisle again. Maid of honor. Just like the groomsmen. She's gonna be the 1st 1 to step up, typically by herself against this is a maid of honor. Actually, they're both brides mates again. I got lucky because there's a big, bright window and doorway right behind where I was standing and was able to light up them exactly in their spot before they walked down. Um, it's helpful because I like natural light again. Same thing here is the maid of honor. So here's a very important shot that I feel is always very crucial to get This is Isabel on her father again, whomever is going to be walking down this person to the isle at the very last thing. This is a very important shot because this relationship is important. This relationship means a lot Teoh. Whomever is walking down the aisle because this is the person that's giving them away and having them take the next step in your life. It's important that you capture that. Typically, it's the father of the bride and the bride. But you know, there's other situations that it can be here in 24 to 70. Um, I've locked it down, right when they're looking at me after this, they kind of forget about me and they're in the moment. If you can capture that, here is the other wedding. Um, I was kind of stepped back. This is a much bigger venue. So I was running allow around a lot more. You could see her walking down with her father. She's smiling. This is literally the instant she saw her groom. If you can capture that more power to you, it's very hard to dio. But again, you have to be in the moment. You can see I actually took this photo and then, um actually, this one was beforehand. I started out behind them. You can see how big that churches, but how little amount of people are there. She can't really see the groom back there yet. As they started walking down the aisle, I bolted around the other side and I switched lenses. Did you get this? You can see here. I'm out of 24 to 70. This is why I have two cameras. I have 24 to 70 shooting at 24. So I get the entire church. I get the scene on. And then I bolted around this way to the left, ran over there, grabbed my other camera that's on my hip, used the 80 to 400 shot at almost 400 just to get this face. Um, and I think this is great. This is great storytelling. We go from here to here typically, if you have a second shooter, you want to be up here and you want to have your second shooter getting the wide shots so that you could make sure to cover the important important aspects of what you're looking at 7. General Ceremony Coverage: Alright, guys. So they've walked down the aisle. We're here at the ceremony. So again, this depends on the type of wedding you're shooting, how big the wedding is and I'm using these two wedding examples because they're smaller and because one's a smaller venue on one's a bigger venue with a small wedding. Um, you want to get as much coverage as you can. Really. But you also don't want to be intrusive. You have to remember that is an event and you don't want to get in other people's way as faras. That's my stuff. I mean, I do know photographers that do not care and we'll get in the way of shots. So just kind of depends on the vibe of your couple, the vibe of the ceremony and what you are allowed to do when you aren't allowed to do it. Certain venues. This venue was very accommodating and they would let me go pretty much wherever. Um, I was trying to be very discreet. It again is very small, tiny venue, and there's a giant blue window that I was upset about most of the time, but we can kind of show you so this is them kind of just right up before they take a step. General coverage Here I am, back at the end of the aisle again with a longer lens and 80 to 400 I had to bump my shutter down and you can see my I s So is getting up to 1600. It depends on your type of camera. How high you can push your eyes. So, um, I don't like going above 1600 or 2000 if I can avoid it, so you can see I sacrifice the 1 25 shudder to still shoot wide open. Of course I had to And see, I'm back here at the very back and I'm shooting a long lens just to get everything here. So we can tell this is this is obviously a Christian or Catholic wedding. We've got the important things in here. We have the priest and the groomsmen in made of honor to the sides, and we can see that they're here and they're ready to go. I had to run around to the other side. I could not get fills face. Unfortunately for this venue, there is a giant wall here and I could not get around to the other side without making a ruckus so you can see it kind of just sacrifice that. I think Phil and Isabel are very aware that I could not get around, and I know that Phil would rather have seen Isabel's face than his own, So I was able to shoot hers. Um, you can see in this shot when you're done shooting the couple or you got a couple of the couple. Make sure to look her and see what's going on. You can see they have their own seats here on the side. You can see the guitar player is playing and they're paying attention to him. The gentleman obviously are not paying attention to the guitar player. Um, so you can kind of see what's going on there, listening along, singing along, kind of Just tell that story. Here they are standing up again. I was fighting this really bright tinted window. You can see the blue fall off on him and then on the back of her hair here, bright tungsten lights in front. There's nothing you can really do about, um, the way the venue looks. It always helps if you can get there before hand a little bit early, like I did and just test your exposures and see what you're looking at. Um, here I didn't more close ups of of Isabel's face, um, trying to rack between the two. So we got some additions, more flair, more blue light coming here. Make sure you get coverage of the priest or whoever is conducting the ceremony. I was able to step back a lot again with my 80 to 400 still composing Nice shot from a fair distance away again. I'm fighting the light here. I'm at 1600. Still at a 1/20 stepping back, you can see I was on my 80 to 400 quite a bit because I needed I couldn't really get in that close again. Getting him back. I was able to kind of sneak my way into the front with my 24 to 70 and get some reactions. Kind of try to snap off when they're laughing from the smiling. Same thing here. I got a little bit closer with my 24 to 70 again. With that blue light, you can see this camera. I only pushed to 12. 50. I feel like they 100 wasn't really as good as the D 800 a d A. 10. So my eyes so wasn't as high. You can still see a little bit of noise in the blacks, but you know that will go away with editing. Um, let's see, we got here again with the 24 to 70 more master coverage of both sides again, the venues very small. We get a little bit of warp in this lens, so you have to watch that If you're okay with that, you can see these lines are starting to warp at the end here, a little more of a fish. I look, um, they tend to go up and down in a Catholic wedding. There's a lot of kneeling, standing and sitting. You want to kind of get general coverage of what exactly is going on again? It depends on the ceremony. Really? Ah, here. There's there kneeling, and they're being blessed upon by the priest. I step back and you can tell that I was bouncing from behind down the aisle to around to the right side. Here. Here's me running up right after that. and getting on the 24 to 70 to get a really quick shot of them. Kind of looking down again. I feel like the looking down looks very philosophical and very like very inner. And there with themselves, um, again iconic, really quick moment of Phil kissing Isabel's head and her leaning against him. I was able to do that because I was just in the right spot the right time. But you've got to be prepared for that type of stuff. If something happens that quickly and your exposure is not set were you know, in the right place you're not gonna capture a wonderful photo like that. Um, here they're doing communion in the background. Feelings about we're kind of stuck up there in such a small area. You can tell they kind of feel awkward in there laughing, and they're having a good time at the same time, I was able to get that very quickly and very fast. It's a good thing to just kind of keep an eye on your couple. You want to keep an eye on them because you never know what they're going to dio because they're in it together and they're looking for each other for support because they're the ones on display right now. You can see from this position. They were kind of looking at that. I noticed that he was holding her hand after they've given her rings. So I quickly jumped from you can see a jump from 24 millimeters 2 60 millimeters up here in the left corner, and you can tell like this is a wonderful shot. This tells a lot about what's going on and in a storytelling in an album. If you go from here to here, it works really well, um, here, again, looking around at what's going on here is a groomsman not really paying attention to what's going on but paying attention to me. Um, I'm kind of bummed that got a little bit of a videographer in the background, but it's still got a nice kind of way to tell the story again. With my negative space and composing. You see, that's just my style. Um, here we're back on the 24 to 70 got more of a wider range. You can see the guests in the frame, make sure to cover anyone that's playing music or anyone. That's kind of starting out as far as a ceremony. This isn't the most beautifully composed shot, but again, you kind also want to make sure you get coverage of what's going on here. Fillon Isabel had the rings in a box that you can see. I believe that's his brother holding it right there. So I wanted to see it in action after we had gotten those details. Um, here, this is a little bit of a strange framing. Here's the window that I hate. I've been really battling that the entire time. I finally tried to embrace it and kind of compose something that looked nice. I think in editing, I'd probably try toe, straighten out a little bit. It's a little rough because I am on my 24 to 70. This line is slanted, but they're straight. This line is straight. There's so many variables going on here. But I just felt like this was a nice composed thing. You could also for a stylistic way crop right here and have it be a longer shot for, like, more of a panoramic look. So there's a lot you can do in editing and post to make it look good here. I just didn't get enough wide shots. I wanted to come down and just get a little bit of a different shot. I would straighten this out in editing, but it's a little bit of a lower lower shot without the priest. It's just our couple in front of the cross, so we're able to kind of get that feeling a little bit more. So let's jump to the other wedding Here is the venue for the other wedding a lot bigger? Obviously, it's important to them because they met at this campus that has a chapel at Loyola Marymount again. This is on my backup camera. You can see it was on my Sony or my view Fuji and were able to get like, a good venue coverage. Let's go inside. So here we've already walked down the aisle. We're here at the ceremony were about toe started. He, as the priest was bouncing from in front to the other side. This venue was a little bit rougher because they did not let me walk around a lot. This is a much more organized in a much more kind of strict church, so you can see I was kind of locked in one position. I moved anyway. Um, and just I think a rule for weddings is asked for forgiveness. Don't ask for permission because you want to get those shots. And at the end of the day, if you don't get those shots, it's your fault. Here we go is a groomsman, obviously a huge wedding party. I kind of tried to do both shots, but you can see I was kind of boxed in on the left side of the church, so I didn't get all their faces. I was only able to get the guys faces again. Look around. Here's the groom's parents see them looking on really beautiful shot of his father. He's the 1st 1 to get married. His family. He has another brother. So I thought that this was very kind of emotional, impregnable. I'm only able to get this shot because I have an 80 to 400 millimeter lens here. You can see I'm almost all the way at 400. It was very dark in this church. You can see on this camera I moved myself up to 2500. I hate doing that, but I had to do it. You can already tell this green here, um, these air unedited. So I would probably crush the blacks little bit. Try to bring their skin tone a little bit back, but we'll talk more about editing later. Um, here again, I'm really rocking my 80 to 400 quite a bit more because I'm stepped and I'm stuck on one side. The lighting up of front was a little bit better. I'm still a 25 100 so I could get a faster shutter. Probably could have come down to 2000 or 1600 sacrificed my shutter. I do have to stay maintained. 56 Stay open. Here's her twin sister again. Same shot. We could go back to this focus. That was really great. She's in focus. Everything's out. Great professional. Look, um, you know, great on looking. She's you know, they've been conjoined at the hip, their best friends. You can tell there's a lot of emotion in here. Make sure to get details at the ceremony to when they're standing there and they've got their bouquets out and you don't have ah, something to shoot real quick. Throw on the 400 millimeter. Real quick snapshot of that looks great and it works great for an album again, depending on the ceremony. The culture here with the Catholic wedding, there's obviously communion, and the priest goes through a ceremony. For that I would just capture whatever you can as far as telling a story. And as faras like seeing the day and the events of the day. Here's the father of the bride. I thought this was beautiful. He could tell that he was a very hard core Catholic and he was kneeling and standing up at the correct times. Here he was kneeling after communion and you can tell you could just just love this photo. And I loved it so much. And I love the pensive nous. He was thinking about his daughter, obviously growing up. But look at this like you could just get in closer and I took us. I took two steps to the left. You can see I'm out here on 175 millimeters, two steps to the left, Bam! 400 millimeters really got in there. Got tight, got the emotion he's got his wedding ring on. It's just I just think it's a beautiful shot and you got to be looking around for stuff like that that works out great. I know that she loved the shot of her dad here. This is a little more avant garde. I was kind of trying to look at more of the details he had this suit custom made because that's the type of guy he is, and she had a beautiful dress on. So here, not necessary covering their faces but covering the details. It's always a fun shot toe have, and I was kind of, you know, running at a running out of things to shoot here. They turn around. You want to capture what they're doing. They're smiling. They're looking at their their guests again with the details of the dress. This is probably the only time that you're really going to see the dress in full force address like this. Isabel's dress wasn't as flowing, didn't have as much as a train. Um, you can see that Courtney's dresses much more flowing big, and brides usually tend to like those types of details. Here I am at 400 millimeters. Luckily, at this church, the windowpanes were at least 10 feet away from them. Unlike fills that was two feet away from him. They make for a really nice background, especially when they're out of focus. I think that just looks beautiful. And that really shows the types of people they are. They're very, very caring and beautiful people here. Look around. Look at this little girl. She fell asleep during the ceremony. You can see the the Bible's here, the reflection. You just kind of capture what you can again. I was looking around 165 millimeter, not in their face, not right up in there, but I was able to stretch. You. Get that photo. Here's again, the priest jump around the front and we got the train in. We got what's going on. Donovan Expression is not the greatest, but, you know, this is another way to capture it. The big thing about shooting the ceremony and shooting what's going on is just pay attention to what's going on around you. You want to be able to see exactly what's going on and try and pick up on those little moments that really exemplify what is happening and capture of the story. Really 8. Readers: so again, Depending on the type of ceremony or wedding you're shooting, there's going to be possible readings or kind of guests coming up and saying what they're doing. I kind of just wanted to go over A typical American cultural wedding is gonna have some sort of reading. Um, whether it's religious or not, someone's gonna go up and say something. So you want to kind of cover that? I'm gonna go over this very quickly. Generally, you just really want to get coverage. Um, again, Here's a rule of thirds shot. I had a post I was fighting with right here, but in the in the meantime, I got her and I got a little bit of space lead room in front of her. Same with this other reading. You want to try and get their eyes looking out? You can see I kind of missed up here. She was tending to look down quite a bit, but you have to time yourself. You have to be able to look at Look at what she's doing. Look, wait, wait for ice to come up. Shoot. Um, I kind of missed it here. Still looks nice, but it definitely looks nicer when they're looking up here. He was a little bit more animated, although he was looking down yet his hand up. I missed the shoulder here because I was between a post on someone, but you could crop in, and this also still tells a story. It gives you some foreground to kind of see the distance. Um, also other than speeches, there will be ceremonial things happening. You can see here a Kourtney and Donovan's wedding. There's a lighting of the two mothers. They basically put flames there, and then the couple would then take both flames and make it one flame so you can see that symbolizing the family coming together and becoming one of the big thing here is just same coverage again at this wedding, I could not get over there, so I had my 80 to 400 met to 50 just to get a good night's coverage of It's well lit here again. At the same wedding, they had a little bit more more readings of more formal readings up on a podium had this step back. I'm at 250 millimeters, so I'm zoomed in quite a bit. I'm exposing to the light coming down from their face. It's quite a harsh light coming from up in the rafters, but you can see, once I got that exposure, I was able to kick back on, do that here. I got a little closer physically, So I had to come change my shutter shutter value and also zoomed in quite a bit. So I lost my f stop a little bit. You can see here, though. I caught him looking up. Same here. We've got to catch them looking up, they are reading. So make sure you just kind of stand by and then try and shoot right when they look up. Same thing here. I was able to get a lot closer, but I'm also at almost might limit here at 400 out of 56 When you're that far up again, I'm my eyes so is kind of high. Um, you can see that the blacks aren't too bad in this one, mostly because I think I shut it down a little bit. This is great. He's looking up. He's the pastor or the priest, so he's ableto kind of control. What's going on? So it's just a good coverage. He's also related to them in some way. So he kind of came in from a neighboring church, Um uh, beforehand and kind of came to Ellen you at the same time they did. So he's used to them, and he means he means a little bit more than a normal ceremonial person would, because he was there with them at the beginning. So it's good to get a shot also looking around when they're doing speeches here I am looking at Donovan and Kourtney's. They're sitting to the side. I found a good shot of them. They're laughing and smiling at someone talking, some able to capture that moment instantly. Again. I'm way back far, but I'm at my 400 millimeter, so I'm able to get a nicely composed shot of them. 9. Rings Exchange, Vows, Kiss: So we did the ceremony. There are specific parts in the ceremony that are kind of crucial. There's rings, vows and kisses. That's what I'm kind of gonna focus on here. You can see here. The vows are gonna be very important to the couple there once in a lifetime. Things are very emotional here. I was able to capture Isabel just after her vows, and you can see that she's emotional. Phil's emotional, too, but I can't see his face. Um, it's a really good time to capture rule, close up faces. You can see I'm here back on my 80 to 480. Could have gotten in a little closer if we needed Teoh. Here is right before we're about to put the rings on. You want to kind of get what's going on here. I think it's a little special because Phil's brother over here was handing him the rings, so he was kind of made part of the ceremony, which is very crucially important. Fillon Isabel. Any couple are gonna be wearing the rings for the rest of their lives, so this is a very important part of the ceremony. It's kind of one of the only tangible parts of the ceremony that we're gonna be moving on. Um, so you want to cover it in a good in a good way? Here we go. Is able to step up the aisle a little bit again. I'm on my longer lens at 220 millimeters. I'm able to really kind of get what's going on right here. Uh, he's actually putting the wedding around. This is a very awesome show. I don't typically actually get this shot because of any was so small. I'm able to get a little bit closer. You can see here the smiling faces afterwards, that he was able to put it on the right finger. You know, you just kind of kind of captured those moments and see what's going on. Um, again, I going back to details here a little bit because they'll tend to turn around. And if you're this close getting the shot, if they tend to turn around and you're still up there, try and get some detail shots because those air good opportunities to get that, um, let's go into the kiss. So this is also very good. Typical shot to get, um I kind of stayed up there a little bit. I test the water to see how far close I can get without making people uncomfortable. And you just nail it. You can see here. I'm at my 185 millimeter on my 80 to 400 able to kind of get in close and get that shot. There's a little bit of motion, you see, that was caused because of the low light and my lowest shutter. Um, kind of a bummer, but you're still able to get this shot, this shot and the progression of this shot So you can see how it kind of went from here to here to here to here. Um and you kind of want to maintain that there is going to be like a story happening. You never know what you're grew might dio or your bride might dio they could be. I've seen dips. I've seen other things, but just be prepared. Being a long lens probably be on a faster shutter than I am if you can be, um and you get that real quick shot. Here's another shot from the vows beforehand. If you can get up close like this just before the vows and then kind of get that that one money shot. But really, the big thing to take away from here is be prepared, have the right equipment, know how close you can get in the venue and also start to understand the timing of weddings and when you can get up there and get that kiss, this is also very lucky. You can tell the pastor here or the priest was was good at what he does because he ducked out of the way. Typically, a lot of sermons or someone who's conducting the thing will post up right here After they say it. He was smart enough to just move out of the side, and sometimes having that guy in the background is not a fun shot toe have. So if you can talk to them beforehand or if they already know what they're going to dio, um, you can tell that he's done what he's done before 10. Reception Details: So again, it's all about storytelling and really about capturing all those little details. We talked about doing all this in the pre ceremony and sort of in the ceremony. I kind of also want to talk about the reception. The rules really don't change here. You want to get those small details of those small moments that happen that most people aren't gonna notice or the bride and groom aren't really gonna have time to notice on that day. You want to capture that stuff later. So here is a shot of the bride and the groom being served as soon as they sit down. I really thought it was a great moment. I've been trying to hit this moment more and more often is just kind of be there when they first sit down because you never know what's gonna happen First. It was complementary kind of cheese dish and I think some champagne or wine right when they sat down and looking, See, they're both happy, they're ready to go. So moving on here is a big wide of the of the whole show of the of the hall. So we're getting details of exactly what it was like the atmosphere that we can cut, and later you can see the wedding party tables in the center. The bomber part about this venue was that it just it started out right over here, and I just got darker and darker and darker as it went back into the section. So just be prepared for stuff like that again, there's always those naming things fill in. Isabel's wedding was really awesomely handcrafted, and I think they hand wrote every one of those little place settings, so that's an extremely awesome detail to check out. I had them hold it up so we can kind of get some really cool shot to that. This is really cool, too, because if we have a high enough resolution camera, we can crop in and they can use that later for something. Here's a table, a top of the flowers for the tables. You can see that centerpieces often are really centrepoint a lot of the receptions and tables. You should get a shot of these just for details for ambience and also another reason to kind of show the vendors or send the vendors some photos of their great work. Um There's also sometimes little details. It was pretty warm in there, so filling Isabella actually had these little hand hand fans with their little emblem, their wedding symbol on a lot of the table. So just kind of covering small details, Um, when you can again. They were also covered on the other side of this little on this little heart. They had a little saying here, so just kind of covering that stuff because that stuff typically ends up getting thrown away. Maybe there's one or two saved, but at least it's documented in their photo album or somewhere else. More flowers, More people just kind of hanging out just before and when you get a chance as soon as you get in, when there's still light when no one's around it when it's pristine, go find the wedding cake and go get some details of the cake because that thing literally will not exist after that night and you want to catch that as best you can hear. We got really lucky because the florist was involved with the baking. There is a cake and there's got cakes, so we kind of covered it in several ways. There is the centerpiece. The top piece, which they're gonna save and have later. Um And then along with just general details of the entire thing, you can see they have their initials. Here is a beautiful would cake. This is actually really well done. Um, probably more detailed than most cakes that I see. Here's the cupcakes. I try to shoot it. This in a little more interesting way. Typically, it's hard to shoot a cake that's really tall. You want to try to get some side mounts, side shots and maybe some down angles on it. But a lot of the cupcakes air kind of harder to make. Interesting top down, symmetrical shot. Kind of looks nice. I was trying to get exactly the detail. They had a bunch of different types of cupcakes. Um, here's a little bit more of a macro shot. You Comptel. We're aiming for this really in focus and really out of focus shots here to make it look a little more professional, make it look a little more detail oriented. Shooting the top parts really fun. Um, again, I'm just trying to make the cupcakes and everything seem a little bit more interesting at a little more composition to it. You want your photos to kind of speak and kind of say something. Here's a bigger wide shot of it. I could do without the people in the background, but just to get the general feeling, I believe this was taken right before they're about to start eating the cake again. It depends on where you're shooting here at this venue, Fillon Isabel had a whole entire table when you walked in that had basically, like their ambience reminded you who they were. That candles ed little sayings to find your table, that a really cool thing that they have in their house now where you can, uh, leave a little note for them on their on their little tree. They have these little handmade carvings made is very d i y type of wedding. We want to cover that stuff and get those details because someone, if not all of them, put a lot of time into these things. And really they're there for that day, and then it could be gone. So it's good to cover those small details. They have a really awesome typewriter that they actually have in their house now, too. It's really kind of was the color and ambience of their of their wedding, and you want to cover that type of stuff at their table. They have this. It was hard to see because they had, Ah, they had a wall. I don't know if is actually on there, but you could come take photos of this just to generally cover and have something to show on their wedding album. Again, it's all about storytelling. Here's that thing I was talking about with the with the little sayings on it. Um, here's again, another boot near. And then I don't know when you step aside and just kind of take a moment, you Sometimes things will happen that you may not have noticed on may not be in the right place, for I just happen to be outside. When Isabel came and danced with one of her bridesmaids really quick, really fast, kind of a really fun shot toe have my settings weren't all ready to go? I think this could have been taken better, but really it lends itself to really fun, fun atmosphere again. Make sure to cover the restaurant. Here is a shot from the outside looking in. And here's back to that little door. The big take away here is to go back and get those small, little, tiny details because you never know what they're gonna want to use them for. You never know how it's gonna help build your album if you're gonna build an album. And it's really just documenting the coverage of everything back to the story telling, you want to be able to be looking at faces but then cut away to understand the atmosphere and get a good feeling for what the wedding is really gonna be looking like other than just faces. 11. Speeches and Toasts: So we're done with the ceremony. We're done with the couple's shots. We're moving on to the reception before we get into, like the nitty gritty details and different events. I want to hit the speeches first. Typically, they'll be on later in the in the night, but sometimes they start up right away. So let's just start into how we're gonna shoot these. Basically, we want to kind of go into, um, coverage of them. Usually having a 24 to 70 again or the 72 200 or the seven or the 8400 is a good place to land. Um, both of them, because you don't know what type of situation you're gonna be in filling. Isabel's wedding was a little bit easier because they were in a smaller restaurant again. The whole entire wedding for, uh, ensemble could fit there, and we were able to kind of get as close as I could, so let's start here. You can see there's an introduction and they kind of welcomed everybody. I'm trying to get really good reactions of the crowd around as well as the speaker. If we move on, here's the maid of honor speech. You can see she has a microphone for video, but that's okay. We don't we don't mind thing that are not seeing that in speech is. The main thing is to get their expression, them talking. And if you can, the couple Sometimes you want to just get shots of them. We can show you that later, and sometimes you want to get shots of the couple. But the big thing here is that we're seeing their eyes looking up, not looking down at this at what they're reading and addressing the couple. Here we have the couple listening to a couple of speeches, and there's no your actions here. Here we said She said something funny. Obviously we see the couple laughing and responding to that Really, Again. It's more about coverage, and it's more about telling a story. So you want to make sure you get a picture of everyone up there speaking sometimes get a it be nice if you got a medium and a wide so you won't be able to see this. See that? And a big just giant coverage of the entire event here again is another close up shot of her talking speech again, her eyes up. Instead of looking down, we got her addressing the crowd, the couple laughing to a story. Here's a more interesting and fun kind of negative space shot. I really kind of like these paintings and pictures in the background is also nice with this lying across just like it was nicely composed. It was the best man giving a speech in our couple here, laughing and enjoying it again, storytelling something to look after. These is what happens after the speech. Typically, if it's the best man of the maid of honor, whomever the bride and groom are gonna go, give them a hug or say thank you. And that's a really good time to get an awesome shot. For some reason tends to work better with groomsmen. They always have this nice, big, manly hug at the end of the, uh, the end of the thing. It's a really nice moment. You can kind of read it. You can see we edited black and white here. Um, I get another thing to do is to get those cheers glasses, if you can. It's filler. Um, this is a little out of focus. A little too quick for me, but I always look for those. Get another variation, another variation. You kind of take one flat on this way because there's a wall. Take a few steps to the left to get a couple of different shots. Also, make sure to get the couple reacting. Here's another interesting shot in that same sort of framing again, Phil being goofy because that's you fellas. And also here is another one of another. The wedding party was so small here that all the groomsmen were able to give speeches, which is really great. I got a chance to really change up the look, but here you can see I really got a really nice moment where he's kind of talking, laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing. It's really just a nice moment. It captures a good emotion again, being prepared and having a quick shutter, knowing when to kind of fire off is really what you're looking for. Here you're looking for lots of fun. Lots of filing spaces, faces. Um, so here's another one of the shots. Just kind of keeping an eye on the couple, making sure they're doing you think. You father of the bride. Same thing. I'm sorry, father of the groom. Make sure to do Ah, shot of them sometimes cheering up in the air works that well. This was a little tough to shoot because it was darker. And there there was a good amount of light coming from this direction, little darker on this direction. So it's kind of hard to find a good space. But, you know, you'll figure that out. His photography goes on As your photography goes on, you kind of adapt to the situation that you're in again. Couple reacting. Ah, father of the bride. Looking at his daughter. This is a non awesome shot. I got really lucky with this one. You just got to be ready. Have your camera up. Be ready to shoot. Be ready. Be ready. Be ready because you never know what's gonna happen here again Looking for those moments. He's looking down, but it really kind of shows that he said something funny. Everyone here is laughing, which is awesome. It's really kind of story telling and showing what is happening here really quick. Kept an eye on the bride. Israel has a small tear there you can kind of see, but you can tell she's obviously moved, obviously excited and happy. Um, here you always got to be prepared that the groom and the bride are gonna give their own Thank you that they're going to say something so kind of be on it and be ready to shoot that that's never on the schedule and always comes up out of nowhere. So just be prepared and kind of keep it in the back of your head again. Wide close up, looking to the crowd, looking at the mother of the bride to try and capture them, listening again. Another shot with the groom and his bride. If he's talking to her, let's moving back to here. This is the other wedding. Here's a good reaction of the bride and the groom laughing to the maid of honor speech. He was talking about them when they used to watch Titanic and turned their T shirts into long hair because they wish they had long hair when they're kids. So you got to kind of got to pay attention to toe what's going on in the speech, seeing where and what is happening. I saw this happening. I took a picture of her before she put this on. And that was over here. You could tell that she was going to be a funny person. She's gonna make her laugh a lot. So you want to try and nab both these shots? Um, her laughing and her making her laugh Because look, and just just tells a good story. Just good storytelling here. The the groomsman or the best man was you tell a speech giving cheers. Obviously, he was also very emotional and again, at the end of the speech, great big hug, because their brothers is a wonderful time that captured that moment. So remember, after the speeches, great big hugs and those air always something to pay attention to. So the big take away here is to make sure that you're able Teoh, see what's going on, understand who's giving the speeches, understand and be prepared for anything that could happen. I've seen speeches where people are running around people that are using props. You want to take a look at the crowd. You want to take a look at the couple, keep an eye on the couple. You want to take a look at that hug afterwards, so just a big thing. Just pay attention, be ready to go and understand what you're doing 12. First Dances: Okay, so we're here now at our first dance. Now, typically, I will mention earlier in scheduling that you kind of gotta figure out when this is gonna happen and be kind of ready for this. I guess I've been saying that a lot Be ready and be prepared for what's gonna happen. The big thing with the last stands is just kind of find the place that you're gonna be. Get the best photo from. You also kind of have to be involved in the dance a little bit to see what type of dance or what time. A couple they really are filling Isabel were spinning, but they're spinning a little slower. So I was able to kind of set up and get a good spot for them so you can see him on this side of the room. I feel like the lighting was a little bit better. I also like the background a lot better. And this if I was she shoot from the other side, I would have seen just a darker void. And I really wanted to kind of get a brighter shot for them. You can tell that my eso is up quite a bit again. This this room is not the best for photographing. But, you know, you just make what you can in the position you're in. If you're a flash photographer, this would have been a great place to start using a flash. Although it might have gotten to fight a little bit with the outdoors and it might have been a little washed out, it would have been a good place to do it more of a diffused flash. Look, if that's what you're going for, so keep in mind when you're shooting the last dance again, you want to close and wide. Here I have a longer why we get the details of the dress. The wide shots are a little bit rough because you can tell it's kind of starting to bow just a little bit, and they're kind of getting elongated. They look a little taller and a little stretched out so that you don't want to necessarily be shooting like that all the time. You can tell here I try to use a little bit more of the rule of thirds there on the right. We get people watching in the backer and his family in the background, and we also just get guest taking pictures down here on their iPhones and stuff like that. That's really the kind of thing you're looking for. They had a kiss right here. Got that real fast. Here's someone that actually caught someone else's flash, which is kind of rare, but this will happen. Someone else will be taking photos, typically a family member. And sometimes you will just happen to take a picture at the exact same time that they are. And they could be using flash. Chances are they're photo came out very, very washed out there coming from the other direction and see all this heavy, heavy light is just blasting them from one side. It worked out really well for me, though. This is a happy, happy accident where I'm in the right position where we get a nice little like backer and just like the sun flares from our other portrait's. And we're getting a kind of a fill from this side. Um, and that's a light fill. Not I felt eso It's kind of helpful toc that this isn't typically gonna happen. This is also a really good example. If you're gonna be using a remote flash. You can actually create this yourself. If you have a remote flash unit, you can put that on top of your top of your camera. You can set up the flash way over here and had a hike it up. So it's out of, Ah, guests position and you can fire it off so you can actually recreate this. Look, if you like again, I'm not much of a flash photographer. I don't like messing around with that stuff. It's another thing that you have to worry about, but it can be necessary. And if it's your style, it's a great technique to use its not terribly difficult to achieve that began. That's close and far, so it's good to have your options out here again. After that, they're going to be a father daughter dances. There's gonna be lots of people taking photos here. You see, Videographer, videographer, family photographer. So this must be the guy that kind of flash. My original photo you can see here that we're covering the entire event were getting the family watching. We're getting the people covering. It's too bad this videographer is here because this is a great shot of Phil watching his new bride and her father dance. So that would have been a great shot to if we could get around the videographer and kind of get Phil. He's got this nice, casual, lean back look as he is very casual and leading back. Um, here he is with his mom. You can tell that they had a nice moment here. Wonderful time to catch this picture. We want to stay above the 30th of a second because that's usually when we get a little bit more emotion, which is kind of a bummer, because we gotta hike up to 3200. You see, here again, you can kind of see a little bit of the noise here. Thes air a little bit unedited. Haven't been touched too much, But there are ways of getting rid of that. You can also see that we really caught them in, like, a really good moment. It was a really perfect time to take a picture again. Same thing here would put them on the rule of thirds. We had some color in here. We got some nice family watching. Um, really good shot. Really. Good moment. for them going back to here. You can tell there's a joke or something like that. So you just gonna be on your feet? Be ready to take a photo. You can tell they're spinning around to, So I didn't really move locations for any of these. But it's nice because they are spinning usually and dances. You can count on them spinning. So if in a small space you contend of set up where you like the shot test, it's you, it's good and they will spin for you. And just make sure you kind of get in that rotation. If you don't like the spire in and you're in a bigger venue, you could move a little bit more and there's a little bit more allowance at, Ah, reception as opposed to ceremony for you to get in the way of people again. Here's a final kiss for the mom was a little slow on that. Had a little bit of a low shutter. You can see now we're at 1/30 and we started to blur as opposed to the to the 1/60 that we did earlier without ah, a little bit of learnt the removing a little bit slower. So we're able to get away with the 1 25th Obviously feels pulling back or pulling forward a little too quick for us. So we got a little bit of a blur here again. Different situation where outdoors were completely outdoors. I'm down to my s 0 400 shooting a much faster, high, higher shutter. I do go back to my little negative space trick that I tend to dio. I was also kind of going off these leading lines of the palm trees because they're doing more of a California sun wedding here. They did a random spin, much more space here to move around. You can tell him on an 80 to 401 140 millimeters not in their face, but far enough away to get a nice, clean, beautiful shot. I'm a little bit of a higher shutter, so we got them frozen in time. Um, and then you can see the father daughter dance. I'm in the same place again. They're spinning. I've got 400 millimeter on now, not invading their space, not intruding on what they're doing. But I'm still achieving this. Look again. with the with the mother. Sundance got some family in the background back at 400 millimeters sons, hitting them pretty harshly, But we were able to expose it decently because there's no real contrast. They just got blown out, son. So, you know, that's that's really takeaways to just again be prepared. I know that you need to shoot the mother. Sundance, the father daughter dance the first dance again. Just like the cake cutting. No. Your couple know how they're going to interact, how they're gonna move. Are they going to be more aggressive? Try and get wide close. Try and set your spot where you're gonna be. Remember that the dances tend to be spinning around and that you always get another chance is they're coming around. Try to get close shots. Really? You just want to get the emotion and kind of get the coverage 13. Cake Cutting: Okay, so we saw the details of the cake. Let's get to the cake cutting. No, not again. Not all weddings are gonna have a cake cutting its depending on your cultural event and what's going on. Unfortunately, at Isabel and fills Wedding. The cake was actually in that darker area and you could see the contrast in those detailed photos when you went back there and had people in the background, I actually needed to ask them to turn on the overhead lights. Don't be afraid to do this. If there's a problem, if the couple has an issue with it, they'll come and tell you that they don't want the lights on. But honestly, like at the end of the day, if the photos are gonna look good, it's gonna be your fault. So I asked the venue if they could turn the lights on. It's a little harsh about like, at least we can see something weaken. Document it here so you can see the lights or kind of harsh. But we had a had the I s so up you can see here. I'm up to 3200 at this point, which is not somewhere I like to be, but it's fine because we needed to shoot. Um, I got a wide and you get a close, so make sure you get a wide and you get a close. You've got your 24 to 70. So there should be no reason why you can't start at 24 c I zoomed into 55. Um, I change my shutter a little bit to kind of open up and get a little bit more light in there. You can see it's still a little dark, still a little hazy. This is when I typically try to get a faster shutter because you never know what's gonna happen with the bride and groom. I kind of know filling is about pretty well. So I knew they weren't gonna be shoving cake into the each other's faces. So I was ready for them to sort of just be a little bit more distilled in a typical aggressive couple. But you can see that they're kind of ah, very pleasant. Very nice getting that coverage. I'm firing off a lot of photos here from the start here to here, just in case something goes crazy or goes awry. Um, and you can see we got that face of Phil's face. Really good. Really Good photo. Um, and then they cheers at the ends to keep an eye out for that, This kind of goes back to them serving and then again, being created with your photos Really good. You can barely see that heart in here. And so I kind of wanted to see that a little bit more. It quickly racked, took another photo. You can see there in secession just one after another. And really, you could use that for either way, if you really get a photo shop, you could also take this photo and photo shop that heart into this one. So it's kind of an hdr kinda version, but, you know, it's good to have options. Good to get creative here on their wedding. I really shut it up. You can see him at I s 0 400 It's outdoors. It's super bright. I've got my 80 to 400 on to keep this Boca going. Um, we're in a 6.3, so I had toe f stop up and I'm at a 2002nd because again they're a little bit more of an aggressive couple. I was worried that Donovan might shove a wedding cake down her face, and sure enough, that ended up happening. So you see what the faster shutter about 1600. I caught this cake moving solidly, fixed it right there. There's no blur. There's no nothing. That's a Superfund. You can tell she's kind of trying to fight back. He obviously is enjoying it. I knew that was gonna happen. So it's really good to be prepared on from a technical standpoint, as far as having a higher shutter and knowing what's gonna happen and being prepared for your type. A couple, I think as you go out throughout the day, you start to learn the type of couple that you're with, and then you start to get acclimated to the position or the actual venue that you're in. You can be prepared from a technical standpoint, but then also know what kind of shots you're looking for. 14. Bouquet and Garter Toss: Okay, so we've been through a lot of the main things during the reception. By this time, I'm starting to kind of calm down and wind down. Depending on the type of wedding I'm at. I'll hang out. I'll take some candid photos of folks, some partying, some dancing. Keep in mind there's still a few separate things that are going to be happening. One thing is the bouquet toss. I don't have any from Phil and Isabel's wedding because they didn't do a bouquet toss or a garter toss at this wedding. They only did a bouquet toss. Eso We're gonna focus on that? I think this is actually one of the better brok tosses I've ever shot most because it was outside, I was able to get a fast enough shutter so you can see here very bright colors. Very see what's going on. I'm at my aid to 480 millimeters because I want to be able to start wide and then pushing on whomever catches it. If it's if that's worth it, I don't end up doing that. You'll see in a second because this is just such a good sequence. You can see myself like I'm right there. How did you see the videographers next to me in the reflection. But I'm ready to go. Got my arms up. She's ready to go. She's really excited. I'm about, I don't know. I would say probably about eight feet away from her. So I'm getting a nice, good composed job. I got a high shutter. Got 1000 of a second because I want to be able to capture whatever goes on. So here she is. Ready? Did a horizontal. So we get everyone behind her getting a vertical, Because where is that going to go? That thing's gonna go up. So we want more space up where we can see our next shot. Is her throwing it? The shutter went down a little bit. I believe I was an aperture priority mode. So because we lost a little bit of light, probably coming off her dress and down here on my shutter went down a little bit. 640th of a second. It's still pretty quick. It's fast enough to freeze this. Um, once our light room loads up, you can see it frozen that I frozen her face. I frozen everybody in the background, the little girl to ready to catch it. And the next shot, we actually didn't including here, but she does catch it. This is the money shot right here. This is what I was looking for because all the anticipation we don't see anything that actually is occurring. But here is the money shot. It gets a little bit lost in the greenery behind it. But it really think that we really nailed. We've nailed everything here in the next shot. This is the little the little lady who caught the things. So there's a little blown out, these air unedited photos. So I probably bring down the highlights in light room when I can, because light room does highlights very well. We can talk more about that later. You can see myself in the reflection along with everyone else ready to shoot. So this is kind of a good take away. The gardeners is kind of the same way. The best place to be is in front of the person tossing it, because then you can quickly go from her to the background and grab someone to come up and take a photo. These air fun shots again. Not all weddings are gonna have this, but it's good to be prepared and know exactly where to be when it comes up. 15. Thank You & Project Reminder: everyone. I just want to say thank you so much for taking the skill share class. I really hope you enjoyed it. And please remember to post your course project. Remember, it's taking two photos of a desert of your choice, whether it's at a wedding that you've gone to, that you've shot or just at a restaurant or at home, that you've made yourself take a wide and a close up to show those details and then posted to the course as a project so that we can all see. And I just want to say Thank you so much for taking this class. There's two things that you can do now. One is to leave a review for the class. Please let us know how you liked it, so that other students can hear what other students are thinking about the chorus and then also and role in the next two courses. In this series, Part two, as a reminder, is about how to pose couples. That's a great course if you're wanting to only do wedding photography or engagement photography, but just taking photos of people and then the third part of the Siri's is actually the native purity of creating your business and how to get started and be successful. So thank you so much again. And I just hope you have a great day.