wedding photography

Tips for Getting the Best Wedding Photos

Wedding photos last a lifetime, so most brides and grooms spend a lot of time choosing the right photographer, which is half the battle to make sure you capture your special day on film. The other part is how you look. Not everyone is comfortable in front of the camera, even though many people have grown up in the age of selfies. Here are some tips for getting good wedding photos.

Get Comfortable With Your Photographer

An engagement shoot can help you get to know your wedding photographer and be more comfortable in front of the camera. When you go back through the photos to choose which ones to use, look with a critical eye to see what you didn’t like and which pictures you thought turned out well. Maybe even talk to the photographer about what cues worked better for you and your significant other. Just don’t stop there.

Practice in Front of the Camera

One afternoon with the photographer isn’t going to be enough to get yourself ready for the wedding day photography. Getting the perfect shot doesn’t happen naturally, so you may want to practice with your future spouse and friends and family. Get your wedding party to take candid photos while you’re planning and shopping for the wedding. This can help you become accustomed to the camera so you can act more spontaneously. As you look through these photos, you can learn which side is your best side. Don’t get too caught up in certain poses. You want your wedding photos to be authentic and real.

Angle Your Body

Standing up straight and staring at the camera can make you look rigid and flat. Most experts recommend turning your body 45 degrees to your partner. This creates a flattering angle that is more intimate than just standing next to each other. Your full body isn’t on display, which can help minimize any discomfort in showing your full width.

Check Your Posture

Standing up straight with your shoulders back and chest forward isn’t always a natural position, but it can give you much more confidence when you have good posture. Good posture flatters your frame, so you immediately look much better in photos. Learn to take a deep breath before the photo and release it to relax your body so you don’t look too stiff. Bending one knee while posing is another trick to make you look more relaxed and less stiff in photos.

Learn Where To Put Your Arms

Most people hold their arms very close to their torso in photos. Lifting your arms away from your body can give you a better look in photos. Your shoulders won’t seem as broad when you do this. It can also make your arms appear smaller. Watch how your elbows point. When they point outwards, it can make photos seem stiff. Practice moving your arms while taking photos to have more confidence in what you’re doing.

Ask Your Wedding Party To Practice With You

The bride and groom aren’t the only ones in the wedding photos. If your parents don’t like taking pictures, you’ve got time to help them feel more confident in the photos by working with them. Your flower girl and ring bearer may also need some practice listening to the photographer and learning to keep their eyes open during photos. These practice photos can be memories of their own as you take pictures of your everyday routine leading up to the wedding.

Relax and let your photographer capture the special moments that occur naturally without feeling awkward in front of the camera, and get the wedding photos you’ll be delighted to put on display for years to come.

Getting the Most With Wedding Photos

In order to get the most out of your wedding photos, see how you can make the time with your photographer as useful as possible.

Spending time with a wedding photographer can be a wild and wonderful experience. Though you might have a general idea of what you would like your photos to look like, you also know you need to trust in the professionalism of the photographer you have decided to work with for your photos. Many couples do not know what to expect from this experience. According to polls conducted across a range of married couples, many wish they had the chance to spend a bit more time with their photographers the day of the shoot.

In order for you to maximize your time and get the most out of the experience, you might find it useful to take a look at a couple of simple tips. Consider these ideas, and see how you can make your time with a photographer as useful as possible.

Talking Business

Wedding photography is a booming industry. This means most successful photographers are balancing a dozen or so clients at any given time. While your event might be the only one the photographer is worrying about on the day of the shoot, so many different jobs can cloud the mind of even the most experienced individual. You cannot expect your photography team to remember each and every detail of what you’d like from your shoot, especially when you have not expressed your ideas enough.

When first making contact with the person or team you want to work with for your photos, you need to have a discussion about the timeline. Learn exactly how much time you are going to receive from the photographer when doing preliminary shoots, and discuss the option of bringing the photographer back for the wedding event itself. Some companies or individuals will offer discounts for shooting early photos and event photos. By having the conversation about the timeline early enough, you can get a solid idea of how much time you will have with your photographer without any distractions.

Light Game

Photography is all about manipulating light in the right way. This means you want to make sure you take your wedding photos at an ideal time for natural lighting. Since most people opt to take their photos outdoors, you need to consider the weather and time of day you plan on shooting. An overcast day can seem like a problem at first, but it actually can be a huge advantage. Clouds filter direct sunlight, spreading it beautifully across a landscape. There will be far less glare or need for editing when the sunlight is slightly obscured.

On a sunny day, it is best to chase the lighting in a proper manner. “Magic hour” is the time of day, usually in the evening, when the setting sunlight paints the world in tones of orange and gold. It is a romantic and dazzling type of lighting that most photographers lust after. If you want to get the most eye-catching photos for your special day, you need to talk to your photographer about planning the shoot around this time of day and figuring out a contingency plan in the event of poor weather conditions.

Multiple Angles

Finally, you need to think about whether or not you want multiple photographers working your event. Preliminary photos usually do not require more than one person with a camera. Your actual wedding, on the other hand, is going to benefit from having multiple professionals shooting from a wide variety of angles. You are less likely to miss a stolen moment from your wedding when you have a number of experts on the job.

Making the right decisions for your wedding comes down to doing your research and selecting vendors who meet your specific needs. Before picking your photographer, be sure to consider the suggestions listed here to feel more comfortable with your decision.