In My Library: PhotoVision Video Magazine Issue 67

Every other month I receive a 2-hour video from PhotoVision Video Magazine , an ongoing educational training seminar for professional photographers hosted by Ed Pierce. Each DVD contains photography styles and techniques, digital work flow, lighting and posing, Photoshop tricks and marketing and sales strategies from photographers working on actual sessions with real clients. The 67th Issue featured: "Wedding Part 1," a segment where celebrated photographer Daniel Doke took viewers on set to a bride's home the morning of her nuptials.

Here are some of the tips I took away from the interview with Doke:

1) He uses a 50 mm 1.2 lens, often shooting wide open to blur out a distracting background
2) One of his signature images is to capture the bride's shoes in focus in the foreground with the bride out of focus in the background
3) He goes for detail shots such as "save the date" notices
4) When the bride is getting dressed, he concentrates on the finger's of helpers zipping or lacing up the back of the dress.
5) He photographs expressions of both happiness and frustration for a storytelling, documentary feel
6) He combines mixed light and flash with ambient lighting
7) He gains the bride's trust so he can "control" them without seeming pushy.
8) He uses curtains and railings, nooks and cranies to frame the bride or act as leading lines to emphasize her face
9) He shoots the bride with all of her bridesmaids in one image, and then the bride with each bridesmaid separately, in both serious and funny poses. He also shoots combos of the bride with her parents and grandparents..."the more combos you have, the more albums you can sell."
10) He shoots indoors and outside the home, favoring the soft even light that's available when shooting on the porch.