Tips of the Trade: Husband and wife team share tips for great wedding photographs

Yesterday morning while yelling at -- er, I mean, having a disagreement with -- my Kodak All-in-One printer, I happened upon this amazing set of tips on the Kodak "Tips & Projects Center" webpage.

Isabel Lawrence Photographers are a husband and wife team based in Los Angeles, California. Their work has appeared in publications like People, In Style, Town & Country as well as on WE TV's Platinum Weddings and the Oprah Show. Isabel's photographs have appeared in several galleries and museums including the Ventura Museum of Art and the Latin Art Museum. Her photographs were also featured at Photokina in the Kodak pavilion in 2006. I immediately recognized Lawrence candid style as that achieved from his award winning photojournalism at the Los Angeles Times and LA Weekly. All photos in this post were shot by Isabel Lawrence Photographers. Check out their tips and try to incorporate them into your wedding day coverage. I know I will be!

INTERACTION
To ensure natural, relaxed expressions that illustrate your subject's true feelings, encourage lots of interaction. Just be sure to keep shooting because you are sure to get some priceless moments.



CAMERA SHY
When dealing with a camera shy subject, place her where the light is good and where you have a pleasing background, then have her engage with a friend off camera. The pressure of being photographed is off because she is distracted by the conversation and you will be able to capture a wonderful, fun moment.



SURPRISE HIM
As a photographer interested in expanding my boudoir gallery, I loved this idea! For the more daring bride, suggest setting aside some extra time during the "getting ready" portion of the day for some boudoir shots. Ask her to pickup some special lingerie or envelope her in the bridal veil. Present these photos to the bride privately after the wedding so that she can surprise her groom at a later date. This is a great opportunity to create more sales for your studio. Recommend that such special photos deserve to be displayed in a special album or portfolio box.



EXPERIMENT
Pickup an old Rollieflex or Holga camera at a flea market and load it with TMax 120 film. You'll stretch yourself creatively and deliver something unique and unexpected to your clients. While I won't be doing this, I will enjoy being able to experiment with lighting up the church and reception area with strobes.



INSPIRATION
Find inspiration in obvious places. For instance, with so many couples requesting wedding images that have a photo journalistic quality, take a look at the masters of photojournalism. Photographers like Eugene Smith and Elliott Erwitt were master storytellers whose photographs are relevant to this day. Study their compositions and camera angles. If you submerge yourself in classic, well made images, you will start to see the story telling opportunities in every wedding.



KEEP IT FRESH
Approach each wedding with the mind set that it is your first. It can be easy to fall into a rut when shooting the same type of event every week. It is so important for the photographer to be open to each couple's story and try his best to depict it in a new and fresh way.



EQUAL OPPORTUNITY
I definitely agree with this one, as I believe the groom is often overlooked in the day coverage. I have at least one photographer dedicated to concentrating on him and his family. Give the groom just as much attention as the bride. The groom's dressing room is usually overlooked but rich in photographic opportunity. Make time to check in and take some photos of the groom and his friends getting ready. The guys will appreciate the attention and the bride will love seeing that aspect of the day.



KIDS
When photographing the smaller, younger members of the bridal party, kneel down and look them in the eye. Introduce yourself and explain that you are there to take lots of nice shots of them. Sometimes, in order to break the ice with some of the shyer children, I let them take a photo of me first. If possible try to choose a location that is within the parents' vision but far enough away that Mom won't be trying to coax the typical "photo smile" out of her child.



EVERY LITTLE THING
Focus on the little things during the wedding. The bride and groom have spent a tremendous amount of time picking out the favors, programs and food but because the day is such a blur for them, they are rarely able to take it all in. Take the time to photograph each element as beautifully as you can. Not only will your clients be appreciative but so will the florist and other wedding professionals who are in a position to refer more work to you.



DRAG IT
Using a slow shutter speed (1⁄15th or slower) and a pop of flash can be a dynamic way to show movement and energy. This is especially effective during the reception.



PORTRAITS
A portrait doesn’t always have to have a face in it. Be aware of your subject's body language and look for ways to depict emotion that are not obvious.

An Aside: Backups and Heeding a Friend's Warning

A cry for help in a Digital Photography School forum spurred me to do something I should have done a long time ago: back up all of my photography files and images. Southernbelle, a new online friend and fellow fotog, lost her photos when her hard drive crashed. Thankfully though, she had been uploading all of her images to a Kodak gallery for the last four years. She was able to buy an archival CD from Kodak containing all of her 6,000 original images.

It is a lesson we should all learn from.

Several months ago, I purchased a professional membership to Flickr, which allows me to backup and store my images online. Even though I had this extra security, I had been remiss in uploading my photos. Today, I decided to take action. Before I leave the city and head to Rifle to take pictures of the lovely triple beauty of the Rifle Falls, I WILL backup everything on my Flickr site. I also want to check out the Kodak gallery as well. When it comes to backing up, I think redundancy and paranoia is a good thing. I also have two external hard drives with all the images backed up as well.

Thank you Southernbelle for sharing your experiences. I plan to take heed to my friend's warning!

Q and A: More Things To Consider When Shooting Weddings

QUESTIONS: CANDLEMAN from Digital Photography School forum asks: "What was the most important tips/techniques you learned when you shot your wedding? I'm doing a wedding in 4 weeks and would be very interested...."

ANSWER: First all, good luck on your wedding assignment Candleman! I have really appreciated your encouragement on the DPS forum. This is a good question, and I really had to stop and think about my response.

As I finish up editing the shots from my first wedding assignment, several things seem to keep cropping up, forcing me to spend far more time editing than I should have. Things are moving pretty fast during a wedding, but if I would have taken more time at the beginning to slow down enough to be aware of what was in my viewfinder first and repositioning for better composition before I pushed the shutter, then I wouldn't be having such a hard time editing now.

1) Be careful of distracting backgrounds. Most of my post processing has been desperately trying to correct aspects of poor backgrounds, namely things that appear to be sticking out of people's heads (branches, bookshelves etc.) or things that just detract from the main subject (bright track lights on ceilings, unsightly things like trashcans etc). Sometimes I could save the image, but other times I had to ditch it.



The above photo is an example of what I'm talking about. I took this image at the bride's house when she was getting into the car to be driven to the church. I think this would have been a great photojournalistic-type image that would have provided plenty of memories for the bride about how heavy and cumbersome that dress must have been. She needed nearly constant help from her bridesmaids to keep the dress from trailing on the ground and it was difficult getting in and out of the car.

But take a closer look: That boat in the upper left hand corner of the image is a major distraction. I tried everything I could to clone that out, but I wasn't able to do so in a manner that I would have liked. This could have been solved by taking the image from another angle, maybe while standing in front and to the side of the vehicle shooting over the window at the bride and her helpers. Then I would have had those wonderful green vines and the brick house for a more uncomplicated, uniform background.

A wide aperture is your friend in situations like this too where a cluttered background could be blurred out, allowing your subject to stand out. Or try filling the frame with the subject to eliminate most of the background, whether it's distracting or not. I also like using a telephoto lens to move in close to the subject. Fill the frame and select the widest aperture to make the background soft and often awash with colors and light. This Kodak article also suggests staying away from bright colors and text (for example, store signs). I also like the suggestions this shutterbug.com article made regarding the use of flash to render a background black.

Some will argue you can use editing software such as Photoshop to blur the background, which is true, or even put in fake "studio-like" backgrounds especially if you are working on portraits. I've used that technique before, but it's always better to get it right in-camera first. Besides, that stuff can look very unnatural if you don't do it correctly.

2) Have a second or even third photographer if you can swing it. There was just too much going on to not have at least a second photog with me. I just don't know how a single photog can get all the candid and posed moments that happen during a wedding. I am so thankful for having those extra pairs of eyes and perspectives to get as many storytelling shots as possible

3) Avoid shooting portraits in bright, direct sunlight. It's always best to put people in shady or evenly lit areas so they don't squint or end up with those racoon shadows under their eyes and noses. Far too much editing time has been spent on healing hot spots on foreheads, cloning out those undereye shadows and dealing. Also, have people remove their glasses if possible so you don't have to deal with those flares that show up in the frames.

4) It ain't all about the bride! Remember to get shots of the groom and his family's reactions to the wedding. I put one of my photogs solely on the groom for that day's worth of coverage so his relatives and friends will be more likely to buy photos and albums as well.