Wedding Photography Guide for Beginners, Part 2

In this wedding photography guide for beginners, I'll offer more tips and suggestions for the novice photographer. The name of the game with weddings is BE PREPARED! This preparation takes many different forms with weddings - preparation of your equipment, preparation of your client, and the preparation you've done in learning your craft. If you are just starting out with weddings, I strongly urge you to invest in some type of education or formal, on-line guide. That being said, below are my latest wedding photography guide tips:

Wedding Photography Guide Tip #1 - Get Your Flash Off Your Hot Shoe
A flash on a hot shoe is guaranteed to give you one thing - red eye. Unless you want to spend endless hours in Photoshop becoming one with the red eye tool, get your flash off the hot shoe. So where does it go? Well depending on the situation, there are a couple of options. One is to use a flash bracket. The flash goes at the top of the bracket which is over the top of your camera. This not only eliminates red eye, it puts any shadow behind the subject so it is not as obvious. The other option is to put your flash on a light stand and use wireless remotes to trigger it. I like to add a small soft box over the flash which produces a nice, soft light.

Wedding Photography Guide Tip #2 - Shoot on Manual
I hesitate to throw this into a beginners guide but I would encourage you to start experimenting with the manual setting. I understand it is just easier, especially for a wedding, to leave your camera on the program or even shutter or aperture priority setting. But as long as the camera is making the decisions you will not grow as a photographer - not as much as you could. Start to experiment in little doses and see where you can go.

Wedding Photography Guide Tip #3 - Use a Hand Held Light Meter
If you are advanced enough to be shooting on manual, I recommend using a hand held light meter. The meter in your camera can give you an inaccurate exposure when metering off a very bright or very dark subject matter. Hmmm...lady in big white dress and guy in big black tux. See the potential for problems here? If you accidentally meter off the brides dress and are in direct sunlight, your camera will stop way down thinking there is an excess of light. A hand held light meter reads the light falling ON TO the subject which will give you an accurate exposure reading.

I hope these wedding photography guide tips will be of help to you. When incorporating any new ideas, do so slowly. If you have a system that works for you don't completely rewrite the book based on what someone else says. Take your time and see what works best for you. Remember above all else, be as prepared as you can be for wedding photography. Best of luck!