I recently had the opportunity to shoot my first wedding, which for a photographer is a high risk, high reward shoot and even more so that it was one of my family members wedding my brother’s to be exact.
Luckily my brother and his now wife had reasonable expectations, and I had warned them it could all turn badly since I’m not very experienced. I think this an important thing to convey if you are newer and inexperienced and helps to remove some of the pressure.
With only getting my camera at the start of the year I had a lot of things to learn and needed to get a flash just in case the church was dark so I ended up picking up a cheap Godox flash that had heaps of features for not a huge amount of money and a remote flash. The flash turned out to be really handy in the church as getting the correct lighting would have been near impossible within the time frame of when things happen and it can happen fast.
Some of the things I learnt along the way:
- There is never really enough time you have to deal with it.
- A schedule would have been really good to have, I started later than I would have liked and in turn I did not have enough time to get to the groom getting ready.
- Lists of shots are also super handy especially when doing the family/guest portraits.
- The lighting in churches are nice to look at horrible to photograph with dark spots and bright windows, especially the stained coloured glass, random blue shining on faces and white dresses. I would say a flash is necessary for weddings.
- Keeping a level head is important, remember the basics, iso, f-stop and shutter speed. I messed this up on a few shots using a f-stop of 2.8 when I should have been around 5.6 causing some soft or out of focus shots.
- Most people are not used to posing, so learn poses or have some photos on your phone for reference as time is of a premium.
The most important part is below, some of the final shots.
The lovely bride getting ready.
This one of my favourite shots, so much happiness in one photo and the fact that I caught it at the right moment which is one of those key moments to catch at a wedding.
The obligatory family’s shot with all of us good-looking folk.
We were lucky enough to get clearance to go on the runway and get some shots right on sunset with the pink glow to top it off, this would be the other most favourite photo it’s just an all round epic photo.
The speech from the father in law.
Overall even though I am critical of some of my shots and I still have a lot to learn, I’m really happy as to how it came out and it was quite the honour to be able to create these memories for my brother and his lovely wife that will be cherished for many years to come.
A special thanks to my brother and his wife for asking me to shoot the wedding and for allowing me to put some of these pictures up.
