I recently got to photograph a friend’s wedding. It was my first wedding as a photographer and the second wedding that I can recall attending. Thus being said, I was quite nervous about being the guy to capture the biggest moment of their lives. This led me to meticulously scour the web for what to expect in a wedding and as a photographer of one.
First lesson I learned: Be prepared and have a plan. Do your research.
Lesson number two: Be flexible and just go with it.
(The second one I learned on my own as I went)
The wedding went really well and I was pretty satisfied with the images. And after what felt like weeks of editing, I came out of it with just under 300 photos for the bride and groom. My favorites were the black-and-white images.
I have included the photos that, I think, came out well in regards to being successful photographs, out of context of the ceremony and reception.
I spent a little extra time shooting the cake photos for their website. Here are a few that I was happy with:
The room in which the girls got ready didn’t offer much in aesthetics, but I think a few images turned out alright:
The ceremony itself was tricky to photograph because the over-head trees provided shade, but also let bright, direct sunlight through as well, making it difficult to expose for the highlights and shadows. My old digital camera, with it’s relatively narrow dynamic range, didn’t do much to help either. That being said, I’ve included the images that I think turned out best in terms of composition, lighting and emotion:
The post-ceremony group portraits were captured using a single flash and diffuser set to balance with the ambient light.
I am admittedly inexperienced in shooting with on-camera flash, but I think some of these images were pretty successful. The reception was a lot of fun to shoot, with all the movement and excitement:
My flash died right at the start of the cutting of the cake, and my extra batteries were in my bag with the entire reception crowd between me and it. With no time to get to it, I cranked up my ISO, slowed down the shutter speed and later reduced the resulting noise in Photoshop. Like I said before, Lesson #2 – be flexible. Or, Lesson #3 – buy an ammo belt and load it up with batteries. Even so, I think the images were saved. This being my favorite:
I always wanted to try this semi-transparent look with the flash, and kind of figured it out as I went. It was a lot of fun, and I feel like it really captures the energy of the reception:
In conclusion, photographing a wedding was a lot of work, but a lot of fun. Not really my preferred style of shooting, but it was really eye-opening and a good experience. I also got to test out a few new light modifiers and learned some useful tools and editing methods on Photoshop.
Kelly Neilson Photography 