Wedding Photography

Wedding Photography is as the name suggests taking photos of a wedding and showing off the couple at their best. It is a very attractive photography form and one in which several photography skills are put together to give the final effect.

Typically a wedding photographer will have to do the following:

• Take photo of the couple in their best angles
• Take portrait photos of the couple together and separately.
• Prepare an album of the photos taken for the event.

• Take photo of the wedding indoor in places like the temple, church or some private venue. Indoor photography techniques apply here.
• Take photos just outside the wedding venue just in the park close by or take a short trip with the couple to a beach or some scenic location for shots.

With the coming in of digital photography and photo processing software, wedding photography techniques have become more enhanced. You can see some photographers using selective coloring in certain wedding shots, wherein the bride or the groom will shown in black and white and the flowers or some background highlighted in color.

Currently photographers are seen to prefer digital cameras in wedding photography because it offers more scope for creativity and enables lighting mistake to be detected on the spot, so that a good image can be taken right away.

Wedding Photography Approaches

A wedding photographer can take any of the two approaches used in doing wedding photography. The photographer can take up a traditional wedding photography approach or can take up a photojournalist approach. In the traditional wedding photography approach, the couple poses according to what the photographer suggests so as to get the best shots. The photographer has more control over how the subjects present themselves before the camera and does more interaction with them while shooting.

If the photographer were to take up a photojournalist approach, they would simply shoot over the entire wedding, unobtrusively showing everyone in their most natural element and best light. Lots of room for candid and unopposed images here.

Now-a-days the wedding photographer focus on bringing in more of fashion photography elements into wedding photos to make the picture look more glamorous. This includes a mix of the traditional pose photos, candid photos and the kind of photography seen in fashion magazine such as Vanity Fair and so on.

Wedding Photography as a Career

Wedding photographer must be alert, active and very much a people's person to be able to mingle without being too obvious in the crowd and capture images on the important occasion. Double checking on all camera equipment and talking with clients on what they would like to see in their wedding album is required to carry off the photography session without any hassles.

Wedding photographer must be experienced in taking portrait photos and he should have done wedding photography courses from photography colleges because they should able able to quickly judge the right face angles and lighting required and be able to work with the existing lighting in the wedding venue and come up with great shots. Since the wedding will take place just once, a wedding photographer must be keenly alert on all that's happening to avoid any mistakes. Many wedding photographers are seen to take assistants with them to help in tasks such as rounding up guests for family shots. This is particularly helpful when the photographer has to take large family or group shots as is often expected.

Wedding Photography Deliverables

What can you expect when you hire a wedding photographer to take shots for your wedding? Most people would expect an Album showing all their photos. However, if you require one you should specify this to the photographer as not all photographers offer this to their clients.

As a routine the client is provided with a set of proofs, hard copy proofs, and images on CD's or a sort of magazine of thumb-sized picture. They can also provide a combination of these outputs as well. The client is expected to select from the proofs provided on the print print-outs and return the proof to the photographer or purchase them from the photographer. Some photographers allow clients to keep the proofs for themselves. Clients can ask for multiple print-outs of a particular photo to share with friends and family.