Top 10 Photography Tips for Wedding Guests

For any keen photographer, a wedding is a target rich environment, a seemingly endless supply of photo-opportunities of happy people in great clothes at lovely venues. In fact anybody with any imaging device understandably seems to get caught up into the magic of the day and sooner or later just has to take a picture.

As professional wedding photographers we bring a lot of cameras, lights and lenses because we have to get the shots, whatever the conditions. But when we are guests at weddings we bring a only a small compact camera each and no lights...we get some great shots and can still enjoy the wedding. We encourage you to do the same.

Here are some tips as to the most appropriate equipment to bring, how to get the best shots, how to work well with the other photographers at the wedding and also how to balance the sometimes conflicting demands of "getting the shot" and enjoying the day.


1. PRIORITIES - Enjoy the wedding - it is more important than the photography

2. ETIQUETTE - Work nicely with the other photographers. Be aware of who has their camera up and where they're shooting towards. If somebody is shooting wide, don't jump in front of them. The golden rule is: always shoot from behind the professional photographers

3. EQUIPMENT - Our advice is always don't bring much and never bring a tripod and never bring lights. Regarding focal lengths, you're better off having a wide angle zoom than you are with a long lens. Wide angle lenses are short, light, less obtrusive, create some great drama and keep you close to the other guests. Wide angle lenses can let you capture some great reportage shots showing how groups of guests interact and you don't need to be far away from them. Long lenses can encourage you to stand off from the action which isn't so good if you're a guest.

Don't forget that this is a wedding and you are a guest. Your highest priority is to enjoy the day. You're not on an assignment. You don't have to take everything from every angle for the entire day. Chill and take some nice pictures when you feel the urge.

4. Phone-cameras - are amazing quality, easy to carry, light weight and unobtrusive.

5. Tablet-cameras  - on the other hand are a pain. They are big and look dreadful in other people's pictures, many times obscuring a subject in somebody else's sight line. The quality of the camera in a tablet is no better than that in a phone, so our strong recommendation is to leave the tablet at home and shoot with a phone.

6. Point-and-shoot cameras - are great. They are small, usually have good quality and are unobtrusive and usually come with a useful amount of zoom.

7. Bridge cameras - are a little bulkier and heavier but can be quite useful at a wedding with good image quality and usually quite a big zoom range.

8. Micro 4/3 or Mirrorless compacts - are very expensive but small, light, unobtrusive, excellent image quality and have all the sorts of controls easy to hand that most professional photographers come to rely on. It is these sorts of cameras that we would normally take to a wedding as guests.

9. DSLRs - They are big. They are heavy. They are noisy. They are valuable and they have many accessories. Guests with DSLRs are best if they bring a minimum of equipment. Some guests bring big accessory bags full of stuff which is heavy and bulky and doesn't look good in other people's pictures. Even if you just go lightweight, with no flash and a wide angle zoom, it is still a bulky camera with it's big camera strap that you have to find a safe place for during the meal.

10. WHAT TO SHOOT  - Don't necessarily try and shoot what the professional photographers are shooting. They will have gone to some bother to expose the shot in a particular way, often with careful consideration of balancing the various light sources and compositional elements. You'll never match that because you won't have the same equipment, you won't know the exposure and you won't have the same angle. Instead look for your own opportunities where the lighting is more favourable to the equipment that you have...you may well then get a better quality image of something that the professionals didn't see because they were shooting something else.

For example, the professional may well shoot portraits into the sun. This gives soft lighting on the subject's faces and creates a great rim/separation light on their hair and shoulders. But they will probably have used manual settings and possibly lights in order to make sure the faces are not silhouetted. If you try and shoot the same thing with your bridge camera set to auto and no lights, the bride and groom may be nothing more than dark shadows.

Instead, turn through 180 degrees and shoot some reportage of guests waiting for their turn in the group shots. With the sun behind you, your camera set to auto will do much better and you will get some shots that the professional won't because they were pointing the other way.

SUMMARY - enjoy taking photographs but don't forget to enjoy the wedding, don't bring much photographic gear, always shoot from behind the professionals so you're not in their shot, shoot your own compositions rather than those of the professional and don't shoot with a tablet....and oh yeah...don't forget to charge your batteries.

These are the recommendations we make from the many wedding guests we've seen at many weddings and noticing what seems to work best for them. We think these tips may be of some help to you next time you are a guest at a wedding.

by Steve Dunster

When Love Is At The Heart Of A Wedding

Most weddings have had months of detailed planning and there are usually so many gorgeous clothes and details and buildings and decorations...that it can keep two experienced wedding photographers very busy.

Amy and Richard's wedding was no exception.

Amy looked stunning in her amazing wedding dress, the venues were lovely and the details were gorgeous.

Most couples, of course, have a deep love for each other but it is not infrequent that this is privately held between them and on not on display except for the most fleeting of moments during their wedding day.

Occasionally though, we get a couple like Amy and Richard...who are so happy together that throughout the whole day, whenever they were together, they were so happy that it was as though nobody else existed.

When they looked into each other's eyes, nothing else in the room seemed to matter.

So despite the amazing arrangements they had made for their lovely wedding...their greatest part of their wedding...the brightest memory we were left with...

...was not their stretched limo, not her amazing wedding dress, not even the speeches that tugged at the heart-strings...

...but how obvious it was to us all...as to just how much they loved being together. 

by Steve Dunster

The Wedding that Brought the Sun Back Out

The sun is welcome at any wedding but at Steve and Lucy's wedding it was particularly welcome.

Steve and Lucy were married on 6 April 2013 in the New Forest Wedding at the Balmer Lawn Hotel. 

The previous week we met them at the Balmer Lawn for a location visit. The weather was grey and starting to rain. This was no surprise to any of us. It was the end of a very long and grey Winter which came after the worst Summer we could remember and the onset of Spring was so late it was looking as though we might have a second dismal Summer.

One week later and the weather couldn't have been more different. It was warm and sunny with pretty white clouds. There were no leaves on the trees but other than that it could have been Summer.

We didn't know it then but their fabulous wedding was to herald the start of one of the best Summer's we've had for years.

Lucy had her Bridal Prep in the Bridal Suite of the Balmer Lawn Hotel.

The room had an awesome four poster bed.

It was the perfect place to get ready for her wedding. It had plenty of space, great atmosphere and lovely view across the lawn and cricket pitch.

It was so nice to be shooting in the sun again, we'd almost forgotten what it was like.

The week before on our location visit with Steve and Lucy we had walked down to the little stream across the road from the hotel. At the time we thought it unlikely that we'd bother to walk there on the day because it was muddy, the trees were brown, the sky was likely to be grey and the route was covered in donkey poo. We referred to it as "Donkey Poo Walk" and we wrote a blog post about it: Donkey Poo Walk and the Return of the Shetty

On the day though it was perfect. The sun was out, the sky was blue, the clouds were white and the water twinkled its blue reflection of the sky. It was just like Summer, apart of course for the lack of leaves in the trees...but also in the Summer, this particular stream in the New Forest would have been full of kids in bathing suites and inflatable boats. These sorts of portraits would have been very difficult in the Summer.

The sun coming out made the guests as well as the bride and groom even happier than they would have been.

It was a photographer's dream come true, the sun even lit up the venue.

Come the end of the day, the sun still wasn't done casting its magic.

It was as though the sun had been locked up for so long and that on the day it had at last been allowed out to play, it was going to make the most of every last second.

We had the most wonderful sunset shoot with Steve and Lucy.

The sun was magical, right to the very last moment. A wonderful blessing for a wonderful couple. 

Wedding Tips: The Two Most Important Times of Your Wedding

You'll have many vitally important "moments" on your wedding day, for example: the first time your dad sees you in your dress, when the vicar announces that you're man and wife, driving off to your reception with your new husband, cutting the cake, your First Dance...the list is endless.

But in this blog post I'm not going to talk about those sorts of "moments." What I want to talk about is "times"...as in the scheduled times of the various wedding day activities.

When planning your wedding, your entire day revolves around the fixing of two vitally important times:

• the time of your ceremony, and
• the time of your meal

These two times are difficult to move once set and determine the scheduling of the rest of your day. It is these two times that your wedding professionals will be interested in knowing. 

An early ceremony means that you can have a nice long wedding day with potentially a more relaxed schedule. Sadly it probably means you have to get up at stupid-o'clock.

It is usual to book the ceremony first. If you are lucky you also have some choice over its time. It is very important that you're not late to your ceremony because it can mean that you won't get married if your officiator has to go to another wedding on the same day. Obviously there is quite a lot of flexibility  in this most of the time but we have known a bride to be an hour late and it was looking touch and go for a while there.

When it comes to setting the meal time, make sure you've allowed enough time for the things you might want to do between the end of your ceremony and sitting down for your meal.

These can include:

• Enjoying time with your guests who will want to congratulate you
• Group photographs
• Confetti throwing
• Travelling to your Reception venue
• Wedding car photographs
• Portrait photographs
• Drinks at the Reception venue
• Receiving line

Also please don't forget to consider that the time your Reception venue may give you for your meal, may imply that they actually want the guests sat down as much as 15 minutes before that. It's well worth checking with them before hand.

So there you are, in summary:

1. Decide the sorts of things you want to do on your wedding day
2. Book your ceremony
3. Take advice from your wedding venue and photographer and wedding car professionals as to what would be the ideal sit-down time for your meal
4. Plan the rest of your wedding around these two times

Enjoy

by Steve Dunster

Wedding Tips: Top 10 "Wedding Transport" Tips

1. If distances are short you can save money by having one wedding car that does several trips. Bridesmaids and Mum first, then come back for Bride and Dad.

2. Some old cars/camper-vans look fantastic but can be unreliable. Take this into consideration when choosing an old or new style of car and it may even be worth discussing with your potential wedding car supplier.

3. When posing for car photographs, always have the man (groom or dad) nearest the car to stop break dust getting on your wedding dress.

4. Consider the size of your wedding dress when choosing your car or carriage...or tractor...or super car. If you've chosen a particularly large dress, it may not fit into the carriage, or Austin 7 or passenger seat of a Ferrari.

5. If you have a horse and carriage, don't get your flowers near the horse's head. Horses think flowers are tasty and after pulling you along for several miles they think you are rewarding them with a tasty treat.

6. Get some soft drinks put into your wedding car/carriage. By the time you've done the ceremony and photographs it's possible you may be very thirsty.

7. Don't forget to arrange transport for your Dad away from the church because he'll be in the wedding car with you on the way to the church but it will, of course, be your new husband who is with you afterwards.

8. If you want an open top car/carriage, it maybe worth getting one that as some sort of top that can be put on in the event of bad weather...or at least make some kind of arrangements that you could protect yourself, your hair and your dress if it was windy, raining... the splash back from the roads can be quite dirty. Perhaps some kind of coat or sheet you could put over your head.

9. It can get dark very early in Winter weddings, so plan to shoot the car shot as early as you can so you don't have to shoot it in the dark.

10. If your dad is actually driving you because it is his car you are using, for example, sit in the back not the front because it will look better in the photographs on arrival. If you and your dad both get out of the front seats it doesn't look as good as when your dad gets out and opens the rear door to let you out.

by Steve Dunster

Manchester United Bride

Helen and her family have been huge Manchester United fans for many years. They are regular visitors to Old Trafford to support their heroes.

Every bride is emotional on her wedding day but what Helen was to find out later in the day would move her to tears.

Helen and Pete were married at St Marys and All Saints Church in Droxford, in the beautiful Meon Valley, Hampshire.

After the Ceremony it was time for photographs. Organising guests at any wedding during formal group shots is always a challenge but it was especially so for Helen and Pete's wedding. Partly because of having to shout over the sound of the wedding bells and partly because of having to carefully shepherd guests around the numerous piles of dog poo (grrr). Nevertheless, we had a great time and got some lovely shots.

Then it was off in their wedding car to the Macdonald Botley Park Golf and Country Club, in Botley, Hampshire for their Reception.

Pete was mad about golf so going to a local golf club for their Reception was a natural choice.

Because of Helen's mad keen interest in Manchester United it was no surprise that their wedding colour scheme was the red and white of her favourite team.

The golf course gave lots of portrait opportunities but the clouds were always threatening.

It never did rain but her dad had bought white brollies just in case. They were married in the Summer of 2012, the worst "Summer" for rain we had ever experienced. Considering this it was a very sensible precaution.

He even went to the bother of printing their names and wedding date on the umbrellas.

Just when Helen thought their day couldn't get any better, what she was about to find out whilst listening to her dad's speech was to move her to tears.

Her dad handed her a card and explained that it had been written by the manager of Manchester United Football Club and signed by all the players.

Helen and Pete had a fabulous day, with great guests, great venues, no rain and with nobody stepping in dog poo...perhaps the good wishes of world class football legends had an effect.

Wedding Traditions: The Best Man

Many hundreds of years ago if a man decided who he wished to marry but he did not have the approval of her Father then he would try and kidnap her.  This ‘tradition’ allegedly has its roots with the Germanic Goths.  Their custom was to marry someone from their own community but when the girls were lacking in numbers the men would try and kidnap someone from a neighbouring village or town.  This task was not easily carried out by just one man so the batchelor would bring along someone to help him - the best man for the job.

When kidnapping a bride they would sweep her up and carry her off and this led to the tradition of a bride being carried across the threshold of the couple’s new home.

The ‘Best Man’ would then have to stay with the groom during the ceremony keeping a watchful eye out for the girl’s family in case they tried to get her back.  He would then be required to stand on guard duty outside their new home.

There are records that document that arsenals of weapons would be hidden under the altars of churches to be used should the girl’s family come armed to recapture her.

Throughout the marriage ceremony, and on leaving the church, the bride stands and walks on the left of the groom. A groom would place his captured bride to his left so that he had his right hand free to defend and protect her.

Thankfully the task of a Best Man is not so dangerous nowadays and all he has to do is make sure the groom gets to the ceremony in time and look after the rings.

by Jacqui Dunster

Sources: BridalWhimsy.com for Brideandgroom.com

http://www.bellaonline.com/articles/art1706.asp