Your wedding album will most likely become your most treasured souvenir from the most spectacular day of your life. With that in mind I asked one of the UK’s finest wedding photographers, David Pullum, to write a guest post on getting the most out of your wedding photography. Over to you, David!…
IF YOU CAN… CHILLAX
The best way to get great wedding photos couldn’t be more straightforward – just relax and enjoy your day! There really is very little else that I ask for from my Bride and Grooms – its that simple. Of course the lead up to a wedding, and the planning of it all, can be stressful, but the day itself is a time to try to forget all those stresses and strains and just enjoy the excitement of two families coming together as one.
LOVE YOUR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER
As a wedding photographer it’s really important that my clients like me. That sounds strange, I know, but I’m spending upwards of 8 hours in their company so it’s vitally important that they are fans of, not only my work and photographic style, but of me too!
Personally I choose to use very little direction when I’m shooting a wedding. I’m happy to observe and listen and I don’t want to dictate and be the centre of attention. There are times however when I have to take the lead as family formals and couple shots are really important at any wedding, and this is when I have to take control, organise the shots and tell my couple how and where to stand.
WORK OUT A DEFINITIVE LIST OF FAMILY FORMALS IN ADVANCE
Family formals are one of the most important sets of images that I take during the day so it’s vital for me to liaise with the couple before their wedding to formulate a definitive list.
The formals are a record of who was there on the day, and the most important members of the family and close friends, I will never limit those and I have been known to take upwards of 50 formal shots at a wedding. If I limit them to say five, that for me is just a barrier I am placing in front of the client which says “don’t book me”!
If I do have a long list it’s really important that I have as much co-operation as possible from Best Men, Ushers and members of the families. All of the aforementioned will have the same list as me and as I start to photograph, those assigned to helping me are always three groups ahead of me, getting people ready and in position. I do this at every wedding and I struggle to remember a wedding where it’s taken me longer than 40 minutes to complete all of the family requests.
ALLOW TIME FOR YOUR COUPLE SHOTS
I normally allocate at least 30 minutes for couple shots – I’d love more but the reality is that at a lot of weddings I will be lucky to get even 30 minutes, so I work with whatever I am given. The shortest time I was given was 38 seconds, the longest 1.5 hours, so Ive learnt to get what I need within the timeframe I am given.
