How to Photograph a Friend's Wedding

Preparation is 9/10ths of the battle.  With wedding photography the same is true, the more you prepare ahead of time, the better chance of everything working out well.

The first part is making sure you have enough gear that you CAN photograph the wedding.  This doesn't necessarily mean that you own thousands of dollars worth of camera equipment.  It does mean making good decisions about what gear you use and NOT showing up with just a cell phone.  I don't care how many megapixels your cell phone camera has, NEVER try to photograph a wedding with just a cell phone.  It is not going to end well.

You need a camera at least capable of the following:

• Manual control - Sorry, but the vast majority of the time auto programs will foul up the exposure when faced with a white gown and a black tux.  If you don't understand manual controls (ISO/Shutter Speed/Aperture), don't agree to shoot the wedding.  You won't change the settings a lot except when moving from location to location but you need that level of control.
• Manual focus - You can use auto-focus when shooting a wedding but you really need the ability to override that and fine tune the focus yourself in difficult situations.  Like when the bride is throwing the bouquet.
• Hot shoe flash - If you will be using flash you need a hot shoe flash with a tilt head.  Sorry, that's just the way it is if you want to have a hope of the photos looking halfway professional.  These flashes let you reduce flash power, bounce the flash to reduce shadows, and add fill flash without washing out the scene.

The vast majority of cameras on the market today beyond pocket cameras support these needs.  In fact, some of them cost less than your smart phone.

At the very least, your friend needs to provide you with a way to see the wedding venue before the wedding such as photographs on the venue's website or a brochure.   Preferably though, you need to be able to visit the location before the wedding and take test photos in the same conditions under which you'll be shooting the wedding.

For example:

Wedding at 6pm in October in a local church

Visit the local church (call ahead and get permission) at 6pm no more than 2 weeks before the wedding.

This will let you see the lighting conditions, practice flash settings, check the general ballpark of your camera controls, and get a feel for where you can stand without audience in your way.  If possible, visit a local thrift store and pick up a wedding gown for $10 and use it as a stand in for the bride during your practice shots.

This ahead of time practice will make you much more comfortable during the actual wedding which will make your photos better.

Your friend also needs to give you details on the colors of the wedding and types of material so you can be prepared for exposure differences (red next to white for example) and shiny materials (watch those highlights - deliberately underexpose slightly to avoid blow outs).

Pinterest is your best friend when you are shooting a friend's wedding.  Have your friend pin every wedding photo they like.  This will give you a better idea of the poses and styles they like than 10 hours of conversation with your friend ever could.  Then sit down with your friend (or at least email back and forth) with some discussion of shots you don't think you could get and ones you are more confident in trying.  You are doing your friend a favor by photographing the wedding but that doesn't mean he/she won't have unrealistic expectations.  Make sure they understand what you think you can realistically deliver.

Ok, now that you have posing ideas, here are the shots you REALLY have to take.  Do not miss these shots.  Take multiple exposures of these if possible, you can not miss these.

• Bride coming down the aisle
• Groom seeing bride for first time (often staged before ceremony)
• Flower girl/Ring bearer coming down the aisle
• Each wedding party couple coming down the aisle
• Close family members coming down the aisle
• First kiss
• Rings together (either on hands or by themselves)
• Bride with bridesmaids
• Groom with groomsmen
• Bride and groom with entire wedding party
• Bride and groom with moms and dads
• Groom with groom's family
• Bride with bride's family
• Groom with bride's family
• Bride with groom's family
• Cutting the cake
• Feeding each other the cake
• First dance bride with father
• First dance bride with groom
• Bride throwing bouquet
• The bouquet catch

No matter how well your photos come out of the camera, you'll want to do some editing.  Clean up white balance when needed, erase panty lines on dresses, make sure there is nothing unfortunate in the background, etc.

I know there is a heavy presence of filters and actions for amateur photographers.  And that is ok.  It is ok to use filters and actions.  Everybody likes some of them.  HOWEVER, you need some "clean" shots as well.  Edit your photos clean first and then make variations of them if you like but always have those cleanly edited originals for the bride and groom as well.  The the bride and groom guide you on what type of filters or styles they want applied to photos.  These are their photos after all, edit for their tastes, not yours.

However, please, please, please, do not do selective color unless you are very skilled at selecting the areas and understand how to mute the colors.  Otherwise you'll have the bride looking like a corpse holding florescent flowers.