Canon® EOS-1Ds Mark III Digital Field Guide

Chapter 10. Wedding and Event Photography

In This Chapter

• Considerations

• Know your client

• Event challenges and limitations

• Wedding specifics

• Other event tips

Wedding photography assignments are usually a combination of reportage — unposed images that witness the scene and tell the story — and posed portraiture, where photographer and subjects meet and create an image together. Each area emphasizes a different set of skills. In reportage the focus is on how to work quickly, both in terms of decision making as well as operating the equipment: how to find the shot quickly, how to operate the camera and change lenses quickly if needed, and how to use the available light most beautifully as well as add any additional light quickly. The posed portraiture component also needs to be quick, however often will entail more intricate lighting setups as well as directing skills to both arrange a group properly and then get the pose and energy you're looking for out of your subjects.

Considerations

Like any job, wedding photography can be done sublimely with great artistry, or handled coarsely and uncaringly. The challenge for working photographers is not only to gather the skills and experience to be good at this work, but also to differentiate themselves with clients from all the less trained or less dedicated photographers out there who will always do it for less money. My approach is to have a bottom line that I won't go below in terms of budget, and whatever job I take on, to do it with all the ...