Canon® EOS 5D Digital Field Guide

Chapter 10. Wedding Photography

In This Chapter

• Overview and trends

• Inspiration and creative resources

• Packing your gear bag

• Shooting weddings

• A compendium of practical advice

Wedding photography is one of the most demanding and rewarding fields that a photographer can choose. The work is multifaceted, technically and creatively challenging, and extends well beyond the wedding day to deliver proof books, prints, online and DVD slideshows and albums, and books for the newlyweds.

The work of wedding photography begins well in advance of the vows as the photographer gets acquainted with the couple to learn about the wedding location, guests, and the couple's expectations. But doubtless, the day of the wedding is the high point for the couple and the photographer.

For the wedding photographer, the day's work includes directing a cast of disparate people, cajoling and smoothing ruffled feelings, providing safety pins on cue, searching diligently for faint glimmers of lights in an otherwise romantically dark chapel, and, of course, making stunning and stylistic artful images that the family will enjoy for decades to come.

For anyone who shoots weddings on a regular basis, it's hardly a piece of cake, but they also know that part of the work is to make the work and the images look easy and effortless.

Overview and Trends

Since the early 1990s, when wedding photography was considered the lowliest of photography specialty areas, wedding photography rose to respectability on the shoulders of a handful ...