Digital Wedding Photography For Dummies

Taking Charge

As the wedding photographer, your job is to help the formal portraits flow as smoothly as possible. You can lay much of the groundwork in the months before the actual wedding date as you communicate with the couple. If you do your homework, you can focus on keeping the portrait sessions organized and maintaining control over the many people coming and going. In the following sections, I help you take charge of the portrait session with tips on establishing a detailed schedule, getting people where you need them, and more.

Minimizing confusion with a schedule and a list of names

When you talk with the couple before the wedding day, discuss the portraits and come up with a photography schedule and a list of the people they want to include.

Ask questions that help both you and the couple establish the order of the schedule. For example, will they see each other before the wedding (a situation known as the First Look)? If so, can all the formal portraits of the wedding party and family be taken before the ceremony? If they choose not to do a First Look, what portraits can you do before the ceremony to alleviate the postceremony time crunch? Is the reception at the same location as the ceremony, or is it off-site? These questions help you get a good feel of how the wedding day will run.

Let the couple know approximately how long each group of pictures takes so that they ...