Beginner's Guide to Wedding Photography

Serah Alabi, Content Marketing Manager at MPB Berlin, uses her experience shooting weddings to share her advice for aspiring wedding photographers. From kit to techniques, let’s hear from Serah about how to satisfy your clients on their big day. Over to you, Serah.

You just booked your first wedding. Now what? Planning your shoot is just as important as the shoot itself. To successfully wrap your first wedding, there’s one thing you must do: prepare for chaos. Missed shots and opportunities. But let's start in the beginning. Before you get into wedding photography, you definitely need to understand the exposure triangle and how to get a good exposure. You don’t need to master this technique, however, if you are still struggling with how to get the right exposure in nearly every situation, you probably want to slow down on wedding photography. Take a step back to practise capturing portraiture, family and group photography, documentary, street photography, boudoir, event, and close-up images. To be a highly successful wedding photographer, you need to get to know all the above-mentioned niches. Don’t forget, people are paying you money to capture their special day with their loved ones. It does not look good if the photographer is still trying to figure out the exposure.

Pre-wedding communication

Your pre-wedding plan is probably the most important part of being a wedding photographer. If you are not meeting with your couple prior to the wedding, setting expectations with them, and making sure every person is on the same page, you are setting yourself up for a disaster. I recommend meeting with the couple at least three times. Pre-wedding, while waiting for the wedding, and a week before the wedding. This way, each party know what they can expect from the day.

Plan your shot list

One of the common mistakes of a beginner photographer is relying on instincts alone. While you may have superb memorising skills, there’s still a chance you might forget to shoot something during the event. Develop a well-curated list and try to memorise it as best as possible. As a photographer, you’ll encounter many religious and cultural traditions. You’ll need to know what to expect, especially if there are rules that you also need to follow. Never go into a wedding without a plan.

Have the right kit for the wedding 

Be very comfortable with your chosen cameras for the day. Again, you don’t need to master every setting of your kit, but it’s crucial that you know how to change the settings fast. If that is still a problem you are facing, you have to practise more on your camera before getting into wedding photography. During weddings, one of your goals is to move—fast! Even if you need to take close-up shots of guests, do it in a respectful manner that won’t disturb or annoy people. Also, turn on your camera’s silent shutter mode if you have that function to minimize noise when you take pictures. The camera you choose has to be able to perform well in low light, have fast autofocus and has to have a variety of lenses compatible with the brand and the body. You’ll also want to have at least a few lenses to make sure you’ve covered all your bases. Owning more lenses will allow you to capture moments in a cramped church as well as outside in a brightly lit park.

RAW over JPG

Make sure you are shooting in raw. This one might be a given and I am sure, everyone has heard of this before. However, just to clarify, the main reason you are shooting in raw is so that you have more flexibility in your edits. Never, I can’t stress this enough, never go into a wedding shooting only in JPG.

Look for the moments

People whispering about a special moment, friends laughing from the corner—these are all hidden moments within a wedding ceremony and reception. Take a step back and observe where the fun is happening. Is it on the dance floor or at the guest table? Being a wedding photographer means you can pick up on little, unexpected moments. Be on the lookout for situations that no one else might notice but will certainly make a good memory for the couple.

Have fun

And there you have it. From finding and communicating with the happy couple to handing over the images, photographing weddings is a lot of hard work. You don’t want the wedding to run you, you want to run the wedding day. First and foremost, wedding photography is 80% customer service. The other 20% is taking photos. You should already know how to take pictures and develop your customer service skills mainly. These tips are designed to help you capture the best images at the wedding. We hope you enjoyed reading this guide and these tips will help you capture days for those who want to treasure them. And don’t forget to have fun.

Thanks, Serah. If you enjoyed this article, you might also be interested in our article offering lgbtqia wedding photography tips.

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