Empowering by Educating - giving you the headstart to having the best wedding/engagment/portrait pho
Empowering by Educating - what an amazing concept.
So, before I empower and educate you, my brides/grooms/families/friends, I want to make sure that I have the best information available out there.
I have been following Amy and Jordan Demos (http://amyandjordan.com/) for a few years now. They are a highschool sweetheart husband and wife photography team from USA who have been taking the country by storm. Not only do they produce amazing, consistently beautiful photos for their clients, they are educating the photography world on how to be the best they can be, and not by copying what they do!
What does it mean to be a wedding/engagment/portrait photographer? Ultimately, I want to take pictures of people. I think people are amazing, I love meeting new people all the time. I always strive to capture emotion in my photos, with weddings and engagments being one of the most emotional times in your life it is no surprise that this is where I have found my natural calling.
I am also a fanatical learner. I always look to learn more about what I am doing. In my day job I am the Director of Training services, and am pushing the boundaries of data analysis by learning as much as I can. And in my photography I am always learning how to make my photographs beautiful for the people in the photos.
Recently I have been taking a course on shooting with Amy and Jordan and there are some great tips that I have learnt. So what I hear you say? What has that got to do with you?
I am going to share some of those nuggets with you so that YOU are educated in some aspects of what I am trying to do. You will then hopefully understand why I will do things in a certain way, in a certain place, at a certain time but then I will also have a plan to make sure I do things in your way, in the places you want too. Using my experience and knowledge, the times may not be what you expect but trust me, the results will be worth it.
Light
Light is the key to a great photograph. For this reason I like to shoot more with natural light than artificail light (flash).
When you are looking for a location for your wedding or photo shoot, I can suggest some places but the key things to bear in mind are that you may see some beautiful architechture and potential backgrounds, and while I will incorporate these into your shoot (you have chosen them for a reason!), there will be times when I suggest we go somewhere that doesn't look as glamourous. The reason for this is the priorities for me to get those amazing, dreamy photos are:
Soft, even light from head to toe on my subject
Soft even light in the background
BONUS 1: Backlighting
BONUS 2: Pretty, light & non-distracting background
This is becasuse harsh, direct light or spotty light is unflattering and exposes imperfections (who wants that!?!?!)
These priorities generally govern WHERE I will take pictures if at all possible. Many people like photos on bright sunny days with a lovely clear blue sky. It is great for landscape photography a lot of the time. But when photographing people, you get horrible shadows, washed out skin-tones and squinty eyes, none of those look good!
If the location ticks all those boxes, I will start to think about composition and how I am putting the photo together:
Where are my couple standing?
Where is the sun?
What direction are the couple facing?
Are they looking at each other/the camera/something else?
Is there anything in the natural environment I can use to help draw the eye to the couple? - framing, layering
Is there a brightly coloured wall reflecting unwanted coloured light onto the couple?
Without moving my couple, can I shuffle my feet around to get a better angle?
Am I capturing the emotion of the moment?
Is there anything I can do to improve the photo?
A lot to think about in a split second! But if you know that I am thinking all of these things, then you also know that I will be asking you to do certain things for a reason.
So now that you know all the craziness that is going through my head, you can rest assured that you are getting some amazing photographs which you can cherish for years to come.
For more information and preparation for engagment shoots and portrait sessions, we have our Style Guides which you can read more about in previous blog posts:
If you want to learn more about our photography packages, get in touch today and we will be more than happy to help!
