Wedding planning can be both exciting and stressful at the same time. Lots of details should be considered, from the colour of napkins to the music being played and the food that is being served.
The photos from your wedding will be your best memories of a very special day in your life, so its important that they’re done right.
To ensure that you get the best photos on your wedding day, we came up with a list of the top 5 things you should consider when planning your wedding photography.
5 Wedding Photography Tips for Brides and Grooms
1) Consider the weather for each season
When deciding on what season to get married in, here are some considerations you should take for the weather (in Ontario):
Spring
Cons: Can be very rainy and possibly rain all day. Can be damp and cool. Usually the leaves have not come out on the trees until the end of May causing there to be less “open shade”.
The lack of leaves can cause the light to be very stark and the backgrounds may have a lot of branches coming out of people’s heads.
Pros: Pretty blooms of Red bud trees and Magnolia- unique to spring time.
Summer
Cons: July can be extremely humid sometimes! Not a great month for people who are really sensitive to extreme heat. It’s especially important to pick a photo location with a lot of shade.
Pros: By far, June- September is usually Ontario’s most pleasant weather.
Fall
Cons: The daylight hours get short quickly! Usually around October 20th onwards the weather can be rainy, cold and damp- but of course not always! Things just get more unpredictable.
Pros: The extraordinary colours of fall in Ontario peak around Thanksgiving.
Winter
Cons: Not every day has a pretty dusting of fresh snow. Usually a bride and groom can get outside for a 20 minute portrait session, but it’s necessary to have a good indoor location to complete all the family photos.
Pros: You can sometimes get a “Winter Wonderland” day that is magical looking.
2) Have a backup plan for bad weather and light conditions
Rain, hail, high winds or snowstorms may cause unexpected problems on your wedding day.
The bottom line is it’s critical to have a Plan B option for photos to account for difficult weather and light conditions.
Have an indoor and outdoor location. If being married outside have a tent as a backdrop.
You can plan everything but you can’t plan the weather.
3) Come up with a photo ‘Shot List’
Think about what photos will be the most valuable to you and your spouse both now and for your future. Write up a “shot list”.
Your wedding day is the joining of families together, and your photos will be the legacy of this unique family celebration that you are creating.
Consider the importance of a mix of posed and candid moments to be captured. Making portraits on your wedding day can be a meaningful part of your day where you are spending time with some of the most important family members and your closest friends. If you get a good photographer they’re gonna make this an enjoyable time for everyone.
Consider using a wedding checklist so you can keep track of all of the shots you want to take along with all of the other important details of the wedding.
4) Make a plan for the day with your wedding photographer
Consult with your wedding photographer before your wedding date to plan out the timing of your day and what location your wedding portraits will be made.
It’s important to choose a location that has “open shade” options where groups of people can be posed together without patches of shadows or bright light on their faces.
Also, locations with architectural features such as staircases, pillars, arches, ivy, stone and a variety of textures will make for more interesting photo backdrops.
5) Find the a professional wedding photographer that you can connect with
Find an experienced, professional photographer who works with a second photographer or assistant and whose portfolio contains many examples of real weddings that they have photographed. Ideally they can show you one wedding that they have photographed from start to finish.
The skill of wedding photography does not rely on just having a good camera. A professional photographer has the ability to communicate well with people, be artistic and creative at posing people, manage timelines, and be able to direct people so that the subjects can enjoy being photographed.
Make sure you choose to work with a professional photographer that you and your spouse connect with and you feel that they understand what will be the most valuable photos to you.
Follow these tips and you can be confident that the photos you get from your wedding will provide memories that you can cherish for a lifetime.
Contact Trina Koster if you are looking for a wedding photographer in the Guelph, Cambridge, Elora or Kitchener-Waterloo area.
This was a very creative wedding which made it a lot of fun to shoot. Snow and Greg celebrated their wedding at the Kitchener-Waterloo Little Theatre, which is a small and intimate venue with some nice backdrops for photos.
