Having a great photographer at your wedding is so important, because after all, its us that knows how to take a great photo and what is required to get the great photos. So who better to tell you a few tips to help your photographer get the best they can with the little things you can do to help on the day. Remember, this isn't me moaning saying that people need to do these things, because I'm not, this is just a few tips for those brides and grooms that really want to make sure that their photos are as beautiful as possible.
First off is the venue. The venue is vital for your images to be beautiful, the outside is a little important but its the inside that is massively important, especially during your ceremony, it doesn't matter how amazing the room looks, if its dark, your photos will suffer. I've gotten great photos in dark ceremonies but the photos are always better, brighter and sharper when theres a lot of light bouncing around the room, especially when this is the part of the day that your photographer cant use flash photography. Fortunately for myself I use awesome cameras and lenses that cope really well in low light, so for those photographers with lower quality equipment they will struggle the most.
That brings me to my next point, which is again about light. This time in the bridal prep, again we want as much light as possible, if the place you need to get ready at is dark, tell the hair and or makeup girls to go right by the window where there will be some natural light on you, this will make your eyes pop and your skin look so much more natural, fortunately we can use flash on this occasion but natural light is always best, and the flash can be a bit distracting and off putting whilst you're having fun and getting ready.
Tidy your room! If you're going to be fussy about your photos, you have to tidy your room before the photographer arrives, if people are happy to have shoes, glasses and bags in their photos then thats fine by me, it personally doesn't bother me as its the natural way that the room was on the morning of your wedding, if theres something that looks particularly distracting in the background I'll often move it myself, but I'm sure there are brides out there that may look back and be a bit disheartened that their bridal prep photos have some mess in the background, so keep that in mind if you think it'll bother you.
Speeches are such a great part of your day, so funny, emotional and beautiful, it really is the only part of the day when the groom actually gets to communicate his gratefulness to his new wife and to the guests for attending and helping them achieve their beautiful day, so a few tips to make this look great on your photos, avoid having people make speeches really far away from you, a long table with someone at the end making a speech will mean the only way to get a photo of the person making the speech and the person the speech is about is to have a really wide shot of the whole table, this can sometimes look great but doesn't compare to a closer shot which is much more personal, why not as everyone that does a speech to come and stand close or next to the bride and groom? Secondly, this one is for the brides, when your new husband is telling the room how beautiful you look and how happy he is to have married you it can be a beautiful moment between the bride and groom, and the killer shot at this moment is the bride looking up towards the groom with love in her eyes, this can sometimes be missed if the bride is shy, too emotional or so and keeps her head down, by making eye contact during this speech you're sure to have some beautiful moments on camera.
That look! Theres a moment of beautifulness when the bride walks down the aisle and reaches the groom and your faces alight with happiness and emotion, at this moment, be sure to prolong it should you with to have it captured, as the photographer is only allowed to stand central (in most ceremonies) during the aisle walk and is then made to move to one side where the groom is less on show, so by prolonging this look and smile or emotional look on your face you have more chance of getting the shot and also getting a few variants of the same photos to make sure you're not pulling a funny face!
