Want to ensure beautiful photography from your wedding? Here are some tips for getting the most out of your wedding day photography

So you’ve picked the perfect gown and suit, found beautiful flowers, hired a top notch photographer and chosen your dream venue. Now it’s just a matter of enjoying the day and the photography should take care of itself right? Well, actually, there are a few more steps you can take to make sure that the pictures turn out beautiful. Here’s my personal take on how couples can help to get the very best images out of their weddings.

1. Take the time to go through the wedding schedule with your chosen photographer. He/she will be able to point out potential photographic pitfalls, conflicts in scheduling etc. This will ensure that the day runs smoother and gives the photographer the time necessary on your wedding day to create killer images.
2. Once you have chosen a photographer based on their style, give them the freedom to carry out their magic. Make sure that friends and family members give them the freedom to do their best work as well. Very often, an over zealous bride’s maid or groomsman who is constantly directing a photographer can spell disaster for the photography.
3. Ensure adequate lighting at your dinner/reception venue. Hotels and venues tend to turn the light down to very dim levels in the belief that it creates a specific mood. Unfortunately, this is often to the extent where it affects the quality of your photography. Most people are not aware of the moody lighting because their eyes adjust for this dim lighting but the images will be affected.
4. The color of the lighting is as important as the quantity. Many hotels have spotlights that wash the ballrooms in dazzling arrays of pink, yellow, blue, red, etc. While beautiful to look at, luminous green skin tones don’t generally make for good pictures, so find out what sort of lighting, ie, color and intensity, the venue will be using on the wedding day and discuss the potential pitfalls with your photographer.
5. When walking up and down the aisle, please make sure to look up. Very often brides are so worried about tripping over the gowns that they spend the whole walk up and down the aisle with their heads down. This generally doesn’t make for great pictures.

There are more tips to come in later articles, but with these 5 tips and the most important tip of all “Have fun on your wedding day,” you’ll be well on your way to getting beautiful wedding images.

Yu Hsin’s 1st placing in Creative Portraits

Eng Hong’s 6th placing in Details (Found)

Yu Hsin’s 10th placing in Emotion

Darryl’s 13th placing in Toasting

Eng Hong’s winning entry under the “Emotions” category

Yu Hsin’s winning entry under the “Reception” category

We are humans first, photographers second. Humans feel, and by certain standards, it is what defines us separate from animals. And then we shoot what we feel. I think alot of photographers “forget” that they are human, and get consumed by photography. That is the biggest wrong any photographer can do, is to let photography get bigger than, well, humanity.

You walk into an empty church full of flowers and ribbons. It is a beautiful sight and you just have to shoot it, not just because it is beautiful, but also because the bride would certainly like a record of the money she spent. So you stand there for half a minute composing the best shot of the interior.

Suddenly this really adorable little girl in her cute flower girl white dress comes out of one of the pews and runs towards you with the biggest grin on her face, and you realise it’s because she saw the mother of the bride behind you, her favourite aunt, whom she hadn’t seen for 2 years, and this aunt always buys her lollies (not that you would know this). You have no time to recompose, and you snap the SAME shot that you did seconds ago. Think about the power of such an image, and you didn’t have to do anything different. That is what defines a powerful image. Same place, same settings, same light, same composition, RIGHT TIME. Your “photographer mentality” was to shoot an interior shot, but being human, you know instantly that her joy can’t wait, but the interior can.

Being human is easy, we ARE human. Take heart in the fact that there are little girls everywhere at weddings, but for this particular little girl 20 years later, she will remember this moment with such joy, or if she was too young to remember, she’d be facinated by the story of the image told by her aunt. Imagine, you were that little girl.

There are two things that I feel defines a great photographer. One is dedication. Dedication is a very broad word to include the amount of time and effort needed to train in the craft. Reading articles, asking questions, browsing the net and magazines, seeing/analysing/copying(!) other photographers’ work, shooting, re-shooting, making mistakes, learning from mistakes, editing, re-editing. all these, and many other things in the aim to create better images, and getting more experience. Weddings certainly calls for more than photographic skills, you have to learn to deal with all kinds of people, you have to conduct yourself professionally, but not coldly. You have to be firm with pricing, and contract details, yet be lovable, personable and approachable. You are the person that the couple will see the most of, besides each other, on the wedding day. You are so many things at one time.

After the wedding, you have deadlines to meet, images to edit, albums to complete. You have other jobs to get, close and/or deliver.

In your business as a whole, you have costs to manage, equipment needs and replacements, repairs/servicing, insurance, rent, suppliers, quality control, business development and marketing.

This all requires dedication. all this can be trained, and together with time and experience, will bring such a photographer quite far, but not far enough.

The second thing that makes a brilliant photographer, is talent.

I have yet to figure out if talent can be trained. I am inclined to say no. You have it, or you don’t.

Talent is the reason why two photographers can have an exact same path, but one has so much more powerful images than the other.

Talent is the reason why he is always “lucky” to be able to get those shots. I have at times said for a photographer to learn, memorise, and know the full meaning of the word “serendipity”. Somehow, a talented photographer seems to have serendipity as his twin brother.

I have this simple analogy on how to describe talent. Most of us are used to the phrase “we are good at what we like doing”. I like driving cars, but i don’t think i could be a formula 1 driver. Perhaps, the statement of “we like doing what we are good at” is more apt. In this statement, dedication is akin to what “we like doing” (that’s why we dedicate ourselves to it) and “what we are good at” is akin to… talent! It starts with that.

You might be assuming that I have talent, or I found my talent in photography, and that is why I like doing it, because the more I do it, the better I became at it and it makes me want to do it more (remember, I like doing what I am good at). If so, your assumption is true. As proud as this might sound, I believe I am talented in photography. it is actually, believe it or not, dedication that I sometimes lack! Laziness being my bane. Thankfully, that can be trained!

I want to end with a statement that I have been known to make, either in speech or in writing, and this is perhaps the most convicting statement that keeps my passion alive at present:

The reason for my life, is photography. It has kept me alive, and is the reason why I continue to live happily. (I might change this statement if I ever get married, but as of now, this is it…)

But if it’s all too confusing or melodramatic, there’s only one thing to remember, really;

You are human first, photographer second.

35 couples particpated in a photography contest jointly held by the Straits Times and Changi Airport T3. The contest gave the participants a rare opportunity to capture their wedding photos at the new terminal before its official opening in Jan 9. The eco-friendly design of the new terminal makes it an ideal venue for wedding photography, with an abundance of natural lighting and a good mix of urban and natural landscapes. Particpants were allowed to access areas beyond the immigration where wedding photography is exclusive to this contest.

Here is the winning image by Wansheng from Feldberyl Images.

Kelvin Koh of Lightedpixels Photography and Jonathan Ho of Expressively jOhO were into the Masters of Photography Association (MPA) after a rigorous portfolio selection process.

The MPA is a UK-based professional trade body for Master Photographers. MPA is unique in that it only accepts full-time professional photographers within its membership and each member must have undergone a rigorous assessment of their work before acceptance. There are currently 24 Singaporeans in the MPA.

3 of Kelvin’s images received the Award of Excellence in the Avant-Garde Wedding, Classical wedding and Avant-Garde Portraiture categories.

In addition, Lightedpixels Photography has also been named, for a second year running, in Singapore Tatler’s Best of Singapore (2008 Edition) for Wedding Photography.

Last Updated ( Thursday, 08 November 2007 )

Why?
1) It makes shooting them easier.
Making couples comfortable with you/your style helps easetension during shoots be it pre-weddings/weddings.
Trust me, its harder to shoot strangers you’ve never met.
Getting to know your couples and liking them(vice versa) is a huge plus point in photography

2) They become your immediate marketeers.
Doing the job well at each shoot makes your couples happy,
it also makes the photographer happy.
Word of mouth goes a long way.

3) They’re paying
Nuff said.

People ask me, “What if you’ve been hired already and they become Bridezillas or mean to you?”

Well, for me, I try to be as helpful and nice to all my couples.
I’ll be even nicer to people whom I might not like as much, but thankfully it hasn’t happened yet *cross fingers*.

#2 Sharing with other photographers alike
Share = Good

Being in Singapore, the thought of sharing knowledge might put some photographers off. The fear of being afraid to lose out or fearful of the other photographer being better than you will be there.

It happens but I’ve been thankful of every photographer I’ve met who has shared so openly. Not wanting to share is really a selfish childish disease. I realised that it might be because of this reason, the wedding photography industry here is not growing as much as we want it to.

Why share?:
1) The possibilities of Growth is endless
2) There are more than enough couples locally for every wedding photographer
3) Pushing your abilities is good but having peers around you spur you on and growing together with you will help you in many ways.
4) 2 or more heads are better than 1
5) We learn that we are different in style rather than price

Myths:
A)You have to be “Up there” then you can share.
Total Bull!! You can be anywhere but you’re never too inadequate to share. 2 heads are better than 1.

B) He or she is better than me, what do I know?
Another myth!, even the best of us learn from someone else. Humility and being humble will take you a long way. You’re never too big or small.

We all learn from one another. I personally make it a point to attend a seminar or workshop at least once a year to network and learn from others.

There’ll always be black sheeps around who want to know everything from you but refuse to do the same. Let them be, honestly, once people around them know what kind of a person they are, they’ll realise they’re making a big mistake in being selfish.

I enjoy networking with photographers. From the people who are new in the industry to the seniors. Having a good friendly personality is healthy. Let me put it this way, its harder for someone to bad mouth you to others if everyone around them knows that you’re a nice person.

Last Updated ( Wednesday, 23 May 2007 )

Diary of a wedding photographer
Its 2.44am, a wedding bridal car pulls up at my block..hahaha…i pity the photographer..*wait a minute…i was once like that*.

Coming into the office today, kuang of 39east speaks to me about new wedding photographers entering the industry and struggling to make a living.

It totally brings me back to when I just started. Let’s take a short trip down memory lane. This is going to be a long one but I hope it somehow inspires new talents and wedding photographers around in some way.

Fresh out of uni, with a IT degree in hand, eadwine of plushphotography enters the real world. Coming back from Melbourne, I basically did what most students did after finishing school *I bummed*. 2 months down the road thinking of what to do with my life, I joined in 2 ventures with friends that didn’t work out. Photography has always been a passion in my life so one day it hit me that this was what I wanted to do *I had no bloody idea*. Still every other night I would spend hours on the computer, being fascinated by the works of other great wedding photographers. I had the uncanny ability to go through 40 wedding photographer sites at one sitting and I had to look through every photo they had.

So putting what I’ve learnt in school *I think*, I decided to gather my little portfolio and set up my own wedding photography service. I started off at SGD$500. Which basically includes every image taken in 4R, with album, 20 8″x10″ prints with album and a whole lot of digital imaging work *I was such a sucker then*. I met my first clients and after that, I didn’t meet them again. Somehow they felt I was pulling a fast one on them *CHEAP LABOUR*.

The journey began when I chanced upon a wedding photographer who’s works I felt were waaaaay better. He was hiring/looking for a 2nd photographer then. So I emailed my little portfolio of photos (wedding pics included) and next thing I know, he invited me over to his office *39 Haji Lane*. He mentioned *as I recalled* going through tons of portfolio but somehow my little portfolio caught his eye. An opportunity I felt that was priceless. While I shot as a 2nd photographer with him I learnt a whole lot, he gave very valueable advice too. I decided I was ready to come out on my own. I thank God that I had good peers (Ron Lee of eye-deas) along the way whom encouraged me when I was worried *pissing in my pants* about getting clients, about earning a living.

So I raised prices. At $800, I found a couple more clients whom wanted me to shoot their wedding and were pleased with my work. At this time, a lady emailed me and told me she read my blog. She enjoyed the angst I often wrote about wedding photography and the clients that came along. She then introduced me to another good photographer/friend/mentor.(Ngiap heng of The Pond).
“why the pond?” I asked out of curiousity…my answer was because, heng resembled a frog.

Christine who worked/helped with The Pond wanted to represent me because she felt I had “potential” in this industry. The day came when I met up with the frog Ngiap heng at his studio. From his busy schedule he took time to look at my works *then it was all in 4R prints*. Long story short, by the time he finished looking at them, the amount of criticism I got made me want to bail out and surrender. I went back and reflected upon alot of things and realised that this was what I wanted and I can only get better *I did I think?*. I was even given the opportunity to shoot a wedding with him. Through this 1 1/2yrs, heng has given advice about photography that allowed me to get a glimpse of what my life would be like. It felt as though everything was planned out and revealed to me slowly.

Priced at $1500 after a while, more clients came to me *hmmm*, and I found out that the sweet spot for price range was at $1800. Trust me, breaking out from $500 to $1800 really got me worried. I thought it was insane *Who in the right mind would want to hire me? =P*. But as time went by, meeting client after client, I got accustomed *sortof* to meeting each couple. Whether they booked me or not I felt I managed to share what I wanted to say about my photography to them. I recall heading down to Cityhall every other day to meet couples and show them samples of my works, Ron was usually there at Leonidas cafe with me. We usually shared/spoke/drank coffee before and sometimes after meeting up with our couples. It was at that time that I met with another photographer who shot weddings part time. Wan sheng of feldberyl was introduced to me. In time, we all hit it off pretty well. Meeting up to share what we’ve gone through and what we’ve learnt. *You guys ROCK!*

It was only early this year(2006) I felt that I should get a place of my own where I could meet up with couples and still have the time and space to do my work. I needed and office. Running around everyday to Cityhall and heading back to do up images can be tiring. Kuang was generous enough *thankyou* to rent out space to me at Haji Lane. In April, I started working at my little corner at 39 Haji Lane. I guess Kuang got lonely being alone in the office *HAHA*.

I learnt that being a wedding photographer isn’t about making a quick buck *trust me there are tons of these around*. Its about being filled with a certain passion, to want our images to speak and tug the hearts of people. Where else in any event can so many emotions be seen?. I was blessed to even travel overseas to learn from Master Photographers who made their living shooting weddings. I set aside goals for myself to one day be able to be at the same ranks as the greats.

Wedding photography isn’t just about images. Its about balancing business sense and a passion together. One cannot survive without the other unless you’re born with a diamond spoon in the mouth *cough cough I wonder who? haha*. I’ve met hundreds of clients who often wonder why wedding photography cost so much more. Some felt that their bridal studio photographer was good enough *no comment*. Some just got pissed off by the price and probably didn’t want to see me ever again. I reflected again, that if I was really in this to make a quick buck, I would’ve just shot as many weddings a month and do a wishywashy job with the images, instead I treated every image with care, staying up late into the mornings doing up the images. Somedays I wonder why I value/bother to put in so much effort into the images of a couple whom I hardly know.

Now wedding photos from a wedding photographer are not meant to give the couples immediate gratification. We can’t play jazz on the spot at the wedding, nor can we serve you food at the dinner. We have to take time and countless hours infront of the computers so we could give our best. The end product, is worth a LIFE TIME *everybody say it with me* LIFE TIME of memories. Now, if you could pay a jazz band a couple of hundreds/thousands to play music at your wedding for like 3 hours, spend another 10/20 thousand on the dinner which will probably end up flushed out the next day. Why would you expect to pay so little for memories that will last forever?. Was it because, everyone has a photographer at their wedding so I must have mine too?, was it because your parents told you to?, or were you really interested to have someone capture moments of the biggest day in your life?
A camera man is told what to do, a photographer shows you the art he sees at your big day.

To aspiring wedding photographers and wed.photographers who feel down and out. I can only encourage you guys to STAY POSITIVE. Be confident of your works and never never ever stop learning. To friends and “mentors” I’ve met along the way, you guys are priceless, I have been truly blessed by all you guys. I am thankful for this journey *it has only begun* and what lies ahead for the wedding photography industry. Critics come, we learn from whatever faults we’ve gone through and turn out better people/photographers.