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Collaborating With Your Wedding Photographer, 109: Planning Picture Perfect Wedding Toasts

We love wedding toasts! For one thing, hearing how other folks love the bride and groom makes us—and everybody at a wedding, I think—adore the bride and groom even more. And the photographs of the bride and groom and the guests reacting to toasts can be so fun (though, in fact, that could go either way if the toasts are deadly-long or if there are too many of them, come to think of it).

Somehow, toasts are more-often-than-not overlooked in the orchestration and choreography of the wedding day—but they’re important because the toasts themselves can be very meaningful and the photos do actually sometimes make it into the finished wedding album. So, naturally, you want the toasting photos to be their best selves. (And don’t think that this magically won’t happen to you on your wedding day … )

toasting

Here are a few easy tips for setting yourself up to have picture perfect toasts:

Have the speaker stand somewhere with a nice background and nice light, even if that spot is right at his or her dinner table. Ample ambient light is the best kind.
Please don’t put your toaster in front of an EXIT sign. (This is just an expansion of point #1, I suppose).
Make sure your photographer is present. If you have a planner, he or she can help with this. If you are diy-planning, you’ll need to keep an eye on this yourself. Although your photographer may stick close by your side the entire rest of the day, during dinner time, she could be off taking photographs in another part of the event, or trying to take a quick dinner break. If unscheduled or unannounced toasts happen, she can miss them.
Toasts REALLY TRULY need to be short and sweet. Haute wedding planner, Yifat Oren, notes,”it’s a toast, not a roast. Toasts should be short and sweet and moving and anecdotal. The longest amount of time for any one toast should be seven minutes, but preferably no longer than five. You can say a lot in seven minutes.” And, “if you’re planning to have 35 minutes of toasts, don’t do it all at once.” It’s hard for the guests to sit through a bunch of long toasts (read: boring) and can bring the whole party to a halt. If someone really wants to give a long toast or say something much more expansive to or about you and your beloved, the rehearsal dinner might afford a better and more intimate opportunity for that kind of thing.

Check back tomorrow for an interview with Yifat, full of tips from celebrity weddings that are applicable to weddings on any budget.

photographs: Gia Canali

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Published on July 15, 2010 in Full Articles, Interviews, Photography and Planning. 0 Comments

Collaborating With Your Photographer, 201: Conservation of Your Wedding Photographs

I come from a family where photographs are prized possessions. My grandmother was always afraid that someone would break into her house and steal her family photographs. Now there’s certainly a breakdown of reason (people steal things because they are valuable, not because they are valuable to you), but I think the sentiment is priceless. Her photographs of all of us were the one thing she didn’t want taken away from her. Of course, she didn’t preserve them properly. Many were in the magnetic photo albums from the 80s, and framed prints were stacked one behind another, ad infinitum, partly out of convenience and partly to hide them from would-be robbers.

My grandmother was right: photographs are great treasures, to us, to our families, to our histories, and to our cultures. And so, the photographic prints themselves—and their conservation—are essential, but often overlooked, aspects of your investment in wedding photography and in any photography period.

I. Keep Photographs Out of Direct Bright Light

Sunlight damages prints, even high-quality archival ones. Don’t hang framed prints where they’ll get direct sunlight (or even really bright indirect light). You don’t want to look like The Munsters in twenty years.

II. Keep Your Photographs Out of Extreme Conditions (No extreme heat, cold, high humidity, or dryness).

Humidity can cause mold; extreme dryness can make prints brittle. Heat and cold are just as bad. And alternating among any of those conditions is even worse. Keep your prints, if at all possible, in stable room-temp normal humidity conditions.

III. Use Archival Presentation and Preservation Materials

This is one area where your photographer probably can help you quite a bit, since many of us work with our clients to create archival presentations of the photographs. Framed prints should be matted first, so that they don’t stick to the glass. The matting should be archival quality, with acid free archival adhesives, corners, mat paper, etc. UV-filtering glass can help framed prints, too. Albums and other presentations should be completely archival.

IV. Don’t Handle The Prints With Your Fingers.

If there was one thing Grammy was militant about with her photographs, it was this. But it’s true: the oil from your fingers damages the print’s emulsion.

♥

Naturally, if we wanted our photographs to last forever and ever, we’d leave them in airtight archival boxes at room temperature and never let them see the light of day. But that would be absurd, as the joy of a photograph is, of course, taking it in. So I’m offering some basic guidelines today. Then we’ll discuss each of these aspects of conservation in more detail in the coming months because the burden and responsibility of conservation of prints ultimately falls on the clients. In other words, no matter how careful your photographer is to create archival prints for you; if they are handled carelessly later, they’ll still be ruined. If at any point you aren’t sure about how to preserve your photographs, just ask your photographer!

iPhone photo: Gia Canali

* The photographs in the picture above are from my tiny collection of vintage wedding photographs. I always feel sad that photos like this have been separated from their people …

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Published on June 23, 2010 in Full Articles, Photography and Planning. 0 Comments

Collaborating With Your Photographer, 108: What You’re Really Paying For (And Waiting For!) With Your Wedding Album Purchase

{pictured: Leather Craftsmen Fine Art Book. click any image to enlarge}

Although I’m not surprised that folks balk at album prices—most people don’t know what goes into making them (!)—a wedding album is really essential, the finishing point of your investment in wedding photography.

I. The Labor

I like to think about the album making process as a labor of love. It is certainly laborious—even a simple album can sometimes run upwards of thirty hours of labor. Custom books can amount to much, much more work. So what goes into making an album that can add up to so much time? Well, here goes:

Design time.
This is a big one. Perhaps it’s the big one. Album design is a back and forth process—and sometimes a long one—a collaboration between a photographer and her clients. Often, there are meetings. There is always time laying the album out. An opportunity for client feedback. Changes to the design. Another opportunity for client feed back and/or a final approval. Design time is all about decisions: decisions about which album(s) to use, which images will and won’t be included, how to tell the story of the wedding day and best flatter the bride and groom; decisions about making the best overall presentation, including choosing cover treatments (leather vs suede vs book cloth), cover photos, deciding on stamping or imprinting …
Editing images.
Once the images are chosen, and the client has “signed off” on the album design, we begin preparing images to print. Final color corrections need to be made. We always take a good second look at images that will be included in a client’s album. Retouching issues need to be addressed. The images need to be sized and cropped (if the album’s matted) or inserted into an overall layout (if the album is flush-mounted).
Ordering prints from the lab.
This seems pretty self-explanatory, but this often takes an hour or two depending on the album type.
Checking quality.
When the prints come back from the lab, we check every single print to make sure it’s up to snuff. If we don’t like a print, we have to send it back to the lab.
Assembling the prints & order forms.
Not my favorite part, for sure. I check everything about a zillion times. Prints have to be put in numerical and size order and sometimes hand-trimmed. I always reference emails and notes to make sure I get everything filled in properly on the order form.
Shipping or dropping the order off at the album bindery.
Checking quality again.
Shipping or dropping the album off to the client. (Phew!)

II. The Prints

A gorgeous album requires gorgeous and expertly-made photographic prints.

III. The Binding (Album Assembly)

This is actually part materials cost and part labor cost. The album cover and its pages are certainly a substantial cost in and of themselves, but binding is all about the artisan who actually makes the book. Handmade albums are more laborious and therefore more costly.

So why is it worth it?

So, although the price of making a wedding album seems high, there is very little markup in the end. Not only are the materials quite costly, but album-making is also quite labor-intensive—for both the artisans involved and for the photographer. Ultimately, your wedding album becomes the official record of your wedding day. We work tirelessly to ensure that our clients get albums that will become heirlooms. That’s the goal. Frankly, your grandkids aren’t going to be interested in a digital photo file. And neither are your grandparents for that matter. The albums available to consumers don’t even compare to those available to professional photographers. And getting expert professional help with the design, printing, and binding is invaluable. Not to mention that not doing it yourself is pretty grand. I own my negatives from my wedding (which was back in the all-film days). I am not sure when I’ll get around to making an album for us … and I think it’s the labor time that’s my hangup (that and the five hundred or so dollars I’d need to spend on prints).

Those of you who are working on albums might also want to check out these posts:

Collaborating With Your Photographer, 107: Choosing The Most Stellar Photographs For Your Wedding Album

Decoding Wedding Photography Lingo, IV: Wedding Albums

photos: Gia Canali

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Published on December 14, 2009 in Full Articles, Photography and Planning. 0 Comments

Collaborating With Your Photographer, 107: Choosing The Most Stellar Photographs For Your Wedding Album

Choosing photographs for a finished wedding album is a big (permanent!) commitment. It can be really daunting for some folks—and couples tend to get paralyzed more at this step in the wedding photography than at any other. I know lots of couples are at some point in the album design process at this time of year. Either they’re going over the final touches, are trying to amend a design proposal, or are desperately trying to narrow their favorites down to a manageable number of images. Some are just starting to think about choosing an album, and might want to read {this} post about album lingo. For those of you wading through piles of proofs and clicking your way through online galleries, there are—fortunately—a number of things you can do to make the process quite a bit more efficient. Starting with good album image choices is essential.

* Most Importantly*

1. Don’t overthink things.

Your first instincts are probably right. (We remind ourselves of this all the time when we’re editing). The photographs you loved most the first time you saw your photos are a good place to start.

2. Choose the photographs you love most—rather than the ones you feel obligated to include.

Although it’s important to have an overall sense of narrative, when illustrating the story of your wedding day, don’t feel like you need to include every single event/moment/important person.

3. If you can meet with your photographer and work on the design together, do it!

Not only is it much easier to share ideas and make decisions quickly, but your photographer will really understand the album you’ve chosen (how it works in terms of layout and design, cropping, and color-correction; which images might work better than others, and more). Although you and your photographer may have slightly different opinions (two people always do!), having an expert opinion always helps! You and your spouse should both be present for this meeting.

Bringing your proofs (if you got any) can also be really helpful. I am super tactile myself, so I like sorting proofs into piles and spreading out favorites on a big table. Lots of photographers do all their design on a computer and that can work great, too.

Regarding What To Choose

Try to choose images that illustrate your entire day—beginning, middle, and end:

If you can, include you and your spouse getting ready, a few portraits of the two of you, photographs with your family and wedding party, the ceremony (don’t forget your processional and recessional), first dances, cake cutting, and the party. We love to end our albums on a romantic nighttime portrait if we can, but each and every album is different.

Choose only the most essential group photographs:

Group photographs are mostly for family history purposes. You don’t need all of them in the album. One nice photograph of the whole family–perhaps on each side is all you really need. When we have clients who are really trying to stick to a certain number of photographs because of budget or album restrictions, we suggest including either one photograph of the whole bridal party or a photograph of the bride and her attendants and a photograph of the groom and his.

Include your guests in the photos!

We like to be able to show who came out and celebrated you two tying the knot! Years later, you’ll want to know who was there! (And a whole book of just the bride and groom won’t do that!) I can’t tell you how often people emphasize that they really want great photographs of their guests and then don’t include them in the album.

Most people prioritize including family over friends in their choices. Whatever you choose should be strong photographically, though.

Include some of the details!

It’s important to remember how it felt to be at your wedding, not just what happened. And how it looked is a big part of that. Honestly, who hasn’t obsessed over at least a few details in the planning process? You want evidence of all that hard work!

We like to include good overall images of the ceremony and reception decor (with or without people in them), floral arrangements and bouquets, the cake or desserts, etc. Anything wonderful and inspiring that lends a sense of place or shows the uniqueness of your event.

Regarding cover photographs:

A lot of albums feature one (or more) special photographs on the cover. Good cover photographs usually have very simple compositions and read well small. Mood-setting images (details, flowers, etc.) and portraits usually work well. A striking image you can think of right now without looking through all your proofs is probably fantastic.

Regarding retouching and image editing: Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace!

We all live in the age of digital imaging. So there’s no reason I can think of that we shouldn’t indulge our vanity just a teeny bit. I, for one, had the worst acne outbreak in my whole life the week of my wedding and if I ever get around to making a wedding album, I will certainly be retouching a few zits out of the photos. My point is that if you don’t like something like a zit or a bruise on your shin (apparently there are lots of tomboy brides!) or the way your dress lays across your back in a photo from the ceremony, or the fact that there’s a random person in the background of a photo, you should speak up! Don’t assume your photographer will retouch it if you don’t say anything. Don’t assume it is or isn’t an easy fix. Do expect to pay for any revisions. If you get a quote, at least you can make an educated decision about retouching.

In The End

Wedding albums are custom made to order and are generally unalterable and non-returnable once they go to print. You need to be thrilled with whatever is going to be in the album. If something drives you nuts or disappoints you now, chances are that it will still have that effect years from now. Trust me. So I say again, speak now or forever hold your peace!

♥

Photographers and newlyweds who’ve been through the process: am I forgetting anything? I want to keep the dialogue on album-making open!

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Published on November 14, 2009 in Full Articles and Photography. 4 Comments

Collaborating With Your Photographer, 106: Getting Great Group Photos (Without Losing Your Mind!)

Nobody wants to spend their entire wedding day, standing around, lining up for photos. This is why group photos, generally, have a bad rap. But they are an important part of family history, and of your history. And done right, they will take up little of your lovely wedding day. There are two parts to non-insanity-inducing group photos—planning them properly with your photographer, and helping your photographer execute them properly.

♥ Planning Ahead ♥

I. Make a List. Be Reasonable.

Stick to essential group combinations!

Include everybody’s names so the photographer’s assistant (rather than you!) can call people into each shot. Your photographer probably has a starter list. Mine is very simple: bride + groom with immediate family, parents, and grandparents on each side. Siblings, if applicable. Extended family, if desired and feasible.

*Keep in mind that, for the most part, nobody really cares who else is in the photo besides you and your beloved. So zillions of permutations of each group really aren’t necessary.

group-photos-7

Why the Big Fat Group Photos Take Longer:

Brides and grooms (or their parents!) sometimes suggest gigantic group photographs thinking they won’t take any longer than photographs of three or four people. The truth is that while the actual shooting of those group photographs doesn’t take any more time, the wrangling of big groups of people takes much, much longer. Even once we’ve rounded up all the right people (and found whichever straying uncle or brother is at the bar or in the bathroom), we need to arrange them, making sure we can see each person’s face. It just takes longer. Much longer.

Why You Should Notify Your Photographer of Any Sensitive Family Situations (deaths, divorces, etc.):

We want to address your friends and family properly during the photographs. And we want to arrange them properly. At one of the first weddings I ever photographed, I was trying to arrange a photograph with the parents of the groom next to each other and they wouldn’t move in to the photograph. When I made a little joking comment, I was told that they were divorced. And it became very apparent to me at that point that the divorce was unfriendly. I was mortified. And I’m sure they were, too. Luckily, it’s easy to avoid that sort of awkwardness with some very simple communication ahead of time.

As of Your Wedding Day, You and Your Spouse Are Each Other’s Family.

It borders on absurd to make this point but I’m doing so because I often get requests for photos without one of the spouses—bride with bride’s immediate family (without groom). And vice versa. Nobody orders that photo. Nobody wants it afterwards. And were someone in your family to order the photo and hang it on the mantel, sans the spouse, wouldn’t you feel weird about it?

Bride + mom or bride + dad or groom + either one of his parents are totally fine. It’s just the groups that are awfully strange.

Don’t Forget Your Siblings!

My favorite photograph at my twin sister, Meghan’s wedding, aside from the one where she’s flipping me/the camera off, is the one of her and her husband and Matt (then my boyfriend) and me. It’s the first photograph of the four of us. Matt and I are looking a little rough (I was wearing pants(!), which I never wear to weddings anymore, and I had altitude sickness). But we are happy and we are together. Which is kind of the whole point, as I see it.

II. If You Want Something Funky or Fun, You’ll Need More Time.

Most brides and grooms want to speed through the group photographs—line-em-up-and-move-em-out style. Others want something more stylized—the bridal party in an unusual location, the family organized on multiple levels, some seated some standing, near a unique couch, for instance. These photographs can be so visually interesting, but they do take longer to set up (which is a deterrent for many folks). If you’re hoping for something other than the lineup, so to speak, tell your photographer, so both of you can plan for it.

III. Make Call Times. Lie if Necessary.

I can’t believe I almost forgot this all-important tip! You don’t need people waiting longer than necessary, but you do want them to be there when you need them for photographs. You can almost always get away with separate call times for the bridal party and the family. If your family and friends tend to be late, buffer the call time. If they miss it, you may not get a chance for photographs with them later on.

♥ On Your Wedding Day ♥

IV. Let Your Photographer Choose a Spot With Open Shade. Period.

This is really a non-negotiable for me. Maybe you will luck out and it’ll be overcast or (better yet) foggy. But if not, no view or nifty background is ever worth a bad exposure. Technically speaking—and, friends, your grandmothers will agree—the priority is to see everybody’s faces and especially their eyes. A big, bright sunny spot will give everybody what we photographers call raccoon eyes. Dappled shade is just as bad. And most views won’t even show anyway, unless it’s the same amount and kind of light on the faces of the people and on the background.

V. Be Sure You’re Looking On Camera During Formal Group Photos.

There’s a lot going on. I know. And I’ve mentioned it before, but it’s worth reiterating. Look on camera during the formal group photos. (You don’t have to look on camera during informal group photos, though).

I Heart Chaotic Group Photos. Don’t We All?

I think … I’ve said this before, too. I’m sure it’s a throwback to the 8000 times my mom and grandmother had my siblings and cousins and me pose for them, on the brink of chaos (picture Meg and me posing primly, with our younger brother and sister in our laps, both crying their little heads off). In fact, now that I think of it, my love of the chaotic group photo probably goes back as far as my Aunt Paula and Uncle Tom’s wedding. Meghan and I were four, and we were the flower girls, and God bless the poor photographer. Meghan kept running straight at him every time he tried taking a photo of the wedding party. In the official photo, it looks just how I remember it: like she’s bull-running him!

I think we all expect those nice give-to-grandma group photos, but hope for something a little more spontaneous, humorous, and vibrant for ourselves. So set yourself up for the right conditions: only the closest friends and family, beautiful light, and enough time. Glasses of champagne, all around, don’t hurt either.

♥

photographs: Gia Canali

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Published on October 17, 2009 in Full Articles, Photography and Planning. 2 Comments

Collaborating With Your Photographer, 105: Stretching Your Photography Budget As Far As It Will {Possibly} Go

{me, with one of my cameras, though obviously not at a wedding}

There’s (apparently!) a recession on and although I do think things are getting better in the world, we’ve been getting lots of questions behind the scenes from folks who are trying to figure out how to afford wedding photography. So I thought it might be a good time for us to offer some hazardously honest suggestions to all our blog readers. Firstly, I’m interpreting “stretching your photography budget as far as it can possibly go” to mean that you want the most bang for your buck, as they say—the most extraordinary photographs you can have (and lots of them) for the money you can spend. To that end, I am also going to assume that you plan to book your top-choice photographer, someone whose eye you really trust, whose images make your heart go pitter-pat. (That’s bang for your buck!)

I. Optimize Your Location and Itinerary.

The easiest way to get more photography for your money is to do some simple planning of your wedding day early on, perhaps even before you book a photographer. Plan your day cleverly. I’d rather see couples book the photographer of their dreams, and then purposely design a wedding day that can be well-covered with fewer hours of photography if necessary, than to book a photographer they don’t love for ten hours.

If at all possible, plan to have your whole wedding day (getting ready, ceremony, and reception) happen at one location you adore. Not only will the photographs be in your preferred setting (which equals big photographic impact—more on location planning soon!), but you also won’t be wasting valuable shooting time with transportation time. If driving is a must, try to minimize it.

I have seen strategically-planned normal-sized wedding days (at one location) that were well-covered in seven hours. It can be done. Your photographer may have some good ideas of how to do this. And your caterer or coordinator may have more. When my husband and I were married, our caterer suggested heavily weighting the “events” of the reception to the beginning of the evening. Couples who do this could potentially shave quite a bit off the time they need to book a photographer for, and/or fit more of the reception’s must-have events into the time that they can afford to book. (For my part, I just really enjoyed being free to enjoy the party.)

II. Optimize Your Wedding Date, if you can.

Another budget-stretching option is to consider having your wedding at an off-time—like maybe on an off-day. Here in California that means on a Monday through Thursday, and mostly lots of lovely Thursdays. Weekday events tend to be much smaller, since they are attended only by those who love you enough to take the day off from work (and who you love enough that you don’t mind asking them to take time off work!). Most destination weddings require guests to take a few days off from work anyway, so why not wed on a Wednesday?!

I’m not sure if there really is an off-season here in California (maybe that’s a myth?), but keep in mind that holiday dates like Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day weekends, as well as all the fall and winter holidays, or funky dates like 08.08.08, are likely to be less-negotiable than your average sunny summer weekend date. All your vendors (and not just your photographer) will likely have lots of leads on those dates.

III. It’s Okay to Respectfully Negotiate.

Even if your photographer’s prices are firm, their package inclusions may be flexible. Or they may offer a la carte pricing or have other ways of helping their clients afford the photography they want them to have. Particularly if the photographer has a good feeling that the client really “gets” their work and would be good to work with. (What I’m really saying here, and I mean to say it as nicely as possible, is that it’s really, truly, and totally essential to be perfectly lovely—and not insulting, presumptuous, obnoxious, or otherwise patronizing or mean). Just remember: people help people they like.¹

IV. If Possible, Worry About The Wedding Album and Other Big Ticket Tangible Items Later.

If you are right on the bubble of being able to afford your favorite photographer and haven’t yet booked, you may want to see if it’s possible to purchase your album and other big ticket tangible items later. We consider the wedding album the culmination of our clients’ investment (you definitely want one!) and accordingly we don’t ever let our clients walk away empty-handed. And of course, photographers all run their studios very differently, but some kind of negotiation may be possible. There may be a trade-off, such as not getting your negatives until after your album is complete, but it might be totally worth it just to get the images. I always tell people that once they have the images, they can worry about what to do with them later.² Conversely, if someone else is paying and/or if the client can afford an album from the get-go, it is almost always worth budgeting for it from the beginning.

V. See If Your Wedding Photographer Can Set Up A Gift Registry For You.

The advent of online proofing and ordering seems to have made photography gift registry possibilities much more accessible for couples and guests alike. We made a gift registry for some clients this summer and their guests gifted them over $1600, which they used toward vintage processes and album add-ons. I was wowed!

♥

In the end, do what you need to do. You have to anyway. Ask for help if you need it. Ask for reality checks from your friends, family, planner, and photographer if you need it. I think photography is one of those things that you won’t ever regret investing in. The photographs become memento, become official record, and ultimately become family heirloom. I know I’m a photographer saying that! But I think most of us wedding photographers have a really good idea of the wedding photography we want to give our clients.³ And we are perfectly happy to help people figure out how to get the most, best photography they can get. That’s our job!

______

¹ Yep, I know: folks reading advice rarely need it themselves.

² As long as it’s not, as it is in my case, six years later, with no intention of working on the images any time soon!

³ Sigh. In a perfect world, you’d all have buckets of money for wedding photography, no figuring required …

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Published on August 11, 2009 in Full Articles, Photography, Real Weddings and Trends. 0 Comments

Collaborating with your Photographer, 104: Getting Great Getting Ready Photos

The first wedding I photographed was my high school friend Kori’s. In the weeks before the wedding, nobody was planning to or hired to take photographs, so I volunteered. I was justifiably mortified that this momentous occasion might go undocumented—and was apparently (happily) undeterred by my lack of experience.¹ The wedding day was a whirl—so much happening—an emotional ceremony, the reception in her father’s barn, a pig roast (!), and Kori had made her own beautiful dress by hand, complete with a whole backful of real buttons. Taking photographs was so exhilarating that I raced out to a one-hour photo developer as soon as I left the party. I was completely impatient to see the photographs we’d made²— which (thank God!) turned out great—and wanted Kori to be able to bring the pictures on her honeymoon.

What surprised me most at that first wedding and what I could never have anticipated was the transformation Kori made from woman to bride. I mean: Kori was really a very pretty girl, but as a bride, she absolutely shone. Now I’ve documented well over a hundred weddings (maybe hundreds?), and though expected, the transformation of every woman to bride is no less dramatic. This transformation, I believe, is why we all love the getting ready photographs.

{click any image to enlarge}

We know we are going to outdo ourselves. And somewhere in that getting ready time is where it happens. Also, it’s one of the few parts of the day that our spouses don’t see. So there’s a natural curiosity. And for my part, I know I really had wanted to see evidence of my husband preparing for our wedding. Despite the obsession on all our parts, it’s easy to make design mistakes that adversely affect the getting ready photographs. Fortunately, it’s just as easy to take some simple measures to ensure gorgeous getting ready photographs.

1. Choose a room with good light. I love when brides and grooms get ready at their home or at their parents’ homes. Obviously, this isn’t possible at destination weddings. If you get ready in a hotel or other location, choose a room with bright indirect light (like with nice giant north facing windows, if we’re going to be picky!).

2. Make the space clean and tidy. Or if you choose to get ready in chaos (think big family, big bridal party chaos), let it be beautiful chaos. This is sometimes the hardest part to manage, but it is essential—and it really impacts the photographs. The room, of course, is the backdrop for all your getting ready photographs. Keep luggage neatly packed and out of the way. If you’re in a hotel, call housekeeping service and have the beds made up and room cleaned.

3. If at all possible, make it possible for your photographers to go back and forth between the bride’s getting ready location and the groom’s. Two rooms in proximity are always a good choice. You’ll get more photographs for your time. No matter what, don’t forget about the groom. Watching the groom figure out how to get dressed is sometimes the best part! His exciting getting-ready photos only take about fifteen minutes (well, honestly sometimes about three minutes), so it won’t detract from your coverage. Schedule his getting ready photographs while you’re getting your makeup started. Nobody really wants photographs before the foundation goes on anyway. (A side note is that a lot of couples request a divide-and-conquer strategy for the getting ready photographs, but you should definitely check with your photographers to see if this works well with the way they shoot. I dislike dividing cameras and resources, and my husband and I have developed a great way of shooting together.)

4. If intimate getting ready photographs are important to you, consider wearing lovely lingerie for the getting ready photographs (even if you plan to switch to Spanx for the rest of the day). Let your modesty guide you, of course. If you want to wear a lacy bra or corset while you’re getting your makeup done—or just while you’re getting ready to put on your dress—so be it. But if you’d rather sneak into your dress in private, that’s totally up to you.

5. The details matter. Most brides love photographs of all the little details they’ve spent months (or more) acquiring: the dress, the shoes, jewelry, bouquet, etc. So keep these details easy to access. I also suggest bringing your own pretty hanger to hang the dress on. My favorite hangers are antique.

6. Schedule your preparation time properly—and pad your schedule. Allow enough time to do everything you need to do—hair, makeup, dressing, driving between locations (all you LA brides)—and then some. If you have a complicated gown with lacing, real buttons, or lots of layers, allow extra time to dress. More often than (I’m sure) your stylists would like to admit, hair and makeup run as much as an hour and a half behind. The indecent measure of stress that adds to your wedding day shows in the photographs. The best case scenario involves you having time for a champagne toast with your attendants.

7. Save five minutes (or more!) after you’re all ready for a few portraits before you go out into the busy-ness of your wedding day. Your hair and makeup are still perfect and the bridal transformation is complete.

What do you think makes the biggest impact on getting ready photographs? I’d love to hear … Leave a comment and we may update this post or add another on that topic.

photo credit: Gia Canali

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¹ I have this theory that the so-called beginner’s luck is formed by the blissful unawareness of what we are to fear, like an ingenue’s confidence. It’s helpful. We learn to fear things (like lost rolls of film, poor exposures, getting heckled during family photographs, etc.) only later on.

² This was in the all-film era, of course. I grew up near Rochester, NY, Kodak’s headquarters. So I’d seen digital cameras. Several years before, one of my prom dates’ fathers had a prototype digital camera from work and had taken photos of all us kids dressed up for prom. We were wowed when he showed them to us a moment later on his computer.

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Published on May 20, 2009 in Full Articles, Photography and Planning. 3 Comments

Collaborating with Your Photographer, 103: The Immeasurable Importance of Light & Lighting

Photography is all about capturing the moment’s real light in a tiny box and saving it for later, for our memories. So it’s a pretty logical conclusion that the light itself matters significantly (at least as far as the photographs go).

Most wedding days span several types of ambient lighting and require a little extra help in the lighting department after dusk. I love to make photographs as the light changes—it adds so much variety to the body of wedding photographs you get. For this reason, we will revisit each part of the wedding day and discuss it in detail in the coming months. But for now, here is a little lighting primer.

During daylight, perhaps you are a) getting ready (probably indoors), b) getting married in a ceremony, and c) having formal portraits taken.

Making the best of the getting-ready photographs is a topic of its whole own post, but for starters, please get ready in a neat and tidy room with giant north facing windows! Not really. But if you have a choice … think about the light in the room where you’ll get ready. If it’s impossibly dark or cluttered, consider faking some getting ready moments outdoors. Lots of light is good for backlit images, too.

{click any photo to enlarge}

There’s always an exception to my imaginary rules. This is a windowless room where the bride put final touches on her makeup. The vanity lights make this just right.

For your ceremony, the best possible lighting scenario involves bright open shade, or waning late day light. In California we struggle with the wine-country ceremony. The light is always so harsh right up until the so-called golden hour begins. (Nearer the ocean, in Santa Barbara, say, like the wedding below, or in San Francisco, the light is completely different: diffuse, and marvelous). At any venue, you’ll want to make sure nothing makes weird shadow and light patterns on your faces. If at all possible, design your ceremony so that both faces are in even light. It is so hard to expose for one face in total shadow and the other in bright sunlight. It doesn’t work. (I was just talking about this in the ceremony post, but I think that this is worth reiterating).

Making your formal group portraits picture perfect is really relatively straightforward. Stick to shaded uncluttered locations. If you are dead-set on having a certain type of scenery in the background, make sure the light is good. If it’s not, ditch it. It’s just not worth it.

If you are doing all of the above indoors or plan to wed in the evening, look for bright window light or bring in your own lighting. Somewhere with abundant lighting is always wonderful for photographs … Not only is natural or abundant artificial light more flattering, you are likely to be much less camera aware than if your photographer needs to use a flash.

During the evening hours, perhaps you are a) eating supper and being toasted, b) dancing your first of many dances , c) mingling with guests, d) eating a first bite of cake, e) sneaking off for a romantic moment with your beloved. I have to say that with the exception of the last item, your guests want to see all this. And I want to see the last one item, too. (Not to mention, we’d like to see the guests in the photos, sometimes a challenge if they’re lost in the dark).

If there’s enough light to read by, your photographer should be fine to photograph the goings on. But sometimes exciting parts of action happen where there’s little light. There are so many kinds of light to choose from that you’ll have no excuse. If you’re made of money, hire a lighting crew. If not, perhaps consider adding candles, plain or colored glass lanterns, paper lanterns, chandeliers, strings of lights, etc. (Even plan an afternoon reception if you’re really on a shoestring lighting budget).

Anything you can do to lessen the need for flash will dramatically improve the photographs. You ‘ll be able to, for instance, see the guests behind you while you cut the cake or do your first dance. This is bang-for-your-buck we’re talking about!

Don’t forget the landscape and environment. Usually a lot of thought goes into choosing a gorgeous location. But if it’s lost in the dark, it’s lost in the dark.

Grant me one (more) wish and sneak away from the party for some romantic nighttime portraits. We’ll show bunches more in a dedicated post, but here are just a couple.

I’d love to hear some original lighting ideas.

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Published on April 15, 2009 in Decor, Full Articles, Photography and Planning. 0 Comments