Seriously.
photo: Gia Canali
Archive for the 'Planning' Category
Although I don’t wear makeup or even know how to really put it on, I do notice wedding makeup. Or, perhaps I should say that I bemoan bad wedding makeup. I don’t think I notice good makeup at all. My friend and former bride, Mitra, was a certified MAC makeup artist a few years ago and did a number of weddings during that time, both through MAC and on her own. She agreed to share some tips, and I must say, as a photographer (who knows what’s flattering) and a make-up-phobe (who groans at the thought of doing it), I think these tips are really helpful. I’m putting in my own two-cents in italics.
- Hire a make-up artist, or at the very least, have a make-up artist show you how to do your make-up, take her product suggestions, and practice several times before the wedding. Hiring a make-up artist is easier. Brides have enough to worry about on the wedding day!
- A trial run of wedding-day make-up is absolutely necessary. Take a picture of your make-up in several lighting scenarios (natural light, dark w/flash, etc.). And wear the make-up 8-10 hours. See how well it holds. All make-up will need touch-ups (powder, lips, etc.), but the bulk of wedding day make-up should wear that long. (Gia here: Makeup that looks good and makeup that looks good on-camera aren’t necessarily the same thing. Your little test shots will tell you a lot!!)
- Everyone looks better with false eye lashes. There are so many ways to do them that look natural and gorgeous, and I think they should be attempted at the trial run before a bride rules them out.
- If fake lashes are out of the question, Diorshow Blackout (waterproof) and Make Up For Ever Smoky Lash (waterproof) are both available at Sephora, and dramatically enhance eyes to get the benefit of fake lashes.
- When cultivating ideas for the wedding day look, chose a celebrity or two who you resemble in face-shape and coloring, and google red carpets looks for those celebs to get ideas. Bring these pics to your trial run with the make-up artist.
- If the make-up artist isn’t staying for the whole event, make sure that you have the lipstick/liner/gloss she used, and powder and a little foundation for touch-ups. Make a bridesmaid responsible for keeping track of these items for you, and put her in charge of checking on your make-up every so often.
- Skin is really important to wedding day beauty. A make-up artist can even out skin tone, but there’s not much they can do for texture. Start thinking about this months in advance, and adjust your skin care regimen accordingly. If you’re paranoid about a huge zit cropping up days before the wedding, make an appointment with a derm the day before the wedding, if possible. Should a monstrous zit arrive, they can give you a cortisone injection that will get rid of it by the next day. (Gia here: we’ll have more on good skin for your wedding soon-ish).
Thanks, Mitra! Any makeup tips from anyone else? Former brides, feel free to chime in!
photo: Gia Canali
WYSIWYG (what-you-see-is-what-you-get) is something we photographers talk about all the time when we’re printing our photographs. We want our prints to precisely match what we see on our computer screens. Obviously. We want to get what we expect. And with wedding photography, so do you.
So how does that work exactly, when you hire a photographer—or, now that I think about it, when you hire any vendor or artist? Well … we do what we do: what you see is what you get. So when you’re thinking about hiring someone, see enough of her work that you have a really good feel for what she does—a representative sample. This could include images on a website or blog, some albums, and perhaps a client gallery or run of proofs. By that point, you should feel like you “get” the scope and style of her work. If you like what you see in that photographer’s portfolio, chances are that you’ll like what she can do for you. But if you don’t, or if you yearn for something altogether different, no amount of direction, coaching, or unrealistic expectation is going to change how that photographer works or sees. You aren’t going to get something different.
♥
Two stories to highlight this point:
Once I was at a meeting with a potential client. She kept pulling photographs out of my portfolio, dropping them on the coffee table, and pounding her forefinger on the photos,¹ asking over and over again, “Can you do this? Can you take photos like this?” I was boggled. What a query! I had, of course, taken all the photographs in question, and there were dozens of them. She had a whole, ever-growing pile of photographs she wondered if I could take. What she was really asking, of course, was whether I not I could take photos like that for her. But still. It’s ridiculous.
In another meeting, a potential client asked me, no less than twice, if I could take photographs like the ones taken by another well-known local photography studio. Um … why not just hire them? (I hope they did! Otherwise, they were surely and sorely disappointed.)
Neither one of these potential clients understood the principle of WYSIWYG. And I’m sure it’ll be no surprise to know that neither one of them hired me. Nor will it be much of a revelation to know that I’m relieved they didn’t.
♥
So … hire a photographer whose work makes your heart go pitter-pat. Someone whose eye you trust. And then let her do her thing. (Why in the world would you want to interfere with what you trust is going to be marvelous?)
photo: Gia Canali
__
¹ Yes, yes, she was smudging them to death.
We all know it’s important to dance with your beloved. But don’t forget your friends! Not only does it make for good photos, it makes for good memories.
photo: Gia Canali
This tablescape by Michael Mantalos of {Louloudi Design} makes me hope somebody hires me to photograph a sparkling winter white wedding … and soon! The sequined linen from {LaTavola Linen} is just right with the glimmering decor.
{Click any image to take a closer look!}
♥
photos: Gia Canali
Your wedding is not the ultimate statement of who you are as a couple. I mean: your wedding should certainly reflect you two more than it reflects just the idea of wedding. Of course. But—and I know this is hard, and that my husband and I didn’t quite manage it ourselves when we wed—don’t let yourselves get out of hand. Weddings are really just a public acknowledgment, an affirmation, marking the beginning of the adventure of your (official) partnership—kind of like a bon voyage. Our parents and grandparents had such different weddings. They walked to the county courthouse, or married at a neighborhood church, with a party in Grandma’s back yard. These weren’t grand affairs, at least not in my family, but I have such romantic ideas about them: my parents and grandparents have beautiful photographs by which I still imagine those weddings.
Weddings are now so much bigger and more splendid and more extraordinary in design and scope than I possibly could have imagined when I was a little girl. When we all were. But. How you live your married life, each and every day, or rather the sum of your days, eventually becomes a much more powerful testimony of who you are as a couple. So, plan the wedding you imagine, great or small, near or far, lavish or serene. I hope it is a wonderful and honest celebration (and that the photographs are fantastic, too!). I’m just saying, I hope your marriage is even more marvelous. Were it up to me, and were my husband and I so extraordinarily lucky, I’d rather let our fiftieth anniversary than our wedding be that ultimate statement of who we are together.*
photo: Gia Canali
p.s. My husband says I should say that perhaps the “tip” here, if there really is one, is to plan your wedding for the couple you want to become.
{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:
Decoding Wedding Photography Lingo, IV: Wedding Albums
photos: Gia Canali
