Wedding Photography Tips
The First Step to Taking Better Picutres

These wedding photography tips will help you take great photos at your first wedding. Wedding photography can be a daunting task. As in any event photography, there are so many things to photograph. Being organized and prepared will not only ensure that you take good pictures, but will help you be confident while doing so.

Do Your Research

I see you've already started this step. I mean, you are reading this tutorial about wedding photography tips, but there's other research you can do too.

Start looking at wedding pictures. You can look through wedding magazines and at sample shoots of wedding photographers online. Determine the types of photographs that are popular in wedding albums these day.

The most important of the wedding photography tips is meet with the couple. When you meet with them, you need to be sure to get this information:

The Wedding Schedule--Find out what's going to happen and when it will happen. You need to make sure you're set up to take pictures where the action is going to be.

List of Family Members to be Photographed--Sure they'll want pictures of most everyone, but be sure to find out who the most important people to appear in the pictures are. This wedding will only happen once and if you forget to take a picture of Uncle Frank at the wedding, you can't do it over again. Make a photo list with the couple of groups of people they would like to see photographed together. Check out these my family photography tips and family portrait tips for some ideas about taking good group pictures on the day.

Create a Shot List--The couple will have some idea about what pictures they want. You can also tell them your ideas. You should write up a list of shots you'll get on that day with the couple. You may want to bring a wedding magazine with you for the couple to flip through and get some ideas. This will also help you get a sense of their style. You can include other shots that aren't on that list on the day too, but make sure you get all the shots you agreed to with the couple.

Agree Upon the Terms--Make sure you've determined a price and a product with the couple. Both sides need to agree on the price and what will be recieved for that price before the wedding day.

Contact Numbers--Get the contact numbers for the bride and groom, the wedding coordinator, the maid of honor, the best man, and whoever else has a major role in planning the wedding.

Wedding Photography Tips for the Day

Now that you've read the wedding photography tips to help you prepare for the event, let's look at what you'll need to do on the day of the wedding.

Batteries and Memory--The last thing you want to happen is to run out of battery or memory on the big day. Make sure you have extra batteries and memory. You'll be taking tons of pictures.

Flash--Bring your flash gun. Churches are usually dim. You'll need to bounce your flash to get pictures that aren't too dark. If the wedding is outside, you may need to use a fill flash. Check out these flash photography tips.

Be Early--Show up an hour or two early to the venue. You'll need time to scout the place out and get a good idea about where you can get the best pictures.

Get Some Help--An assistant is really useful at a wedding. When you're taking group shots it's difficult to round people up. Your assistant can be in charge of getting people together for those important picture. Having help will definitely take the stress off.

Use RAW File Format--You'll get the best quality photos from shooting RAW. Read more about RAW file format.

Shoot From Different Angles--Move around the event. Shoot pictures from different angles. Save all your shots. Even it you think a shot is complete rubbish at first save it. It may turn out to be something unexpectedly good.

Don't Forget the Details--Get pictures of the little things that are important at a wedding. Shot picutres of the rings, the shoes, the flowers, the back of the wedding dress, table settings, and similar things that the bride and groom may what to remember. Try to put yourself in their shoes. If this were your wedding what would you like to have pictures of?

Be Confident--Something may go wrong. Actually something almost definitely will go wrong. That's the way things usually work at weddings. Don't despair though. Keep taking pictures. Don't be afraid to really in there to get a good picture. That is why you're there.