Photo Tips For Wedding Guests

How can you let your guests get great shots at the wedding while helping your weddingphotojournalist get his or hers as well? Fortunately, the two goals are not mutually exclusive. A fewWPJA members weigh in with professional tips and techniques that your wedding guests can use tokick their personal photos up a few notches, while ensuring that their efforts will not detract fromthe "official" photos produced by the hired photographer.

10. FLASH ON/FLASH OFF

Do you know how to turn off the flash on your personal camera, or change its settings to best suitthe lighting at a given moment? What about your guests? Encourage them to get to know theircameras if you know they'll want to play shutterbug at the wedding.

"I often turn my flash off; it kills most pictures," says wedding photographer Porter Gifford, who isbased in Massachusetts. "And just taking a minute or two to learn your camera can result in somegreat, unusual shots."

For an outdoor wedding, however, flash is the way to go. In the light of day, your camera will turn itsflash off. Become familiar with the settings and turn it on. This can help decrease shadows that arevisible only once the picture is developed. At nighttime, the flash is of course necessary to garner thebest results.

New Jersey and Pennsylvania-based WPJA photographer Scott Lewis agrees that knowing yourcamera is the best solution to all "flash-worthy" situations. "Depending on the time of day, flash mayhelp your picture or hurt your picture. If you're trying to capture the light of a late summerafternoon, for example, or take photos of people out on a dance floor, your goals may be verydifferent." In the former situation, flash might ruin the natural light; in the latter, a lack of flashcould give you a dark, blurry shot. "Knowing your goals in the shot and knowing your camera makesa huge difference."

9. FLATTER YOUR SUBJECTS

We're speaking aesthetically, of course! Yet it can't hurt to compliment them, as wedding guests whofeel confident in front of the camera make better subjects. While their self-assuredness isn'tsomething you can control, you can control where you place them. It's best to capture your subjectsin a soft light. There's a reason you notice how lovely your partner looks from across the table at adimly lit restaurant. While you may think it has to do with the martinis you've been drinking (and toa degree, it may), it has more to do with the lighting. Though you don't want the light to be too low,a nice soft glow is ideal. Try to stay out of direct sunlight. Sunset is the perfect time to capturepeople at their best.

Photo by Scott Lewis

Consider the mood created by the lighting and location in the award-winning photo taken by Lewisof a couple posing for a guest's camera in front of a twilit ocean.

"It was a really beautiful setting along the beach with a lot of candles, and I was waiting as the lightwent down to capture the contrast between candlelight and twilight," Lewis remembers. "I'd beenphotographing more of a setting photo, the table and the sky, and saw the couple getting theirpicture taken out of the corner of my eye. The light on their faces is the red-eye reduction light fromthe person's camera and gives a nice warm contrast to the blue. It was a great shot!"

8. DON'T COMPETE FOR A SHOT

There are some moments at a wedding everyone wants to remember, but even as an amateurphotographer, you don't want to jostle someone and ruin their shot for the sake of your own! Whileyou may want to capture those picture-perfect moments as badly as the professional photographer,he's the one the BG have hired. Try to be conscientious of him. Know where he is standing and howyour flash may affect his work. If you are flashing away at the same subject as the professionalphotographer, the light from your camera may throw his off. If you find yourself shoulder to shoulderwith him, simply ask if you're in the way. A little courtesy can go a long way.

7. RESPECT THE FORMAL PHOTOS

Although hiring a wedding photojournalist means expecting a very different style from typical formalwedding photography, the posed family photos are still an important part of the day for some. So asa guest, this is the time to step back and allow the professional the room he or she needs.

When it comes to the formal shots, "I've promised the bride and groom that I will get those done asquickly as possible, so they can get to do what they want to do," says Lewis. "If guests say 'let me getin there and get a picture after you,' it drags out the time." Guests should recognize and respect thefact that couples typically want to stay on schedule, and should adjust their photo-taking agendaaccordingly.

6. GET CLOSER

"The problem I notice most of the time is that people are not close enough to what they're trying tophotograph," Scott Lewis notes. "Seventy percent of most people's wedding photography-relatedissues stem from that problem. You're standing way far away, take a shot, and then you find all this

stuff in the picture you didn't want."

5. BE READY FOR ANYTHING

"Most good photos depend on a little bit of luck," says Porter Gifford. "The pleasure of photographyis you couldn't plan on everything; you just have to be there and be in the moment." Plenty ofsurprises happen during a couple's big day. Just keep your eyes open, try to anticipate what mayhappen next, and you're bound to capture some of them!

4. TELL A STORY

A lot happens during the course of the wedding day. There are countless moments to capture a"story." Look for them. Place yourself in the mind of the storyteller, watching events as they unfold.Find those opportunities in which the guests of honor and their guests interact in interesting andexciting ways. For instance, a great photo may be of the BG leading their guests in a particulardance or the ring bearer who's lost his direction down the aisle. Be prepared to capture thosemoments that stand out.

3. CHANGE YOUR PERSPECTIVE

"One of the first assignments you get in Photography 101 is to shoot without looking," Gifford notes,"because you'll get nice surprises that way, an image framed in an unusual way. And with a digitalcamera, that kind of experiment doesn't cost you anything."

Of course, at a wedding you might want to keep your eye on the events of the day. In that case,Gifford has a less drastic suggestion.

Photo by Porter Gifford

"Change the level of the camera! Bend down, hold it up above you or off to the side. Change thevantage point and see what that does for your picture." Gifford took his own advice in his award-winning photo featured in a recent WPJA contest. "As you can see, this was during the Horah at thatwedding, an event I've photographed many, many times at this point. This time I said 'I'm going todo this differently.' I usually stand in the middle of the ring of people but I decided to go outside of itand shoot with a longer lens. I wanted to get away and get some more perspective, have morepeople in the shot."

The result? A happy bride in a sea of jubilant arms, with a wedding guest's camera punctuating thescene in a burst of light.

2. RESPECT YOUR SURROUNDINGS--AND THE WEDDING PHOTOJOURNALIST

Often, guests will get caught up in the moment and forget that the purpose of the wedding is not forthem to capture the perfect shot. "People get aggressive and excited, want to photograph theirfriend or cousin," says Lewis. "Look around the room, especially during the ceremony. If you feel likeyou want to step out into the action and take a picture make sure you're not getting in thephotographer's way. It's something you can check out with some easy, non-verbal communication."

1. BE CREATIVE AND HAVE FUN!

"Often wedding photos taken by guests end up as one straight shot after another of the bride andgroom and other folks present," says Gifford. "I'd suggest it would be more fun to experiment, try adifferent tactic than another photo of smiling faces--that's what I do as part of my job all the time."

Lewis also believes that experimentation is key. "As a guest, taking pictures at a wedding should beabout experimenting and enjoying yourself in equal measure. If the picture makes you happy, it's agood picture!"

--by Heather Bowlan and Lauren Ragland for the Wedding Photojournalist Association

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