Insider Tricks to Create a Great Wedding Video.

If you have been hired to create a video of someone’s wedding and reception, it can be a really fun job.  Not only is there a lot of joy, laughing and fun moments during a wedding celebration but it is really gratifying to know that the video you are creating will be part of family celebrations of these people for decades to come.

Naturally, you want to do a good job.  But whether you are just getting started or have been shooting video for years, you know things can sneak up on you and make your job more difficult.  So there are some “insider tricks” that you should keep in mind especially on the big day so the wedding goes off like clockwork and you get that great video without disturbing the joy and fun of the family.

The first few precautions actually happen long before you drive up to the church and that is a thorough equipment check.  Check and double check your equipment and then check it again.  It can’t hurt to be a bit compulsive about this.  Also, check that all of your supplies are new, in good shape and that you have back ups of batteries, bulbs, tapes or whatever recording media you are using.  If you know your equipment is in good shape, you can walk in there like the professional you are.

Next, be everywhere early and well prepared.  In fact, it can’t hurt to scope out the church and reception hall the day before to check the lighting and do some planning on where you might plan to get your best video from.  If Martin Scorsese can preplan all of his shoots, so can you.

Now be sure everybody knows who you are.  Meet the bride, groom, the wedding party and others close to the planning.  If there are security people, be sure they know who you are as well.  If there is a need for passes or badges of any kind, be sure you have one well ahead of the wedding day.

Part of networking with the key players includes getting some face time with others who may be supporting the wedding.  Many weddings have a wedding planner who must know everything that is going to happen.  Be sure he or she knows who you are and what you are going to do before you start disturbing their domain.  It is also a great idea to meet the other photographers and do a bit of preliminary choreography so everybody can get their shots.  Be aware that you really don’t want to do such a great job of videotaping the wedding that you damage the experience of the wedding guests.  This all takes lots of planning.

If they rehearse, you rehearse.  The rehearsal is one of the great missed opportunities that wedding photographers and videographers have to step through the wedding with the party and plan where you are going to be.  Now secure permission to be there as you never want to surprise a nervous bride or her mother.  But if they know you are working as hard as they are to get ready, they will be thrilled and you may find them giving you directions on shots they want included in the video and where they want (and don’t want) you to be at strategic moments during the wedding.  This information is gold on producing a high quality video for your customers.

Once everything is ready, jump in there and enjoy the wedding right along with everyone else.  You know you are ready and you like what you do so you can celebrate this big day and produce a top-notch video that will be a treasured memory for this bride and groom for many years to come.

Five Things Your Wedding Photographer MUST Offer

You’re getting married, right?  Congratulations! And, you want your wedding day to be as perfect and beautiful as you’ve always dreamed.  But, if you choose the wrong photographer, your day may be a lot less than perfect and you may not be satisfied with the images your photographer captures.  Bummer.  So, how do you choose the right photographer?

Here’s how.  Make sure your wedding photographer offers you these five things. Then you can relax and feel confident the love, special moments and important details of your wedding day will be captured in beautiful images for a lifetime of memories.

1. Do you like the photographer’s work?  Look at a fairly good selection of the photographers wedding images, not just a few photos on a web site.  It’s best if you can see at least an album or two and a proof book of a complete wedding.  The albums probably represent the best of the photographer’s work, and the proof book shows all the typical images he or she captures during a wedding day. How do the images look to you?  Are they pleasing to look at?  Does the lighting and the color look good to you?  Is the photographer’s style what you are looking for?  Most of our bridal couples are looking for a mix of photojournalistic images and classic posed traditional ones.  Make sure your photographer is capable of, and comfortable with, taking the style of images you want for your wedding.  If you don’t like the photographer’s work, there is no need to consider them further.  Also, make sure the work you see was done by the photographer who will photograph your wedding.  Some studios will show you a lot of good work from various photographers, but will not guarantee you will get the photographer whose work you like the best. Sometimes, a husband and wife team like ours is the best way to be sure the photographer’s work you see is the work you will get.

2. Do you like the photographer’s personality and mannerisms?  Is the photographer confident, easy going and not a nervous ninny? Does the photographer have a good sense of humor?  Remember, the photographer will be present through most of your wedding day, interacting with you, your wedding party, your family, and your guests.  A demanding, inflexible, and uptight photographer can make your day unpleasant.  I know you don’t want that!  Make sure you and your spouse-to-be get along well with the photographer you choose.  If the photographer is going to have a second photographer help at your wedding, meet the assistant photographer and make sure you feel comfortable with them also.  To get to know your photographer before you choose them, it is really important you meet with them personally.  If it is physically impossible to meet with the photographer, you should make sure some of their testimonials from previous clients make you feel comfortable with the photographer’s personality.

3. Does the photographer have a strong sense of commitment to photographing your wedding and a professional work ethic?  Does the photographer use professional cameras, lenses and flash systems?  Does he or she have at least some lenses that will produce good images in low light situations (f2.8 aperture)?  Does the photographer use a soft box over the flash and keep the flash above the lens on both horizontal and vertical photos to minimize shadows in their images?  Does he or she always bring a complete set of backup equipment, or bring a second photographer with another set of equipment, to every wedding?  How will the photographer and their assistant be dressed on your wedding day?  Ask them.  Hopefully, they will professional enough to arrive dressed in a tux, suit, or dressy dress.  Although, if your photographer is a man and he says he’s coming in a dressy dress, you might worry a little about that :-).  You should get the feeling that your photographer is dedicated to making sure your wedding day is wonderful, and that all of the love, emotions and important details will be captured in images you will be able to enjoy for the rest of your life.

4. Does your photographer have the experience to anticipate all the good things that will happen on your wedding day, and the experience to deal with the bad things that could happen also?  An experienced photographer will have photographed enough weddings to anticipate and capture special moments during your day, and the important details that may easily be missed by a “newbie”.  An experienced photographer also knows that things do go wrong sometimes and will be able to anticipate and deal with them, often without you even knowing that something went wrong.  That’s why a complete set of backup equipment is necessary.  My little kit of duct tape, extra cables, pen knife with scissors, and band-aids has been a life saver several times.

5. Does your photographer offer you the right value? Not the right price, but, the right value.  If your photographer doesn’t have all of the above four characteristics, it may not matter what their prices are.  If the photographer has all four, that’s a big part of the value they offer you. In this case, the price should be less important.  Just make sure your photographer will provide what is really important to you and is upfront with you about costs for everything you want.  Someone who offers a “low” price up front may sound attractive.  But, things change when you find they charge extra for every location stop, for the digital image files, for a studio set up at the reception, and so on.  A photographer who charges twice as much, but includes almost everything, can often be a better value for you.

So, there you have it.  Choose your wedding photographer based on the above five factors and you will go a long way toward having the wedding of your dreams.  Good luck and congratulations again.

Tips on Making the Best Digital Wedding Photography even Better

Brides and grooms alike are now enlisting the expertise of professionals to get the best digital wedding photography for that special occasion. And why not? They would surely want to have the best photo taken so that the memories will be preserved as long as they live.

More and more people are now shifting to the use of digital cameras to take pictures of their wedding. One of the reasons for this is that the quality is better compared to the traditional camera. Another reason is that the photos can be stored not only in their hard-bound albums but also on albums online.

Today, people are more dependent on their computers than ever before. With computers, they can easily upload their wedding pictures and share them with family and friends all over the world. You do not have to rely on snail mails just to send your pictures. They are being sent and viewed the minute you have them in your computer.

This is one of the many advantages of digital photography. If taken properly, you are assured that you and you partner will never regret having used digital photography for your wedding pictures.

Below are some of the tips to get the best digital photography for your wedding.

1. Choose the right background. 

Photos can really look great once they are shot with the perfect background. You can use the decorations in the church and in the reception areas as a back draft for your photos. Be sure to fix some scattered decorations so that they will appear simply perfect on photos.

Always remind the photographer to check if the view is good when taking pictures. It does not mean that you have to stand on the same corner or place. The best photographer is able to make even the simplest of background look great on photo if it is taken in the right angle.

2.  Look out for any kinds of glass. 

Glasses tend to cause reflections in photos. May it be an eyeglass, window or wine glasses.  One way or another, they will cause a reflection or brightness to reflect back on the camera it is included in the picture.

To avoid this, the position of the camera can be altered so that it will not directly hit the glass. The photo can be taken sideways or downwards but never on eye level.

3. The perfect timing.

Persons being photographed should not always be looking at the camera. And they do not have to be smiling at the lens too.

One way of doing it is to wait for the right moment so that you can have a candid shot at them. You will see that catching persons on film when they are in their candid state is much better than having them wearing a fixed expression. Candid moments make photos look real and natural.

4. Review each photo.

To maximize the memory that your digital camera has, it is best to review every shot taken. There might be duplicates that can be removed so that you can free more space for a different shot.

You will probably want the best and the maximum number of digital wedding photography shots so you need to make the most of the capacity of the digital camera.

The best wedding photography is made even better now with digital cameras. This is one thing that you definitely should have on your special day.

A Guide to Professional Styles and Techniques in the Art of Digital Wedding Photography

When people get sentimental, they usually flip albums and look at the pictures that depict the things that happened in their lives. These pictures are not simply pieces of colored papers with images for they can trigger deeply-seated emotions. Emotions vary depending on the memories attached to these images seen and preserved.

One of the moments that most people would really love to preserve is the tick of events on their wedding day.

For this reason, people even decide to hire professional photographers to capture the important moments of their lives. However, these photographers may not always advise the client to strike a pose. They are expected to wait patiently to be able to catch memorable portraits. Most photographers that are employed for weddings have assistants so that they can maximize their strategy in creating an album that will not regrettable.

What if you would also want to take pictures of a friend’s wedding?

Here are a few basic techniques and styles for anyone who wants to capture the said event using a digital camera:

1. If you want to take a picture of a couple or any intended target, make sure that the background is good and the environment is not so crowded.
2. If there is a nice background but it is hard to focus on the couple, you may shoot them from shoulder up.
3. If some of the guests are wearing glasses, they can be advised to stand tilt their heads a little down or sideways to avoid the glaring effect that normally appears when the flash is used.
4. If there is a couple or a group that you wish to include in the picture, you should zoom in or out of the picture.
5. You must not shoot a couple or any guest against the light so that dark images will not appear
6. Candid shots are also dramatic. These portraits reveal more than the quality of the picture itself. In fact, many professionals do this to capture intimate and memorable moments.
7.   You should be alert at all times since you can seldom ask individuals to pose
      again for you.
8. Your digital camera should be equipped with appropriate memory cards or sticks to ensure that no great moment is missed.

In other words, you have to have an extra memory card especially when you want more moments to preserve. The following suggestions should be considered before buying a memory card:

a. for 3 mega pixels – a 256 MB memory card
b. for 4 mega pixels – a 512 MB memory card
c. for 6 mega pixels – 1 gigabyte memory card

9. You are not advised to use low resolutions if the images will be displayed and
      hung later.

Just always remember that the higher the resolution utilized, the larger the size of prints that can be made.

10. Keep a copy of your best works so you can use and reuse the techniques that
  made your viewers smile and appreciate your creation more.

You can do this by saving albums on your personal computer to free up the space in your memory card. You may also use other software to enhance the quality of the prints to be made.

Photography is truly a wonderful art. Wedding is a wonderful event. The union of these things will trigger emotions and memories in the long run more so if images are captured and preserved well. They all depend on your camera and your love for this art and the couple.

A Picture Perfect Wedding

Weddings are definitely one of the happiest moments in a person’s life. But, this momentous occasion does not always come as blissful as the event itself. Days and even months before the big day, couples usually cram up with the littlest details.

The process of listing down and cutting down everything into specific details—the wedding date, the venue, the reception, the caterer, the designer of the gown and suit, all the way down to the wedding coverage—are the areas where stress usually ushers in.

Due to hectic schedules, most couples usually do not pay much attention to one of the crucial things in any wedding—the wedding coverage. Despite the overwhelming tension and excitement, couples do not have to be nonchalant when choosing their wedding photographers if they want their fun times and precious memories recorded very well.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY PREFERENCES

To avoid making this slight neglect that usually leads disastrous results, couples have to decide first what kind of wedding photography they would want to have.

Most wedding photographers today categorize the types of wedding photography into two: the traditional or classic style and the wedding photojournalistic style.

The most common style used by wedding photographers today, the traditional or classic wedding photography is considered as a “timeless” and the “safest” style because you normally see in countless wedding albums. Characterized by classic poses of subjects aware of the camera, this style involves so much control from the photographer because he is in-charge in arranging individual and group shots before, during, and even after the wedding.

Having excellent portraiture skills, expect the photographer to focus more on the quality of the photograph by making the subject look great from the littlest details. Expect typical wedding photos like pre-ceremony pictures, formal shots of the bride and groom posing with brides maids and ushers, cake cutting, garter and bouquet toss, and the like when you choose a classic wedding photography. This style is ideal if the couple would want to keep portraits of family members for their wedding album.

If the couple is adventurous and unconventional, then you might want to consider the wedding photojournalistic style of photography on your big day. An increasingly popular style today, wedding photojournalism offers fresh and new style of taking photos in the occasion. Characterized by candid shots of the subjects unaware of the moving camera, the photojournalism style lets the attendees act freely to capture their pure and true emotion.

Sourcing style from his experience in journalism, the “photojournalist” pays more attention to minute details and candid shots rather than arranged ones. He’s more into eyeing interesting moments and capturing those in his lens to produce a narrative collection of images that tell a story.

Although some traditional poses will be present, expect photos that show actual emotions of the bride and groom and of other participants throughout the duration of the wedding when you choose the photojournalism style.

In order to avoid ruining the documentation of your wedding, here are some tips in making your wedding a picture perfect one:

1. Weddings are one of the most exciting chapters of one’s life. Make sure that you choose a wedding photographer that can meet all your standards. Meet with the photographer before hand the so you could discuss the details you want.

2. Inform the important participants about the schedule of photo sessions and make sure everyone attends the rehearsal to cut down the stress.

3. Have a reception area so guests can be informed about the itinerary. This will set the occasion in order.

3 Things to Pay Attention to for Your Budget Wedding

Getting married is one of your most important day of our lives.  Some people tend to have a budget wedding as to save their money for some practical reasons.  What important to know is that a budget wedding does not mean a cheap wedding. It all depends on how smart you plan your budget wedding.

There are many aspects that you can cut cost of your wedding expenditures.  However, you should pay attentions on some aspects so that you will not sacrifice the quality of it.

First, Wedding Photography and/or Videography.  A professional wedding photography can charge you anywhere between $1000-$3000. You might think that you can just ask your friend or relative to take your wedding pictures. It is a No No.  Wedding pictures and videos are the only things that you can see or view to re-live your wedding moments in future.  If you really need to cut your budget, try asking around from some photography clubs.  There are some members out there who really have a hobby of photography and would not mind to give you lower prices. One good practice is to pay them first to do your pre-wedding picture or video.  If you satisfy with the results, you can contract him/her again for you wedding day.

Wedding venue.  If you think that you could save money by having your wedding money in your house for free of charge, make sure that your house if conformable enough for guest to gather around.  We would like the guest to be comfortable so that they would stay longer.  In the end, how could the wedding party be nice when guests are leaving early?  Try to find good venue that match your theme.  You would find that in some days or time, the price could be lower.

Flowers. Have you asked around how much it will cost you for arranging wedding ceremony flowers?  You get shocked when it could cost you above $700 right?  Some of the flower vendor could charge you very cheap.  But the be careful of vendor that will show you a good sample of flowers, and when it is time for your wedding day, he/she will arrange the flowers with some "not fresh" ones.  Well, you can always cut your cost here buy ordering the flowers that are in season. Or, you can have a garden wedding without adding more budgets to flower decorations.

There are other aspects to consider for your budget wedding.  Overall, the important thing is to have proper planning for your budget wedding.  You can cut cost up to 50% of what you have budgeted.