What your wedding photographer wish you knew the Melbourne Edition.

Ever wanted to get insider information on what your wedding photographer wished you knew? Keep on reading to find out more!

Lighting

Photography is to paint with light, so please put a little thought into the timing and locations on your day to get the most about of your photography coverage. Pick a room where you are getting ready with windows to let lots of natural light in. Think about your ceremony and the time of day you are holding it. Standing in full sun will not be as flattering as being in the even shade on a sunny day. If you are having a winter wedding make sure you have left enough daylight after your ceremony for portraits, or decide to do a first look instead.

Fake Tans

Fake tans are tricky to get right and look natural. The camera usually picks them up and shows them up as various shades of orange. Embrace your natural skin tone and opt-out of the orange glow on your wedding day. After all, you are perfect just the way you are!

Shot lists and Pinterest poses

Ideas and inspiration are great, and yes please share them with us. But, If we are busy trying to recreate another artists work, we don’t have time to see those little moments that are happening or have time to be creative ourselves and make unique images that tell the story of you two on your day as it unfolds. We’d be making images with moments that aren’t even real, and this could lead to unrealistic expectations and disappointment and no-body wants that!

Family Photos

Try to limit the number of groupings and consider having 6 larger groups instead of 12 smaller ones. Your guests get bored waiting around and wouldn’t you really want to be drinking a glass of champagne and getting us more candids of your family and friends enjoying themselves instead.

Surprises are great

For your guests, yes! Please, pretty please fill us in on the details so we are ready to capture everyone’s reactions when it happens. If we don’t know, we might be in another room, in the wrong spot or might not have the right lighting set up in time to capture it.

We need time

If you would like lots and lots of variety of portraits of the two of you, you need to give us time to make them. Usually, we are lucky if we score 20-30 minutes with you two on your own on your busy wedding day. But imagine how creative and relaxed it could be if we only had a little more time. This is totally up to you guys of course; some couples are happy with a less is more approach to photographs of themselves. And we can always sneak out for 10 – 15 minutes at sunset or during the reception for a few night time portraits. Also, consider any travel time (including city traffic and parking) between the ceremony and portrait locations, you might need to start your ceremony early or reception later to accommodate for it.

Engagement Sessions

Engagement sessions might not be high on your list of priorities if you hate having your picture taken. But this is exactly why you should book one in. It will help you bond with your wedding photographer and get used to having a camera pointed at you, so on your wedding day, you’ll feel less awkward and more relaxed. Plus they are loads of fun, trust us. We take you out on a double date, we’ll start off with a drink and before you know it it will feel like you have two new best friends instead of the hired help on your wedding day.

Ignore the camera

I get it, pretending you don’t have a photographer in the room is really hard to do especially at the start of the day. But if you invite us to document you getting ready you will soon get forget we are there and find it easier to be in the moment and ignore the camera for most of the day. We are drawn to capturing moments when people are looking at each other, not at our cameras.

Please don’t ghost us

Artists and creative personalities are usually led by their emotions and we take everything to heart. When we send you an email to answer your enquiry or even a link to your gallery that we have worked really hard to prepare for you, don’t ghost us. Please take the time and type a quick response back. If you don’t it makes us very sad, and we wonder if we have done something wrong. Hearing from you is the best feeling and it really makes our day!

Word of Mouth

If you have enjoyed the experience of working with your wedding photographers, please tell others about how great it was. Reviews might seem like they are old fashioned and take too much time to type but they can really help your favourite photographer’s business grow. One of the first things I do before booking a table at a restaurant is to see what others have said about the service and food. You can help future brides and grooms find their perfect team when they read the reviews you have kindly taken the time to give.

Most of all

Remember to have fun, if you’re not it will show in your photographs! No matter how pretty everything looks you can’t fake happiness, after all, it beams from your faces and makes everything glow. Outsource everything that you can and just focus on being in love and in the moment the entire day!

So that it, for this post on what your wedding photographer wished you knew. Read more about our Melbourne Wedding Experience here