Alpha Photography Blog

I was reading an article recently about the potential pitfalls of photographing a friend’s wedding. Ironically enough, I read this article about a week before I was going to photograph a friend’s wedding! Can’t say it did a great deal for my self-confidence, but it did emphasise the importance of taking extra care through the entire process.

That wedding took place the other day, and the results…

Thankfully, the results were better than I expected.

Expectations can make or break any kind of relationship. In this case, having known my friend for a number of years, I knew her artistic taste. It was still important though, for me to understand exactly what she wanted in her wedding photos.

We looked at different websites, and photos that she’d found which she liked. I poured over these images prior to the big day, to get a “sense” of how she expected the photos to look.

Her style was the classic posed, as well as candid portrait - with a heavy emphasis on depth of field.

So, I mainly shot in Av mode, with an aperture of between f3.0 and f5.6. I prefer working in Manual mode, but things happen much too quickly, so I opted for the semi-manual option.

I also knew she liked the ‘posed’ arty photos - like this one with the garter and bouquet.

Many of the photos need tweaking in Photoshop, to add contrast, and to bring some creative additions (adding colour to black and white, and maybe some sepia shots).

We didn’t get to do many photos of the bride getting ready, as time was a little tight, but there was plenty of time before the ceremony.

The weather was perfect, and almost everything went to time. The only “glitch” was that the guests were late! The ceremony kicked off 15 minutes late, as many of the guests couldn’t find the location of the wedding (it was held inside a botanic garden).

My friend was about 30 minutes early, which gave us plenty of time to take photos.

Being in a natural environment, there was lots of wildlife around - particularly lizards.

Here, a lizard is sunbaking, and I couldn’t resist taking a photo.

The bouquet on the ground, with a focal point in the background (either in focus or out), is a classic wedding shot, which is popular because it works.

Candid is always nice, but there are the posed portraits which are mandatory - especially the family photos. How often are families all in the one place at the one time?

Because the botanic gardens were mainly in shade, provided by trees, I was worried I wouldn’t have enough light to get decently exposed, and in-focus photographs.

I brought my Canon Speedlite 580EX flash, which usually I diffuse, as the light is too harsh, but in this case it worked well, to provide enough light for the photos.

The tripod came out for the later photos, when the light was even less. I also needed the tripod to take a photograph of the reception room - all decked out. Thankfully I managed to get into the room before all the guests, so I could get a pristine photo.

Having been to many friends weddings over the past few years, one thing I noticed is that the photographer is gone before the reception begins.

This is an added “bonus” of being a friend and guest, as well as the photographer - you are on task for the duration. That includes the reception. So, in between courses, I walked around taking photos of the guests, the speeches, and the cutting of the cake.

It was a wonderful day, but also incredibly exhausting.

So, it can certainly be done - being the photographer at your friend’s wedding, with a happy result!

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