There’s nothing worse than terrible shots or no shots of one of the most momentous events in a person’s life. A wedding may be made in heaven but disaster is in the details. Skip some important points and you can wish you were in the trashcan with the rubber chicken and leathery lettuce.

Here are some tips to help you negotiate this photographic minefield.

Hire a professional.
No? Don’t want to do that? You think Uncle George can do it fine on the cheap? Save a few bucks and spread the joy around? Then read on, reckless fool…

Be prepared.
Emotionally, spiritually, intellectually and photographically. You will need more than just a strong heart and nerves of steel. You’ll need extra memory sticks, extra batteries, a flash outfit, a tripod and a zoom/wide-angle lens. You’ll also need decent image editing software to produce the finished product in an acceptable form.

Have an assistant or a helper.
You should have lots of stuff to carry around, and you need someone who will watch your gear when you’re busy. Get someone to help you out. It’s also good to have someone relatively sane to talk to.

ALWAYS shoot for the bride.
Men don’t really care about photos of themselves. Well, that’s a generality. 99.9% of men don’t care. Usually the only time a man looks at a wedding photo under his own volition is just after the divorce with a drink in the other hand.

Get a list of wanted shots.
Don’t go into this blind. Find out what shots the happy couple expect and try to oblige. Weddings have about 4 phases: getting dressed, the ceremony, after the ceremony (relaxed shots with the new couple), the reception including the cake and groups of guests. Take your lead from the bride not the juiced up guests at the reception.

Shoot a lot.
This is good advice for any photography. At a wedding you’re dealing with human nature at its most confused. Who can really tell what shots will be the big sellers? Just cover everything (even the speeches) and shoot everything three times and be safe.

Get the groups.
Groups are important but watch out here because semi-inebriated guests will want to be photographed with pot-plants, the foxy waitress, each other, maybe the bride and groom, and towards the end of the evening fascinating cloud formations. Get from the bride who should be in what group. Stay with her.

Get the proofs to the bride as fast as possible.
Forget this just being good service, it’s also smart business. Happiness and the vows of matrimony can be fleeting. Get your wedding photography bill in before the first fight if possible. Definitely before the divorce.

Be a professional. Weddings can be scary things.
They’re all about love, sex, eating and drinking. Passions and confusions can be rampant. Get your shots first and party later if anyone is left to party with. If you find yourself at the end alone with your camera, at least you can console yourself that you completed your mission.

Do your own quality control before you submit the proofs.
Your reputation can be destroyed by a handful of misaimed shots of the bride or her friends. People often remember that one shot where the matron of honor looked as if she was zonked when it was just an untimely blink. If it sucks delete it. Better safe than sorry.

Wedding Photography Tips

Nowadays, more people are getting interested in learning great wedding photo tips due to the opportunities of going freelance during the peak season of marriage leading to an alternative career in professional photography.

Because of the growth of enthusiasts that would like to learn great wedding photo tips, many websites have been created to cater information that will enable you to shoot photographs in new ways that look very professional. Techniques that are learned from these websites would have to be refined through constant practice, but once it is mastered, then the photographer has a new technique to use in pleasing their customers and it didn’t even cost them an arm and a leg to do it. Here are a couple of steps to get you started in learning new wedding photo tips.

Step One – Finding a Website

There are many different types of websites that focuses on particular types of wedding photo tip that will surely enhance your photography skills. Some of these websites will focus on a wedding photo tips for creating an artistic shot, while others will teach you the best way to arrange the bridal party for a group shot. There are even websites that will give you a wedding photo tip on how to get the flower girls and ring bearers to stay still for their portraits or digital wedding photography tips for photographers who prefer to use digital cameras.

Step Two – Practicing the Shots That You Have Learned

After learning of a great wedding photo tip, the next step is to practice it until you are able to shoot those kinds of shots comfortably and believe that you are taking great photographs using the new technique. Practicing the shot allows you to discover your preferences in terms of lighting, poses you like the best, and how to make the new technique your own. It is fairly normal to experience difficulty when hitting those first few shots with a new technique, but with practice you will able to master the technique in a relatively short period of time. Using the new wedding photo tip in a professional manner will take a lot of practice, but the photographer will have much fun learning how to create new photograph styles with the new technique.

When practicing a new wedding photo tip, a digital camera would best suit the job since you wouldn’t want to waste a lot of films on bad shots. Undesired pictures can be deleted from the memory card quickly and easily, and the photographs that you do like can be viewed on the computer or saved as a file to be printed later. Another advantage in using a digital camera for practicing a wedding photo tip is that it allows you to edit the photographs in countless ways, giving you the chance to analyze any adjustments that has to be done when you use that type of shot again.