Hiring a Friend or Family Member to Shoot Your Wedding
Scenario: You have a dear Cousin Mike with a creative eye who is a sophomore studying photography in college. You've seen some of his work and you trust that he will get some really good shots throughout the day. You've asked him if he wouldn't mind shooting your wedding for you, for a minimal price. He is pleased because he will make some cash and help out the family, and you are pleased because you are saving money! Mike's real love of photography is taking landscape images. He enjoys the solitude and the slow pace, it's a great fit for his personality!
Here at IlluminArts, we've heard of this scenario before and we've also heard some horror stories of things that have gone awry as a result of hiring someone who isn't experienced in photographing weddings. Here are some hypothetical scenarios, and points to consider when hiring a family member or friend to shoot your wedding.
Foresight
Scenario: Cousin Mike has brought his favorite lens into the room where the bride and bridesmaids are getting ready. When he arrives, he realizes that his lens is too long for the room that they are getting ready in, and he can't get a wide enough shot to include more than one girl in the frame at a time.
One of the most crucial skills for shooting a wedding, where lighting, spacial settings, people, and weather are always changing, is foresight. Knowing how to be prepared for each situation, and being able to look ahead and predict what is needed to adapt to each situation is necessary in order to get the best shots. Whether it be carrying the proper lenses for the size of the room, or having the right lighting equipment at hand for inadequately lit scenes, having proper foresight for a wedding is a crucial skill set; one that can only be garnered by having shot many weddings!
Adjusting Settings on the Fly
Scenario: Cousin Mike is now taking pictures of the bride getting her makeup done, but she's sitting in front of a window. He starts shooting but doesn't take into account the fact that she is backlit. His camera is reading all of the bright light from the window, which makes all the images of the bride underexposed and very dark.
In addition to being able to predict what different situations one will encounter throughout the day, it is also important that your photographer be able to predict how their camera will act. Anticipating how the camera should be set based on lighting, actions in the scene, and how the camera will read the scene, is the first step to getting a good shot; knowing how to make necessary alterations to the camera's settings is the second step. The ability to correct camera settings within a matter of seconds is also crucial for capturing fleeting, but important moments.
Experience Shooting Fleeting Moments
Scenario: Cousin Mike is shooting the ceremony, and realizes that the bride and groom are about to exchange rings. He really had wanted to capture this moment with a long lens, but he has just been taking wide angle shots of the whole venue. Now, he runs back to his bag to grab his long lens, but by the time he has switched lenses, the moment has passed.
An experienced wedding photographer will know how to anticipate and shoot those fleeting, yet very special moments that occur throughout the day. Knowing when it will happen, having the right lens, adjusting the camera's settings properly, and positioning themselves to get the shot from a great angle with good lighting are all factors that the photographer has to deal with when shooting the first kiss, for example. All of this for a moment that is over in a mere matter of seconds! A professional wedding photographer will also have some great tips on how you can help them get some really amazing shots throughout the day. For example, when putting on each other's rings, you can help the photographer out by going slow, grasping the ring from the bottom half, and cheating their hands out slightly so that the camera (and your guests) have a great view of the ring itself. This image will say a lot more than an image in which the ring is hidden by your hands. Some of the most special moments in a wedding only last a second or two, and you want to rest assured that your photographer has the experience, foresight, know-how, and tools to capture those moments as they occur.
Lighting Knowledge
Scenario: It has come time to shoot the reception. Cousin Mike has a flash on his camera, but he doesn't have a lot of experience shooting with it, because he likes to shoot landscapes in his free time. He decides, instead of messing with the flash, he'll just take shots without it and bump up his ISO so that he can get proper exposures inside. He doesn't really like the way photos look with his on-camera flash, anyways. However, what he doesn't realize is that the ISO is set so high that later on, the images will be too grainy to blow up to anything larger than a 4x6 print.
Working with light is one of the most crucial components of any type of photography. With wedding photography, the lighting may change several times throughout the course of a day. Your photographer will mostly likely be shooting from indoors in low light while the bride is getting ready, to shooting family shots in the bold, harsh, noon-day light, to shooting the ceremony outdoors in the late afternoon, to capturing moments at the reception both outdoors in the dark and indoors again in artificial light. Your photographer must have the know how and equipment to deal with all of these different lighting situations, whereas the friend that you want to hire may have only shot landscapes before, for example, all in the same bright daylight. Furthermore, they may not have the lighting equipment to supplement the available light in different scenes. If your friend has not shot in all different lighting situations before, then it is unlikely that they will be able to adapt quickly and expertly enough to provide you with remarkable and well exposed images throughout the entirety of your wedding day.
Advanced Focus Techniques
Scenario: The bride and her father are walking down the aisle, while Cousin Mike is fervently shooting away. However, all of his shots are coming out blurry, because he doesn't have his camera set to focus on moving subjects.
In addition to several different ways to control light, professional cameras have several different focus settings, each of which will help the photographer adapt to a different situation. The photographer should know how to set up their camera so that it can focus continuously on moving objects, for example, or how to get the shot that they want with objects on the left side of the frame in focus, instead of in the middle, or how to create a short depth of field. All of this knowledge comes with study and experience.
Angles, Approaches, and Details
Scenario: Cousin Mike is a little shy about getting up in front of the whole audience and taking shots during the ceremony, so he stays mostly in the background. As a result, he misses some opportunities for great shots because he not taking them from a good angle. Also, he concentrates only on shooting the bride and groom during the ceremony, and forgets to take photos of the audience and their reactions.
There are practical angles and creative approaches to all different types of scenes, and knowing where to go and when to go there only comes with the experience of having shot many weddings in a variety of settings. Your wedding photographer will also know what shots look good, from experience, and will have ideas about what other things and people to shoot besides you, the happy couple. Having a nice candid shot of your mother crying a few tears of joy will be something that your professional photographers are on the lookout for, whereas Cousin Mike might have his eyes glued to you for the entire ceremony, nervous he'll miss the kiss, and paying no attention to other details. This is where having two photographers also comes in handy - so that one can keep an eye on the couple, and the other an eye on the guests!
Energy to Work for 10-18 Hours Non-Stop
Scenario: Half way through the ceremony, Cousin Mike decides to sit down and have himself a bite to eat and a glass of wine. After all, he is also one of the guests, and deserves to have a good time himself. Then, his girlfriend, who he's brought along as his guest, pulls him out on the dance floor, and before they know it, the bride and groom's photographer is done working for the evening.
Professional wedding photographers work all day long, and are aware of the endurance needed to do so. Frequently, the camera will start clicking with the bride getting ready in the morning, which may begin around 10 am. Depending on where the wedding is, travel time for the photographer may be upwards of to two or three hours, including time to set up once they get to the venue. When taking into account loading up the car at 8 in the morning, the close of the reception around 11 pm, and everything in between, the photographer is looking at a fifteen hour day, with very short breaks few and far between. This is a long day, but a professional photographer will know what they need to make it through, without slowing down or missing an important shot! In addition, your professional photographer will be committed to shooting every event throughout the day, whereas a friend might be distracted and, understandably, wanting to take part in the festivities!
Experience Directing Group Shots
Scenario: Cousin Mike is pretty shy and he's not very good at taking control. When it comes time to take group shots, he has trouble directing family members and the wedding party where he wants them to go and how he wants them to conduct themselves in order to get a good shot. To top things off, he gets nervous telling everyone what to do, and only takes two photos of the whole extended family, both of which have captured someone blinking.
A professional wedding photographer will have lots of experience working with and directing large groups of people, in a tactful and efficient manner. This is a time when your photographer's personality, charisma, and confidence will really come in handy.
Post-Production
Scenario: Let's say you've offered to pay Cousin Mike a couple hundred to shoot the wedding, but the next weekend he puts all the images on a couple DVDs for you, and now you're left to sort through thousands of images that he's shot. There are maybe only a couple hundred usable images, and even they could use a little work. For instance, in the reception shots, everyone's skin looks orange. A lot of the group shots could use some cropping, because he was standing so far away when shooting. Now you are left to figure out how to fix these yourself, and you don't have the software, the computer memory, nor the time, to do so.
When you hire a professional, you'll be hiring them to not only take the photographs, but to also manage the photographs after the big day. A professional photographer will give each and every image they take their undivided attention during post production, putting together a portfolio of the best shots, and editing those images so that they look the best that they can be. Now, instead of spending time throwing out bad images, you can sit back after your honeymoon and trouble yourself with the decision of which of the beautiful images to choose for your album!
Keeping the Family Happy!
Scenario: Remember back to when Cousin Mike shot the group photos, and didn't get a good shot of the extended family without anyone blinking? Your mom is upset, and it creates drama in the family because she told you she wanted you to hire a pro in the first place!
Having a family member shoot a wedding and then not getting what you want can create some animosity amongst family members. Maybe you, the happy couple, are laid back and don't mind that Mike didn't get the shot of the entire extended family plus Rover the dog, but Mom might be furious and now she won't talk to her new nephew, and she's mad at you for hiring him in the first place. We've seen it happen!
