The National Wedding Show

I went to the National Wedding Show at Earl's Court this morning. Having photographed my second wedding on Friday, I was looking for inspiration from more experienced photographers and ideas on how to present my work. I'm also considering having a presence at next year's exhibition.

All of the exhibitors displayed a range of albums, photo books and parent books and they all had large scale examples of their work hanging up. The lowest price quoted was £650 which gave me an insight into what people are prepared to pay for their wedding photography.

I was surprised to see some poor quality images from the more expensive photographers - clear evidence of the use of flash, lack of fill light and distracting backgrounds. It just goes to show that the non-discerning public can be taken in by glossy albums. It also showed me that there is still a gap in the market for high quality imagery.

I treated myself to an iPad yesterday and the plan is to use it to show friends and potential clients my best work in order to secure more bookings. I'm impressed with the size and quality of the screen, and once I become familiar with it and download some suitable apps, I think it could be a very useful marketing tool.

I have just downloaded a free application called Guardian Eyewitness which gives access to the 100 most recent images taken from the Guardian Newspaper daily centre spread. These images cover a range of  global events and include a 'pro tip' which is a couple of sentences from the photographer on how the shot was composed and/or camera settings used to achieve the end result.

Wedding Photography Masterclass

On 16 and 17 July I did an introduction to wedding photography course with Going Digital. On Saturday, I returned to St George's Church In Bloomsbury for a follow-up masterclass. We were fortunate to have 2 brides and 1 groom to work with. This gave us greater flexibility and meant less time waiting for my turn to take pictures. There were only 10 of us on the course so things moved fairly quickly.

On the first course I was like a rabbit caught in headlights! Many of my shots were overexposed and I wasn't able make quick adjustments to my camera settings. Since then, I've got to grips with my speedlight and fine-tuned my default camera settings and workflow.

The results were much better (and most importantly) more consistent. This is a small selection:

Background Reading

I received this book a couple of days ago having pre-ordered it at Focus on Imaging in March. It is very well written and contains some beautiful shots. Kerry gives sound advice, but the book is not in any way prescriptive.

What have I Learned?

The thing that stood out for me was the number of wide angle shots and the impact this has on telling the story of the day's events. I have a tendency to zoom in on what I see as the most important parts of a frame, but this has helped me to see that there is an advantage in stepping back and incorporating other subjects which sometimes provide balance or perhaps show an interesting contrast. If there is any zooming in to be done, the image can always be cropped later on.

Wedding Photography Blueprint

I just finished watching this series of four DVDs. The format is that they follow professional photographer Nick Stubbs on one of his wedding photography courses. He discusses and demonstrates various aspects of wedding photography and shows several examples of Photoshop tutorials.
The first three DVDs concentrates on a different part of the wedding - Preparation, the ceremony/groups, and the reception/cutting the cake. The final DVD contains lots of bonus material.
I found the tips on lighting and post-production particularly useful and I'm looking forward to practicing these techniques before I shoot my first wedding.

Background Reading

There is a range of subjects and scenarios discussed in the book, and I like the fact that Joe McNally talks about difficulties and mistakes that he has made. This is not something that professional photographers do as a general rule!
The book includes several simple lighting set-ups that can be replicated without resorting to expensive strobes and the accompanying accessories.
What this book has really helped me to do is pre-visualise how I want my final image to appear, and light it accordingly. I've also learned about 'reverse engineering' to learn techniques from the way that other photographers have used available light.
Thanks to this book, I am getting better at softening the light and shadows from my flashgun so it is not obvious that flash was used.

For anyone new to wedding photography (like me!), this book gives lots of ideas on posing. It takes a range of factors into consideration such as the lighting, the setting, the relative sizes of the bride and groom, group sizes etc.

It's not specifically aimed at inexperienced photographers, so there are literally hundreds of ideas for the seasoned pro as well. I expect to get several years service out of this book. The range and quality of photography is impressive, with many well known wedding photographers included.
The book is relatively small in size so that it can easily fit into a kit bag. I don't know of any other publishers who have thought of this and I think it's a brilliant idea!
I pre-ordered this book at Focus on Imaging 2010 and was not disappointed. There is another book in the series on wedding photojournalism which is due out in July - I'm looking forward to that too.

Background Reading

I have been asked to photograph a wedding in the Summer, so this is one of a few wedding photography books that I bought from Amazon. I have to say, this book is an absolute Godsend!
I have declined requests to take wedding photos up until now, because I always think of this type of photography as dull and restrictive from a creative point of view.
However, this book shows a fresh approach to wedding photography, it's loaded with tips and advice and all of the settings for the various shots. The pictures are imaginative and the quality is impressive. Many of the shots have won awards, which is not the least bit surprising.

I bought this book because the use of flash is my Achilles Heel! Most photographers advise us to get the flash off the camera, but if you are working in a venue such as a church, taking pictures 'on the fly', you haven't the luxury of setting up stands and umbrellas etc.
This book explains how to bounce flash properly, ie the angle as well as the direction. I also have a better understanding of using fill-flash outdoors and exactly when to use it and what to do with the diffuser that came with my flash.

I have been converting an increasing number of my infrared images to black and white, thanks to this book. There are many ways to convert an image, that I was aware of, but not the subtle differences between them. I also learned about different ways to sharpen an image, that I did not previously know about.
I'm also thinking about incorporating duotones and tritones now that I have seen the effects of them.

I always attempt panoramic shots when presented with an appropriate landscape, but I have had some problems with distortion due to parallax error. This book is perhaps a little too technical for me, but certainly helped me to choose a suitable VR tripod head and stitching software that allows more manual control than Photoshop.
It includes some helpful case studies that walk you through the entire process from image capture, stitching, manipulation, and fine-tuning to output.