Documentary wedding photography how to shoot

Introduction: Many people in the wedding will ask a few wedding photographers to record a day below the wedding of the wonderful images, the following I bring a wedding photographer's experience to see how to shoot documentary wedding photography.

Documentary wedding photography

A, documentary wedding photography concept

The concept of documentary wedding photography is an imported product, the wedding of the Western countries is different from the domestic wedding, the western countries wedding images mainly depends on the wedding day, while the domestic couples are usually will be Wedding photography and wedding day photography is divided into two parts. They often focus on wedding photography and ignore the wedding day photography, wedding day photography is usually only as a form of record. While the wedding in Western countries will be the picture form into documentary form, the newcomers will hire a professional wedding photographer to complete the shooting, professional wedding photographer to play its technology, sensibility, aesthetics to capture the wedding moments, in the newcomers relaxed and natural and cheerful atmosphere into this shooting technique will make each picture to give emotion, to give language! In terms of its scope, it is wedding photography; in terms of its attributes, it is documentary. In the country, this documentary wedding photography is more of a comparison with the traditional wedding photos, rather than wedding follow-up.

Two, documentary wedding photography features

Wedding photos show a fixed scene and a specific pose, simply put: the same pose to a hundred couples to do, and the fact is that not everyone will be suitable for a thousand patterns, and even a hundred people in at least fifty people feel that the pose is bad. The feeling of getting the album is bland, and the question is not whether the photos are good or not, but whether the people in the photos are themselves or not.

To sum up, the wedding photo is a kind of generalization, on the one hand, it refines the happy, happy side of the new couple, and on the other hand, it will unknowingly lose the personality and the new couple's own characteristics and temperament. This is an unavoidable side effect of quantization, is a pity.

Documentary wedding photography is a kind of interpretation

Documentary wedding photography is a kind of interpretation, a wedding by the different protagonists, supporting actors, in different venues, different dates, different environments, different state of mind performance. Each person is independent and real, each expression is three-dimensional and vivid. In foreign countries, weddings are usually held for one day, which is more abundant than domestic weddings, so there is more time to take some absolutely beautiful photos, ? Stunningly beautiful? Not? Only beautiful? The movements and faces of people are not flawless, but as a work of art and a record, they are flawless, able to travel through the years and carve time.

Wedding follow the shooting of a photographer, the requirements are still very high. To have a keen insight, to have a hard and skillful technology, to have good physical strength, to have experience, the development of things have foresight, shooting in advance. Our current mainstream wedding photography is not the same as the European and American documentary wedding, the European and American documentary wedding, is about the documentary, there will not be a lot or even no posed scenes. And we are now popular wedding photography, the requirements of the combination of two points, namely? Documentary and art? The combination of the two.

So, it's more demanding, and capture, capture but also artistic, and pose, pose but also very natural! This and our usual travel in the shooting, portrait posing, social documentary there is a big difference, so if really from no shooting friends, the first few shots, must be very painful, really do not know where to start.

Three, wedding photography with a few major difficulties

First, do not talk about the equipment, do not talk about the process, do not talk about the technology, talk about a few major difficulties, which is very very attention to the place, but also the highest demand for us a few points.

1. Light

We shoot a wedding, we will experience too much complex light: natural light, incandescent lamps, fluorescent lamps, the cold light of the chasing light, the warm light in the hotel lobby, the colorful light on the wedding stage, and our flash. And the super complex light that mixes between all these different lights. The complexity of light directly impacts two issues. The first is how to use light. What to avoid and what to utilize.

A wedding experiences too much complex light

The second is white balance, and of course the easiest way to do this is to shoot in RAW, which is better at restoring the correct white balance later. But RAW is a big format, and weddings take a lot of photos, and if we don't have enough memory cards, then we have to shoot in jpg format, so once you shoot in jpg format, you have to get the white balance as correct as possible. And in these complex lighting conditions, the auto white balance mode can no longer accurately restore the correct white balance, so you have to go to manually control the color temperature. Experienced photographers have a certain grasp of the color temperature of the light source, can be generally correct, so that even if there is a deviation, but also very small, post adjustment is very easy, adjusted on the photo will not have too much loss. If there is no concept of white balance, then before shooting, we have to figure out the rough characteristics of these light sources:

<3300K Warm (white with red) Steady, warm

3000-5000K Intermediate (white) Cool

>5000K Cool (white with blue) Cold

The above is a natural color temperature chart. The color temperature values on our cameras are values that are complementary to this one, so they are the opposite of this one.

Just make sure you don't have too much color cast in the wedding

Just make sure you don't have too much color cast in the wedding, there's no need to be very precise, and there are times when you can't be very precise, such as with the color lights, the pure red, the pure yellow, we're going to keep it in its own color because it's a recreation of the atmosphere of the scene. What we want to do is the overall white balance in a large light environment. Commonly used value is from 4000k to 6000k between, meet the warm light is put to 5000k below, meet the cold light is put to 5000k above, here according to different environments to adjust, shooting before shooting a few with different white balance, to find the right color temperature value, in the case of the light remains unchanged, fixed on it.

In fact, here is a small skill small experience: the bride's home, the light environment is fixed, natural light, indoor lighting and flash of the three in one. Color temperature is probably controlled near 5000k, the picture will be very clean. Outdoor shooting, are natural light, the most is the flash fill light a little, here can be completely put into the automatic white balance. Hotels are complicated, warm light hall, use about 4500k, but also depends on how warm the light is. Chase light, at about 5600k, but also depends on the output of the chase light. This is to ensure that the general accuracy, of course, is by no means completely accurate, but only corrected, because we also want to have some sense of the scene, the hall has to stay warmer, but also to keep the chasing light a little bit cooler. Because that's what our eyes see. What we're trying to do is not to deviate too much, to get the colors right, not to get all yellow, not to get all blue, and that's it. The main thing is to pay attention to the backlighting of the flash to make up for it. Sometimes you need to make up for it, but sometimes you don't need to make up for it even if it's backlit. The best way to do this is to utilize the light from all angles to get the best results.

2. Angle and station

In my wedding with the shooting, I often see friends playing photography, but most of my friends are standing there, zoom shooting. Will not go deliberately pursue the angle. How can we make the documentary film colorful, which requires us to grasp different angles. Angle is actually very simple, that is to shoot up, down normal parallel shooting, which is the camera position. And the photographer and the photographed cross-section on the angle is also very important, front, side, back. This way the vertical and horizontal surface is actually a three-dimensional 3D space, there are countless angles to capture.

Grasp the different angles

Standing mainly in the wedding scene, although our photography basically belongs to the guerrilla state, but not completely self. Here you need to take care of the camera's centralized camera position. It position basically will not move, just pull close and far away from the shooting. So we can not block it for a long time, we have to block the time, the action should be fast, click shot after grabbing flash away. And we shoot the stage, can not stand in one place and not move, so the photo angle will not be vivid, will be very rigid to record. Can be from the sides of the stage, front or even behind to shoot, to create a rich perspective, give people a different feeling of change.

3. The cooperation between shutter, aperture, ISO, and flash

This point, it is very difficult to speak as a whole. The experience is that we must grasp a point, is to use the flash, to hit the natural, then to hit the natural, it is necessary to a mode: slow synchronization. In fact, it is to ensure that the premise of natural light, the subject to lighten. The reason why called? Slow? , that is because of the darker light environment, to ensure that the ambient light, the shutter speed is slower. And we are shooting a wedding, it is to capture 'so we shutter and fast, what to do, then we must use high ISO to match.

My experience is that indoors is generally at iso400-iso1600, M-stop, shutter at 1/60s-1/200s, to ensure that the ambient light, and then flash manual output to control the fill light. The basic angle of the flash is between 60 degrees in the direction of shooting directly in front and vertically upward. Ensure overall brightness, accurate subject exposure, and natural, soft images.

4, and some important people's communication

Communication is a must, and it is necessary to communicate with a large number of people to communicate. This has very, very many benefits for our shooting.

Communicating with the bride, mobilizing her emotions, letting her joy, her happiness flow out on its own so that we can capture it. Generally the bride will start to be more nervous, with her relaxed chat, tell the story of other people's wedding, let her talk with the groom between the previous interesting things, naturally she relaxed, smiled, happy, happiness will naturally come out, we click down, we can catch.

Communicate with the bride to mobilize her emotions

Communicate with the groom, let him relax, so that he does not care about too many messy things, these things will have a special person to manage, there are supervisors, and help friends. Let him try to interact with the bride to let him also relax and feel the happiness of this newlywed, so that the two talents have a tacit understanding, we out of the film rate is also greatly improved.

Communicate with the supervisor to understand the arrangement of the content related to our shooting. The first thing you need to do is to get a good idea of what you're going to be doing.

Communicate with the supervisor to understand the content of the shooting

Communicate with the wedding site supervision, to understand the wedding start time, process, lighting conditions, the location of important people. Because we do not know the bride and groom's seven aunts and aunts, do not know their leaders, so we must know in advance, some of their capture, in order to be in place.

Communicate with the host emcee to understand the details of the process, including the newcomer out, the newcomer's station, the host's station, who speaks first, the candles, hand over the cup of wine and so on the order of precedence.

It must be done before the start of the wedding to fully grasp the entire process, and the various aspects of the important people to work closely with, so that we can grasp the advance, the process to go before the shooting is ready.

Four, equipment and equipment

General friends asked me, mainly equipment and equipment. Of course this is critical, but not the main thing. The main thing is still our ideas, grasp the theme, capture the moment, light, composition and so on. Since the equipment are very concerned about that here also mentioned.

The most practical focal length is converted to 35mm after the 24-70 focal length; to shoot close-ups of the focal length is converted to 35mm after the 70-200 focal length; to shoot a large scene of the focal length is converted to 35mm after the 16-35 focal length, in fact, it is the so-called big three yuan.

We do not necessarily need focal lengths full coverage

But we do not necessarily need these focal lengths full coverage! Our main lens must be zoomed to cover the focal length of 24-70. Because there are certain positions where we can't get close enough to get away from the distance for a fixed focus to be convenient.

Fixed focal length is the colorful lens, other lenses can be used fixed focal length, from 16 fixed to 200 fixed can be used, fixed focal length has a large aperture, the image quality is good, can shoot a very flavorful documentary film effect. The main use is also 35, 50, 85, 135 these focal lengths.

For big scenes we need an ultra-wide lens with a focal length wider than 24 at 35mm.

The requirements for the body are: continuous shooting should be fast, high sensitivity should be good, focusing speed should be fast and accurate.

Full frame is naturally ideal, and c-frame is perfectly fine.

The best is three cameras and three lenses, or two cameras and three lenses, or two cameras and two lenses. Changing heads, it's best not to mull it over, there's very little time for you to change lenses.

Try to use their own hands of equipment

Equipment do not want to say more, because friends are not professional wedding photography photographer, natural lenses have their own preferences, try to use their own hands of equipment it!

Fifth, the general shooting process of wedding photography

1. Start shooting

Wedding photography is currently synchronized with the makeup. If it is a single camera, the photographer should come to the bride's house at roughly the same time as the makeup artist, and follow the bride to shoot, because the bride is the focus of the day is also the highlight. And if it's a two-camera, the other photographer goes to the groom's house to follow the groom.

2. Overall Shooting Process

The whole process is roughly divided into 3 blocks: First, the part in the bride's home. This part includes the bride's makeup process, the groom to the bride's home to meet the bride process, from the bride's home fleet departure process. Second, some customs added to the process of receiving the bride first back to the new room, if directly to the hotel, it is on the road fleet part. Third, is the overall process of the hotel.

Summarize: home - road - hotel

3. Each link we need to shoot the content

(1) the part of the bride's home.

This part of the shoot should be the most free and easy to produce a movie. There is plenty of time to adjust the camera and plenty of angles to grasp. Natural light, flash can be changed to shoot; both can capture, but also can be posed, very free. The content is also very rich: small objects at home. For example, the pasted, placed in the letter of congratulations, small toys at home, specially arranged for the wedding balloons, couples, wedding photos, cups, pillows ...... There are too many contents to shoot, here you need to be especially attentive to observe, find the best angle, with the most suitable focal length. Generally you can use natural light performance, there are large aperture medium and long fixed focal length lenses to avoid complex backgrounds, if the environment is particularly good, in turn, with a wide-angle large aperture lens to take in some background elements. Then there are important items on the wedding day, such as the wedding ring, the bride's shoes, souvenirs, marriage certificates, certificates of guarantee, etc., these things should be photographed colorful, the photo should give a very deep impression, use their imagination, composition, lighting should be careful, to express the artistic effect. Because these are very critical things.

You can shoot small objects at home

Then it is to shoot the bride make-up process, close-up, panoramic, feel free to shoot it, the purpose is to shoot the bride beautiful, shoot happy. After the bride finished makeup, shoot some action, this time you can pose for a shot, or the bride and bridesmaids to interact, shoot some weird, funny, happy happy scene. You can also shoot some of the bride's expectations, this quiet picture, you can also shoot some affection, mother, father, the bride painted makeup, try to avoid taking a group photo with too many people, this valuable time can be posed to waste, this time is very out of the film, makeup is also good, the state is also good, and not tired.

Next is the groom to pick up the bride, blocking the door, stuffed red envelope. This section does not need to mobilize emotions, the general mood is very high, will be very happy. This section will study the ability to capture, are fast-acting. Groom into the door, offering flowers, looking for shoes, the best man to steal the teapot, the groom to the bride shoes, flowers, and so on, customs are not the same, but the general on these links, here to grasp, the scene will be very chaotic, you can arrange it properly, a little pendulum can be. But still the more natural the better. Because it is all from the heart happy happy.

The groom to pick up the bride's link

Other links, such as feeding dumplings and so on, to find a good angle, the angle should be tricky, not tricky on the very common.

Going out, getting on the bus, this should be captured well, there is no opportunity for you to pose for the camera, with a good lens, this involves an indoor-outdoor conversion, aperture shutter iso flash white balance are all changes, be sure to switch in time. This action is very fast, a lot of people, very chaotic, but also capture, but also adjust the camera, get it wrong, but also change the lens, so be sure to play a good advance.

(2) on the road part

Mainly to shoot the fleet departure, and the scene on the road. You can take pictures of the new couple in the car on the road, let them say hello, and take pictures of the dynamic shape of the car driving. With a wide angle to collect the beauty of the road, accompanied by the fleet, shoot beauty is good. If you go back to the new home first, there is a change of camera adjustment, and generally not long, this time to shoot some sweet images between the new couple in the new home, kisses, hugs, silhouettes and so on, use it. The general layout of the new room will be much better than the bride's home, the decoration is also good, but also new, so also pay attention to the beauty of the new room, capture down.

(3) hotel

After the hotel, the first bride to get off the link, this time a very complex environment, a lot of people, chaotic, there is a spray of ribbons, smooth light, backlighting has occurred, some wedding will be arranged, it will be organized, there is no, it's just a mess, be careful to pay attention to the position of the station, pay attention to the angle, to capture the most beautiful picture, the most beautiful picture, the most important thing is that the bride's home is not a place for her to be. Generally this section is wide-angle shooting, ultra-wide will also be used. Then then the most studied photographer's place came, is the bride and groom from outside the hotel, a few steps into the hotel inside, this shift, adjust the camera parameters, the hand must be fast. Good some of the machine has a customized function, you can take advantage of a good, fixed a few parameters set up 123, direct conversion of the dial can be.

The next stage is to welcome the guests, this stage, relatively can take a break, easy to capture some interesting images, such as small children and so on. But relaxation time is just a few minutes. Then the bride went back to change clothes and so on, this time to run to the ceremony stage to shoot the ornaments, shoot the scene of the environment, adjust the camera, drink some water, smoke a cigarette, rest, rest, replenish the energy. Chat with the wedding, the master of ceremonies, to understand the lighting effects of the switch and the details of the whole process. Then just adjust the equipment and wait for the wedding to start.

After the wedding begins, we are to play guerrilla, constantly to change their positions. Before the process has been understood, we have to stand in advance, not let those non-professional to shoot friends block their main position. Various links, various angles to the whole wedding shot down. In fact, the scene is some snapshots, time is not particularly nervous, the record of the record, the other people can not see the colorful things captured to hand, ok ok ok! After the ceremony, grab a bite to eat and take a break. Waiting to shoot the toast scene. Toasting scenes are quite single and not good, so be sure to use your brain to seek better angles and special effects to capture the wonderful images. After the end of the toast, the last is the send-off session, which is also captured on the ok, if the bride has to change clothes, interspersed with can shoot some small portraits or something to supplement the whole wedding photo series.

4. The end

After shooting the send-off, say hello to the bride and groom, and ask if there is no special content to be shot, if not, we'll call it a day, finished.

In general, if you shoot more, experienced, basically this process, to ensure that the necessary content, and then continue to innovate. If you have not shot, you should have some understanding of the general, with their own experience of shooting other things, to shoot a good wedding. All are some small experience, of course, there must be wrong places or missing parts, please point out.