Making the Most of Your Wedding Photos

 Picture this – big hair, cheek resting against folded hands, a long-stem red rose, soft focus…maybe a laser beam background?

…all right, enough! Wake up. You’re having a nightmare. Apologies for the cruel visualization tactics, but we’ve all heard – or seen – wedding photography horror stories, and right now is the time to prevent one of your own. Finding and hiring a professional photographer to document your wedding day is a major investment of time and money, and doing it right will assure you sleep well at night. By doing your research and hiring a professional that suits your style, you can rest assured that he or she will capture your day exactly how you want. Read our tips below for making sure that you and your photographer together capture the wedding pictures of your dreams.

Find your style. You wouldn’t just tell your hairdresser to do whatever he felt like with your hair, would you? You go in with a style in mind, which is exactly what you need to have and to communicate to your photographer. Start by looking through magazines, wedding and photography websites, and, of course, through your photographer’s portfolio for specific images that appeal to you. 

At Studio Blue we give you an online style assessment in which you can rate photos. That way, your photographer gets a good sense of your aesthetic and your wedding photos will perfectly suit you.

Communicate with your better half. Often photography is of greater importance to one half of the couple, typically the bride, but occasionally the groom. Sometimes the photographer won’t even meet the groom until the day of the wedding. This scenario tends to feature the groom and groomsmen standing around in complete disinterest, with a “this is her deal” attitude. However, if you get your fiancé in on the photo planning, and let the wedding party know what’s going on beforehand, it will make it much easier, faster and more enjoyable to achieve your desired results.

Don’t jam-pack your day. When planning the wedding day schedule, allot a realistic amount of time for each event. Attempting to pack an eight-hour day into four makes everything feel rushed and, frankly, artificial. Not only does rushing make it difficult for everyone involved to enjoy the day, but it also makes capturing natural-looking photographs more difficult. Sprinting from one thing to the next typically gets you a lot of forced smiles and worry lines. Deep-six the receiving line, two hours of toasts or fireworks display, if you have to. You’ll want to remember the events themselves, not the dashing in between.

Be yourself.  Sounds like common sense, but it can be rather difficult when you have flashbulbs popping in your face. Barring fashion models, most people aren’t used to having a paparazzi-like experience. But if you get self-conscious, you risk ending up with a deer-caught-in-headlights look in your photographs.

Unless your photographer is giving you specific direction, the best thing to do is relax, be yourself, laugh, and pretend the photographer isn’t even there. Pay attention to your hands – they’re a good tension barometer. Relax your hands and the rest of you tends to follow.

Ask friends to share photos. While a good photographer will make a noble attempt to be everywhere at once, it’s simply not possible. Plus, it will be his or her job to focus on the bride and wedding couple a lot of the time. But, collectively, your friends and family will be everywhere, and you don’t want to miss out on all that revelry and candid photography. Get friends to post photos on a common website so they can be viewed by all, alongside your professional photography. (Studio Blue gives you a personal website for photo sharing, FYI. Just saying…) 

In sum, this is your day, and you should not have to suffer prom poses and laser-beam effects, unless you choose to. Do your research, communicate with your partner, and relax for the best photographic effect of all – a happy bride and groom at fun and free-spirited wedding.