For wedding photographers, every wedding day is a chance to witness and capture something truly magical. It’s also the perfect time to put those Pinterest-worthy ideas into action. Just like their clients, these professionals get excited about how their shots will turn out.
Despite the fact that wedding photographers couldn’t be happier to capture the day’s events, that doesn’t mean they don’t frown when a guest steals their shot and ruins it for them, or an important family of yours goes missing during their carefully planned photo session.
On your wedding day, time is of the essence. Therefore, professional wedding photographers can’t afford to waste any of it. They need to get every portrait done before your time and energy run out. They don’t want things done in haste as this often compromise their shots, which you’ll probably blame them for when they deliver the final product.
Here are some of their biggest pet peeves:
1. Guests Getting in the Way of the Photographer
Photo by Thomas Stewart
Wedding photographers are especially frustrated when guests get in the way of the photographer’s shots just because these guests also want to have their own photos of you on their phones or cameras. Sometimes, this ruins key moments that cannot be undone. Remember that most of the events on your wedding day only happen once, such as the bridal march to the altar, exchanging of vows, and the kiss. One cannot simply say “Take two!”
Example 1:
This blunder usually happens when brides walk down the aisle. Some guests with gigantic phones and iPads step in front of the photographer to get their own shots. The result? They, too, are caught on camera, blocking the photographer’s view of the bride. This is really disrespectful and a huge moment SPOILER! Photographers simply want the gadgets of your guests out of the shot.
Example 2:
Guests who take pictures behind the wedding photographer can distract subjects. When photographers take family portraits or group shots, there’s a big possibility that a subject or two will look at two (or three!) different cameras. You don’t want to see yourself looking at Aunt Mary’s smartphone while the entire wedding party focuses on the big camera.
Example 3:
The flash on your guests’ cameras can ruin the photographer’s shots of you, the couple. Photographers already set their camera settings and the flash (if using one) to perfectly capture the events of the day. But when other flashes overpower theirs, they ruin the exposure, which ultimately ruins your photo.
Do your due diligence and remind your guests to let the photographer go first before they take their own photos. Always remember that you paid them to capture your wedding day, and if you want to get your money’s worth, let everyone know whose camera is the boss.
Or you could try having an unplugged wedding! How’s that for a change? After all, you want your guests to be fully present with you during the entirety of the event.
Photo was taken from the Instagram page of @the_ivory_co
2. MIA Guests for Family Photos
In order to get as many photos as possible before the time runs out, photographers strive to work within the allotted schedules. So when it’s time to gather people for family portraits, it annoys them when an important family or guest that you want to include in the photo goes missing and needs to be found first before they can proceed.
In order to keep things running smoothly, they truly need these people to stay put and wait, so they can immediately call them in group photo sessions.
3. When Everyone Has Their Phones, iPads and Cameras Out
As the couple, you’ve invited your family and friends to celebrate and witness the joyous moment of getting hitched. You’d want them to be in the moment and experience everything that’s in front of them live. Sadly, with the advent of technology, guests are now witnessing weddings through their screens. Instead of seeing his bride walk down the aisle with guests smiling in his direction, the groom sees a bunch of smartphones obstructing the view.
4. Asking for the Unedited RAW Photos from the Shoot
Most seasoned photographers shoot in RAW format because it can easily be tweaked and offer more options for editing. While photographers enjoy shooting RAW, they are less enthusiastic to hand the RAW files over to you when you ask or demand them. They get why you’d think it’s such a reasonable request, but from a photographer’s point of view, they don’t ever want that to happen.
If you’re wondering why, here’s a perfect response from Daniela Bowker,
“Asking a photographer to hand over a memory card, USB, or DVD of raw images is akin to asking an author to present you with their book in a manuscript format: unedited, unformatted, and including the paragraphs and chapters that didn’t make it.”
The editing or “post-processing” stage is all part of the creative process. Their job doesn’t just end at capturing your wedding, it takes a great deal of time editing your photos to artistically express how they pictured the day in their minds. They actually spend 10–12 hours shooting your wedding day, and another 35–40 hours editing your photos. Hence, asking them for the unedited RAW files is downright cringe-worthy.
If you think you can save a whole lot by just asking for the unedited images in digital format, you’ve misinterpreted a wedding photographer’s job. What you’re actually paying is the complete, finished product- the edited ones, which are presented to you with all their skill and love.
5. When You Edit a Photographer’s Photo and Publish it Online
This is simply a big NO. You’ve signed a contract when you hired your photographer, so please don’t alter their creative work if you don’t want to violate that agreement. And if you just can’t help but edit it and publish it on Facebook, the photo is better off without a credit to the photographer. Nope, some just don’t want anything to do with that!
6. Expecting Pros Can Replicate Your Pinterest-Inspired Idea
Photo by Creative Panda Photography
You can hire as many professional wedding photographers as you want, but you will never, ever exactly replicate that one photo you saw on Pinterest. While they appreciate your photography suggestion because it gives them an idea of what you want, don’t expect that it would ultimately look like the source material. The best thing they can do is to use your request as inspiration for something original that they can come up.
7. When the Schedule is Too Tight
Photo by Creative Panda Photography
There are a lot of factors that could lessen your photo session time, such as hair-and-make-up delays, traffic jams, and an overly ambitious itinerary. The best way to go about this is to create a realistic, detailed timeline that would lead to less worry. Create a little wiggle room for unexpected circumstances like the ones mentioned above.
Remember that your wedding schedule isn’t set in stone, so you must build buffer time in between your timeline. Lastly, let your photographer know the number of locations you want to go, so they can determine how long it will take for them to travel and work in each location.
8. Expecting Photoshop Can Fix Everything
Don’t expect Photoshop can fix everything. Yes, Photoshop can do many great things to your photos, but when they’re editing hundreds and hundreds of images from your wedding, it really takes time. If they can fix a problem right before shooting it, they’ll work on that as soon as possible rather than spend a great deal of time fixing that in Photoshop.
This is why for the big day, brides must hire a professional hair and makeup team to make them look fabulous in real life. Photographers simply don’t have the luxury of time to apply glamorous makeup in every single image of the bride.
Wedding photographers work hard to help you have a stress-free wedding day. In as much as possible, they do their best to work around these issues because it’s expected of them as pros. They’ve attended countless weddings that they’ve become great problem solvers. However, they want to document your event as smoothly as possible. That’s why wedding photographers appreciate if you can help them address these issues before they arise on the most important day of your life.
What do you think of phones during a wedding ceremony?
This article is brought to you by Creative Panda Photography.
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