Shooting skills of various scenes in wedding photography

Due to the particularity of wedding photography, wedding photographers are required to master all kinds of photography skills flexibly and use them reasonably in order to cope with all kinds of situations in wedding photography freely. The following are the shooting skills of various situations in wedding photography that I share with you. Welcome to read!

First, create an image under the light.

Light is undoubtedly an important factor affecting photographic works. Documentary wedding photographers should learn to observe the light, consciously look for light in a limited environment, and then control and use the infinite changes of light, which even affects the success or failure of the final image more than the quality (or intensity) of light.

1. Reaction to light under various weather conditions

It is not recommended to use the light around 12 o'clock for outdoor shooting on sunny days, because the outdoor light is hard and it is easy to leave stiff lines for characters. You can shoot people in the shadows. If there are bright spots on their faces, you can adjust the shooting angle. On cloudy days, the clouds are illuminated by the sun, forming a huge soft light source. This kind of light is soft in color and high in saturation, which makes the face soft but lacks layering. If you need a little stereoscopic effect, you can simply control the angle with the flash. If it rains, please don't be depressed. This is definitely a gift from heaven. We can shoot the reflection of the ground, the condensed rain, and create a little feeling. We can also use slow doors to create a silky feeling, but it is not recommended to move in a large range. We can shoot in a place where it won't get wet.

This work was shot in the rain. At that time, the lights were dim, and I used the off-plane flash to illuminate the characters. The light outlines the lines of the characters, but also illuminates the flying raindrops, bringing a unique artistic conception and atmosphere to the picture.

2. Put the characters in the light and shade.

The brightness of characters is actually realized by using the directional characteristics of light. Pay attention to which areas are in the light and which areas are in the shadow before shooting, adjust the position of people and shooting in time, and create a picture with artistic charm.

3. Try to keep people close to the light source when the light is poor.

The settings on the camera can choose a larger aperture and a higher ISO, so that people's faces face the light source and receive light as much as possible. Because of the large light ratio, unexposed areas will be hidden in the shadows, forming a dense dark tone image.

In fact, every time the bride puts on makeup, I am willing to show a particularly quiet scene. At that time, the light in the room was very dark and there was only one window. I let the bride face the window and expose her face to the light as much as possible, and measured the light, so that all the places that were not exposed to the light were hidden in the dark, and the quiet beauty of the bride was set off with such strong colors. If I wanted to illuminate all the pictures with artificial light, I wouldn't get such a quiet picture.

4. Use the lights on the window to convey your thoughts about the bride who is about to get married.

When the light came in from the window, the bride sat by the window with an implicit beauty of being married. Whether to shoot with backlight or sidelight depends on the photographer's angle. Just move your position and you will find the change of light. You can also use the shadow of translucent curtains to get soft light, and the highlights and shadows are quite uniform.

The bride stood in front of this big French window, holding the ancient stairs. The window lights on the side depict the bride as an artistic treasure. The ancient wall tiles in the shadow are still clearly visible, and the light and dark parts divide the whole picture equally. This kind of composition adds a quiet atmosphere to the picture, which makes people drift through the distant Middle Ages.

5. Combination of artificial light and natural light

Sometimes natural light and artificial light can complement each other and achieve perfect results. Artificial light source can change the ambient color temperature and set off the atmosphere of the scene.

6. The charm of the Blu-ray era

The sky will be dark blue some time before the sun goes down or rises, so it is better if the street lights are on. Shooting has two characteristics. First, the contrast of the main body of the environment is small and the light is soft; Second, the light is special, the main body and street lamps will be warmer, and the sky is blue, which can shoot charming portraits.

This is a work shot in Blu-ray time, called "Magic Moment". After the sun goes down 1 hour, the sky appears charming blue, and newcomers wait for the red light at the zebra crossing. In the foreground, the car lights illuminate the zebra crossing, and the ground is still somewhat reflective. In the background, the shop windows and the light boxes of large advertisements complement each other, showing warm colors. The visual experience brought by this color temperature difference is shocking.

Second, composition is a game between squares.

In fact, composition is the process of selecting and excluding the most wonderful and expressive content between these squares. Through the structure, composition and arrangement of various elements, it is helpful to express the theme, attract the viewer's attention to the interesting center of the picture, keep the picture concise, and eliminate and compress unnecessary factors. For wedding photographers, it is not only necessary to master the rules, but more importantly, to cultivate the vision of discovery, so as to break through the rules and form a unique perspective.

1. Leave blank to make the picture more meaningful.

Blanking is not simply to empty the picture, but to give the viewer imagination and give the work more connotation. The blank part depends not only on the main content, but also on the content and color, such as color, light and shade, order and so on. No matter which part of the picture is removed, harmony will be destroyed. The blank part is more a continuation of the main body, especially in the case of line guidance, we should pay attention to the direction of the line.

2. Open composition expands the imagination of the audience.

Open composition is relative to closed composition. It emphasizes the connection inside and outside the picture, but not the balance and integrity of the picture, so it is unconventional composition. The diversity and uncertainty in the picture make the viewer imagine outside the picture and combine his own imagination with the content of the picture to form a complete work. Therefore, for wedding documentary photography, open composition is easier to express the plot.

Use lines to enhance

Emotion, guiding sight and using lines are effective ways to improve photographic composition. As long as used properly, lines can greatly enhance the impact of photos. Horizontal lines can create a balanced mood; Vertical lines can inject stable and calm emotions into the picture; Slant lines can convey movement; It can also make photos more dramatic; The spiral, serpentine and freely extending lines in the free curve can give the audience a sense of rhythm and flow.

4. Find the beauty of details in the local composition of characters.

In addition to environmental portrait photography and portrait photography, highlighting the close-ups of local people such as eyes, nose, mouth and charming body lines can also bring strong visual impact. Wedding photographers should be observant and can take subtle, interesting or more artistic portrait photos. First of all, the part must be the most beautiful; Secondly, it is a concise expression, and the background image should be concise after use; Third, enlarge the aperture to blur the background and highlight the theme. Finally, if the composition in the early stage is not ideal and bold enough, it can be boldly deleted in the later stage.

5. Change the height of the plane and you will see the difference.

Sometimes you just need to raise or lower the plane, and you will find a completely different composition, which can bring a different visual experience to the audience. In documentary wedding photography, shooting up and down is a common composition expression technique. Backhand lowers the horizontal line, highlights and exaggerates the objects in the foreground because of the visual angle, thus obtaining special artistic effects.

On the contrary, the camera shoots down from a height, giving people a feeling of overlooking. The horizontal line in the overhead picture rises, and the lens has a wide field of vision, which can fully express the surrounding environment.

There is also top shooting, which is a more extreme way of top shooting. The camera shoots in the direction perpendicular to the ground, and takes some expressive shapes into exquisite pictures from the angle that people can't reach at all. If you shoot people, it is also an unconventional perspective, which turns the three-dimensional space of people and the environment into a two-dimensional plane, making the picture interesting and beautiful.

Third, simply shoot a classic portrait of the bride with light.

A beautiful portrait of the bride not only records the beauty of the bride on that day, but also records unforgettable memories, which will be treasured forever. Due to the limitation of shooting time and space, wedding photographers should simplify the complex and create classic lighting effects with simple methods.

Following the principle that there is only one sun, finding a light source can depict the subject and achieve unexpected results, which is much better than exaggerating complicated lighting. You can use natural light and choose a dark background to get quite soft light, which is the simplest and most effective portrait shooting method. In addition, you can also use the flash to directly illuminate the face of the person at a position 45 degrees above the head, and you can get the effect of butterfly light without any soft light measures.

When Yervant came to this shooting location, he noticed the lights and brightly colored walls in the garage and used them. This iconic portrait was shot with a barrel of light overhead, without any other light source.

Fourth, give still life more meaning.

Still life photography of documentary wedding photography includes the performance of wedding dress, ring, wedding shoes, bouquet (and all kinds of floral art).

1. Wedding dress

The wedding dress itself has a sense of beauty, which can highlight the overall outline, detailed design and fabric texture when shooting. Lace wedding dress can depict exquisite details, satin wedding dress pays attention to silky luster, fluffy yarn pays attention to dreamy and light air, and uses backlight to express the outline lines of wedding dress. At the same time, you can shoot with a large aperture or macro to get a better depth of field and blur the details. You can also use oblique light to highlight the texture of the fabric. It should be noted that the lace on the white wedding dress is particularly prone to overexposure, and the dark shot can get better levels and details.

2. Wedding ring

Macro lenses are often used to photograph auras. Shooting creativity can be realized not only by controlling the light, but also by other props to give the ring special meaning. Such as the use of mirror reflection, the use of high-speed condensation of water droplets, the use of slow doors to receive more artificial light, or the combination of rings with words and objects of different materials, these are all techniques used to express rings.

The LED lamp is used as the base of the ring to get enough light, and the shape of water droplets instantly condensed by the ultra-high-speed shutter makes the still life image more interesting.

3. Wedding shoes

Charming lines and exquisite design, the placement of wedding shoes can be completely symmetrical or patchwork. You can borrow the appropriate background and props to make the matching shooting more highlight the atmosphere of the wedding day.

The heel has beautiful lines. At the moment I picked it up, I found the lovely word "I do", which obviously best explains the whole wedding.