Wedding Photography How To

Nothing spoils an otherwise great shot more than failing to achieve precise focus. You can compose a scene properly, nail exposure, and capture beautiful colors, but if the image is soft all is for naught.

When I was invited to create five lighting tips for this Exploring Light column, my initial thought was to avoid common lighting tips you’re familiar with and likely using now. Instead, I wanted to offer a few tips and techniques that have benefited me throughout my career while shooting portraits.

Beautiful people make for beautiful photographs. While that statement may be up for debate, we can widely agree that the majority of people in the world are not runway models or celebrities gracing the pages of Vogue or People magazines. So, what are some ways photographers can create fabulous portraits of their subjects, even if they aren’t fashion models?

Wedding photography is serious business. Anyone who’s ever shot a wedding or, more specifically, tried to make a living as a wedding photographer will undoubtedly know this.

As a wedding photographer/videographer you have to be ready for anything. The same can be said for a wedding couple as the scary video below captured by F&J Productions shows.

According to Shutterbug reader Rico Leffanta, the Ala Moana Beach Park in Honolulu, Hawaii, is a very popular site for wedding photographers because they can capture backgrounds that include “beautiful blue ocean waves or Magic Island [a man-made peninsula].” While Leffanta, who turned 78 in April, has seen a lot of weddings at the park, this one is rather memorable due to an uninvited guest.

The following is something people tell me when I suggest using a plug-in or specialized software for enhancing or retouching portraits: “But you can do that in Photoshop!” That’s because when it comes to software for wedding, portrait, and boudoir photographs, everyone has an opinion—sometimes a strong one—even if they’re wrong.