How to take unforgettable wedding photos?

Choosing a photographer

How to find “your” photographer?

Andrey Onishchenko, photographer:

• Do you just need photos or good photos? If ordinary, then look for a photographer based on price. If they are good, then only for work.
• Don't trust your friends to photograph your wedding. The result will unpleasantly surprise you.
• View in the photographers' portfolio not only a few selected successful staged shots, but also entire weddings. To understand how a photographer takes both reportage and staged shots, watch at least 2 weddings.
• Try on the photos you see. Imagine yourself in these pictures. Would you like to look like this?
• Find out what is included in the price of a photographer's work. Deadlines for delivery of finished material, what kind of processing, number of hours of shooting.
• If you are almost sure of choosing a photographer, but have a little doubt, do a love-story pre-wedding shoot. You will work together and see how your photographer works. You will understand whether you are comfortable with him.

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Important nuances

Maria Alexandrova-Mukhina, photographer:

• No matter how trivial it may sound, the experience of a photographer is very important! Carefully look through the portfolio, if you don’t like at least something, you should look at other options, since the choice on the wedding photographers market is huge.
• You will have to spend most of the wedding day in the company of a photographer! It is very important that you are “on the same page” with this person. If you can't find a common language, things will only get worse in an exciting environment!
• Discuss the route of the walk in advance, ask the photographer what places for shooting he can offer you. An experienced photographer will most likely provide you with a list of the most beautiful places for a photo shoot. And you can plan your route in advance.

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Mistakes when choosing a photographer

me4tateli_studio, photos and videos:

• Choose a photographer solely based on price. Different specialists have a completely different set of services included in this or that amount. You can hire a photographer for either 20,000 or 50,000 for a full day, but for some, a “full day” is no more than 10 shooting hours, for others - 14. For some, the indicated price includes a photo book or love- story, others don’t. Some people will process all the pictures within the package, while others will process a limited number of frames. Some do retouching, some do color correction only. Be careful and check in every detail what is included in the shooting conditions.
• Choose a photographer based on a few “sketchy” shots that you liked. These photos may be taken at workshops rather than at actual weddings. And despite the fact that the cards look good, they are often shot in “refined” conditions, very different from the situation at a real wedding, where no one will expose the couple or arrange props for the photographer. Ask to show real weddings, inside and out. A good professional will not be ashamed to show the entire shooting.
• Choose a photographer without a preliminary meeting. The moment of personal communication is incredibly important to understand how comfortable you are in his/her company. If it is not possible to see each other in person, we would recommend calling on Skype. There is always a living person behind pictures on the Internet, and the result of the shooting depends on how easy it is for you in his company. A photographer is not only the camera, but also the personality behind it. Get to know this person so you know what to expect.

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From sweets: sweets, cakes and chocolate

In this outfit you will definitely be able to create a sweet image. Just keep in mind that one of the guests may want to eat a piece of your dress.

Shooting the bride's morning

Preparing for photo and video shooting

AMA Wedding, boudoir dresses:

• Get enough sleep before your wedding! Sleep in all positions to the best of your ability. You have a long, magical day ahead of you to shine, and to keep your skin looking great, it needs a good night's sleep.
• Plan time for a photo shoot - it’s best to invite a photographer at the end of the makeup to have time to photograph a piece of the preparation and the finishing touches. There is absolutely no need to film the entire process.
• Think in advance where you will hold the training camp. The ideal option is a studio or a beautiful hotel room.
• Discuss the dress code in advance with your friends if they will take part in the training camp. It always looks better in photographs when girlfriends are dressed in the same color scheme. These can be the same shirts or robes.
• If you do not have an organizer, ask one of your friends or relatives to take care of organizational issues (gathering guests, accommodation, etc.) so that you are not disturbed again.
• And finally, take a glass of soothing champagne with you - it will add a little sparkle to your eyes and calm your nerves. But don't overdo it!

Sweet Cinema, video shooting:

• For getting ready, choose the brightest room, preferably with natural light.
• Try to keep the room clean and tidy. Of course, you can’t do without wedding little things, but it’s better to collect little bags with the most necessary things in another room or in the kitchen.
• The bride must have wedding rings in order for footage of them to be included in the wedding film.
• For the video filming “Getting ready for the bride in the morning,” buy yourself a beautiful peignoir or boudoir dress. A stretched T-shirt or an old terry robe is not the best option.
• Girlfriends or mother who will help you get ready should be ready before you. That is, with makeup, hairstyles, beautifully dressed and with a neat manicure.
• The makeup stylist who will do your makeup and hairstyle must also have a neat manicure, since his hands will be in the frame.

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About shooting in the bath

Anna Onokhova, organizer: A little milk (5 l) and fresh flowers in the overall color palette of the wedding will decorate your morning photo shoot in the bathroom. So the advice is simple: it’s better not to take pictures in an empty bathroom, it can look very strange.

How to choose a beautiful meeting room?

Elena Rykova, photographer:

• The room should be bright and have large windows without heavy and dark curtains.
• It is better to choose the interior in light and delicate colors, without brown furniture.
• It is better that the room is spacious and has windows facing the sunny side.

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What is important to remove during training?

Ksenia Lopyreva, photographer:

• Details. These include wedding rings, bride's shoes, invitation, perfume, earrings, necklace, garter, etc. If the groom's morning is also filmed, then details of the men's wardrobe are added: bow tie, boots, watch, cufflinks, etc. IMPORTANT! If you want the photographer to capture all the details beautifully, keep in mind that it takes time to arrange the details, select the background, etc. Therefore, give the photographer 15 minutes to do this while the stylist collects you.
• Final touches of makeup and hair. There is no need to call a photographer to take pictures from a “clean face”. But! It is possible and even necessary to remove the final touches when lipstick is applied, eyelashes are painted, hair is fixed with hairspray. Therefore, the optimal time to start photographing is half an hour after the stylist starts working. IMPORTANT! Immediately ask the exact time the stylist’s work ends. This will help you correctly adjust the time of your meeting with the groom.
• Next comes an important stage, which also needs to be well photographed - how the bride takes the dress off the hanger and is helped to fasten it, the veil is attached to her hair, the moment of putting on earrings, jewelry, garters and shoes is filmed. If you want to enjoy the last notes of cooking, allocate extra time for this and never calculate the timing of the morning minute by minute. IMPORTANT! If the dress is lace-up, then only one lacing of the dress usually takes 15 minutes
• The moment of meeting the bride and groom usually takes about 5 minutes in total. The moment itself, then several photos of them together. Don’t be surprised, sometimes photographers and videographers ask to duplicate this moment.
• And the last stage is going for a walk/registration. By the way, this is another plus in favor of the fact that after getting ready it is better to take a walk rather than rush to the exact time for registration. If something takes a while - for example, you have to re-lace your dress, the groom is a little delayed in traffic, the makeup artist is late, etc., and your walk gets a little off track - it’s okay. But imagine if you are late for your registration and run at breakneck speed - I think this is not the best mood for your wedding day.

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After training camp

Anastasia Zavyalova, presenter: During your wedding day you will be photographed a hundred, or even a thousand times, so after getting ready and fully prepared, do not rush to run anywhere. Give yourself 5-10 minutes in the mirror, look at winning poses, accents and advantages, experiment with angles. You will become even more confident and feel even more beautiful!

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Other accessories

A towel, a salt shaker and a loaf of bread - for meeting the newlyweds at the entrance to the banquet hall.
Icon - parents bless their children for a happy family life.
Breaking glasses - to break glasses for good luck.
Walking glasses are the simplest glass glasses to avoid drinking from plastic cups.
The newlyweds' glasses at the feast are original wedding glasses, beautiful and symbolic.
Sprinkling - you can buy special ready-made kits or prepare the “mixture” yourself. The “sprinkling mixture” may include: rose petals, rice, small coins. Rose petals can be bought at flower shops. They also buy firecrackers and confetti for sprinkles.
Cake cutting tools - a nice knife and a spatula - are provided by some restaurants, but not all. Ask the restaurant management if they have such a service.
Gift chest - to have somewhere to put envelopes from guests. There are special wedding chests for gifts. You can buy a real, small wooden chest. In the future, you can store documents or special things in it.

Wedding photo shoot

Ideas for a wedding walk

Natasha Semenets, photographer: Make your wedding walk more personalized. Let these be not just photos in a beautiful interior or a blooming garden, but in a place that is really important to you. Perhaps it's the park where you had your first date, the restaurant where you celebrated your first anniversary, or the place where you proposed marriage.

If you have common hobbies or some kind of common feature, use it in the shooting. Maybe you both skateboard or play guitar. After all, you must admit, it’s great years later, looking at your wedding photos, to see a whole story about you so young and in love!

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When to have a photo shoot?

Alisa Klishevskaya, photographer: Brides often admire photographs taken at sunset or dawn, with soft light and warm rays of the sun, and when planning their wedding day, they leave time from 12:00 to 15:00 for a photo walk. And then imagine their disappointment that the photographs did not turn out the way they imagined!

But this is all precisely because in summer, in sunny weather, the day is the most unfavorable time for a photo shoot on the street, and we are forced to hide in the shade, in cafes, in museums away from the scorching sun, since the effect of “magic” when the sun is lost in the hair and beautifully highlights the silhouette, in daylight it is almost impossible. Therefore, newlyweds often deprive themselves of beautiful photos precisely because of improper wedding day planning.

I always suggest couples divide their wedding day into several stages, and have a wedding love-story on another day: without fuss, haste, worries, when you can just relax and have fun, when you can go out of town in search of fresh interesting locations, when you can take photos in the summer at sea and not worry that your photos will be spoiled by hard shadows. Or set aside some time after painting for a wedding walk at sunset. After all, it is through photographs that you will remember your day again and again!

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"Golden Hour"

Alexandra Sashina, photographer: Surely you all know that photography is literally “light painting”. That is, the most important component of any photo is light! But the light can be different, and it constantly changes throughout the day. In photography, there is a concept called “golden hour”—the time just after dawn or just before sunset. During these hours the sunlight is soft and enveloping. It is at this time that such tender photographs are taken.

Of course, in a real wedding with a timing that involves a walk during a hot afternoon, it is difficult to make adjustments and arrange a walk at exactly this time. However, you can always take a short break at the banquet and run away for 15 minutes to catch the rays of the setting sun and get such beautiful pictures!

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How long does a photo shoot last?

Yana Mef, photographer: My advice to you, the worried soul of the bride on the eve of the wedding celebration! And my advice concerns timing, or more precisely, the time for your photo shoot with your fiance. Feet rubbed by shoes, falling locks and tortured faces of the couple are the first signs of a three-hour walk. Therefore, it’s better to immediately abandon the crazy idea of arranging a long photo shoot - this will be one of the best decisions, I’m not kidding.

Even 2.5 hours can turn into a little torture for everyone due to the weather, not the most comfortable outfits, the same type of events (another photo against the backdrop of a beautiful tree, house, fence, column). To create a good, varied photograph of a couple, the team (photo and video) needs a maximum of 1.5 hours in the location. During this time, you can manage to realize all the planned shots, with a minimum of fatigue, monotony, external changes in the bride’s hairstyle and the degree of cleanliness of the wedding dress

WEDDYWOOD PARTNERS

We must not forget that a wedding is, first of all, your holiday, where you need to relax, communicate with loved ones, stay in a great mood and get tired only at the end of the evening, and not before the banquet starts. Wedding photography is what will keep you coming back to your special day, and all the pictures and videos should reflect how much fun you had. And from the memories of “oh, in this shot my hair has already gone sideways, at the end of the third hour we reached the birch tree, the pedometer showed 3 km,” I suspect there will be few smiles.

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A few secrets to a successful wedding day through the eyes of a photographer

Anna Gudilina, photographer:

• Take the groom's phone away. Why does he need him at the wedding? All tasks can be entrusted to friends or organizers for one day. Brides don’t have this problem because they have nowhere to put it, but bulging trouser pockets don’t look cool in the photo. But how cool it is that this very phone flies out of your pocket when the cheerful guests decide to start throwing the groom a ride!
• There is no need to follow traditions if your soul does not belong to them. A wedding is just your holiday. Yours and your loved one. So just decide how you want to spend it. And real professionals will always support your wildest ideas. The best photographs come when people really enjoy the whole experience.
• Don't be upset if something goes wrong. There is always an ideal, and we must strive for it. But if you suddenly wake up and it’s raining outside, it’s not the end of the world. In the rain you can get shots no worse than in sunny weather! Discuss all options with your photographer in advance and don't be afraid of weather surprises.

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What to take with you to a photo shoot?

Maria Alexandrova-Mukhina, photographer:

• Sneakers or sneakers for the bride and groom or any other spare shoes not with stiletto heels - ballet flats or loafers. What if you want to take a photo in a flowering field and go for a run, holding hands... It’s a shame to deny yourself such a memorable shot because of stiletto heels and patent leather boots! Well, no one has canceled the human factor, simply your legs may get tired, or new shoes will rub a callus, there will be no time for walking...
• Rubber boots, raincoats and umbrellas. The weather can bring any surprises, and not all brides will be delighted to appear in front of guests in a wet dress and with running makeup.
• Mattifying wipes (useful on a hot summer day), wet wipes, foundation (you can put it on your hands in winter so that they are not treacherously red from the cold), hygienic lipstick.
• Special advice to the groom - on a hot summer day it’s a good idea to have a spare shirt; it’s always nice to appear in front of guests in a fresh shirt after a photo walk.

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First dance photo session

Anna Ling, photographer: Colored (and sometimes even shaped) lighting adds atmosphere, but in photographs it often spoils the whole picture. Imagine the bride and groom looking at each other with tenderness... At the same time, the bride has a green spot on her face, and the groom has a blue ear. My heart bleeds every time I see pictures like this. But they could be perfect! How can this be avoided?

• The best option is to invite a special person who will work with light and create high-quality artistic lighting. This is a job that requires a certain education, skills and taste. Unfortunately, this practice is not yet very common in our country, and the host and DJ are usually responsible for the lighting.
• If the color spotlights still work in automatic mode, then simply ask the presenter not to turn them on from the very beginning. Give the photographer the opportunity to take beautiful shots for the album in even, subdued light, and after that (starting with some bright chord) you can add color.
• The third option is to stop using color spotlights altogether. The light of candles and/or cozy lamp garlands will create an equally romantic atmosphere!

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Photos with wedding rings: 5 stunning angles

Hands are given special attention on the wedding day, because they are decorated with symbols of the eternity of marriage - wedding rings. How to take beautiful wedding photos of hands with main decorations? The Svadbaholik.ru portal presents 5 gorgeous angles that will certainly inspire you:

Photo of the tender moment of exchanging wedding rings during the wedding ceremony.
The delicate interlacing of the fingers of the newlyweds against the background of the bride’s bouquet.
The hand of the bride on the hand of the groom as a combination of femininity and masculinity.
The bride and groom touch the rings, holding them with two fingers, forming an infinity symbol.
The newlyweds hold the rings in their palms.

Father of the bride's reaction

Everyone wants a photo of the groom taken at the very moment when he first saw his future wife in a dress. What about the bride's parents? If you manage to catch the “first glances” of father and mother, then these frames will become a worthy decoration for the wedding photo album.

Source: fatherdaughterrecords.com
Source: jamesferrara.com
Source: stevenuthphotography.co.uk
Source: thebecker.net
Source: laurafisherphotography.wordpress.com

Unusual photos of the bride

This photo session is carried out in the morning on one of the days preceding the wedding. One of the main decorations is nature. In the shade of trees, on the beach you can put a screen, a bed, or a sofa. Common name: “Morning of the Bride.” The frankness of the pictures depends on the degree of courage of the bride.

Sometimes, in addition, bridesmaids are photographed before they dress up, or sleepy under the covers.