Mistakes New Wedding Photographers Make

Every wedding photographer has a first gallery they'd rather not look at again. Mine is from 2016, and at the time, I actually thought it was pretty artistic. I knew my camera. I could take sharp photos of the bride walking down the aisle in a dark church, and I knew flash.

I understood the exposure triangle. At least I thought I did, and I was quick to change settings under pressure. But what I couldn't see were the small mistakes I was making, the ones that jump off the screen now, 10 years later And I watch new photographers make the same mistakes all the time, whether it's on their websites when I'm viewing their portfolio or just out and about shooting.

I see them making these mistakes right in front of me. So the sooner you can spot them, identify them, acknowledge them, the faster your portfolio starts doing the work of booking for you. So here are some that come to mind.

So number one, not in any particular order, not scouting your portrait locations properly. Now, I'm not talking about the ceremony. But your portrait locations, you should absolutely be influencing your couple as to where they might be.

In other words, it is quite common for a couple to, during the inquiry stage, to suggest a portrait location because it might have sentimental value to them, or it might just be a park that's nearby that they think is gonna be photogenic. But you should absolutely be influencing that and directing them towards the best locations, the ones that are gonna make it easier for you and perhaps where you've shot at before, if possible.

Scouting your portrait locations, even if you've shot at them before, is super important. So knowing where a location is and being there before is helpful, but what really matters is where the light falls and how the light moves. It helps to look at it in Google Maps or in Street View, but it's never a substitute for scoping it out in person because buildings and trees, they throw shadows in different directions they did last time.

So, "I've shot here before," gives you false confidence, which is probably worse than no confidence at all. So areas or backdrops that were amazing last time you were there, you may find, probably more often than not, that they're suddenly under construction, are not flowering or blooming as they were before, or are closed for renovations.

So the fix is treat every location as new, even the ones you know and are familiar with. Visit new spots, though, spots you haven't been to before, on a separate day, ideally within a week or so of the wedding, and roughly the same time of the day the shoot will happen.

Go on a sunny day. The sun shows you the worst case contrast, where the harsh light lands and where the open shade sits. Overcast light hides all of that and gives you a completely false sense of security. Have backup plans for different weather scenarios. If the sun's out and it's brutal, where's the shaded backup within a 30-second walk?

Couples will not wait around while you problem solve. If it's raining, are there any indoor spots that could work or covered areas? Think about where you might set up a flash, for example, to backlight the rain if it's raining. If you do your scoping about a week before, it also gives the opportunity to get an inkling as to what the weather's gonna be doing.

You can be thinking about the forecast is for rain, so maybe I should look for more wet weather spots, rain spots than I would normally

Because there is nothing, and I mean nothing worse than running out of ideas and still having 30 minutes of portraits to capture, and you've got the couple and the bridal party looking at you for direction. So make sure you've got enough scenes in your head to go to when the couple looks at you and gives you that, "Well, what's next?"

look. So number two, skipping the pre-wedding consultation or using questionnaires as a substitute. A questionnaire is not a conversation. It's not a two-way conversation. Sending a form or a survey or a Google form and just reading the answers back, it feels efficient, but it quietly costs you the single most useful thing that you can walk in with on the day of the wedding, and that's a shared understanding of the timeline in both your heads and your hands.

When you actually talk it through, you get to discuss all the details and make notes that will jog your memory on the day and make everything run much smoother. When you do a pre-wedding consultation in person or via phone call or video chat, my preference is video chat, by the way. But if you're doing a video chat, you can also pick up on the couple's body language, and you're gonna remember that.

So the other tip would be to try and make your pre-wedding consultation as close to the day of the wedding as you can. That's not always easy. Some couples insist on doing it, you know, six weeks before. But if you can, I like to do it one to two weeks before.

So if you think about the wedding day, the getting ready period, it's usually, or has been for me, the most staged of the whole day.

If you've spent less than 15 minutes discussing getting ready with your couple, that period, then you're probably not prepared. Just take the dress, for example. It's one of the first things I talk about when I'm discussing getting ready at the pre-wedding consultation, and there are so many things to go over about the dress.

Firstly, do they really want shots of the dress? Is it a nice to have or is it a must-have? How are we going to hang it? Notice I say "we" because it shouldn't necessarily be up to the photographer to work through the logistics of that, especially in locations like hotel rooms where you've got limited places to hang them.

So I like couples to be aware that this can be a problem and let's discuss it, let's prepare for it as much as we can. Do they have a decorative hanger? Are they gonna bring one? Would you like me to bring mine? Can the bridesmaids, for example, help me move the dress? Do you mind if I move the dress or do you want me to wear white gloves?

Is the dress ready? Is it gonna be hanging up somewhere please for me on arrival so that I know that they've had the foresight to remove the tags and the plastic wrapping, et cetera. And look, these are all questions just about the dress. And that's just the dress.

get on a phone call or better yet, a video chat with the couple and walk through the whole day chronologically from start to finish in that order. Don't let the client control the pre-wedding consultation. I've had clients who are naturally just sort of talkers, and they wanna jump ahead to all these things that aren't in chronological order, and it just, it doesn't really work that way.

It's best to do it from the start to the finish. That way you can know exactly how much time you've got at the end of the timeline, because you've already been through those earlier stages. So you can't discuss what time the first dance is if you don't know what time all the other things are leading up to that, 'cause y- it'll just be a guess.

So do it chronologically and don't let the client control the pre-wedding consultation. Take the floor and guide them through it. And most clients are very happy for you to do that, and it shows that you're professional and know what you're doing. So start at the very beginning, who's gonna let me in?

What's their phone number? What are the backup numbers, et cetera? And go forward throughout the whole timeline. And you'll spot pinch points, you'll address those, you'll leave with a plan, and they'll leave feeling like they've actually hired someone who's done this before. Both are important If you haven't done too many pre-wedding consultations, by all means prepare your own questions in advance, though.

If it's not second nature, prepare a checklist. They're super handy, and it does reduce your anxiety as well, which will come through. So I'm not saying don't have your own lists or checklists for pre-wedding consultations. Eventually, after you've done 50 or 100, it'll be second nature.

In the first few years, it is handy to have checklists. And I still find myself, after a pre-wedding consultation, just remembering, "Oh gosh, I didn't remember to go over those tips for when they are exchanging rings." And so I will send a follow-up email and say, "Hey, look, I forgot to mention, please show the rings when you do the ring exchange during the ceremony."

The third thing which I see a lot of newer photographers making mistakes on, and that I was shocked to see that I made with the first few weddings that I shot over 10 years ago, was that I was using flash when I didn't need to use flash.

Looking back, I think honestly, like I thought, " if I'm a professional photographer, I should use flash. I should be able to control the light." And yes, that's important, but it's not important all the time, and it's not important when there's plenty of light you can use instead of flash Or if there's nothing wrong with the quality and quantity of light, you don't need to use flash.

Now, it's a strange thing for me to mention perhaps because, you see a lot of natural light photographers these days that, rarely, use flash, But I'm talking about using flash just for fill light where it's really not necessary. And the reason it can be a problem is it can inject the wrong color temperature into a scene.

So if you're using flash, you have to match, or you should be matching, the color temperature of the flash to the scene, and that's a skill in itself. And that means reaching into your bag, opening it up, pulling out the correct color gel to use, and testing that and making sure that's correct, and looking at the back of the screen and changing it if you need to, and troubleshooting.

And that's just the color temperature. There's also, the flash itself, which should normally be in manual mode, shouldn't be ETTL anyway. So then you're playing with all your settings just to get, potentially just a few photos. I use flash at every wedding, at the reception, and I use it sparingly for portraits.

Is it essential? Yes, it's absolutely essential. But just don't reach for it when you don't need to use it, 'cause you're just causing yourself more pain. And look, it also results in less photos as well, because you can't burst shoot a flash, so you can't take six photos in half a second and keep the photo where, eyes are open and where you've got the most perfect expression.

You'll find you get a lot less keepers if you use flash, especially for portraits So the fix is to get everything you can out of available light first. Just because the sun has set, it doesn't mean you need to reach for your flash. I normally reach for my flash about 15 minutes after sunset, and I use fast lenses, F/2.8, F/1.4, et cetera.

And I am very careful to make sure I'm using the lowest possible shutter speed at all times, and that ensures that I can keep shooting past sunset. But do bring your flash out for the dark reception and the situations that need it. But don't bring it out as a reflex the moment a cloud appears or it looks like the couple is too dark.

In that situation, it's probably just an exposure compensation issue rather than needing flash. I see photographers at Roma Street Parklands in Brisbane, Australia, very often, and I often see them using flash, like an hour before sunset, and it's a sunny day, and I just don't get it. They're making their job harder.

They've got the extra time it takes to lug their gear around and set it up. It's just completely unnecessary. And in the meantime, I'm there in the background at all the great spots, getting my photos quickly, getting in and out within half an hour, 45 minutes max, and they're there for an hour and a half mucking around with flash.

So this is the Wiser Wedding Photography Podcast. I'm Chris Jack. I've shot over 950 weddings and corporate events in Brisbane since 2015, and I'm the founder of 1PM.app. That's software for venues and event professionals like wedding photographers to help them book more clients and spend less time in their inbox.

Professional wedding photography isn't an art form. It's an exercise in disaster mitigation, and I'm here to help you mitigate disaster. So let's get back into the list. Number four, sloppy group photos So group shots are where inexperience does get exposed, pardon the pun, because there's nowhere to hide.

Ten people to check, and if one person, and it always seems to be the same person for some reason, I find, if one person has their eyes shut and you didn't notice, then that frame is dead. And so this is the part of the day, family group photos, you should control and concentrate And it's usually the part that beginners rush because they're under pressure, whether that's time pressure or just pressure from being in front of 20 people.

There are lots of things that sink family group photos. And you know what? Family group photos are important. They're very important. Everyone wants family group photos. The parents and wider family all use them. If there's one stage of the day that's gotta be right, gotta be good, it's family group photos.

In my agreement, I actually say, "Look, I can't guarantee that in every group photo, every person is gonna be looking at the camera." But I try my hardest to ensure that never happens, and I don't think I've ever delivered a set of family group photos where everyone is not looking at the camera.

But I have had to use Photoshop to, change eyes. So that's why you burst shoot. So if you need to, you can Photoshop someone with their eyes open into a photo where they've got their eyes closed, but I try to get it right in the camera on the day.

And I notice, as soon as I let my guard down, as soon as I perhaps start enjoying the day or enjoying myself or getting swept up in the emotion of the day and I just sort of go into cruise mode, that's when I make mistakes. So yeah, that's the period. Family group photos, you've gotta be on the ball.

And yeah, there are many things that can go wrong with family group photos. The main thing is people not being ready when you take the photo, and obviously, can't avoid this, but someone's blinking or not looking at the camera.

With family group photos, I always try to tell couples during the pre-wedding consultation, tell them, "Look, I'd rather do 10 small photos than three large photos because it's much easier to do smaller photos, and they'll be better photos." So you can prep the couple that way to encourage them to do Family group photos with less people in them, and that will make your job easier because it's exponentially more difficult to get one clean photo where everyone's looking at the camera.

If you've got more than 50 people or something in a photo, or even 30, it's almost impossible... the chances of you taking the first photo being good, where everyone's looking at the camera and no one's blinking, is almost zero. You do have to burst shoot more the more people that are in the photo, and when there's lots of people, you need to burst shoot a lot.

Do know how to zoom in and see the preview of the shot on the back of your camera or in the viewfinder, and actually see... Zoom in 10 times and actually check every single face.

And if someone is blinking or someone's not looking at the camera, If they're not looking at the camera, sometimes I'll call them out for it, to hope that will encourage them to look at the camera for the next shot, depending on if I think they'll take that well.

People blinking, you can't avoid that, so you... I normally just yell out, "We've got a blinker," and people laugh and they blame it on each other, or they think it's them or, make a bit of a joke out of it. But I keep shooting until I get a clean shot for family group photos. It's so important.

The other thing with family group photos is chopping off limbs. So this is just about, careless framing, so chopping off people's feet or hands.

When you're taking a family group photo, you've got to think, how am I taking these? Am I taking them full length? Am I taking them three-quarter?" And try not to have feet close to the bottom of the shot, because by the time you correct for that, in terms of, straightening it, you might find that the foot is very close to the edge, which doesn't look good So let's go number five, not delivering enough photos.

New photographers can often make this mistake. Now, I noticed this just because I looked at the number of photos that I sent through in my first few galleries, and it was shockingly low compared to what I would deliver now. Probably about half of what I'm delivering now.

and now it's just ridiculously easy with, like, R6, Canon R6. But yeah, it wasn't just that. It was obviously me not being as fast in every aspect and not being as experienced. So you can mitigate that. From the moment you walk in to getting ready, have a camera on probably in AV mode, so it's ex-exposing correctly at a reasonable shutter speed, maybe 250 minimum, f/2.8 and with a 24-70, something like that, and just have it there on ready to take your shots.

So yeah, be noticing every interaction with the couple and guests where they're looking happy, or the guests are looking happy, or something's happening. Capture all those moments. 'Cause those candids is gonna fill the gallery at the end of the day So yeah, don't just think about hero frames, think about all the moments in between.

So every guest looking happy, laughing, hugging, smiling, cheersing, they're all great candid photo ops. Walk into getting ready with your camera ready to go and start snapping every moment you see... that's not padding a gallery. That's what you don't wanna do is give six photos of essentially the same thing.

But you're making sure the day is properly documented and not just sampled. You want really deep understanding of what's important to the client as well.

I can remember myself being guilty of this, and that is, every portrait looking the same. Now, what does this mean? This often means a shot of the couple kissing, 'cause that's one of the first things they'll do if you don't direct them or pose them, is they'll just go into a kiss. They'll realize that they're just standing there doing nothing, and they'll kiss.

And that's fine, and you can get those shots, but, it's a problem when you've got 20 shots of the couple kissing, even if it is across 10 different scenes. A lot of photographers will use poses or suggest poses that work because they feel safe, and maybe you shoot it 20 times with tiny variations, but essentially they've got 20 frames of the same thing.

So variety is what makes a portrait set feel like a story instead of a contact sheet. So the fix is to consciously work through range on every portrait scene. So think about distance, wide environmental shots, mid-length, tight close-ups, lower, higher, walking away, walking towards you, interaction.

You want kissing, sure, but also walking, laughing, foreheads together, whispers in ears is one I love doing, looking at each other, both looking at you, that type of thing, and you wanna work that at every scene if you can. And look, one tip is before you leave any scene, just ask yourself, "What would you be missing if this were the only location you shot at all day?"

And then go get those frames, if that makes sense. So if this was the only scene, what would I be missing from this? Get those extra frames as well. So number seven, mistakes I see new photographers make, and myself, because I look back at my earlier galleries. Number seven, leaning on black and white to rescue a photo.

This one is a little controversial, But it is my honest opinion. In my experience, most couples don't love black and white photos. The ones that do, they'll tell you normally up front at the pre-wedding cons- consultation. Everyone else, they probably quietly prefer color photos, and even if they'd never say that.

The real problem with black and white, is why beginners use it. It's often because they've got an ugly color cast or messy mixed lighting, and it gets converted to black and white to hide the problem. Or you've got a flat, boring, contrast-free frame and it gets high contrast treatment to make it feel more artistic, or whatever.

The fix is to get the color right in the first place so a photo never needs rescuing. So be aware of what the light is doing and where the light is not casting favorably. Now, mostly that's with flash at the reception and mostly that is not beyond your control, but you will have to change your settings to control it.

And what I mean by that is if you've got green uplights at a wedding around the walls of the reception area, they can cast that sort of light. I shot at a venue not too long ago where the primary light source in the warehouse was a pink spotlight high up in the ceiling.

So everyone was pink. But that can be mitigated through the use of more flash power to overpower that bad light, but be aware of it. Nail your white balance if you can, but you can always change it later. If you feel black and white genuinely lifts the image and maybe because it can hold contrast, stronger contrast better, or it's real emotion or interesting contrast of light already, then sure...

none of these mistakes are talent problems. They're all fixable. Every one of the things I've mentioned is about preparation and it's an attention problem, which is great news because you can fix all of these things this weekend.

Scout the light, talk the day through, control your family group photos, cover all stages of the day, keep your portraits varied, and always watch the light. Thanks for listening to the Wiser Wedding Photography Podcast. If you'd like to book more weddings and spend less time buried in your inbox, grab a free 30-day trial of 1pm.app at 1pm.app.

And if this episode was useful, please leave a review. It genuinely helps the show and encourages me to record more episodes. See you on the next one.