2010 promises to be a big year for weddings in Ottawa. We've just came from the Wedding Palace Bridal Show this past weekend and judging from the number of people who have attended the show and the number of interested couples who stopped by our booth, I am confident we should be booked solid this year.
If you're planning to hire a professional photographer to cover your wedding, congratulations, you are very wise! When you'll be browsing the numerous photographer's web sites, pay close attention to what you're seeing. When you narrow down your choices, beware! Ottawa has an over abundance of people who claim to be pros in the wedding industry, many even have elaborate web sites that may give the illusion they're professionals, but it isn't the fancy flash presentation of a web site you should be concentrating your focus on but the quality of images you're looking at.
Wedding photography is probably the most important service you should be investing in for your wedding day. I realize this is a cliché and pretty biased for a photographer, but I hope by reading this you will learn a few crucial tips regarding the importance of your wedding day memories. I cannot stress enough how important the services of an experienced professional photographer will play in the recording of your wedding day memories. Your wedding album is an archive for your children and future generations. Are you willing to gamble on such an important day of your life?
First, let me speak from my 24 years of experience in the wedding industry. Countless brides and mothers have contacted me over the years to ask me if there’s anything that could be done with their wedding photos which they had contracted the job to a cousin, uncle or to a part time photographer who had a fancy SLR camera. Needless to say, those who chose that avenue regretted it deeply after the wedding! A person can invest in the most sophisticated and expensive DSLR camera but if they don’t have the professional training & experience of shooting weddings, they are bound to fail! Even students who have graduated with high honors from photography programs will attest when they took on their first wedding assignments, it tore their guts out because of the high level of stress they underwent in order to deliver professional looking images in a very fast paced & stressful environment. Stressful? Yes stressful because they also lacked the experience to coordinate the photo shoots and the people involved while trying to concentrate on composing artistic images throughout the entire day.
Wedding photography is without any doubt the most difficult photographic task a photographer will take on! Mostly because of the quick thinking and evaluating of technical data that is changing every minute throughout the day. Composing artistic images with the correct exposure for the subjects and the environment they're in. But above all, the responsibility of wedding photography MUST be taken extremely seriously! It is the most important day in the life of a couple. it is a one day event, there is no room for
irreparablemistakes! Furthermore, the composition of professional looking images one has to compose frame after frame. Composing professional looking images shot after shot requires experience plain and simple! A few good shots out of 300 just won’t cut it! Taking 500 to 1000 images in order to capture a dozen good ones is a sure sign of a photographer that lacks technical & composition knowledge. You shouldn't have to go through so many images in order to select 30 or 60 images for your wedding album. It is just too much of an overwhelming & frustrating task! On average I capture around 300 images per wedding. This being said, 95% of my clients will upgrade their wedding album to accommodate more photos because many of the photos
"were too nice to part with" they say.
IMAGES THAT WILL STAND THE TEST OF TIME
Photojournalism and freestyle approach has become very popular in the wedding industry. I must admit, these type of images are a beautiful way to record emotions in a candid way that traditional posing cannot. However, composing an entire wedding album of such images will prove to be a messy album! A wedding gown to a bride is like a religion! She will invest a considerable amount of time choosing the “perfect” gown! To a bride, her wedding dress is what she's been dreaming of since she was a kid and fantasizing about her fairy-tale wedding. Freestyle/photojournalism photography isn’t an elaborate way of showing a gown at its best. It will show certain detailed aspects of the gown but will fail to show the bride in her gown in a whole artistic perspective. Classic & scenic posing will best document a bride in her gown that freestyle/photojournalism will miss. (Because freestyle/photojournalism approach is shooting the event as it unfolds, the photographer doesn’t take the time to arrange the wedding gown and subjects and pay attention to specific lighting techniques.) Think of it as those beautiful wedding dress catalogue photos you've looked at so many times! Those are the type of images that will best represent your wedding dress and will be the most flattering poses for you. Combining multiple shooting styles will result in a more artistic and storytelling wedding album. An experienced wedding photographer will best document these styles and will be the most consistent shooter shot after shot. Your wedding album will be more artistic & storytelling if it is composed of artistic scenic portraits, classic and documentary/photojournalism approach.
COLOURS & DETAILS
One of the most common compliment I receive from my wedding clients is regarding the colours of my photos and the details. I am proud of this! I pay very close attention to colours and details and this all begins how the shot is taken in the first place. The crucial element in wedding photography is light; how you measure it and how you work with it! Too many inexperienced photographers who shoot a freestyle approach rely too much on their camera's automatic metering features. The freestyle approach leaves them little choice because it is the fastest way to record multiple images in so little time. This in most cases will result in their images being overexposed, flat lighting, flat colours and very dull photographs. In many cases, the bride's wedding dress will have washed out areas where details are no longer present in the photograph. I am very critical of this approach of shooting because I personally think it is careless. Photography has come a very long way in the past decade. Modern tools allow us to be even more creative and allow us to have better control over the quality of our finished products. However, if there is one thing that hasn't changed, it is the basics of photography where light is everything! Too many inexperienced photographers leave their hand held meters in their camera bags and rely on their camera's meters. Working with natural light and being able to modify it is an integral part of photography; especially wedding photography!
Getting optimized exposure in the first place is crucial; post production work becomes easier and the results will be more pleasing. This is why my work consist of nice saturated colours. Of course the medium I choose to print my work on is just as important! I have been approached by numerous wedding album companies in recent years and their product wouldn't bring the best out of my work. These albums are often called photo books or digital albums. The paper they print photos on isn't premium photographic paper. Not only am I not convinced of its durability compared to conventional photographic paper, but the results are very flat (even with a glossy finish). All wedding albums I sell (even digital albums) are printed on professional photographic paper are are coated for protection. I am very selective when it comes to photographic paper or any photographic supplies for that matter!
GETTING THE BEST OUT OF YOUR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
Before you hire a photographer for your wedding, be selective and pay close attention to what I have mentioned in this post. There are many excellent photographers in Ottawa; professional photographers that is! There are also some very inexperienced and careless ones as well. Many purchase fancy DSLR's and think shooting weddings is easy money to supplement their income. Don't be fooled by the fancy flash websites and attractive prices. Hire someone who has plenty of experience and mostly someone who has high standards, someone who takes wedding photography very seriously! A professional photographer who has made photography his/her FULL TIME career will take your wedding very seriously.
Good luck
Mario P. Menard
Professional Photographer
