5. The Ceremony
Wedding Stage Two
This is it. The heart and soul of the wedding. The moment when two people commit themselves to one another, in front of family, friends, and the world.
Never underestimate the power of this moment—it is profound. As photographers, our challenge is to capture the flavor of the event in big, bold strokes (the kiss, the triumphant recessional) as well as in subtle, nuanced details (a stolen glance, a shared smile). More than any other segment of the day, the ceremony is the time when we have only one chance to capture the images that will meaningfully preserve the experience forever. And if that weren’t enough, we have to do it in a way that doesn’t actually intrude upon the moment for the couple or the guests. We must be inconspicuous, yet highly effective. Are you ready?
Poring Over the Picture
This wedding was slated to take place outside, but an unseasonable rainstorm prompted a last-minute change in plans. The ceremony was at the edge of a room that was completely open to the outdoors. It was quite dim inside, and the huge open wall created a heavily backlit situation for the ceremony. This is the kind of tricky situation in which I shoot as many different ways as possible—with flash, without flash, from many angles, and so on.
Poring Over the Picture
The recessional is always an exciting moment, and you really can’t shoot too much of it! When the guests get in on the action by tossing birdseed, rice, or petals, it adds so much to the moment.
Ceremony Etiquette
As a wedding photographer, your job is to get the best possible shots, without disrupting the ceremony. Ideally, people won’t even notice you’re there.
In this section, I give you tips for how to conduct yourself so that the bride and groom and their guests remember the ceremony, not the photographer.
Be discreet
Your goal is to be as unobtrusive as possible while photographing the ceremony. Remember that you’re just one part of an entire team of people who are all working toward the same objective: to provide the couple and their guests with the loveliest wedding experience possible.
We’ve all attended weddings where the photographer stood right next to the couple or stuck a big lens directly over the shoulder of the officiant in the middle of the ceremony. Don’t be that guy. There are plenty of wonderful shots to be had that don’t require such tactics and a few simple things you can do to stay discreet.
I try to time my movements to coincide with the transitional moments in the ceremony—when guests are sitting down, standing up, or singing, or when a speaker is standing up or sitting down. When I’m positioned in the middle of the aisle, I crouch down much of the time, stand for a quick burst of shooting, and then crouch again. When I’m standing to the side of the altar, I keep enough distance so that I don’t attract the attention of the officiant, couple, or guests. Depending on the ceremony setup, I may be able to slip around the back of the altar for a different perspective on the scene—often the decor or the wedding party blocks me from sight—but if standing behind the altar would create a distraction for the guests, I don’t do it.
In darker settings, even if flash isn’t prohibited, I use it in a deliberate and targeted way to minimize distraction. For example, each time I move into a new shooting position, I fire off a few shots with the flash, and then set it aside and shoot without flash so that I’m not bombarding the ceremony with a constant stream of flash bursts.
Stay calm
Never let them see you sweat. A visibly frazzled wedding photographer is, in itself, a source of distraction for the guests and concern for the couple. The moments before a ceremony begins—and many other moments throughout the wedding day—can be stressful for the photographer, but no matter how anxious you may feel, it’s important to project a calm, in-control demeanor.
If things are feeling a little out of control, take a moment. Breathe deeply, survey the task in front of you, and devise a plan. Once you know how you intend to tackle the situation, you can start simply doing it, step by step, and the panic will subside.
Be professional
Collaborating and building good relationships with all the other vendors involved with the wedding, including the officiant, should be a top priority for you. If possible, I always take a moment to introduce myself to the officiant before the ceremony. A friendly smile, a cooperative demeanor, a quick outline of what I plan to do, and reassurance that I won’t be unnecessarily intrusive during the ceremony go a long way toward building good will and ensuring that everyone knows what to expect.
If the ceremony site has published rules for photography, assure the officiant that you understand and will adhere to them. Every once in a while, I get lucky and learn that the officiant has a looser attitude toward the rules than expected, and I end up with a bit more leeway. Most of the time, though, the rules are the rules, and I simply must follow them. The couple generally knows about the rules ahead of time, but I make sure to set their expectations realistically if I’ll be severely limited in what I can shoot. Obviously, I’m not always happy about the strict restrictions at some sites, but I always respect them.
There was one occasion, though, when I had to break the rules just a bit. According to the church guidelines, the photographer had to stay at the back during the service and shoot without flash. I had no problem with that, but the officiant took things a bit further when he forbade any photography whatsoever from the time the bride entered until the ceremony kiss and recessional. The couple didn’t know about this restriction until moments before the wedding, and they were crushed that there would be no photos of the ceremony. I was allowed to stand in the back, but not shoot, and two women affiliated with the church were sitting across the aisle from me, watching my every move. In this one instance, I borrowed a page from my street-shooting playbook: I held the camera casually against my ribs, adjusted the zoom to various lengths, and, without looking through the viewfinder or at the image screen, snapped several frames during moments when various noises from the ceremony (such as guests standing up or sitting down) would cover the sound. Nobody was the wiser, and my clients were thrilled that I was able to capture something from their ceremony after all.
A Game Plan for Ceremony Success
As with every aspect of photographing a wedding, preparation and planning are essential to successfully capturing the crucial elements of the ceremony. If you visited the site ahead of time, then you already have a strategy about where you plan to be, and when, in order to capture the key moments. It’s a good idea to go in with a plan, because you may end up walking into the site mere moments before the ceremony is to begin, despite your best efforts to arrive sooner. (For example, the bride may have fallen behind while getting ready, requiring you to stay beyond the scheduled time to finish shooting her preparations.)
First, figure out what cameras and lenses you need for the actual ceremony and prepare the gear. If you have an assistant, factor that into your decisions—where will you be, where will your assistant be, and what gear will each of you need? Make sure you give your assistant clear instructions, and think of your movements as a dance between the two of you. Your movements should be targeted, purposeful, and efficient—don’t wander randomly during the ceremony, duplicating shots and creating unnecessary distraction for the guests.
Assuming that you still have a few moments before the ceremony is to begin, shoot the florals, ceremony decor, site features, and so on (Figures 5.1, 5.2, and 5.3). In the meantime, my assistant can shoot guests arriving and being seated.
There are certain key moments during a wedding day when I find it helpful to rely on a bit of a routine, and the ceremony is one of them. It’s not that I want to take the same, cookie-cutter shots at every wedding—I just have a lot to achieve in a very small amount of time, with no room for error. Having a template helps me know that I nailed the coverage, allowing me to be more creative.
Every ceremony is different, of course, but if no restrictions are placed on my movement and the ceremony is set up in a typical way with a center aisle, then I usually have my assistant shoot the processional from the front of the aisle (crouching down to remain inconspicuous, of course). In the meantime, I shoot the wedding party as they’re lined up, the bride with her father as they await their turn to walk, and so on. Once they enter, I shoot the bride from behind as she walks down the aisle, capturing all the beautiful details of her dress, train, and veil (Figure 5.4). I love to use my long lens to get a shot of the groom’s face as the bride is coming down the aisle (Figure 5.5).
Figure 5.1. Always try to get a clean shot of the ceremony site with no guests. The planner and florist will love you for it.
Figure 5.2. I used a wide aperture to transform the background into a soft, beautiful blur and put the ceremony object center stage.
Figure 5.3. Because the sensor in my camera performs so well at high ISOs, I can shoot this type of detail quickly, without a tripod.
Figure 5.4. This is a quintessential shot—the beautiful details of the back of the gown as the bride enters. Seeing her groom waiting in the distance adds to the depth and drama of the moment.
Figure 5.5. I use my longest telephoto lens to capture a shot of the groom’s expression as his bride approaches.
Once the ceremony is underway, I get a few shots of the whole scene (Figure 5.6), and I may send my assistant to another location—such as a balcony or a spot some distance away—to shoot the whole scene from a different perspective (Figure 5.7). Then I quickly and quietly move along the back edge of the seated guests to the side of where the couple is standing. From there I get some over-the-shoulder shots of the bride as she faces her groom (Figure 5.8), and then I turn to the guests and get reaction shots from parents and other family members (Figure 5.9). Next I walk around the back to the other side and do the same thing with the groom (Figure 5.10). While I’m doing this, my assistant usually stays crouched discreetly at the back of the center aisle with a long lens, in case anything notable happens while I’m in transit or off to the side.
Figure 5.6. The beautiful tree that forms the ceremony backdrop was a key element in the design of this whole wedding, so I used a wide-angle lens to capture it in its entirety.
Figure 5.7. My assistant ran up to the balcony during this ceremony, while I stayed on the ground. We used discreet hand signals to coordinate with one another so that I wouldn’t end up in his shots.
Figure 5.8. I waited for this great expression from the bride and shot it from a distance with my telephoto lens.
Figure 5.9. While the guests were engrossed with a speaker, I was able to unobtrusively slip around in front of them and capture this shot.
Figure 5.10. I found a spot from which I could discreetly photograph the groom’s reaction to the vows.
As I move, I stay very present, very alert to the many smaller moments and details that are all around me (Figures 5.11, 5.12, and 5.13). I didn’t set up these moments—they already existed, and I was able to capture them because I noticed them. You can train your eye to notice these types of details (see the assignments at the end of this chapter), and they add a beautiful dimension of depth to the ceremony coverage.
Many of the ceremonies I shoot are quite brief, so at this point, I take stock and determine how much time is left before the kiss; if I can, I spend a few more minutes looking for any small details or other descriptive moments that really convey the flavor and feel of the event. When the end of the ceremony is near, I position myself in the center aisle for the kiss and recessional.
Figure 5.11. I noticed this detail as I was walking along the center aisle to get into position for the ceremony kiss. It was a quick snap along the way.
Figure 5.12. While off to the side of the ceremony, I saw the three flower girls all lined up in a row. I couldn’t have planned anything more perfect.
Figure 5.13. I loved the line of the bride’s dress from this angle, so I had already shot a few frames when she turned to smile at her maid of honor...and gave me the money shot. The image captures her joy perfectly.
The recessional is a great time to capture the thrill and excitement of the freshly minted married couple. Remember that they’ll be moving toward you, and you’ll most likely be moving backward as you shoot them, so make sure your shutter speed is fast enough to freeze the action (Figure 5.14). How fast it needs to be depends on the speed at which the couple—and you—are moving, but I usually try to set it for at least 1/160 sec.
Figure 5.14. Select a faster shutter speed for the recessional to avoid unintentional motion blur.
Once the couple has recessed, I stick with them because those few brief moments immediately following the ceremony provide a wonderful opportunity to capture completely spontaneous, candid images with real emotional impact (Figure 5.15). The image-making frenzy continues as the wedding party and families show up with tears and hugs. It’s one of the best parts of the day (Figure 5.16).
Naturally, I adapt this approach based on each individual ceremony setup, but it’s a great starting point because it allows me to very quickly capture a wide range of shots for the ceremony. If necessary, I can run through the entire pattern in five minutes and know that I have the essentials covered: long overview, medium, and close-ups of the ceremony straight on; intimate, emotional images of both the bride and the groom from the sides; reaction shots from family members, wedding party, and guests; and close-ups of details such as placing of the rings, the hands during the vows, bouquets, and so on. It’s this range of perspectives coming together that really conveys the emotions of the day in an enduring way.
Figure 5.15. The moments immediately following the ceremony are ripe with spontaneous, genuine emotion.
Figure 5.16. Stay with the couple and capture the joy as their friends and family join them right after the ceremony. If there is space, I prefer to shoot these moments with a long lens for a more intimate feeling.
Tackling Tough Lighting Situations
An effective wedding photographer must have the ability to deal with virtually any lighting situation imaginable, and this is especially true during the ceremony. We have absolutely no control over the ceremony environment, and we’re responsible for coming up with authentic, beautiful, meaningful images no matter what. We may be faced with anything from an extremely dark church to a meadow in full sun at high noon, and we have to make it work.
Again, I emphasize the importance of preparation and scouting the location at the same time of day that you’ll be shooting, so that you can think about strategies ahead of time and be prepared with any additional gear that will help you get the job done. It’s also a good idea to shoot a challenging setting in more than one way, both for variety of images and for assurance of ultimate success. In this section, I go over my approach to a few of the most common ceremony lighting challenges.
Dark interiors
This is probably the most typical scenario: the dark church with rules preventing you from using flash, and in some cases limiting your movement as well. It’s surprising how much you can cover in this type of situation, if you have the right gear: a camera body with a good low-light sensor, excellent lenses that are f/2.8 or faster, and a solid tripod. If you don’t own everything you need, rent it.
If you’re required to remain at the back of the congregation, consider bringing a 300mm lens that will allow you to get closer to the couple. If the decor is very dark (lots of dark wood, dark carpet, and so on), pay attention to your metering. I always determine the exposure and dial it in on Manual to avoid overexposing my images (Figure 5.17).
If you aren’t allowed to move, set up your camera on the tripod and simply change lenses from wide to normal to telephoto to get as much variety as possible. If you’re allowed to move about, but you’re not allowed to use flash, try to get vibration reduction (VR) lenses—they’ll allow you to shoot at slower shutter speeds while still avoiding camera shake. I can hand-hold pretty well at 1/15 sec., and even 1/8 sec. if I need to, but I’m much more comfortable at 1/20 sec. or 1/30 sec., so I try to get a combination of high ISO and wide-open aperture to get the shutter speed there, if possible. I don’t use a monopod, but some photographers find them helpful to avoid camera shake.
Be sure to have another camera body all set up with a flash so that when you’re allowed to use it again (usually during the recessional), you’ll be ready to go.
Figure 5.17. Because of the dark decor at this synagogue, I made sure to determine the proper exposure and then set my camera to Manual. If I had used an auto-exposure mode, the darkness of the scene would’ve tricked the camera into overexposing the image.
Full sun and dappled light
As much as I adore natural light, there are times when it isn’t actually my friend—every sunny day between the hours of around 10 a.m. and 3 p.m., to be precise. If I’m faced with a ceremony that’s in full sun or dappled shade during these harsh-light hours, I shoot it both with fill flash (to take the edge off those dark shadows) and without flash (so that I can have more control over depth of field than flash allows). I like to keep the setup simple; I determine the proper exposure for the sunny part of the subject, set my shooting mode to Manual, set my flash to TTL, and dial down the flash anywhere from two-thirds to a full stop. I don’t want to overpower the natural light, or even completely eliminate the shadows, because that results in a very artificial, cartoonish look. I simply want to fill in those shadows a bit, so they aren’t so blocky and harsh (Figure 5.18).
Figure 5.18. The light of the aisle at this ceremony was extremely dappled, so I used flash to eliminate the shadows. I don’t shoot this way often because I prefer a more natural look, but in cases of extremely bad light, it’s sometimes necessary.
When shooting flash, the shutter speed for most cameras can’t be faster than 1/250 sec. (check your camera’s manual to learn the flash sync speed for your particular model). I can compensate a bit for this by setting my ISO as low as possible, but on a sunny day I still often need to have a very small aperture, such as f/11 or f/16, to avoid overexposing the image. I like to be able to shoot with a shallower depth of field than what results from f/16, so, I also shoot without the flash and lower the contrast a bit when editing the images.
Backlighting
I actually love shooting backlit subjects—I use this technique a lot when I’m doing portraits of the couple—but backlighting can be challenging for a wedding ceremony. I basically handle it the same as full sun, shooting multiple ways, both with flash and without. The flash setup is basically the same—TTL flash, dialed down two-thirds to a full stop less than the metered exposure—and I tend to use this technique more for the medium-length shots of the ceremony that show the whole scene (Figure 5.19). When shooting without flash, I simply meter for the shadow area of the subject and let the background blow out. This can create a really wonderful, dreamy quality, especially in black and white, and I often use this for close-ups.
Another option for backlit situations, if you can do it without being too distracting, is to move slightly behind the bride or groom during the ceremony, so that you can turn back and shoot them with the light falling on their faces (Figure 5.20).
Figure 5.19. Notice how much more detail is captured in the background when shooting with fill flash, as compared to the first Poring Over the Picture image at the beginning of the chapter. Although it looks a tad artificial, this is closer to how your eye actually perceives the scene.
Figure 5.20. Stepping slightly behind the bride allowed me to capture a few shots with the beautiful outdoor light falling on the groom’s face.
Moments to Watch For
As you’re photographing the ceremony, watch for the following moments:
• Anytime the couple laughs or looks out over guests during the ceremony: This transforms an image from something that could seem rather generic to something deeply intimate and personal to the couple.
• Small details that fill in the moments that the couple can’t witness: The bridesmaids’ bouquets all in a line, emotion on the maid of honor’s face, the delicate curve of the bride’s back or the fall of her veil as she faces the groom, and so on.
• Kids being kids: Often, the flower girls, ring bearers, and other children find amusing ways to keep themselves entertained during the ceremony. Keep an eye on them and be ready to capture these moments when they happen (Figure 5.21).
Figure 5.21. Flower girls + lollipops = adorableness galore, and a sweet detail that helps round out the story of the ceremony.
Chapter 5 Assignments
Train Your Eye
Walk around your neighborhood. Nothing much happening? Look again. Really pay attention and find unique, descriptive moments in everyday situations. Notice when the light is particularly beautiful in a particular spot, and use it. Think about your composition as you shoot; notice the background and adjust your angle of shooting to eliminate unwanted elements, if necessary. Keep refining your approach to a particular subject until you know you’ve made the best image you possibly can. All this will help you train your eye to capture the wonderful, unexpected moments that abound at a wedding.
Tough Lighting: Dark Interiors
Practice shooting in very dimly lit interiors, without flash. Test how well you can hand-hold your camera with various lenses, at various shutter speeds (such as 1/60, 1/30, 1/15, or 1/8). Try holding your breath when pressing the shutter, and see if it helps avoid camera shake. This will give you a sense of how slow you can set your shutter when you need to shoot available light in dark interiors.
Tough Lighting: Full Sun and Dappled Light
Practice shooting a subject in full sun, using your flash to soften the shadows as described in this chapter. Move the subject to the dappled shade of a tree and try it again. Experiment with shooting the flash at full power, at –1/3 stop, –2/3 stop, and –1 stop. Get a feel for what level of flash looks best to your eye.
Tough Lighting: Backlighting
Set up a backlit situation and shoot it both with flash (as described in the “Backlighting” section earlier in this chapter) and without flash while metering for the shadows. Again, play with the power level on the flash and see how those changes affect the images.
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