Wedding Photos as a Guest

As a photographer, you will undoubtedly attend a wedding as a family member or friend that you are not hired as the professional photographer.  As a professional, it is important to know your role in this event: GUEST.  Knowing how difficult photographing a wedding can be, it is important to not to interfere with the professionals hired to accomplish this task.  This doesn't mean that you can't bring your camera, but what it does mean is to be respectful of those photographers.  I also don't think it's appropriate to photograph or even be around for the posed family photos that the photographer is setting up.  If you want to take pictures during this time, I would recommend focusing your efforts on other detailed photographs or pictures of your family and friends at the party.  There will be many people taking pictures of the cake cutting, bouquet toss, and first dance.  These are appropriate times to photograph at the same time with the hired professionals.


This weekend I was in this situation.  I scaled back my gear and left the flash bracket at home and traveled with the more modest vertical grip and camera.  There were many guests that had DSLR's at the event so this gear was nothing out of the ordinary.  I did bring my speedlight but was very respectful of when this flash was attached and utilized.  For the majority of the night I just used my camera alone.  For using flash, I followed suit of the hired photographers.  I did not want to introduce another light source into a picture that they were capturing using ambient light.  Attending a wedding, we know that many people will be using the on-camera flash on their point and shoot and taking pictures but I felt using a speedlight was a different situation. 


The flash was not attached or used during the ceremony.  Not using the flash during the ceremony presented a very unique challenge.  The ceremony occurred at sunset and had very little ambient light.  The room was essentially lighted with many candles.  This was a gorgeous setting but a challenging photographic environment.  In order to capture usable photographs at the ceremony, I had to decrease the shutter speed to the slowest hand holdable, widen the aperature, and increase the ISO.  I know many people will cringe at the thought of higher-ISO photographs because of the noise introduced,  but to save these pictures I utilized post processing software to remove some of the noise.  I also applied a postprocessing color filter and turned many of these pictures black and white.  I found asthetically a lot of the higher iso pictures looked better in black and white than color.


As a family member or friend attending the wedding, the family and couple will definitely appreciate pictures to supplement what the hired professionals provided.  Just remember to photograph responsibly and be respectful of the hired photographers.    


Here are a couple of my favorites from this event:

What a beautiful backdrop for a wedding ceremony

So cute

Beautiful

Put your hands in the air

All smiles

Quick Get Away

Today's take-aways:

1) It is ok to bring your camera to a wedding that you are not hired as the photographer for other guest will have cameras as well.

2) You probably shouldn't (meaning really don't do this) try to pose the bridal party or bring extensive camera gear.  I would add don't bring softboxes or studio lighting to the event.  It's ok to start laughing here. 

3) Restrain yourself from trying to offer the hired photographers any advice, this is their job and you probably wouldn't appreciate this as the primary.

4) As a guest you will get photographs from different angles and locations then the photographer.  These will really be a nice supplement to the professional photographs. 

5) Have fun, dance, and enjoy a glass of wine.  You are at a party.  You can still take pictures but remember you are a guest.

                                                                                                                                                                                  

Happy Photographing!