The Rising Popularity Of Engagement Shoots

Against a cinematic backdrop of chrome and glass skyscrapers a couple embrace. Stood on the balcony overlooking the cityscape, the man and woman look like any other office workers. But then he slowly removes his glasses, flicks his tie over his shoulder and rips open his shirt to reveal an iconic red-over-yellow ‘S’ against a blue background. He lifts the woman in his arms and prepares to fly off into the ether.

No, it’s not a scene from the new Superman film, but a themed photo shoot featuring soon-to-be-married couple Alex and Karnis. Like a growing number of couples over the past few years, they’ve decided to get together with their photographer and create a pre-wedding memento. This concept, usually referred to as engagement shoots or e-sessions, has been increasingly embraced by couples. But what’s the point of it? And what implications does it have for wedding photographers and the traditional wedding photobook?

The idea of wedding photography has been around for decades. It’s evolved over the years to become a dedicated business, and today the decision over which wedding photographer to go with is almost as important as your choice of wedding dress or even the venue itself. For a whole day your wedding snapper will be with you constantly. They will be an omnipresent observer of very private conversations and interactions. They will capture moments. They will orchestrate moments. It will be intimate.

Getting engaged with your shoot

It therefore makes sense that you should feel comfortable with your wedding photographer. You want to feel – and more importantly, look – happy, relaxed and at ease in your photos. So some couples decide to do an engagement shoot as a sort of wedding dry-run, to help them feel calmer and more comfortable with their photographer.

Some couples opt for an engagement shoot as a chance to embrace their creative side. Like Alex and Karnis above, a lot of couples see the e-session as a way to pay homage to their favorite films, sub-cultures and sports. There are great examples of couples dressing up as characters in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, or from Charlie Chaplin and Disney films. It’s way to explore their shared passions and create images with a lot more personality. This is great fun for couples, but also amazing for photographers, as they get to collaborate on exciting, challenging and creative one-off projects that test their skills as professionals.

The engagement shoot is also a way to get a great alternative album of you as a couple. No matter how talented your photographer is or how awesome your venue might be, wedding photobooks tend to follow a similar pattern. They’ll have a typical look and feel – you’ll most likely be wearing a white dress or groomsman’s suit for a start. The engagement shoot is a way to get a more relaxed and less formal wedding souvenir. It’ll be just the two of you, dressed down and feeling laid back. There’ll be no wedding party, no rigid itinerary for dinners and receptions; just you and the photographer.

Of course, where zeitgeisty trends lead, the cool-chasing crowd follow. Now that the wedding innovators have made the concept of engagement shoots popular, the early adopters are getting into it too. The world of weddings can sometimes feel like an arms race of bridal one-upmanship, with the battleground of better cakes, nicer locations and more glamorous honeymoon destinations fiercely contested. For many the experience of getting married – the timeline for which can easily last 18-24 months – might not feel complete if they don’t have an engagement shoot as part of the wedding ‘package’.

Fending off the backlash

Inevitably, there’s been a backlash to the engagement shoot phenomenon. The wedding industry really is an industry, and the engagement shoot is seen by some as just another unnecessary option that society will eventually expect you to pay for. Others simply see it as a maudlin, overly sentimental indulgence; something of questionable taste, and best avoided.

But there’s no pressure for any couple to pay for an engagement shoot. You don’t need an e-session. You don’t even need a super expensive wedding photography package. It’s your choice. As for the issues over the concept of the engagement shoot itself, well, it all comes down to context and taste. What’s the purpose of your shoot? Is it a syrupy, cringe worthy foray into vanity, or a fun, creative way to pay homage to your interests? Is it a schmaltzy indulgence or an alternative way to show some personality in a pre-wedding album?

The trend for engagement shoots shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. It’s not for everyone, but as a creative, alternative companion to the traditional wedding photobook it’s worth looking at. So if you and your partner are getting married and love, say, 80s-set rom-com The Wedding Singer, why not pay homage to Robbie and Julia in your own e-session?

Emily Buchanan

About the Guest Author:
Emily Buchanan is a writer and blogger working for Howling Basset, a network of wedding photographers in Kent, UK. She’d cautiously call herself an amateur photographer and prefers to shoot with film. Follow Howling Basset on Twitter and Facebook

Photo credits - Joy Marie Studios

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How to Take Great Photos at a Wedding

A wedding presents a huge number of photographic possibilities ranging from still life images of details such as flowers and buttonholes, photojournalistic images capturing the moment and telling the story of the day, portraits of the bride and groom through to landscape photographs of the locations, buildings and the venue. The wedding photographer has to be immensely versatile, technically proficient and able to work in time pressured conditions and in situations that can often be far from ideal. He/She learns to improvise, go with what is available and make great images from whatever raw material is available.

In this post, our guest contributor Andrew Hind (a wedding photographer from Cambridge, UK) shares some worthy tips and ideas for capturing beautiful wedding moments…

1. Choosing the right camera and lens for the wedding

Primarily, it is important to have the correct equipment. It is very tempting to think that the more equipment, variety of lenses and filters one has the better the chances of coping with the differing challenges of a wedding day but, due to the fast moving nature of events and the need to keep concentration firmly focused on capturing the events of the day, it is often better to go with simple, high quality but versatile kit. The main essential is a DSLR camera body with a reasonable capability to shoot at high ISO ratings followed by a fast versatile middle range lens such as a 24-70mm f2.8. This will cover probably 95% of all eventualities. It is possibly also worth considering a wider lens, a faster prime for low light conditions and a moderate zoom e.g. 70-200mm f2.8 for when it is simply not possible to get in close enough. A flash gun will complete the kit for use in emergencies.

2. Look for the proper lighting

One of the key aspects to getting great wedding images is the quality of light. Always look for good quality directional light, if it is a bright sunny day try to generally shoot into the sun to avoid shadows on faces and people squinting. If it is more overcast then it is important to look for ways of cutting the top light by photographing under trees, archways or canopies. Try photographing in open shade, just where the light gradually tails off and in situations where the light will glance off fabrics and shapes giving your images a beautifully three dimensional and textural feel. Whatever the weather and whatever the situation the ability to “see” beautiful light will be a major contributory factor to the quality of the final images. In a similar vein, I personally try to avoid using flash as a main light source as it can often be harsh and unflattering. It is often possible to photograph a whole wedding without using flash right up until the dancing in the evening. Even here it can be a good idea to use a high ISO and a wide aperture to capture as much of the ambient light as possible in conjunction with the flash gun set to provide a little fill light only just to clean up the details in the image.

3. Framing beautiful shots in time

With a wedding being fast moving and often logistically challenging for the photographer it is all too easy for images to lose compositional strength and integrity. Even the quickest “capture the moment” image needs to be beautifully framed, or use the rule of thirds, have a strong sense of depth or have repeated pattern or shape to satisfy the viewer's eye. This is relatively easy to achieve when there is time to consider but the wedding photographer needs to be able to compose instinctively and quickly time after time. This demands constant concentration and looking, waiting and making the elements of the picture fall into place. It is a constant mental exercise in looking for the image, imagining before taking the image and molding, crafting and creating the perfect composition. It is sometimes also possible to find a scenario where the composition works beautifully and all the elements are there to create a great image and all you have to do is wait for something to happen in the frame – often it will not, but sometimes something remarkable will take place and the resulting image will be outstanding.

4. Adjusting Exposure and Color-balance

On a more technical note both exposure and color balance are also vital to achieving great results. Exposure can often be tricky as frequently a wedding photographer is photographing white dresses glaring in sunshine contrasting with very dark suits! Often, when photographing the bride arriving in a white shiny car in a white dress in bright sunshine, it is necessary to photograph with two or more stops of exposure compensation to achieve correct exposure. However, as soon as she walks into shadow this all rapidly changes and adjustments have to be quickly made. Similarly, I have photographed groups of ushers in dark suits and had to under expose by two or more stops to achieve correct exposure. The point is that even the best modern camera will not achieve perfect exposure every time without some human help! Beautiful prints only come from perfect exposure. Quickly bracket if possible, use your histogram (don't rely on your screen, particularly in bright sunlight) and constantly check. Color balance is equally important, it is very lazy to rely on auto color balance and it will only do a reasonably good job most of the time. Again read the light, adjust as necessary, learn how to make a custom white balance for your camera and use it. As a wedding/people photographer I always aim to produce beautiful skin tones and if this can be achieved at the point of capture rather than in post processing all the better.

5. Taking lively shots at the wedding

So, you have the correct equipment, understand light, composition, exposure and color balance. What on earth to photograph? Every single image at a wedding should tell part of the story; it might be as simple as recording the bouquets or table decorations, possibly a nice portrait of one of the guests, beautiful portraits of the bride and groom or sweeping landscapes of the venue and location but, as a photographer, one has to find the heart and soul of the wedding and this will only come about by an emotional involvement and empathy on your part. Look for the moment that the Bride's Mum squeezes her hand as she sees her finally ready to leave for the ceremony, moments between the Bride and her Dad as they wait to go up the aisle.

That first glance between the Bride and Groom as they see each other for the first time, tears of joy and hugging after the ceremony is over, bored bridesmaids and grumpy uncles, guests drinking too much , nervous best men practicing speeches, love, emotion and joy! These are the things that breath life into your photographs, make wedding images leap of the page and crackle with meaning. Observe, anticipate and think, imagine the image, go and find the images and make them happen. There are always great photographs to be taken in any situation it is just a matter of imagination, patience and tenacity to find them!

Andrew Hind

About the Guest Author:
Andrew Hind is a Cambridge wedding photographer with ten years of professional experience photographing weddings all over the UK.

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Tips on how to choose a Great Wedding Photographer

Digital cameras have made the world of photography so much smaller. Think back just 15 years ago when digital cameras were few, far apart and very expensive, and we went shopping for our film, and had photos developed at the local chemist in the shopping center or photography shop.

It seems like a century has gone by since I last developed a roll of film, scanned the wedding photos and sent them to Clients - but that was the way things were done.

Today wedding photography is so much simpler and has made the profession easily accessible to a growing number of amateurs disguising themselves as top notch professionals.

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Here are a few tips and things to look out for when choosing a professional wedding photographer.

Tip number 1: Budget is Important

Like everything else in life, quality will cost you. Don't be fooled by the numbers or technology of their equipment - the beauty of a photo is not directly related to the technology of equipment, rather to the creativity and sensitivity of the photographer. A good wedding photographer will cost you more than the average.
There is a saying: Money comes and goes but the quality of a product or service will stay forever.

Tip number 2: Review Wedding Photography Blogs

 

Sometimes flashy blogs will obscure the photos - look beyond the blog, if you "connect" with the people and events in the photos you see, then you have discovered a talented wedding photographer.

Tip number 3: Choose your photography style - either Black and White…

or Colored?

It's your choice. A professional will shoot with different cameras in a variety of situations - black and white will feature humanity and trigger emotions every time these photos are seen.

Contemporary Wedding Photography

In reviewing a wedding photographer's work you'll want to make sure his approach is what you are looking for: the best wedding photographers on the market today are intuitive and very creative with their digital cameras and adopt what is called a Contemporary Photojournalistic Approach - not a sequence of images but a stream of events which tell the story of your wedding day and capture events, feelings, complicity, and emotions as they unfold before the camera.

Choosing a great wedding photographer is like buying a painting for your living room - it must fit the environment, and the budget: choosing with taste and some guidance your wedding photos will be a small treasure provided you invest adequately.

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About the pictures in this post and their respective photographers:

Angelo Governi and Michela del Forno are Professional Wedding Photographers working for exclusive Weddings in Italy , operating under weddingphotos.it, one of the top contemporary wedding photography agencies on the market today, featuring Carlo Carletti, the award winning wedding photographer who has won the WPJA Award twice in 2006 and 2009 - the only professional wedding photographer to have won this prestigious award twice.

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