Do want to know how to shoot wedding ceremony properly on your first job? I know you guys are so excited and want to do the best on your first chance so let’s learn more about it.
Dear photographer my name is Bima and today I want to tell you about what to do, where to stand, what gears that you should bring and everything that you must know about how to shoot wedding ceremony for the very first time, it’s gonna be super fun, easy, and surely come with superb result.
By the way I run a photography business since 2009 and promote my services that focusing on destination wedding, it was my dream and always be like that becuse I want to make a great experience beyond earning the money it self. During my career I shoot indoor ceremony like inside the church or small chapel till documenting the ceremony at outdoor area like in the garden and beaches. Generally if you are a person who love to see the moments than shooting ceremony is one of the best part among the whole wedding procession.
What You Should Know Before Shooting Wedding Ceremony
I know some friends and relatives also asking me about how to shoot wedding ceremony at the first time but before we dig more further I want you to know several things that you must consider about blessing, ceremony or you can named it.
Ceremony is the Most Important Event from the Whole Wedding Procession
Sometimes I ask my couple just to make a joke during client meeting, “how often do you go to the church dear fellas?” than they said and laugh “only on family or friend’s wedding, lol”
That’s true and it’s cool, so what I’m going to tell them all about is, this moment will be very special because you gonna entering God’s house and say the vow right in front of Him and being seen by all guests that you personally invite so they belong the eye witness from your glorious moment.
Since ceremony will be the most important moment from the whole wedding procession of your couple than you must deliver the best effort that you can do to capturing the moment properly, here we talk about the moment that supposed to be happen once in life so it’s really prestigious. If you already consider that this moment gonna be so special for your couple than you may surely know that,
There is no room for error!
Wedding Ceremony is Really Fast Moment
Ceremony is a fast moment because it wouldn’t be over than an hour and when we discuss deeper about the main ceremony than it will pass just within few minutes. Since this moment will finish in very soon so there is only limited time that you seriously have to capturing the moment in a right way.
There Wouldn’t be a Repetition for the Moment
No matter where your couple asking you to shoot both inside the church or at beautiful outdoor space than you will only see the moment in once so please remind that there is no repeatation or there is no chance for you to asking someone to stop the moment just to give you a better chances or better angle to shoot because you gonna embarrasing the whole moment by asking this.
Since this gonna be the most important even, it pass in very soon, and there is no chance to repeat the moment it self so all you need to know about how to shoot wedding ceremony is really matters. Here you gonna help your couple to document something that really mean to them on the different perspective with an eyes of photographer so they could see what happen during the ceremony or when they getting old and want to remind how gorgeous they are during the big day by open up every single old sheets of an album that you send them following the wedding.
What You Must Prepare Before the Ceremony
I already told you how important this moment is so making a great preparation is 50% of your success key especially when you gonna shoot it at the very first time. So let’s take a deeper information about how to shoot wedding ceremony by making everything in well prepare.
1 – Bring Your Proper Gears
Preparing your wedding gears properly seems to be 50% of your success key on shooting wedding ceremony, like I said before than there is no room for error during this moment. Having a back up gears like bring more than 1 camera and few lenses will be good because you must have your own back up plan when something bad happen during this session. Just to make you easier to know about proper gears on shooting ceremony so let me breakdown few things that you should consider.
Bring at Least 2 Cameras
Bring at least 2 bodies will make you easier to shoot the wedding ceremony with different angle without changing your lenses, I don’t know what gears that you have right now but if you use Canon than I could suggest you to bring Canon 6D Mark II and Canon 5D Mark III that come in full frame censor. And just in case you are in Nikon system than I could suggest you to bring Nikon D750 and Nikon D800 or similar that also come in full frame censor.
Due to my experience, using 2 cameras is really heavy especially if you use DSLR like me but trust me that this method is worth it to do because we always have a back up gear and able to shoot in various angle without changing the lenses.
Charge Your Battery and Got the Back Up
If you using a DSLR camera I surely that charging your great condition battery and bring 1 for each camera is enough but if you shooting with mirrorless system like Sony Alpha 7 Mark III or Fujifilm XT-3 than having a battery back up is a must because you shoot with an LCD.
If you need some references about original Nikon battery charger or some other references from trusted company than you can read my previous article about:
Double Check Your Memory Card and Make Sure It’s Empty
With double checking your card than you will make sure that you’re not putting any previous wedding files in it. Some newbie photographers used to directly format the card without checking it first and this habit used to come in disappointed because they accidentally erasing their previous file.
Two brand of memory card that I personally use and suggest to you to buy are SanDisk Extreme PRO 32GB and Sony 32GB Class. So rather bring biggest card on your camera like 64GB or more than I suggest you to bring 2 cards with 32GB each where you can split all the files in two source to avoid file corrupt or any emergency situation.
Bring at Least 2 Lenses – Wide and Medium Range
When you shoot with 2 cameras than it will better to put 2 different lenses two on your body, my suggestion is bring wide and medium range lenses that gonna suitable for shooting wedding. Some good lenses like Canon EF 16–35mm f/2.8L III and Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L II are two most favourite lenses that I always bring to any wedding session that I have, in fact this lenses combination is superb to shoot wedding.
Bring a Speedlight
You don’t know how the wedding ceremony’s situation on the day you shoot, it can be normal or low light so my suggestion is bring at least 1 speedlight for your camera. If you use Canon brand than you can consider to own Canon Speedlite 430EX III-RT Flash or Godox V860II-C for Canon
Last but not least if you don’t have any idea about what kind of standard gears that you should have for your first wedding than you can ready my previous article below:
- Cheap Wedding Photography Equipment for Canon User That Less Than $2500
- 7 Nikon Wedding Photography Gear On a Budget Less Than $2500
2 – Get a Nice and Comfort Outfit
Get a nice and comfort outfit will belong to my next tips to you about how to shoot wedding ceremony properly. Please remind that you don’t need to over dress during this moment so as long as you wear a nice looking Mens Dress Shirts and Casual Stretch Khaki Pant than it’s enough than make sure that all of them are comfort to wear.
3 – Knowing Where to Stand
If you ever read my Top 12 Wedding Photography Tips than you will see that I suggest you to held a client meeting both online through Skype and Zoom or offline which is directly to sit together in a nice cafe or small bistro. Just make sure to them what their wedding ceremony venue looks like, it might be a garden, beach front, or inside the chapel.
Once you got those information than I’m gonna suggest you to check the location but if you leave far from the venue than you can browse online what it’s gonna be looks like. By checking the venue than you will have an impression about where to stand and how to move around the venue during the ceremony. Generally you gonna see a venue with the aisle on the middle and two sitting area on the right and left and you gonna see a point spot where your couple will stand together with the priest.
4 – Shoot Fast and Move
I’m pretty sure that sometimes we blocked other people sight just by capturing the moment, surely we need it so much and it’s fine. But all these will about common sense where we still have to respect each other who come to the wedding ceremony.
If you just read my article here than you may have tons of idea and in the same time you gonna fulfil your mind with too much information and it still fine. So I’m suggesting to shoot fast and move when you want to capture something, if you could do this in the right way than you will be able to get prestigious moment without disturbing other guest.