Sometimes I am feel like I struggle with what to write… What do brides want to know? I was a bride once…. what were some things I wanted to know when planning my own wedding? Today’s post I am going to be focusing on specifically what is going through my mind when the bride is getting in her dress!
During this time, I am looking for a few very important things:
- Access to natural light. I do not like to use the lights in a room and typically you will see me turn them off. I want all the natural light I can get and it needs to be full length if possible. What I mean for this is that I do not want to use a small window that is high because that will only expose the brides torso properly when the full body/gown is what should be photographed.
- I am looking for a clean space, neutral with zero distractions in the background! This means that I might ask the bridal party to clear out any clutter and trash from earlier in the day in one specific area of the getting ready space.
- I need mom and bridesmaids to be dressed before the bride. I usually will begin to let them know they can start getting ready about 20 minutes before the bride gets in her gown.
So, once I have those things and the girls are changed and ready… now it’s time to process through all of the “must-have” shots that I want and need to capture.
In my head, this is what I am almost always thinking when the bride is about to get in her dress…. and I’m actually going to write it like I process it internally so that it really does show you how I work and achieve my end result :
-Okay soooo Let me just scope out the area to see where my best light is coming from… She’s going to get dressed over near the large window there but I will need to over-expose the background and if I don’t have any reflecting light inside the room to bounce back on to her, I am not going to want to stay in that spot for very long incase the back lighting is too strong and the photos do not come out. So I will do a few back light and then I can change my position over here but we will need to clean up the half of the room to get zero clutter in the background. hmmm I might be able to pull her veil around her to soften the light on her too so the light is not too harsh on her face.
– Next, I’m thinking about vertical and horizontal…. I always need some vertical shots of the “getting in the dress” process for blogging purposes. These vertical shots show the whole dress and once I take that vertical shot, I scoot in close for another vertical shot that is tighter. (I do this because I’m thinking of the blog post! I also want to capture one of two gorgeous horizontal shots of this part of the day too! Horizontal shots will break up the blog post AND give my couple get options for their album design!)
– After the bride is zipped, buttoned or laced into her dress, then I have a whole new list of things that I want to capture. I work hard to capture some vertical shots of JUST the bride acting like she’s putting her earrings in. I usually use my 50mm for these shots so that it’s focused just on the bride and the background is out of focus.
– Now is the time when I get to be creative because I’ve gotten my “must have” shots. Many brides will have their mom or MOH help them get ready, or even both! When its time for putting on shoes and the veil, I am more relaxed knowing I go those first initial important moments I can move around and get different angles and if I am in an angle I really like, I might stage a few of the getting ready ( zipper/button shots) again from a different view.
So before I go I should probably share that EVERY wedding is different and this is just ONE example to learn from!!! I hope that it was helpful walking through my thought process during this 10 min span of the wedding day!!! If you like hearing my thought process and my approach to certain parts of the day, let me know and I’ll keep doing them!!
xoxo,
Alex
