3 Original Tools and Ideas for Photographing a Wedding

How to make the memory photos of the most beautiful day truly unique

The most beautiful day, some say. The most special day, say others. For everyone, it is certainly the most exhausting to organize!
Every future bride or groom has thought at least once, while looking at the photo albums of parents, relatives, and even friends their own age, that the pictures were too 'posed', stiff, fake, outdated, not natural. Sometimes even ridiculous!

The truth is that wedding photos are not at all easy to take, even for the best and most established professionals. The reasons are not that hard to understand:

• the models are not professionals. When dealing with ordinary people, whose lives rarely have them posing in front of a photographer, the tension shows and risks coming through in the shots, which at weddings turn out a bit 'stiff'. This applies not only to the couple, but also to the guests, young and old alike.

• the 'sets' are almost never original. Traditional weddings often take place in venues that are beautiful and refined, but which don't differ much from one another. This is even more true of churches or town hall offices in the case of a civil ceremony. This often creates the impression that all photo shoots look the same. Unless it is a wedding celebrated by a Comboni friar on an agricultural commune or under a Tuscan vineyard... it will be hard to create truly striking and new images.
  
  

Three small tricks and tools to overcome these stylistic flaws

Having acknowledged some of the causes that risk ruining a wedding photo shoot (which, incidentally, is one of the most expensive items in the planning), here are a few tips to try to overcome these stylistic drawbacks.

1. Use a zoom to capture facial expressions from a greater distance.
   Beyond the customary posed photos, a good photographer must always stay alert and observe genuine expressions, the most 'sincere' moments of merriment, emotion, and happiness. What is lovely to remember about a wedding, but often gets lost behind the formality in photos, is the emotion of the ceremony, which in our society is seen as a true rite of passage. A greater distance from your subjects can let you capture moments that the shyest and most awkward people would not give if they knew they were being framed.
   
   
2. The posed, customary photos, as we know, have to be taken. Besides those shot outdoors, next to the city's monuments, etc., it is possible, with a simple white sheet, a black sheet and a spotlight, to create a small set that, thanks to the light, will bring out facial expressions and the colors of the bride's or guests' outfits. In the photo, some examples of these images taken in low key and high key mode.
   (Both backdrops on telescopic stands and professional spotlights can also be found on Amazon at various prices).
   
   
3. Still on the subject of sets, the technical as well as creative potential of photos taken from above is enormous. Whether using a telescopic pole or a drone you can capture the group while highlighting more dynamic action (such as rice throwing, the bouquet toss, dance scenes, etc.) or images of the banquet and the cake seen from above.
   
   
4. Professional selfies... and irony.
   Even involving guests in 'artistic selfies' can be a good idea for your photo shoot! But you have to know how to step off the beaten path and put people at ease. There will be plenty of guests busy taking selfies as if there were no tomorrow!
   You can step in by asking to take a shot with your phone in quirky poses and with funny expressions, or perhaps as a genuine prank on the newlyweds (the best phones for camera quality are the Lumia 1020, the Samsung Galaxy S5, the iPhone 5S).
   The advantages of this imaginative trick are many: the phone will put people at ease, involving them in something lighthearted and more everyday than a Mediotele 80 – 135; the images can be a lot of fun and above all you can post them online right away, with your brand quickly spreading across the web thanks to shares from your subjects, who will be your amused accomplices.

Be honest... didn't you feel like getting married or going to a wedding, even just to put these tips into practice?

See marriage from above.