Question – where have all the photographers come from?

As a professional photographer I am totally amazed at the number of photographers who purport to be professional wedding photographers. There are so many websites which list hundreds nay thousands of photographers photographing weddings covering the length and breadth of the land.

Where have they all come from and how did they get here?

The answer is the magic word “Digital” or let me qualify this “Digital” is supposed to be the magic word but the bad news it is not.

The digital camera has allowed the world and its wife to think that they could set themselves up as wedding photographers for relatively little money – we have all been to weddings and seen what the photographer does – it can’t be that difficult – can it?

So lets suppose the answer is no – off you go the internet or the old fashion camera shop and buy a camera complete with a couple of zoom lenses, a compact flash card and a flash. You get it out of the box charge up the batteries put it in program mode set the ISO to some where in the middle of the range because you don’t know what the ISO is and start taking some pictures and you know the results are pretty good – there I told you, child’s play.

You are on a roll you have not had to learn the old fashioned way shooting on film or transparency, you have not had the expense of buying the film and having it developed and because you have the camera set to program mode, most of the time you get pretty good results. You do however want to get better at this photography lark so you decide to join the SWPP. The Society of Wedding & Portrait Photographers (you do not need any qualifications only money) and there you find that there are loads of old pros who have realised that there is more money in teaching you to improve your skills than there is in photographing weddings because the market is full of people like you who do not know what they are doing. You have come along and are cheaper than them and they cannot compete in these recessionary times.

You have done a bit of study and you now know what depth of field is but you leave the camera in P mode because it is safe you also have figured out that sometimes you need a fast shutter speed to stop camera shake but luckily when you are in P mode the camera favours a faster shutter speed and larger aperture, that’s a relief so you leave it on P mode – these camera manufacturers are one step ahead of the game or rather they know they will sell more cameras if they can make them idiot proof.

Now you know that you need a flash because sometimes it is going to be dark but right on cue put the camera in P mode turn on the flash put it in TTL mode and provided your subject is no more than 10 feet away you will get an image. It’s brilliant isn’t it?

You are not terribly bothered about composition provided your subject is in the middle of the frame and they are smiling (very important at weddings) - that will do and you have seen loads of wedding pictures, you know what to do!!

It is time to do your first wedding and a mate of yours knows that you are a keen photographer and have a good camera so you have agreed to do it for £200 they don’t want an album and you are doing to give them 20, 10x8 prints, your local pharmacy can print them for you and you will have loads of profit.

Now you know that if anything does not go according to plan you can sort it out in Photoshop after the wedding, that’s what you do -right?

You have decided that as it is a mate’s wedding you are not going to bother about professional indemnity insurance and forget public liability. What can happen? It’s not your problem if someone who is half pissed trips over you and breaks a leg is it?

It is the big day and you have decided to get some shots of the bride getting ready but this is your first wedding and you are not sure how long she is going to take to get ready. Then you have to get to the church and shoot the groom with his best man and you have to park your car and get organised and you are not sure what to do, as you did not check out the church beforehand.
You are beginning to get a bit flustered at the thought of all of this - and you have not taken a single shot yet.

Now don’t panic. Go to the brides home and decide to leave at a time that will allow you time to get to the church, park, shoot the groom and see the vicar to make sure he is all right about you photographing in his church – oh you did not think that the Vicar could be a problem!!

OK you are at the bride’s home and she is getting ready but she is running late as the hairdresser was late and the makeup artist is taking ages and her mother is stressed out and does not want you to bother her with the time as you look at your watch. You had hopped to get some shots outside in the garden of the bridal party but so far you haven’t taken a single photograph and you are beginning to wonder what you have let yourself in for.

Undeterred you crack on and take some shots of the bride having her makeup done but there is so much clutter in the room you are concerned that you might break something by treading on it. You would really like to do some natural light shots but that means asking the bride to move a little and her mother is hovering. You have to make a start, you take your first shot and you have a look at the image on the back of the camera, it is a bit dark, why? Should I use flash? Why is it dark – the light is coming in from behind the subject? That’s it – it is backlit – what to do? You are not sure - if only you had worked with someone as an assistant and learnt the ropes – this scenario is the same if you are shooting on film or digital – the digital magic will not help. Should you leave it and try and fix it in Photoshop after the event or what to do – Help!

For the record you could increase the exposure which will blow out the background but the subject will be correctly exposed or you could spot meter on the subject face which will have the same effect or you could use some fill in flash – you are the photographer you have to know and you should be able to predict the results of your actions. Perhaps shooting weddings is not so straightforward after all? 

Manfully you soldier on but you realise that you are not going to get the shots of the bridal party in the garden and you vow for your next wedding you are going to have a shooting plan and you are going to make sure that your next bride is aware of the importance of trying to be on time – welcome to the world of wedding photography.

Now for a little aside – only a demented lunatic or someone who thought that shooting weddings is child’s play would ever contemplate photographing a wedding with only one camera – what happens if the shutter sticks – what are you going to say to your client – “sorry” will not wash – so you have now doubled your costs – so it is not looking so profitable after all!!

You know now that you are going to have to leave for the church, the bride is not ready to do the shots in the garden but you figure that it is best to be at the church on time so you leave with only a few getting ready shots. You could have shot the dress, the shoes and the flowers but you just could not think straight with the mother hovering around on her broomstick.
You make it to the church on time you park and get the camera out of the bag – let’s have another go!!

There is your mate looking anxious so you take a few shots of him and his best man with lots of headstones in the background – perhaps it would have been better if you had sorted out another view point but it is OK he is a mate and you are cheap.

Here comes the vicar. He is marching straight up to you and with a very positive demeanour he informs you that there are to be no photographs in the church during the ceremony. Your heart stops – what no pictures at all – does he really mean it? Oh he means it but you are the professional and you are supposed to know when the Ceremony has started and what will be acceptable to him and will not cause offence. Now there are the pros like me who have a very expensive camera which has a silencer on the shutter and I often get myself in a position that I am not seen and during the hymns I steal a few shots of the bride and groom from the back of the church and then ask for forgiveness – after all I am in the right place!!

It is time – the congregation are seated the groom is in his rightful place and here comes the bride in the vintage Rolls Royce you decide to take some shots of the bride in the car with her Dad – a good idea. So this time you are shooting into the inside of the car which is dark and you did not think you would need your flash as it is a bright sunny day – no digital magic here – your camera will try to give you a perfect exposure and to do this it will have to slow down the shutter speed to allow enough light in but you will not be able to hold the camera still enough and you will get so much camera shake the shots will be unusable and the annoying think is that this will all happen so quickly that you won’t know that anything is wrong. You will not know to listen to the shutter click – a pro will know by the sound of the shutter that there is a problem and will either turn the flash on or will wait until the bride is half way out of the car and the light source will have changed. 

I am sure by now you are getting the idea that there is no substitute for experience when it comes to shooting weddings and believe me I am only scratching at the surface when the rookie is going to find themselves in situations when it is you the photographer who is going to have to take control of your digital toy. Who is it that said, “it is photographers who take photographs not cameras” well whoever it was, they where right.

I will not prolong the agony of this poor unfortunate who thought it was easy to shoot a wedding but suffice to say I have looked at countless examples of lack of technique on so called Professional Wedding Photographers who clearly have not learnt there craft and are in my opinion a product of the “Digital Age”

In conclusion it may not necessarily be an indication of whether or not a photographer is good at his or her job but ask what type of equipment they have, ask have they got a wet weather plan if it is raining on your wedding day – I carry a portable studio. Access how much ground work they do before the day do they supply you with a shoot plan of the day. Of course have a look at their sample albums and have a look at some real weddings and not just their favourite shots. How many photographers are going to be shooting your wedding – the expectations are so great nowadays that two photographers is quite normal to get all of those different shots of your wedding day.