Weddings are beautiful, memorable but also surprisingly intense events that take place in multiple locations and feature near-constant moments to capture and immortalise.
This is particularly true for modern wedding photography, where there are many big moments to capture, both planned and candid. With this in mind, professional photographers are always prepared to prevent a worst-case scenario from taking place.
Here are some of the tricks of the trade commonly used by photographers to adapt to times when either the technology is refusing to behave itself, or the weather or other circumstances have conspired to ruin a perfect shot.
Avoiding Grainy Shadows
Photography is a delicate balancing act between the three points of the exposure triangle: shutter speed, aperture (how wide the lens is open) and ISO (the gain or brightness of the image).
Typically the main cause of shadows that look grainy is a higher ISO, which most photographers will use to ensure that bright colours and mid-tones look at their best.
Often the way around this is to use a lower ISO with a flash, soft light or strobe light that brightens the overall shot, allowing for beautiful soft shadows without making the overall shot look dull.
Stopping A Camera Battery From Dying
Wedding days are often very long, with the wedding party often starting early and partying into the early hours, which can lead to the potential issue of a camera battery simply running out.
Most photographers carry multiple cameras and redundancies for precisely this reason; if there is a flat battery or a fault with a camera, it can easily be swapped out for another one.
As well as this, most photographers will bring a laptop with them to check SD cards, cameras and photographs as they go, testing to ensure that there are no issues before the important pictures are taken.
Avoiding Issues With White Balance
Sometimes, the light of a wedding venue or the daylight that frames an outdoor shoot sometimes does not want to behave.
Most photographers prepare their white balance ahead of time, but if there is a problem, this is something that can be rectified with an image manipulation program such as PhotoShop.