We all love The Knot and Pinterest for wedding daydreaming. But now that the date is set, it’s time to get real. First stop: photos. One-of-a-kind wedding photos aren’t about spending a bunch of money but spending a little extra time to keep them smart, simple and refreshing in a sea of predictable brides. Get the shots you want and avoid disastrous miscommunications with your photographer with these tips for getting mind-blowing wedding pictures.
Expand Your Inspirational Horizons
Even if you have thousands of pins on your “I do! I doooo!!!” Pinterest board, so does every other person you’re friends with on Facebook. The community has become oversaturated, because everyone is pinning everyone’s pictures over and over.
The best wardrobes are collections of unique pieces precisely curated from the far corners of the world. So don’t just assemble your wedding inspiration images from the average places. Do a little more digging if you really want a wedding that looks like no one else’s. Keep poking around and searching for images in unexpected places, and you’re sure to find some hidden gems of your own. Try Tumblr, Shutterstock, WeHeartIt and Webstagram to get out of the Pinterest rut.
Try some word association games. You can search for pictures of “baroque architecture” or “Ottawa in the 1960s.” Play with different word combinations while searching and follow some hashtag rabbit holes. Poke around and explore. The goal is to find pictures that feel like you want your wedding to feel.
Take a screenshot of the image or pin it to a secret Pinterest board to keep your wedding inspiration hidden from friends and family. Keep specific notes about what you like about the picture. This groundwork will prove invaluable as you design your theme and assemble your team.
Design Your Shoot Carefully
Keeping a schedule is certainly a tough task on any wedding day. And often your wedding pictures suffer because brides cut shoots short or festivities run late.
Don’t shortchange yourself or your photographer. The more time he has with you, your new hubby and the most important people in your life, the better those images will be.
Save time ahead of time by practicing poses with family (large group portraits take the longest) and scouting different backdrops at the location for different poses. This will make transitions during the shoot quicker and more seamless.
Make Known What You Do and Don’t Want
It’s hard to describe the perfect wedding photos, right? But we all know the ones we despise. The shots that make us cringe; that one unflattering angle of your chin or the big over-posed over-exposed family portrait. You can get a good idea of a photographer’s style from his or her website and social media accounts. But communicating specifically what you don’t want will save you time and stress on your big day and regret later on.
Finally, why not search for wedding pics and tips on a photography website? You’ll find much more professional, honest information about scheduling, communication and even techniques and styles. We really like this introductory guide from Improve Photography. It’s a great starting point for an open and professional dialogue about all the details that will make your wedding day photography truly as unique as you are.
