When and how to involve a photographer during wedding planning

I have often had couples come to me once they have finalized pretty much everything. The venue, costumes, lighting, décor etc.

In this age of Instagram reels and YouTube films, as couples what you should keep in mind is that the one person who can have a complete view of the visual elements and how they should and would come together is the photographer/filmer combination. It makes a lot of sense to involve the photography and filming team right up front. Of course, you need to select a team which has the vision and can pull something off like this. This needs a lot of experience and artistic taste and ability.

Here are few things we advise couples about:

  1. Avoid plain white backdrops: White backdrops tend to get overexposed and lose details as we keep our exposure dialed in for the couple. This is irrespective of shooting in natural light or using strobes. You definitely don’t want your backdrop to have no details in your wedding pictures and film.
  2. Avoid multicolor LED lights from the bottom, lighting up the backdrop: Multicolor LED lights can completely ruin the visual appeal and also leave blotches of light on the backdrop. In fact we advise not to have any lighting from the floor looking up at the backdrop. There are better alternatives to light up your décor. Décor planners generally do not understand this. They want the backdrop to be clearly visible and just go with the trend.
  3. Time of Day for couple portraits: However adept your photographer and filmer are at shooting, there are times of the day when pictures just don’t look flattering. Strobe lighting and retouching can overcome the issues to a large extent but if you really want fine art looking portraits outdoor then early morning or early evening are the best times. The golden hour and blue hour are excellent. Mid day is the worst time. Give your photographer and videographer adequate time to create art.
  4. Costume Colors: While Indian weddings have a prescribed set of colors to match rituals and Western Wedding dresses are white, there could be other events where you have a choice of wearing various colors. Discuss with the photography/film team on the best colors given a certain color of backdrop and lighting conditions.
  5. Lighting: It is always a good idea to involve the photography/film team and show them the venue and lighting beforehand so that they can be prepared. In general avoid very dark and broody ambient lighting. And if you do, then have some bright spotlights. While your team might be very good with strobes etc there are situations where pictures and footage looks great in ambient light.

Hope these tips help. Do not hesitate to get in touch with us for a free discussion on more such pointers.

Happy Wedding!

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