Posted: 26 Mar 2012 08:02 PM PDT One of a photographer’s least favorite types of pictures to take at a wedding is the table shot, the pictures of the guests at each table at a wedding reception. This is because it is hard to get everyone from a table organized, and it does not have the artistry of other photos at a wedding. But this does not mean they aren’t important or you don’t have to put much effort into them. On the contrary, these table shots are popular with wedding couples because they are a testament of who attended their special day. Moreover, for many guests who are on the fringe, that is who are not family or close friends of the wedding couple; this may be the only shot of them from the entire wedding.  Photo captured by Tatiana Garanina (Click Image to See More From Tatiana Garanina) One of the most important things to taking table shots is having a strategy. Normally you will not be able to just go around the reception hall and get every table in order and at the same time. People will be walking around, or there will be servers coming by, so you will need to find a time to shoot each table. The first thing you need to do is keep track of which tables you shoot since you probably won’t be able to get all the shots at once. Likewise, only shoot a table if everyone at the table is available for the picture. It doesn’t make sense to set everyone up, do the shot, then have to come back and do the exact same shot later in the night. Therefore, as you are walking around taking other shots, you need to be looking around for tables where everyone is present. If you have an assistant, put him or her in charge of this.  Photo captured by Tatiana Garanina (Click Image to See More From Tatiana Garanina) Make sure you get enough shots to account for the chance that someone blinks. With more people, there is more of a chance that at least one of them is blinking. Don’t be afraid to make the guests wait a few seconds more to get some extra shots. You already took the time to make sure everyone from the table is present, and to set them up so they look nice. It would be a shame to have a blink ruin the shot. Another tip is to make sure the table is neat. This does not mean taking all the plates off the table. You can crop the table so that only a small part of it is in the frame, but you still need to make sure that there is nothing distracting in the shot. After all, you never know if this is the picture they decide to frame and put on the wall. One more thing to keep in mind is your F-stop. Try to use a larger F-stop if there is going to be a lot of people in the photo. Remember the saying eight is great. So set your F-stop to 8 if there is enough light (ambient or strobe). Likewise, try to set up the guests so they are all in the same depth of focus plane. Depending on your camera lens, you may not want to crop so tight in camera. Some cheaper lenses are very soft around the edges, so it would be better to do your cropping post-production. Having people’s faces out of focus due to soft edges will kill a table shot.  Photo captured by Tatiana Garanina (Click Image to See More From Tatiana Garanina) About the Author: To see more wedding photography tips check out my blog Kevin Heslin. Or to see samples of my Wedding Photography, or Travel and Culture Photography of Costa Rica check out my website Costa Rica Photographer. For Further Training on Wedding Photography, PictureCorrect Suggests:Check out Digital Wedding Secrets; a very popular and comprehensive instructional eBook package for aspiring wedding photographers and has guidance on virtually everything needed to start a professional wedding photography business. With 189 pages of information and many other materials such as shot lists and sample contract templates, there is great value here for any level of photographer interested in wedding photography.A word of guidance…Their website is a little obnoxious to navigate – you’ll see what I mean. But I have found them to have the best wedding photography training package. Their free eBook that comes with the newsletter is a little helpful, but the primary ebook package and all it’s extras are a lot more useful and actionable. It is currently available at half price here: Digital Wedding Secrets eBook Go to full article: How to Take Great Table Shots in Wedding Photography What are your thoughts on this article? Join the discussion on Facebook or Google+ Article from: PictureCorrect Photography Tips |
Posted: 26 Mar 2012 10:58 AM PDT Even for the able bodied, photography can require a certain amount of dexterity. Imagine trying to carry out that job with no arms. In this short video from ITN news, we meet an Indonesian woman who works professionally despite having lost both of her arms in an accident (for those of you reading this by email you can see the video here): More significantly, what the video does not point out is that she is shooting on film, with a manual focus camera, so not only does she have to load film into the camera she needs to focus the lens as well. The video demonstrates not only her incredible dexterity despite her handicap, but also her incredible determination and indeed ambition.  Following the Dream of Photography Go to full article: Following the Dream of Photography, Whatever Life Throws at You What are your thoughts on this article? Join the discussion on Facebook or Google+ Article from: PictureCorrect Photography Tips |
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