What you need to know about wedding photography

Okay.  I'm going to start this by saying I am NOT a wedding photographer.  Not yet, anyway.  Would I like to be?  Absolutely!  The truth is, wedding photography is completely different than any other kind of photography.  In order to get good quality photos, you really need professional gear (which I recently purchased).  Why is this important?  You need a camera with excellent performance at high ISO numbers.  If you hire someone using a camera that costs less than $2,000, chances are that they will not have this quality.  Why is this number important?  High ISO numbers increase the camera's sensitivity to light.  The problem is that when a non-professional camera has the ISO cranked up, the photo will then create "noise."  Noise is grain.  And it's not necessarily good. 

This is a photo I took of my husband and son at bedtime.  If you zoom in, you can see that it is NOT a high quality photo.  For lots of reasons.  I took this with my canon T2i and 50 mm 1.4 lens.  Most obviously there is a LOT of grain.  If you look at this photo of my baby taken with my Canon 6D with the SAME lens, you can see that there is no grain, the photo is clear and beautiful.  And the ISO is DOUBLE what it was in the photo of my husband and son. 

While this difference may not be obvious in a 4x6 print, it WILL be obvious in something that you want to blow up really big on your walls.

 

 

Your photographer really should be setting a custom white balance.  White balance is the camera's ability to read the color of the light around you.  This is especially important in a church where there may be different light bulbs emitting different colored lights as well as daylight coming through the windows.  An experienced photographer will often bring their own lighting to a ceremony to make sure that the photos of the ceremony are the most flattering (while this is highly recommended, I can't help but think that it might be distracting from the beauty of the ceremony itself.  Personally, I have never attended a wedding that has had the photographer's own lighting center stage.  I'm not sure that I would want my wedding ceremony looking like a photo studio.  Just today I started experimenting with flash and am looking more into soft boxes (I have one, but am working on figuring out how to use it) and may change my mind about it's importance.  Only you can decide if this is something you'd like.  But I will say that nearly all of the $15,000 wedding photographers bring their own lighting and your photos will be stunning.)

 

Also, weddings can be stressful.  You want your photographer to work as quickly and efficiently as possible.  Photography shouldn't be a stressful experience. 

 

If you want me to photograph your wedding, I can do a good job.  Will every photo be perfect?  No.  I can not pretend to do the same job as someone with 20 years experience.  But they will certainly be better than your Aunt with a nice camera who is experimenting with photography.  If you can not afford a seasoned wedding photographer, make sure that your photographer is, at least, a photographer.  For my wedding, we hired a professional photographer.  But also asked my husband's aunt to take some photos for us.  She did a good job!  In fact, at the time, we saw no need to purchase any of the professional photographer's photos because we had hers.  Now, 13 years later, I regret that decision so badly.  His photos were perfect.  Extremely high quality.  I just didn't see that.  I am much more interested in making sure that you have the BEST photos you can afford than I am in you hiring me.  I am more than happy to help you find someone if you'd like some help!

 

If you are on a budget, for example, and like someone's work but they haven't shot a wedding, make sure that their photos show a variety of different situations.  Are they only good at making beautiful photos the hour before sunset in a golden field?  If so, just plan your wedding an hour before sunset in a beautiful field.  How do their photos look indoors?  Have they ever shot professionally indoors?   Have they ever shot an event?  These are all questions to consider!

 

That being said, I have compiled a few blog posts of wedding photographers that you might find helpful. 

 

 

This one is about trying to recreate photos from pinterest.

 

 

This one is about the importance of trusting your photographer and asking your guests to leave their cameras at home.

 

This is a great list of questions that you should be asking your photographer. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 





My gear.

I've had a few questions about my gear.  I'm happy to share!  I am currently shooting with a Canon 6D, the 50 mm 1.4, 85mm 1.8, and the 100 mm 2.8 macro lens.   Why did I choose this camera?  Mostly for the incredible quality of photos in low light situations.  Secondly, I chose this one because it is full frame, which means I can get more of the scene in my camera.  I shoot with prime (lenses that have no zoom) lenses.  My macro lens is incredible.  It's main purpose is to take close up detail shots of things like baby toes :)  But I also use it when I need some distance between me and my subjects (little kids running and playing).  I love the canon 50 mm 1.4 and the canon 85 mm 1.8.  Both of these lenses were recommended to me by Stephanie Klein Photography and are used by many many photographers throughout the world.  Despite owning other lenses that are worth thousands, these are Stephanie's go to lenses.  That is what convinced me to purchase them.  And they're gorgeous.  What is the difference between the two lenses?  Let me demonstrate....I try not to bug my family while I'm learning new things about my gear, so I take photos of my feet.  If I had thought about it, I would have painted my nails or something.  But I didn't, so bear with me.

 This lovely image was taken with my 85 mm.  What the 85 does is throw the background out of focus and "compress" it, or bring it closer to the subject.  It creates fewer distractions in the background and is really great for portraits.  Some people call this "skinny lens" because it is very flattering. 

 

This is the 50 mm lens.  You can obviously see more of my leg because of the shorter focal length, but you might notice that it is a little distorted.   Anything less than an 85 mm will often do that (My calves aren't really that large).  You can also see more of the background, which is good when you WANT to see the background (like at a wedding).  In the case of both photos, the background is blurry because of the low aperture I used (It is possible to have a not blurry background, but who wants to see my messy mantle in great detail?  Although my new camera bag looks pretty awesome up there...)

 

Speaking of my new bag, I have an Epiphanie Ginger bag.  And it's great. 

I use photoshop CS6 for all of my editing.  I do shoot RAW.  I always take a reflector or two with me on photoshoots. 

I also have a Canon 480ex flash, macro extension tubes, and a few protective filters as well as a circular polarized filter.  I set a custom white balance (and I'll show you how to do that, too in my one-on-one mentoring session).  I think that just about covers it!  Let me know if there is anything else you'd like me to share!

 

Slideshows!

 

I'm so excited to be offering slideshow videos for all of my thrilled customers!  These are low resolution (so don't make it go full screen), but so much fun for sharing with friends and family.

The "S" Family - Auction winners | Kingsport Family photographer

This family swooped right in at the last second and won a photo session during our youth fundraiser at church.  Hooray!  Except at the time I was almost completely booked for the  month and they were getting ready to MOVE to Kentucky in just a few weeks.  And it was raining.  Every. Single.  Day.  We had no choice but to do it in the rain.  I brought my son along with me to hold an umbrella over me and my camera and brought along plastic bags to secure over my lens just in case.  We decided to go to Tipton Haynes because if it was pouring, the family could be covered and we could still get some shots.  I love how they turned out.  They told me that by far this was the best experience they've had getting their pictures taken (or made, like so many of you say around these parts).  These are some of their favorites!

Portfolio pricing | Kingsport photographer

Wow.  What a year it has been.  I am humbled and grateful and flattered that so many of you have chosen ME to be your photographer.  I have met so many new and wonderful people that I feel have become my friends.  I have loved that you have let me in your lives and shown me what your families are like.  From the beginning, my goal as a photographer has always been to provide beautiful images that you can look at every day and remember how much you love each other. (As a mother of 4 kids, I know there are days when you NEED beautiful photos of your children just to keep your sanity).  When I first began this journey, I did not know how to do that.  And that bothered me.  So what did I do?  I invested EVERY penny that I made through photography in things like education and better equipment.   I am now at a point where I can say, confidently, that I know how to create images that your family will love.  Because of that, I am READY!  Ready to move past the portfolio building stage of my business.  But I'll give you some notice because I'm cool like that.  Portfolio pricing won't end until October 1st, 2013.  That gives you nearly THREE months to prepare.  But, wait!  It gets better!  Any session that is booked and paid before October 1st WILL LOCK IN portfolio pricing.  Oh, yeah.  Best deal ever.  There is no limit to the number of sessions you can book, so this really is pretty great. 

Future Photographers!

While we were in Utah this summer I took my dad's old cameras down and handed them over to my kids.  They were so confused!  They kept looking for the picture on the back of the camera. 

The {B} wedding

I had a request a while back to post a few more wedding photos...so here they are.  Keep in mind that I did these in the VERY early stages of my photography business (they didn't even know that I was starting a business when they contacted me...5 days before the wedding)....I now have more sophisticated equipment and a wealth of knowledge and experience.