Wedding Photojournalism and Digital Technology

Lights dim, a hush falls over the hearty crowd assembled under a large, satin tent. Loud music transitions to a soft melody. Bright yellow light transcends on the figures stepping over the threshold. Her face glows rosily. Her dress shimmers as she walks besides her father. Her husband-to-be is beside her, in sync with her pace. An entourage of friends, close family and relatives walk behind the couple. The wedding photographer is in front of the bride and groom. He looks at what no one else can see. He sees the small wedge of carpet before the bride does. Her foot catches; she slightly jerks forwards, her groom instinctively grabs hold of her elbow. She looks up at him. Her eyes full of mirth and affection. He looks down into her eyes, smiling with warmth. The wedding photographer sees it all before the couple even act, his camera is already set. Click. 

A wedding photographer’s work is based on a ‘decisive moment’. Paul D. Hoy, a veteran wedding photographer learned of this terminology by Henri Cartier-Bresson. In his book Wedding Photojournalism: The Business of Aesthetics, Hoy explains the decisive moment for future wedding photojournalists as a channel for their intuition. “Utilizing what they have learned through the process of observation and discernment to give them an advantage – an awareness signaling the approach of a decisive moment.” 

Renowned wedding photojournalist, Bill Hutler, hails the evolution of traditional photography to digital photography. In his book, The Best of Digital Wedding Photography, he outlines eight beneficial aspects of digital technology that has changed the aesthetics sense of wedding photos. Some of these features Hutler has mentioned are as follows:

·         Digital Image Software – Adobe Photoshop has permanently changed the style and scope of wedding photos. It has established digital albums that can showcase the unique imagery of special moments of the bride, groom and their loved ones.

·         Unlimited Shooting – Memory cards are more economically viable for photographers and their clients. Wedding photographers can take more than a 1000 pictures, transfer them into a laptop and reuse the memory card for the rest of the event.

·         Instant Image Review – The LCD monitor of the camera provides a preview for the photographer to decipher whether he needs to retake a photograph or discard the one he took.

Shifting from film to digitized frames has expanded the boundary for wedding photographers to test their craft.

How to Make Your Friends Look Good in Portraits

There is a famous saying, “a picture is worth a thousand words.” Similarly, a good portrait is one that tells you the whole story behind it. The best thing about making a friends’ portrait is that you know your friends. You know what kind of a person your friend is and what would make your friend look good.

The key to the right picture is the camera. The camera you use is very important when it comes to photography. You cannot simply have a good portrait using your phone as a camera. You need to have a high definition camera that gives you different options and modes to work with. Once you get yourself a decent camera to work with you need to know all of its functionalities. Play around with it until you know each and every function that the camera has. This helps when deciding what kind of a photo you want to take.

After you’ve self-educated yourself on how to use the camera you move forward to your friend. There are different types of portraits you can work on. There are the up-close portraits which capture the facial features, and then there are the portraits that capture your personality through your dressing and surroundings. You need to figure out how your portrait will best describe your friend.

A good way to work on your friend’s portrait is to focus on their most vibrant feature. That feature can be anything ranging from coloured eyes to the long masculine beard to the tall height of your friend. This gives you something to work around and keeps focus on something that is very unique and distinctive about your friend. This technique is mostly used while working on the up-close portraits.

A good technique for other portraits is to play with different angles. The standard, cliché way to take a photo is from the eye level of your friend. That is the normal and boring way but if you want the portrait to be something that is out of the box and which will capture the viewer you should try unique angles. You can try taking pictures putting the camera on the floor, from above your friend or tilting the camera at an angle that gives an interesting impact.

A good portrait has the right amount of lighting and the right background. What is in the background is just as important as what the focus is on in a picture. The lighting should be used in a way that brings out the main feature in the portrait.

There are many other ways to make people look good in portraits and I’m sure I haven’t been able to mention all of them so if there are any good tips and techniques do share with me.