Hey guys! welcome back to my channel.
This week we are going to be talking about detail photographs.
How I take them on a wedding day, what my process looks like, and and some tips for
you guys to take away to hopefully improve your detail photos.
But before we start, I first want to mention, if you are not on my mailing list and getting
free photo tips to your inbox every single week, you should go get on it!
Because if you're not, you are seriously missing out!
Ok let's dive in.
So the detail photographs are something that I take first thing in the wedding day.
So I arrive to the bridal suite, I say hi to the bride, and I gather up the details.
So while she is having hair and makeup finishing touches done, I'm going to go shoot those
details.
Of her shoes, stationery, her dress, the rings, stuff like that.
The first thing I want to tell you guys, the first tip that I have for you, is that the
wedding day details:the photographs and getting the best possible photographs, starts long
before the wedding day.
So, a couple of weeks before the wedding day you are going to want educate your client.
You are going to want to talk to them about what you need so that you don't have to go
find all of these details once you get to the bridal suite.
So you are going to tell them, "hey!
I want to shoot all these meaningful details for you, and I want to make sure we can get
this done in our allotted time, so have your maid of honor, or mom, or you, put all of
these important and significant items in a box so that I dont miss anything.
Because I want to make sure I photograph every single thing."
So that's what I say.
And it works like a charm!
I arrive to the bridal suite, and everything is ready for me.
I can just go ahead and move on to my first priority which is find good light.
Even if there is an amazing background, maybe there is a beautiful piece of furniture or
a marble top table, which my heart would just burst!
but if it's not in a good lighted area and I can't move it to that beautiful lighted
area, it's not going to work.
Light is key.
So I'm going to go find amazing light . I'm going to find open shade or some window light
where I can put my stationery on the ground, have the window pour some light in and have
a reflector to bounce it back.
So find good light!
After you find your good light, you're going to want to find a good background.
I want to find something that doesn't distract from any of the details and, if anything,
can add.
And can make it look consistent with the rest of the day.
So one little trick that I have - is I bring a styling board to my wedding days.
I do this because I don't know if I'm going to be able to find a great background in a
location that also has great light.
So this pretty much guarantees that if I'm able to find good light, I can shoot there.
so I have some neutral backgrounds and I have a bunch of other colors of the styling board
and some loose fabrics as well so I have some good options there.
So you have your good light, you have your good background, and what I do is I work large
to small.
So I start with all the stationery and I create a big stationery suite set up.
I put ribbons, and stamps, and any styling aids that I'm going to add then.
I pair back from there.
So after I'm done shooting a vertical and horizontal of the stationery, I move back
and I start checking things off my list and I start getting down to smaller items.
So while I'm styling, I am kind of playing around with positioning and I'm trying to
make sure lines are straight, but my biggest tip is that less is more.
When you're styling, if it feels forced or cluttered, just remove some items because
it's easier to do a simple ribbon and a pair of shoes, than to have a million things going
on and the viewer doesn't know where to look in the picture.
so less is more!
Another item that I bring is ribbon.
I have a bunch of different ribbon colors, mostly in neutrals because sometimes they
don't provide them or the bride doesn't have any but you'd like to have a little ribbon
so that can be really great.
For my photos- For my detail photos- I have a couple of little tools and styling aids
that I use that I want to share with you guys.
Number 1- is this little tiny baby reflector.
This is great.
it has a gold side and a silver side.
it's perfect for shooting rings and earrings and small items where I want to get a little
more sparkle or if there's not a whole lot of light going on, I can bounce some back.
This is amazing for that!
The second thing I have is kind of my holy grail for ring shots, and that is this elmer's
tac n' stick in the white.
I can make rings stand up, and mesh into each other and just get the perfect ring shots,
even if the rings are not the right size ratio to really make that happen.
When the bride's ring is really tiny and the room's ring is really big, and I can't get
them to stand up, this is how I cheat at that! and you can't even tell in the final photo.
So this is definitely a must have if you're into ring photos and you like to pose them.
I dont know if you can really pose a diamond...set them up?
I don't know what the right word is.
The other thing that I bring to a wedding day is vintage stamps, so these are some vintage
stamps that I have collected over the years through I think mostly etsy shops.
Possibly I've gotten some as gifts too.
people know that I collect vintage stamps.
But these are just a really nice accent if there aren't any stamps on the envelopes and
it just looks better sometimes if there are some stamps.
Or just around.
I work a lot in annapolis, so I have a lot of nautical looking stamps.
I think it just kind of adds a little extra something to your images when you have those.
Another little trick I have for dress the dress shot is this command hook.
I take a command hook to every wedding and that way I'm able to choose the dress shot
location based on light and I can put this on a hotel wall or even wall paper.
I have a dress shot, I'm going to see if I can throw it in here, where we were in the
bride's kitchen and there was his little patch of wall that was just really beautiful and
it had some wall paper and I wanted to take a dress shot there and we were able to do
that with the command hooks.
Alright guys! that is all I have for you - those are my tips for getting amazing wedding day
detail photographs . I hope that you enjoyed this video!
If you did- like it, give it a thumbs up, and subscribe and I'll see you guys next time!
bye