Tammy's Photo tips

[JaimeLynne]

I'm so glad somebody revived this thread today because I somehow completely missed it. Great tips!!!

[Chantal85]

The tips on here are great, I just added a new list to things to remember in my wedding planning binder.

Thanks!

[carly]

Oh man, I wish I had seen this thread BEFORE all my wedding activity was over! So helpful, Tammy!

[aeroo]

I found it super useful to have a list of the groups of people you want pictures with. With the excitement of the day, I definately would have missed having pics with certain groups of people. (Plus my mom kept asking me, "Do you have pics with so and so?", "Make sure you have pics with so and so". I was able to shut her up by telling her not to worry, it was all on the list!) My sis ended up being the coordinator, rounding up the different people for the pictures. We had 38 people and wanted to make sure we had pictures with everyone, so thank goodness we made the list. It made things run so much smoother, but still took almost an hour to do! We did all the group pictures right after the ceremony, so everyone was sure to be there.

Also, a very good point about holding the bouquet low when you're walking down the aisle. I never thought about that at all, and just happened to look at myself in the mirror with the bouquet just as I was leaving the room and noticed that the way I was holding them, the way they felt most natural to me, was way too high. The top of the bouquet was almost at my chin and covering the top part of my dress, which was my favourite part. So yea, very glad I was able to catch that before I walked down. It felt kind of unnatural to hold the bouquet low, but it looked better. Definately experiment with this with your bouquet beforehand!

[SunBride]

I did most of what Tammy suggested (without having seen this thread until now) but I have a few of my own pointers to add

- don't go overboard of the permutations/combinations of people on the required photo list. We were only 10 people (us, parents, sisters and one boyfriend) and I gave my photographer a list of probably 20 different combinations of those people. Looking back, some of the combinations were kinda dumb and definitely not that important (i.e. just the four parents, the two of us with his parents, the two of us with my parents, the two of us with all 4 parents, multiple groupings including my SIL's boyfriend and then the same groupings without him). Because my list was so long, my photographer missed one of the essential groupings - my family with my husband! So I have a picture of just my family (without my husband) and a picture of us and my parents (without my sister). I am pretty sad about not having my family and husband in one photo, and my mom was really really disappointed because she only wanted to frame 2 pictures, one of just the 2 of us, and one of the 5 of us (which we didn't get).

-Since people were talking about how to hold the bouquet, my photographer was good at this, for close up pictures (like from the stomach up) she made us hold the flowers just under our chest. It looks awesome because the photos are right at the bottom line of the pic, but not covering any important stuff. At my AHR I remembered this and tried to copy it, but I held the photos higher, like chest level, which covered the nicest part of the dress (the chest). I wish I was holding them just a bit lower.

Here's some pics to show what I mean

Good ones:



wish we were holding the bouquet a little lower




- Also, if you are taking pics with just one other person, it's nice if you both hold your bouquet (gives the other person some place to put their hand).



-Oh yeah, and my photographer's number one thing, always put one foot in front of the other, makes everyone look so much nicer, more relaxed (and gives you a bit of hip/attitude like in the pic of me alone. I would have looked so awkward if I had my two feet together!)

[DanielleNDerek]

This is a great thread. I'm finally getting to the point where i have to figure this stuff out.

[Virg]

Love This Thread

[PamelaLuedekePhoto]

you were right on with those tips Tammy. Didn't miss a thing

[foxytv]

Great thread! Wish I had seen it before my DW b/c I missed a few pics that I wanted b/c I did not tell our photogs what was most important to us.

We had a lot of pics of DH's family, because they are very animated, I presume, but very few of my family ... and I never got one of just me and my Mom, which I regret.

Regardless, we have sensational pictures ... just wish I had taken the time to give our photogs a list ahead of time, as recommended.

[saraece]

Great thread, this will be very helpful to me because I am not hiring a photographer. My BM's hubby is a photographer who has never done weddings before. Although he has had showings in galleries of his other work.