We’ll cover the best tips for capturing the perfect golden hour photos :

• What golden hour is and why photographers love it
• Camera settings, lenses, and gear for golden light
• Creative golden hour photography tips
• How to plan, scout, and capture stunning photos
• FAQs to answer all your golden hour questions

By the end, you’ll not only understand the magic hour but also have the tools to capture it beautifully using natural light.

This post may contain affiliate links. If you shop through them, we may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. That’s a simple way to support our photography education and gear reviews.

What Is Golden Hour in Photography?

Golden hour refers to the short window of time just after sunrise and just before sunset when the sun is low on the horizon. The word feels softer, warmer, and honestly more magical.

The light isn’t just technically “good.” It feels alive. Shadows stretch long across the ground, everything is bathed in golden hues, and the air itself seems calmer. It’s the kind of light that makes you stop, breathe, and notice details you’d normally rush past.

I still remember one evening in the mountains when I was packing up my gear. The light was fading fast, dinner was calling, and I thought I was done. But then—right as the last bit of sun slid across the ridge—the entire valley lit up in warm orange and pink. Those frames ended up being my favorites of the trip.

That’s golden hour: fleeting, unpredictable, unforgettable.

Elements of Golden Hour Photography

• Golden hour light is softer than midday sun, creating less harsh shadows.
• It casts a warm color palette — think yellows, oranges, reds, and even pinks.
• The low sun angle produces longer shadows, rim light, and more depth.
• It flatters skin tones, making it a favorite for portrait photography.

Golden hour usually lasts 30–60 minutes, depending on season and location. Apps like PhotoPills, Sun Seeker, or The Photographer’s Ephemeris can tell you exactly when golden hour starts and how long it lasts.

Why Golden Hour Light Is So Special

Golden hour isn’t just about beautiful light — it’s about atmosphere and emotion. Golden hour isn’t just about flattering skin tones or less harsh shadows (though that’s a huge bonus for portraits). It’s about the feeling the light carries.

• Soft light makes portraits flattering by reducing wrinkles and harsh shadows.
• Warm light adds connection and nostalgia to lifestyle or travel photos.
• Directional light creates rim light, silhouettes, and stunning backlit effects.
• The low sun produces depth, dimension, and opportunities for creative compositions.

No wonder wedding photographers, portrait photographers, and adventure storytellers all chase this magical time of day. If you’ve ever looked back at a golden hour photo and thought, “I can still feel that moment,” that’s because this light has a way of wrapping memory into your images.

How to Find and Plan for Golden Hour Photos

Golden hour photography is all about timing and preparation.

1. Scout locations ahead of time. Look for horizons, structures, or trees that could block the sun.
2. Check the forecast. Cloud cover can make or break golden hour.
3. Use apps. Tools like PhotoPills help you track the sun’s position.
4. Arrive early. Set up before golden hour starts so you’re ready when the light changes.
5. Shoot quickly. The light shifts every minute, so take multiple shots as the sun moves.

Dinner Can Wait

The technical side is easy: use apps like PhotoPills or Sun Seeker to know exactly when golden hour starts. But the real trick? Being there: early and present.

I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve watched people pack up the second the sun dips. Meanwhile, the best light is often just beginning. If you stick around a little longer—when everyone else heads to dinner—you’ll be rewarded with skies that feel painted just for you.

Pro tip: The golden hour isn’t always golden. Clouds can block it. Haze can mute it. But every once in a while, you’ll get a show so good you’ll forget to breathe. That’s why you scout, prepare, and show up anyway.

Best Camera Settings for Golden Hour Photography

Golden hour requires balancing exposure to capture both glowing highlights and rich shadows. Here’s what to try:

• Mode: Manual or Aperture Priority (Av).
• Aperture: Wide open (f/1.8–f/2.8) for creamy background blur; f/8–f/11 for landscapes and sunbursts.
• ISO: Keep it low (100–200) to minimize noise, raise only as light fades.
• Shutter speed: Watch for motion blur if shooting handheld; increase ISO when needed.
• White balance: Shoot in RAW for adjustment later or manually set around 6000–6500K to keep the warm tones of golden light.
• File format: Shoot in RAW for maximum flexibility in post-processing.
• Bonus tip for Shooting Video: White balance setting is important here, and don’t forget to take off the ND filter as the light fades

Expose for the highlights rather than the subject’s face to avoid blown-out skies — you can recover shadow detail later.

Best Lenses for Golden Hour Photos

Lens choice dramatically affects your golden hour photos.

• Wide-angle lens (16–35mm) → Capture landscapes, dramatic skies, and environmental portraits.
• Telephoto lens (70–200mm) → Compress perspective, intensify warm light, and isolate subjects.
• Prime lens (35mm or 50mm) → Sharp focus and beautiful blur for portraits.
• Experiment with lens flare. Each lens handles flare differently; learn which looks you love.
• Use a lens hood to control flare — or remove it to embrace creative flare.

Shop our favorite golden hour lenses here that are a good value:

• Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM: Buy on Amazon

  – Great for landscapes and wide scenes

• Sony 35mm f/1.8: Buy on Amazon

  – Lightweight/compact and great for shooting in low light

• Sony 55mm f/1.8: Check price on amazon

  – Similar size to the 35 above, great for portraits

• Samyang 85mm f/1.4: Check price on Amazon

  – Excellent portrait lens at an affordable price

• Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN II: Check price on Amazon

  – Solid, versatile option to shoot some of everything

• Sony 70-200mm f/4 G II: Check price on Amazon

  – Great for distant landscapes and portraits

Also, drones are amazing at golden hour. I recommend checking out the following models if you’re interested in solid image quality at a reasonable price:

Mavic Air 3s – Excellent balance of quality and size in a very capable drone.

DJI Mini 4 Pro – The latest in the Mini lineup, featuring a super compact design and lots of features inherited from larger, more powerful drones.

Creative Golden Hour Photography Tips

Golden hour is more than just “nice light.” It’s an invitation to experiment. Once you’ve mastered the basics, this is where you can start pushing your creativity.

1. Play With Backlighting

One of my favorite golden hour tricks is backlighting—placing the sun behind your subject. The result is a glowing halo around hair, edges, or even dust in the air. It’s cinematic and instantly adds depth.

Pro tip: Meter for the highlights or slightly underexpose to avoid blowing out the sky. You can always lift shadows later.

Some of my favorite portraits have been shot this way. Hair catching the light like fire. It’s impossible not to smile when you see those frames.

2. Experiment With Lens Flare

Normally, we’re told to avoid lens flare. But golden hour flare can be gorgeous if you embrace it intentionally.

• Remove the lens hood to let more light in.
• Tilt your lens just enough to catch a streak of light.
• Try different lenses—every piece of glass renders flare differently.

Sometimes you’ll get little rainbow spots, sometimes dreamy washes of gold. Think of it as painting with sunlight.

3. Shoot Through Foreground Elements

Golden hour light transforms ordinary objects. Grass, flowers, leaves, even tents or windows can become glowing frames for your subject.

Try this: Hold a blade of tall grass close to your lens and let it blur into the frame. Suddenly, your photo feels like you stumbled into a secret moment.

Why it works: The warm backlight hitting semi-transparent objects adds texture and color that elevate an otherwise plain scene.

4. Add Motion for Energy

Golden hour is fleeting, and your photos can reflect that sense of movement. Have your subject walk, twirl, or let fabric or hair blow in the wind.

Even simple gestures—like dust rising from boots or a kid running through a field—take on extra magic when backlit.

Pro tip: Use a slightly faster shutter (1/250s+) to freeze motion, or slow it down to blur and exaggerate movement for a dreamy look.

5. Don’t Forget Silhouettes

Golden hour isn’t always about warm skin tones. Sometimes, the drama comes from going dark. Place your subject in front of the sun and expose for the sky. You’ll create bold, striking silhouettes that tell a story in shapes rather than details.

Silhouettes work especially well with iconic landscapes, mountains, or interesting architecture. One of my favorite photos is one shot from inside a sea cave. You can see the beauty of the ocean beyond and the silhouette of someone walking off toward it. Learning to see this way will make you learn how to shoot golden hour photos like a pro!

6. Use Side Lighting for Drama

Most people default to shooting backlit. But side lighting—where the sun hits your subject at an angle—can add depth, contrast, and a painterly quality. Think Rembrandt with a sunset twist.

Dramatic side lighting is great for portraits where you want a mix of soft shadows and glowing highlights.

7. Keep Shooting Into Blue Hour

Golden hour blends into blue hour, and often the real magic happens during the transition. The warm tones give way to cooler, cinematic blues. If you only shoot until the sun disappears, you’ll miss half the show.

More than once, I’ve thought the shoot was over when the sun dipped. But as we’re packing up or hiking out, the sky turns deep purple with a glowing orange band near the horizon. Those frames ended up being my favorite—because they felt different than the “standard” golden hour shots.

Now we often banter and take bets about whether it’s over or just getting better. It leads to great memories, not just great photos.

8. Watch for Reflections

Water, windows, cars, and even sunglasses become mirrors for golden light. Position yourself to capture reflections for unexpected layers in your images.

Lakes and rivers at golden hour? Absolute magic. Even a puddle in the street can turn into a glowing canvas. I love looking for reflections and ways to capture that golden light, but also the peacefulness of the moment.

9. Anticipate the Moment

Golden hour doesn’t wait for you. The best photographers aren’t just reacting—they’re anticipating.

• Ask yourself: Where will the sun be in 10 minutes?
• Think about what your subject will be doing when the light shifts.
• Pre-visualize the shot so you’re ready when it happens.

This is the part that feels less like “technical photography” and more like storytelling. You’re not just recording what happens—you’re shaping the story with light.

10. Break the Rules

Golden hour has a reputation for being “easy” because the light is flattering. But don’t be afraid to push against the obvious. Underexpose dramatically. Shoot with odd compositions. Turn away from the sun and capture what the light is hitting instead of the light itself.

Some of the most memorable golden hour shots come from curiosity, not perfection.

Post-Processing Golden Hour Photos

Golden hour images benefit from thoughtful editing. We’re big on true-to-life editing, and you’ll never see us faking a sunset. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t make the sunset we had appear its best.

• Recover highlights and shadows → Balance bright skies with darker subjects.
• Adjust white balance → Keep warmth around 6000–6500K, or enhance sunset colors.
• Raise shadows gently → Preserve the golden glow without flattening.
• Use brushes in Lightroom → Fine-tune exposure on your subject’s face.
• Try HDR blending → Combine exposures to balance sky and foreground.
• Slight underexposure → Helps preserve vibrant colors and detail.

Golden Hour vs Blue Hour

Let’s talk about golden hour versus blue hour really quickly. Blue hour is another amazing time to shoot with an entirely different look and feel. But what’s the difference?

• Golden Hour → Warm, soft light with yellows and reds. Perfect for portraits and lifestyle photography.
• Blue Hour → Happens after sunset or before sunrise. Cooler blue light creates a moody, cinematic atmosphere.

Both are magical times of day, but golden hour photography emphasizes warmth while blue hour emphasizes atmosphere.

FAQs: Golden Hour Photography

What is golden hour in photography?

The first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset, when the sun is low and the light is soft, warm, and directional.

What is the golden hour for portraits?

Golden hour is ideal for portrait photography because the soft light reduces harsh shadows, enhances skin tones, and creates beautiful photos with flattering rim light around your subject.

How do you make photos look like golden hour?

Use wide apertures for blur, adjust white balance to warmer tones, and shoot with backlight or rim lighting. You can also simulate golden hour using filters or post-processing to explore creative possibilities.

What colors should you wear for golden hour photos?

Earth tones, neutrals, and muted colors complement golden light. Avoid neon colors that clash with the warm palette.

What ISO should I use for golden hour?

Start at ISO 100–200 for clean shots. Raise it gradually as the light fades, keeping shutter speed fast enough for sharp focus.

What shutter speed is best for golden hour portraits?

Aim for at least 1/125s for still subjects, 1/250s+ for movement. Adjust ISO if you need more light.

Should I use a lens hood during golden hour?

Yes, if you want to minimize lens flare. But you can remove it to creatively embrace flare for artistic photos.

What f-stop should I use for golden hour?

• f/1.8–f/2.8 → dreamy portraits with blurred backgrounds.
• f/8–f/11 → landscapes and sunbursts with sharp detail.

How long before sunset should I take golden hour photos?

Golden hour starts roughly one hour before sunset, but the best color often peaks in the last 15 minutes.

What is the difference between golden hour and magic hour?

They’re often used interchangeably. “Magic hour” can also describe the combined golden and blue hour period.

What is the 20-60-20 rule in photography?

A compositional guide: 20% sky, 60% subject/foreground, 20% supporting elements. Great for balancing golden hour landscapes.

Final Thoughts

Golden hour photography is a reminder that beauty is fleeting. The best moments often come when we slow down, wait, and embrace the light. Learning how to shoot golden hour photos like a pro is less about technical perfection and more about attention. It’s about being present enough to see how light transforms the ordinary into the extraordinary.

Whether you’re shooting golden hour portraits with warm rim light, capturing landscapes during magic hour, or telling stories with beautiful light, these tips will help you create stunning photos that capture the essence of the scene and feel timeless.

Check out our favorite golden hour lenses and accessories:

• Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM: Buy on Amazon – Great for landscapes and wide scenes
• Sony 35mm f/1.8: Buy on Amazon – Lightweight/compact and great for shooting in low light
• Sony 55mm f/1.8: Check price on Amazon – Similar size to the 35 above, great for portraits
• Samyang 85mm f/1.4: Check price on Amazon – Excellent portrait lens at an affordable price
• Sigma 24-70mm f/2.8 DG DN II: Check price on Amazon – Solid, versatile option to shoot some of everything
• Sony 70-200mm f/4 G II: Check price on Amazon– Great for distant landscapes and portraits

Want to see how we chase golden hour in real life? Check out our Field Notes videos where we take you behind the scenes on our adventures.

Planning a trip? Grab our Essential Travel Photography Guide for tips on shooting sunrise, sunset, and golden hour around the world.

The post How to Shoot Golden Hour Photos Like a Pro appeared first on .

Think of your website like a digital first impression. You wouldn’t show up to a job interview in socks and sandals (unless that’s your brand vibe—no judgment). Likewise, your website shouldn’t look like it was designed with a pack of neon highlighters in 1998. Whether you’re just starting out or looking to upgrade, having a modern, strategic, and user-friendly website is non-negotiable.

In this post, we’re diving into how to create a website for photographers that’s clean, functional, and actually helps you book clients—and why I think Pixpa is one of the best website builders for photographers today.

How to Build Your Own Photography Website

In this article, I’m going to walk through what a good photography website needs to be able to do for you as well as how to achieve that. From showcasing your online portfolio to helping you sell prints and products, a professional photography website needs to be able to work for you and effectively showcase your photography services .

I’m also going to be reviewing the Pixpa website builder for photographers. You’ll see how Pixpa delivers on my requirements for a great photography website. Most importantly, I’ll share practical tips for how to build your photography website so that I attracts clients and increases your profits.

If you’re interested in trying out Pixpa, use EPIC for a sweet 40% discount on annual plans or an even better 55% off 2-year plans!

What to Look For in a Website Builder (Summary)

When choosing the right website platform as a photographer, it helps to focus on tools that support both your creativity and your business. Here are the core features to prioritize:

• Ease of Use: Look for a platform that fits your comfort level—some builders are drag-and-drop simple, while others (like WordPress) offer more control with a steeper learning curve.

• Client Galleries & Proofing: If you deliver photos online, platforms like Pixpa, Pic-Time, or SmugMug streamline the process and offer a polished client experience.

• Customization & Design Flexibility: Your website should reflect your unique style. Make sure the platform lets you tweak layouts, fonts, and image displays to suit your brand.

• Blogging & SEO Tools: If you want to grow traffic through search or share your stories, strong blogging and SEO support is a must—WordPress is the leader here.

• E-commerce Integration: Selling prints, albums, or session bookings? Choose a platform with built-in sales tools or integrations with third-party services.

• Mobile Optimization: Most visitors will be on mobile, so make sure your site looks good and works fast on any screen.

• Hosting & Support: Consider whether the platform includes hosting, backups, and responsive customer support—or if you’ll need to manage that yourself.

At the end of the day, the best website builder is the one that helps you do what you need to do—without holding you back creatively or technically.

Managing and Growing Your Photography Business

Your website should support your business behind the scenes—not just showcase your portfolio.

• Inquiries & Bookings: Use contact forms or booking systems that make it easy for clients to reach out (and for you to stay organized).

• Client Education: Share pricing guides, session prep info, and FAQs to save time and set expectations.

• Product Sales: Set up galleries where clients can order prints, albums, or digitals. Platforms like Pic-Time or ShootProof make this seamless.

• Streamlined Workflows: Consider using integrated CRMs, automated emails, or client portals to improve communication and free up your time.

Showcase Your Photography Portfolio Like a Pro

Your photography website needs to show your work in the best possible light—literally. This is where potential clients decide if they want to work with you, so don’t make them dig for your best shots across different galleries .

Practical Tip: Use a clean, minimalist design that puts your images front and center. Don’t clutter your homepage with text or flashy elements. Update your portfolio regularly so it reflects your current style and attracts the kind of work you want to do more of.

Pixpa offers over 200 beautiful, mobile-friendly, and responsive templates designed specifically for creatives. The focus is exactly where it should be—on your photos, enhanced by various template options . Themes like Astra and Scope make it easy to build a professional-looking site without touching a line of code.

Common Mistakes Photographers Make With Their Websites

Let’s be real—your photos might be amazing, but if your website is hard to use, people will click away fast. Here are the most common photography website mistakes to avoid:

1. Outdated portfolios – Only show your best, most recent work

2. No call-to-action – Every page should encourage people to book you, get in touch, or view your work

3. Broken links or missing info – Test every page, especially your contact form

4. Overuse of slideshows or slow-loading galleries – Keep it sleek and fast

5. Too much text or vague bios – Be clear, be confident, and connect with your audience

And don’t forget to add testimonials and reviews to help attract new clients ! These are powerful trust signals.

“We felt so comfortable with [Photographer Name], and the photos are beyond anything we imagined!”

Place short quotes like this throughout your site—on the homepage, under your gallery, or on a dedicated “Kind Words” page.

Branding and Website Design Tips for Photographers

Your website isn’t just a place to show your photos—it’s a reflection of your brand. Consistency in colors, fonts, tone, and layout makes you look more professional and trustworthy in your creative business .

Here are a few branding tips:

• Use consistent fonts and colors: Choose two fonts (heading + body) and a 2–3 color palette that aligns with your photography style. Creative photography websites should be unique, vibrant, and intuitive.

• Write a standout bio: Tell people who you are and why you do what you do. Keep it personal but clear and confident. It is beneficial for photographers to include personal touches, such as ‘About Me’ sections, on their websites.

• Use your logo: Photography websites should incorporate a personal touch, such as custom logos for branding. Even a simple text-based logo adds polish and brand recognition.

• Add intentional white space: Let your work breathe. Avoid cluttered pages that distract from your photography.

• How are you showcasing your work? Many photographers emphasize the importance of showcasing their portfolio in a clear and engaging way. Creating categorized galleries can enhance the presentation of a photography portfolio. The best photography websites enable viewers to easily navigate galleries. Large images on homepage increase engagement by changing automatically.

Pro tip: Think of your website like your digital gallery—curate it just like you would a physical exhibit. Responsive website designs ensure that photography portfolios look great on all devices.

Help Your Photography Business Get Found Online with Blogging & SEO

It’s one thing to have a beautiful photography website, but if no one finds it, what’s the point? SEO (search engine optimization) and blogging, along with ecommerce features, are your best friends when it comes to driving traffic to your site.

Practical Tip: Write blog posts around topics your target audience is searching for. Use keywords naturally, optimize images with alt text, and create custom URLs for every post. Even if you only post once a month, consistency is key.

Optimizing your website by adding relevant metadata helps search engines index and rank it more easily. Compressing images before uploading can increase page loading speed, contributing to better SEO performance. Higher image quality can improve website ranking since it enhances user experience and reduces bounce rate. Using Google Analytics helps track website traffic and user interaction, informing improvements for better SEO.

Pixpa includes built-in blogging tools with SEO features like fast load speeds, mobile optimization, and custom image resizing. It also lets you add alt text, create clean URLs, and set up email capture popups. While it may not offer the most advanced SEO tools on the market, it balances ease-of-use with functionality—a tradeoff many photographers are happy to make.

Pixpa offers built-in SEO tools to manage SEO metadata for your website. All Pixpa websites are responsive and mobile-friendly, ensuring a good user experience on all devices.

Marketing and Promoting Your Photography Business

Once your website is live, it’s time to get eyes on it. Your site is your online storefront—now you need to invite people in.

• SEO (Search Engine Optimization): Use keywords that your ideal clients are searching for—like “Colorado elopement photographer” or “family photos Evergreen CO.” Optimize image titles, meta descriptions, and page content.

• Blog Regularly: Share client stories, behind-the-scenes moments, or helpful tips. Blogging keeps your site fresh and boosts search rankings.

• Email Marketing: Build a list and stay in touch with past clients and leads. Share updates, promotions, or new blog posts.

• Social Media Integration: Use Instagram, Pinterest, or Facebook to drive traffic to your website. Make sure your site links are easy to find on every platform.

• Google Business Profile: A must for local SEO—make sure your info is up-to-date so you show up in local searches and map results.

Building an Email List Through Your Website

Social media comes and goes, but your email list is yours forever. Your photography website is the perfect place to start building a list of fans, potential clients, or people interested in updates, seasonal sessions, or print sales, and to sell online effectively .

Ways to grow your email list:

• Add a pop-up or footer sign-up with a compelling message like “Get first dibs on mini sessions + photography tips.”

• Offer a lead magnet: a freebie like a location guide, style tips for portraits, or a desktop wallpaper.

• Include email opt-ins on blog posts or your About page.

Once you have a list, you can:

• Promote print sales or sessions

• Share blog updates

• Send behind-the-scenes stories

• Stay top-of-mind for future bookings

Platforms like Pixpa integrate easily with Mailchimp, ConvertKit, and other email providers.

Mobile Responsiveness and Why It Matters

In 2025, most people will first see your website on their phone—whether they’re a couple planning their wedding or a brand looking to hire you. If your website isn’t optimized for mobile, you’re likely losing potential clients due to the importance of mobile optimization .

A mobile-friendly photography website should:

• Load fast

• Have easy-to-read text and menus

• Display images properly without awkward cropping

• Make the contact button easy to find and tap

Bonus tip: Run your site through Google’s Mobile-Friendly Test to see how it scores.

Pixpa and other leading website builders automatically provide responsive templates, so you don’t have to code anything yourself—just make sure you test your final site on a phone before publishing. All Pixpa websites are mobile-friendly and responsive.

Website Analytics and Performance Tracking

You can’t improve what you don’t measure.

Google Analytics & Search Console:

See how people are finding your site, which pages they visit, and where they drop off.

Heatmaps & Click Tracking:

Learn how people interact with your homepage or portfolio—what’s working, what’s not.

Track Inquiries & Conversions:

Use goal tracking to find out which blog posts or landing pages are actually bringing in clients.

Bonus tip: Always test your website on mobile and desktop regularly—performance can change with updates, plugins, or new image uploads.

Easily Make Photography Website Updates Without Breaking a Sweat

Your photography website isn’t a one-and-done project. You’ll need to make changes, add new work, update pricing, or write a blog post now and then. A good website builder makes that process simple.

Practical Tip: Block out time each month to review your website and update anything that feels stale. Regular updates help with SEO and show visitors that your business is active and thriving.

With Pixpa, the drag-and-drop editor makes it easy to change things on the fly. I was able to jump right in and build a simple, beautiful site without a learning curve. Compared to other platforms I’ve used (and rebuilt… and rebuilt again), Pixpa was refreshingly intuitive. Pixpa also provides 24/7 customer support through live chat and email.

Deliver Photos Through Client Galleries Directly on Your Photography Website

Gone are the days of mailing thumb drives. Today, clients expect sleek, professional online galleries where they can view, share, and download their images. Your website for photographers should include this functionality.

Practical Tip: Personalize your galleries with branding, include a favorites section, and consider a slideshow view to make the experience more emotional and engaging.

Pixpa’s client galleries allow you to share images, enable proofing, and even sell prints—all from one place. Clients can select favorites, download files, and place orders directly from the gallery, streamlining your workflow and adding value to the client experience. With integrated e-commerce features you can sell photography products, digital downloads, and services directly through your online store without third-party plugins.

Pixpa offers a branded checkout experience that simplifies the payment process for photographers. Pixpa provides tools for managing inventory, taxes, shipping, and orders through its online store.

Sell Prints & Products Online Through Your Photography Website

Want to increase revenue without increasing your workload? Make it easy for clients to order prints and products directly through your photography website.

Practical Tip: Set up email automations to remind clients about their galleries, sales, or special offers. Even a simple abandoned cart email can boost your print sales significantly.

Pixpa’s integrated store lets you sell prints, downloads, or even services. You can connect to your favorite lab, manage orders, and accept payments via Stripe or PayPal. Plus, Pixpa takes zero commissions on your sales. While it doesn’t have built-in automation tools, you can integrate Mailchimp or MailerLite and use Pixpa’s guides to help set them up. (Helpful links are included below!)

• Add Mailchimp Pop-Up

• Add MailerLite Pop-Up

• Abandoned Order Email Reminders

Comparison of Top Website Builders and Platforms for Photographers

Below, I’m going to compare various options that you have for a website builder. Some shine when it comes to your online portfolio, while others are best known for their online store. Determine whether you’re looking for creative control or a support team that will make your job easier and that will help you filter through all the website builders.

Professional photographers should be using a custom domain so that they appear to have a professional website for their online portfolio. E-commerce features are a bonus but are becoming more and more important. There are various ways to incorporate the e-commerce features whether they are integrated into your website builder or a separate tool.

Let me know if I missed any other options for the best website builder for professional photographers.

Platform

Strengths

Considerations

Pixpa

Built for photographers with client galleries, proofing, online store

Limited design flexibility compared to some others

Pic-Time

Stunning galleries, advanced print sales automation, client experience focused

Not a full website builder—meant to be used alongside a main site

WordPress

Extremely customizable, powerful SEO/blogging, endless plugins

Technical setup, security and maintenance are your responsibility

Squarespace

Gorgeous templates, user-friendly, great for portfolios/blogs

Less control over image compression, more generalist

Format

Designed for creatives, simple portfolio layouts, fast setup

Limited features for blogging or complex customization

Zenfolio

Proofing and selling tools, strong for client management

Dated templates, not as flexible design-wise

Wix

Total creative freedom with drag-and-drop

Can get bloated or slow, less elegant out-of-the-box

SmugMug

Unlimited photo storage, secure galleries, e-commerce

Less ideal for blogging or full business websites

Showit

Drag-and-drop builder with WordPress blogging built in

Learning curve for syncing blog with design; premium pricing

Adobe Portfolio

Free with Adobe Creative Cloud, clean galleries

Limited to very basic websites, no blogging, no contact forms

PhotoShelter

High-quality image hosting, licensing/sales tools, built for pros

More focused on commercial photographers; UI is less customizable

Key Takeaway

• If you want a complete website with blog, SEO, galleries, and store → go for Pixpa, Squarespace, or WordPress + a gallery and print sale platform

• If you need a gallery & print sales platform to pair with an existing site → Pic-Time, PhotoShelter, or SmugMug are great.

• If you’re a technical user who wants full control → WordPress is still king.

Tips for Website Success

Here’s how to make your site not just live—but work for you:

Keep it Simple:

Avoid clutter and distractions. Prioritize a clear message, great photos, and easy navigation.

Highlight What Sets You Apart:

Whether it’s your style, experience, or personality—make it obvious why someone should choose you.

Update Regularly:

Add new work, update your about page, tweak SEO, and check for broken links or outdated info.

Invest in Your Brand:

A clean logo, consistent colors, and strong messaging go a long way in building trust.

Get Feedback:

Ask friends or clients to test your site and give honest feedback on the experience.

Final Checklist for Launching or Updating Your Photography Website

• Before hitting “publish,” run through this quick list to make sure everything’s on point:

  Your best portfolio images are front and center
  Your About page shows your personality and professionalism
  Contact form works (test it!)
  Website looks great on mobile
  Links to your social platforms are active
  Testimonials are included
  Blog is active or at least current
  Load time is fast
  Your email opt-in is working
  SEO titles and descriptions are added to every page

  Make updates regularly—your website should grow with your work!

Final Thoughts: Is Pixpa Right for Your Photography Website?

Creating a successful website for photographers isn’t just about pretty templates or flashy features—it’s about functionality, ease-of-use, and converting visitors into clients. Pixpa hits that sweet spot by offering a top notch all-in-one platform that’s beginner-friendly but robust enough to grow with your business.

From showcasing your portfolio to selling prints and blogging for SEO, Pixpa covers the bases. It’s affordable, intuitive, and built with photographers in mind. Whether you’re a wedding photographer, portrait pro, or just getting started, your website can make a huge difference in how people see—and hire—you.

Let me know in the comments: What’s your biggest challenge when it comes to building your photography website? I’d love to help! If you’re interested in trying out Pixpa, use EPIC for a sweet 40% discount on annual plans or an even better 55% off 2-year plans!

Similar Content on the Blog

Looking for more photography tips? Check out these posts on Photography Basics: What is the Rule of Thirds and ND Filter Beginners Guide. Or these Tips for Travel Photographers: Photography Tips for Mountain Landscapes, Adventure Photographer Gear, Travel Photography Gear

Or Business Tips for wedding Photographers: Wedding Album Review, Wedding Settings Guide, Wedding Photography Tips for Beginners.

Interested in more content like this? What else do you want to hear about?

Camera tips, posing tips, or mindset ideas? Let us know.

About the Authors

We’re the Bergreens, a photography team based in Evergreen Colorado. On the blog, we share our favorite gear tips and photography advice.

Download our free guide on how to build a creative business and a life you love or our free money and gear guide for photographers. Don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know how we can help! If we link to a product we love, Amazon links and others are affiliate links, its a great way to support our ad free blog.

In the meantime, remember to…

The post How to Create a Stunning Photography Website That Works: Practical Tips and Pixpa Review appeared first on .

First, I’ll share why we chose Vision Art as our album company (shop the Vision Art website) and continue to use them over a decade later. Then, I’ll discuss the reasons your clients need a fine art album. It will benefit them and it will benefit your business too.

Finally, we’ll dive into the different ways that you can include wedding photo albums in your photography packages. By the end of this article, I hope I have you rethinking how the best wedding photo albums can add value to your clients so that your business and their marriage can thrive.

A Review of Vision Art Fine Art Album Company

We build our wedding photography packages to include a fine art wedding album for a handful of reasons that benefit both our business and our clients. They increase value for our clients and profits for our business once again bolstering our motto that serving your clients well will serve you well. 

In this article, I’m going to introduce you to Vision Art, our choice for wedding album companies that we’ve been using for over a decade. I’m going to talk about the various reasons why we love these albums and our clients do too.

Vision Art sponsored three videos that you’ll see throughout this post. Let me start by saying that while they offered to sponsor the content that I’ll be presenting to you over this fine art album series, they didn’t require that I give them any input on what I say or how I say it. We’ve been loyal customers of Vision Art using them as albums for pictures of our clients as well as for our own family photos.

Vision Art is Known For Thoughtful Customer Service and Support

To kick off this wedding album review, let me share that we first found Vision Art at a trade show where we looked at and compared numerous album companies. Vision Art immediately appealed to us because of the album styles that we’ll talk about in a minute. However, one of the big reasons that we haven’t hesitated to stick with Vision Art for over a decade is that they provide incredible customer support.

The album design and ordering process is smooth and worry-free because we know that if we do make a mistake, their team is knowledgeable and responsive. If they notice anything awry with an album design or even our images, they’ll confirm and even provide easy solutions before printing. Their consistent attention to detail and commitment to excellence is like having another team member ensuring we deliver high-quality products to our clients.Now on to what initially attracted us to Vision Art Albums. These albums are both high-quality and durable as they’re crafted with top-of-the-line materials that last. From the thick, lay-flat pages to the durable binding, each album is designed to be a long-lasting heirloom.

We Love These Beautiful Albums

In fact, we’ve given some albums to venues to use to showcase their space. These albums endure heavy abuse, unlike the care a couple might give their own possessions. We show them at bridal shows where hundreds of hands flip through the album in one day and they’ve held up really well over.

Their lay-flat design, which means there’s a seam instead of a fold, lets you design spreads straight across without any disruption in the middle. This is great whether they’re storytelling collages or full-image panoramas. This feature brings photos to life, especially those wide shots that capture the essence of the day.

We always include a few full-image spreads in our album designs and they add an impact to the viewing experience that our clients love. Their soft-touch matte finish feels premium, enhancing the tactile experience of the album. This unique finish adds a touch of luxury that’s hard to find elsewhere.

High-Quality and Eco-Friendly Materials

Additionally, Vision Art’s fine art printing process uses archival inks and high-quality paper that capture every detail and depth in the images, preserving color, texture, and tone with impressive accuracy and consistency. In fact, we used to ship albums to our studio so that we could review them.

But now we trust Vision Art so much that we drop ship directly to our clients saving us time and getting them their albums faster. We also love that Vision Art is committed to sustainability, using eco-friendly materials and practices in their production which is great for those who value environmentally responsible craftsmanship.

An Album that fits our style

As you’ll see from their website, Vision Art offers a variety of customization options. You can offer your clients a wide range of choices—from cover materials and colors to unique embossing options which can help you design albums that reflect each couple’s style or fit various budgets. Personally, what attracted us to Vision art is the PhotoWrap cover which we now use for all of our wedding albums.

If a client came to us with a specific vision for an album, we would for sure customize it for them but since most of our clients don’t know what they want, our albums are designed in a timeless way that we think really highlights the wedding images.

The photo wrap cover allows the book to be art itself and showcase one of the landscape portraits that we’re known for. This allows people to see the book on a coffee table or bookshelf and be inspired to open it after previewing hard cover and the quality of photography to be found within the pages of the book.

7 reasons why your clients need a fine art wedding album

Now let’s talk about how offering quality photography albums can help elevate your business. Whenever we offer any product or service, we first need to understand why our clients need it so that we can be clear on how it adds value to our clients. This will in turn help us better promote our offerings.

I’m going to talk through 8 reasons why your clients need a fine art wedding album. These reasons will help you understand the value of offering tangible products and give you language for selling them to your couples as well.

Offering more value in your packages allows you to increase your pricing

We all know that clients are viewing photography portfolios and comparing style, personality, and price. In my photography pricing for profit series on YouTube I emphasize the importance of competing on value rather than competing on price. You need to build profitable packages so that your business can grow and sustain you.

One of the best ways to beat the competition is to offer more value in your packages. If you know that you need to make an average of $5000/wedding for 20 weddings per year, then you have to find ways to increase your package averages. You can charge more if you’re more experienced, have a unique style, or offer a lot of value in your packages.

If with another photographer they only get 8 hours but with you, they get 10, they’ll feel like that has more value. And if one photographer only delivers the digital files but you deliver a beautiful fine art album, that has value. We’ll talk more about how to include albums in your photography packages in the next video of this series so make sure you’re subscribed. But for now, let’s talk about the value of albums.

It’s a Tangible investment in their memories

Everyone talks about how photography is the one thing you have after the wedding day is over. But it’s not… if the photos are buried on a hard drive somewhere. If you’re going to spend thousands of dollars on photography, you should have something tangible at the end of the day.

You should have art hanging on your walls or a fine art album on your coffee table, ideally both.

Albums are a great way to Experience the Story

While I love both wall art and fine art albums, albums are a great way to relive a larger story. While one image tells a story, a series of images is a photo essay, telling a series of stories from a handful of tiny moments. You can remember that you laughed, you cried, you danced.

You can even relive things that you didn’t witness the first time because you were in a different room.

Albums are Easy access

Instead of searching your hard drive or pulling up a slideshow, you can simply grab your wedding album off the shelf any time you want to. We use these same albums for family photos and they sit on a table in our living room. Every once in a while I’ll come out to find my kids sitting on the couch flipping through the album talking about that vacation we went on or how cute they were as babies.

After I ask them if they’ve washed their hands because these are important albums to Mommy, I usually sit down and join them in telling stories of our family adventures of that special day.

Albums are Perfect for Sharing Your Photos

As photographers, we love sharing photos from our trips or other adventures. Similarly, newlyweds love sharing photos from their weddings. But having house guests over to sit down and flip through an online gallery of 700 photos isn’t as impactful as having an album they can flip through at their own pace.

Maybe it’s because I’m a photographer but whenever I’m in a friend’s house and I spy a wedding album, I always pick it up so that I can witness their love story. Whether I was there or not, whether I was the photographer or not! You can look at an album sitting around the table continuing a conversation.

Conversely staring at a computer screen is a different experience.

A Fine Art Album is High-quality for timeless preservation

If we’re talking about wedding albums being heirlooms and handled by kids with potentially sticky fingers, we need high-quality durable albums. We don’t want the colors to fade. To be honest I have thought about having little gloves next to the albums but then I’m one step closer to plastic on my furniture like my great aunt had.

And I want my kids flipping through these books. Even our sample albums or the albums we’ve ordered for venues to have on display have held up great over time. Venue and sample albums often get handled frequently and carelessly.

We take these to bridal shows where couples walk around with food and beverage samples. And they’re still in great shape. It’s kind of the same philosophy we have with gear if you’ve read or listened to many of Marc’s gear reviews, you want durable gear that doesn’t slow you down rather than fragile gear that you’re afraid to use.

The Album is a work of art itself

We all have books on our bookshelves that we like because of the contents. And then we have books that we use as part of our interior design strategy. The beautiful books that sit on our bookshelves and coffee tables.

Fine Art albums can be both! I love it when people decorate with things that are both beautiful and meaningful. When they have photos on the walls or books on their tables that show a piece of their story and tell of their values.

Fine art albums are good for business

One of the main marketing strategies that I always talk about is that serving your clients well will serve you well. When our clients look at their albums every year on their anniversary, they’ll remember us and mention us to a friend who is getting married. Or they’ll call us when they have a baby and need family photos.

Referrals are ideal because our best clients come from our best clients. We’ve had couples who saw one of our wedding albums at a friend’s house and then called us to photograph their wedding. If you’re convinced that your clients need a fine art album, stay tuned because up next in this series we’ll talk about how to include albums in your packages.

Including Vision Art Albums in Photography Packages 

Now we’ll talk through package structure as well as how to sell these upgrades to your clients. I’m going to help you navigate how to start adding albums to your package structure. Let’s dive in.

How to include albums in your wedding packages:

There are a handful of ways to include wedding albums in your packages.

• You can use them to create package tiers

• You can inclue an album credit that keeps things flexible for customization

• It can be part of your Post-wedding emotionally charged sales strategy

• Or you can use them as a way to increase package value thus increasing your package minimum and overall profits

Package Tiers with Album Options

You can Create Package Tiers with Album Options by offering packages that include different types of albums or upgrade options. For instance, have a base package with a small album, a mid-tier package with a larger album, and a premium package with a fully customized fine art album. This is a great way to differentiate between your wedding packages and have added value in bigger packages.

Include an Album Credit in Your Packages

Instead of a set album, you can offer a credit toward an album. This gives couples the flexibility to choose an album size and style they like, which increases the likelihood they’ll want to customize and add on. This is great if you really want to focus on customization helping your clients design a truly unique product.

It could also be used effectively in conjunction with a post-wedding sales strategy.

Offering albums as a Post-Wedding Add-On

Offering albums as a post-weddint add-on is great if you’re just starting out and aiming for lower cost wedding packages but want to increase sales after the fact. It’s also a good strategy if you’re a great salesperson. Some couples might be more interested in an album after seeing their photos.

Offer the album as a post-wedding add-on with a discount if they decide within a certain period, which can increase your chances of sales. I will say that we did this in the beginning of our business but found that we preferred selling the albums up front rather than after the wedding day. That’s my personal preference though, I would say this is a great model for someone who is a salesperson who is great at using the emotion of the wedding photos to sell products.

I have colleagues who are masters of getting clients to spend more money after the fact when they’re in love with their photos.

Include wedding albums as a way to increase package value

The longer you’re in business as a wedding photographer the more important it becomes to build a sustainable business. This means making sure that you’re maximizing value for your clients so that each client will be of higher value to you. While some photographers have a bulk client model where they try to book as many clients as possible, I’m a proponent of booking quality clients over quantity.

And in order to do so, I need to deliver quality to my clients. If I want to charge more for my wedding packages I need them to include things that my clients will value for years to come. Wedding albums are a tangible product from the wedding day and something we include for all the reasons I talked about in my last video of this series.

I like to do this sales up front and get my clients booking bigger packages from the beginning rather than waiting until after the wedding. This allows me to better predict my yearly income and know how many weddings I need to shoot. If that’s something you’re interested in, I’ll be talking about that in my money for Photographers series so be sure you’re subscribed to the blog and YouTube channel.

How to Sell Fine Art Albums

In this final section, lets bring everything together to help you sell a premium photo album to your clients. How can we talk about our custom wedding albumin a way that our clients want their own album?

How tangible prints and products add value

Everyone says that wedding photography is important because it’s the one thing that you have left at the end of the wedding day. Clients spend tens of thousands of dollars on a wedding but the food and beverages are consumed and flowers and decorations are often thrown away. If my clients are going to be spending thousands on photography, I want them to actually have something to show for it at the end of the wedding day.

In your marketing, client meetings, and sales calls, you can emphasize the value of physical prints and products in preserving memories. You can talk about how an album is a lasting investment, one that doesn’t depend on technology and offers a deeply personal way to relive the wedding day. There’s a difference between scrolling through your wedding files on the computer in the office and cozying up on the couch to peruse the wedding album.

Let’s talk about some of the ways we do this:

Show Sample Vision Art Albums During Consultations

We let our clients physically see and feel a sample album. Showcasing sample albums in consultations or meetings is a powerful way to demonstrate quality, design, and style, making it easier for clients to envision their own. They also start to understand the value of the album and if our packages are higher than another photographer who doesn’t include an album, they know that they’ll be walking about with something tangible.

Partner with a High-Quality Album Company like Vision Art Albums

Working with a reputable album company (like Vision Art! The sponsor of this post) ensures that your albums match the quality and style of your photography. Consistency in quality reflects well on your brand and reinforces the value of the album option. Many couples think that they can do an album themselves, which they can, so it’s important to use a professional lab where there’s a noticeable quality difference from what your client can order themselves online.

Emphasize the Storytelling Value of an Album

When discussing albums, frame them as a curated story rather than just a collection of photos. Explain that an album tells their wedding day’s story in a beautiful, intentional way that digital galleries just can’t achieve. Now, I’m a proponent of slideshows too, don’t get me wrong. I’m also a fan of beautiful wall art. But a wedding day is a series of memorable moments that can be crafted into an elegant story in the pages of an album.

Include Testimonials from Past Clients

If you have happy clients who’ve raved about their albums, and you can showcase these testimonials to tell stories about these clients. Hearing from other couples about how much they love their albums can help nudge prospective clients to invest in one for themselves. We always talk about how back before we started including albums in our packages, couples who thought they were going to design one themselves rather than order from us would come to us later for help.

We always think we’re going to have time but this is my job, I design a couple dozen albums every year. My clients can be involved and have input, but this is part of the service we’re providing.

Conclusion: How will you utilize Vision Art Albums in Your Business

So what do you think? What’s the best way for your business to start offering Vision Art, the best wedding photo albums? Are you going to increase your packages and include them or master the art of sales once your couples are attached to their photos?

Maybe you’ll convince your clients that the custom wedding albums you offer make the perfect wedding gift for their parents. We utilize the various sizes to offer parent albums or hit different wedding budgets. You could even offer three sizes for three packages.

Or perhaps you can simply ask them how they want to view their favorite wedding memories every anniversary. Do they want to sit at their desk or hold their premium photo album withe a leather or photowrap cover and seamless spreads? Ready to shop? Check out Vision Art albums!

More Wedding Photography Tips

Here on the Bergreen blog, we teach the basics of photography for both Brides and photographers. We offer tips for planning for weddings from location advice and beyond.

Photographers can learn things about the exposure triangle and camera settings. We also review some of our favorite photography gear. Let us know what you’re interested in and we’ll do our best to help take your photography to the next level.

Next, check out our candid wedding moments shooting guide or our 9 Best Tips for Outdoor Wedding Photographers. Links to products are affiliate links.

About the author

I am Brenda Bergreen, one half of an Evergreen husband and wife photography team specializing in Colorado wedding photography and videography, and adventure photography. If you need wedding photography tips or advice on the best gear for your goals, reach out. I share advice based on 13+ years as a wedding photographer.

Download our free guide on how to build a creative business and a life you love. Don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know how we can help!

In the meantime, remember to…

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A couple looks at or shares their wedding photos to remember the significance of this important day in their lives. It’s a big day and that couples often spend a lot of money to bring a lot of people together to help celebrate. So it makes sense that there’s a lot of pressure on getting great wedding photos.

From the Bride’s perspective, you want to ensure that the day looks as amazing as you imagined it for years to come. From the photographer’s perspective, you want to make sure you make that wedding day look even better than it was because that’s how it felt to your clients. Let’s dive in and talk about how to come up with wedding photo ideas when the pressure is on.

Determine Your Values and Make Them Priorities

Most of my photography advice for both brides and wedding photographers starts with determining values and making sure your values are your priorities. That’s the best way to make sure that you’re spending all of your time, money, or energy on the right things for you. For the record, it might be could to pause and evaluate your whole like this way, but I digress.

As we walk through various ways to find and places to look for wedding inspiration for wedding photos, head into it with an idea of what’s truly important. If you take the time to determine what a wedding means to you, it will be easier to see opportunities for wedding photo ideas. If you keep in mind what’s really important, then your wedding photos will reflect that.

The Who:

One of the first places to look for wedding photo ideas is at the people. Weddings are about love and family. They are days filled with people at their happiest or most stressed. Therefore, it makes sense that we can look at those people for inspiration for wedding photos.

If you can show the who in the wedding photos then you’re creating images that couples with treasure. In this section, I’ll talk about capturing personalities and knowing what’s important to the couple. you’ll use these to know whether to spend more time on posed wedding party photos or candid moments.

As you read through, remember the best wedding photo idea is one that turns out beautiful but also meaningful. This is usually more about people than the wedding accessories. Otherwise, we wouldn’t need to hire a photographer for wedding photos because we could just use someone else’s wedding photos.

Capturing Personalities

One great way to come up with ideas for wedding photos is to capture the personalities of all of the characters involved. This will vary from wedding to wedding which is why you can’t just rely on a shot list. Instead, you need to immerse yourself in the wedding and get to know the players involved in your story.

Let’s take the flower girls as an example. Are they wild and reckless in their flowery dresses or are the little shadows of the bride? If you allow yourself to be inspired by their personalities the ideas to how to capture them start flowing.

Let the personalities of the couple and their guests inspire your ideas for their wedding photos as what will lead to photo ideas that are meaningly for your bride and groom couple. As a wedding photographer, I love making each couple something unique to them. Even though I’ve been to hundreds of weddings, they only get one.

What is important to the couple?

When you think about the wedding photo album that will hold your favorite wedding photos from one particular wedding, what story will it tell? As a wedding photographer, I always ask my couples what they’re most looking forward to both photographically and from the wedding in general. I like to know what they spent the most time, money, and energy on.

Then, I can use that information to make sure I’m telling a story that is meaningful to my couple. Maybe they’re excited about the food and I’ll spend some time capturing how much people are enjoying the family-style dinner. Or maybe they can’t wait to see all of their friends so I’ll be sure to capture the reunion.

Make a list of what’s important to the couple and then come up with individual photo ideas from that list. The bridal party is a good place to start because these are the best friends of your couple so pictures of them and close family members are likely to be important. Some couples spent hours picking and cake while others would rather have you photography the flower girls.

What Moments are Happening

One of the most popular answers I get when I ask what’s most important is this idea of candid, special moments. A lot of my couples just want to be able to remember how much fun they had in both the private moments and public moments with their best friends and family members. Moments are a type of photo to capture and there are endless ways to capture them.

You can get close up to capture candid moments from the inside or you can back off to show the intimacy from an outsider’s perspective. You can choose what to include and exclude in the frame based on the wider story of the moment. If you keep your eyes open for special moments you can learn not only to recognize when a beautiful moment is about to happen but how to capture it well.

Getting ready shots I a great time to practice this because it’s not as rushed as the wedding ceremony or as chaotic as the wedding reception. You’ll also quickly see if each group is the matching jackets picture-perfect type or if they’re simply acting natural while you capture everything. This will prepare you for knowing what moments to look for the rest of the day.

The What:

When you think about storytelling you think about the what in terms of what is happening. The storyline contains a wealth of ideas for wedding photos. How can you tell the story through images?

You might take a close-up shot at the climax of the story and a wider shot at a scene-setting moment. Many of your wedding photos are going to fall into this category so you might even break it into chapters of what is happening at different portions of the day from the wedding ceremony to the wedding reception.

A Look at the Wedding Ceremony

Let’s take a deeper look at the wedding ceremony. It’s somewhat predictable with variations for each couple but it starts with a processional and ends with a first kiss as husband and wife. If you think about that story arc, there are great photos ideas that come from it.

Can you show the anticipation of the early portion of the ceremony or the intimacy of the vows? What composition tools will help highlight the mood of everyone cheering as the couple is pronounced husband and wife?

Paying Attention to the Wedding Day Details

Another part of the what might be part of the setting or the where but I’m including it here because it helps give context. All the details help describe the story. The wedding dress photos might be about showing how pretty the dress is or they might be about showing that this is a special day that we dress up for.

Similarly the floral arrangements and table settings might be there to look trendy or they might be part of setting the stage for the story. You can view these things as distractions or you can view all the details as descriptive elements of the story and use them to show what’s happening through your photography.

Telling the Story of the Wedding Day

Which brings us back to this idea of a story. If you think of the wedding album as a wordless book, what story will it tell when you look through it? How can you use your photography to show the beginning, middle, and end of the wedding day?

Using the ideal wedding album as inspiration for what pictures you need to take to create such an album will help set you on the right path. Cocktail hour may not be the most important time to take wedding photos but they help tell the transition to the dance floor. A picture of just the wedding dress is boring to me but a picture of the wedding dress in the background of the chaos if getting ready tells a story that’s bigger than that one wedding dress.

The Where:

I mentioned the setting in the section on details and here’s where we’ll dive into the setting more. The setting is one of my greatest sources of inspiration for my wedding photos. Of course, I live in Colorado where many of my couples are choosing their wedding venue because of the beauty of the setting.

However, regardless of the grandeur of the wedding location, the setting can help tell the story and be a source of ideas for wedding photos.

Using the Environment

Using the environment can mean things like incorporating fairy lights at the wedding reception to show the vibe. It can also mean landscape portraits. Don’t limit your ideas, use the expanse of the environment to expand your ideas.

How does natural light fall in the getting-ready room? Or what if ou can take a landscape shot that somehow looks similar to the design on the wedding cake? Will your group shots and your couple portraits take lace with a beautiful backdrop?

Some seemingly creative poses are actually just poses that seem most natural based on the surrounding environment and how a couple moves through it.

The When:

When is the wedding? What time of day or year is it? What’s going on in the world or everyone’s lives?

Is it a beautiful fall day and change is also a theme of the wedding? Or maybe its spring and it’s all about a new beginning. Better yet, summer is here and the afternoon thunderstorms are unpredictable but this couple with weather any storm together and be stronger for it.

How can you capture the when of your story?

The Why:

Why is this couple getting married? Or why is their love special? Why did they make the choices they made about their wedding?

Perfect wedding photos will vary from couple to couple based on their why. For example, some brides’ pre-ceremony photos will be about fashion and beauty while others will be about intimate moments with mom. Some dance parties will be elegant and formal while others will be out of control.

If you can remember the why of weddings, new ideas for wedding photos will continue to bloom like the love of your couple. The why is the reason that candid moments are so popular. It’s the reason we shoot adventurous bridal portraits or pre-plan shots for the wedding ceremony.

The bridal portraits and wedding ceremony are two of my favorite portions of the day because I know my wedding photography will both tell a story of the vows and show the couple in the beautiful place they’ve chosen to get married. Wedding photography is about capturing a special moment in a wedding photo and making it last forever.

Summary of Photo Ideas for Weddings

In summary, the typical thing that people do to find photo ideas for their wedding is to look at other people’s weddings. Photographers look at what other wedding photographers are doing. Instead, I’m encouraging you to look for ideas everywhere but by being in the moment rather than trying to be someone else.

Sure you could copy someone else’s wedding photo idea and it will probably work because every wedding ceremony is the same as the next. But as a wedding photographer, I love to think of every wedding as different and every married couple as special. The more I can remain limitless in my ideas for wedding photos, the more I can create magic for each couple.

So sure, sometimes I want to try a specific shot at a special moment in any given wedding. But I always need to keep my mind open to creative shots that come seemingly out of the blue. That’s the thing about creativity, the more you make it your mindset the easier it gets.

More Wedding Photography Tips

Here on the Bergreen blog, we teach the basics of photography for both Brides and photographers. We offer tips for planning for weddings from location advice and beyond.

Photographers can learn things about the exposure triangle and camera settings. We also review some of our favorite photography gear. Let us know what you’re interested in and we’ll do our best to help take your photography to the next level.

Next, check out our candid wedding moments shooting guide or our 9 Best Tips for Outdoor Wedding Photographers. Links to products are affiliate links.

About the author

I am Brenda Bergreen, one half of an Evergreen husband and wife photography team specializing in Colorado wedding photography and videography, and adventure photography. If you need wedding photography tips or advice on the best gear for your goals, reach out. I share advice based on 13+ years as a wedding photographer.

Download our free guide on how to build a creative business and a life you love. Don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know how we can help!

In the meantime, remember to…

[mailmunch-form id=”412278″]

The post How to Come Up with Photo Ideas for Wedding appeared first on .

For the wedding couple and their guests, the family photos are the images that are most likely to be printed but the largest quantity of people. However, no one wants to stand around taking pictures rather than celebrating the wedding. We’ll talk about how to balance capturing solid family photos with making sure it doesn’t negatively impact the wedding day experience.

Then, we’ll discuss some tips for family photos that will help achieve your goals, whether you’re a bride or a photographer. And finally, I’ll share a recommended shot list for your family photos. Which is the one and only time of the day that I like to have a show list.

Family Wedding Photos: The Pictures Everyone Wants But No One Wants to Take

Family photos. Beloved images but an often hated pastime. Wrangling people when some family members run off to the bar while others are in the reception or bathroom is an impossible task. A wedding day is short and sweet, every minute is precious.

Every minute spent taking photos is a minute not spent enjoying your family members and wedding guests. Wedding photography is very important. But so is having amazing wedding day memories. A lot of people who have been in a few bridal party photos, have had negative experiences around how much time they spend wasting, I mean waiting on photos.

My philosophy for family photos is that they are some of the most important pictures that I take on any given wedding day and yet they are the ones that I try to be the most efficient on. I want to spend limited time on these photos so that my couples have both a great experience and great images.

Family Wedding Photo Tips

How do we get great family photos but do it efficiently? That’s the challenge when it comes to most wedding photos, it’s just most important with the family wedding photos because of how many people are involved. The more people you add to the wedding family photos, the more complicated it gets mostly because of the time you spend waiting around for various people.

In this section, I’m going to talk about dealing with the details of all the family members. Then I’m going to address how to make the photos great. Using all this information, you’ll be abe to come up with a strategy that will work best for you.

How Long Do Family Photos Take

The first question to come to terms with is how long family wedding photos take. Often, not understanding this is why the experience ends up being so bad. Couples think they can just knock out family photos really quick but it actually takes time to move people in and out of the frame.

I like to put an estimate on each combination in order to do simple math. For example, let’s say you’re going to take 10 different pictures and it’ll take an average of 1 minute per picture, you know that’s 10 minutes. The tricky part is that the more people involved, the longer the pictures take.

With a big and complicated family, your average might end up closer to 2 or 3 minutes per picture which adds up quickly with every photo combination you decide to do. Putting time to each photo that you’re taking helps you know how valuable that time is. While it can be nice to think you want every combination just in case, when you start to add up all that time you suddenly realize it’s more important to prioritize.

Immediate Family Versus All the Family Members

One of the easiest ways to limit the family pictures it to do immediate family only. This is a huge time savings but often disappoints the extended family members who wanted a family reunion picture. Often a good compromise is to just do one extended family photo and ensure you don’t get out of control with a cousin’s pic and an aunt’s pic and a million other combinations.

Who a couple wants in their wedding photos varies from couple to couple. There are family expectations and boundary-setting that need to take place. Family dynamics play a big role in how this all goes down.

I find that the best thing to do is to remember that every photo will suck 2 minutes of time and those minutes will add up. Therefore, ideally, we want to limit the number of photo combinations. But from there, it’s easy to share with moms or other family members the proposed family picture list and make sure there’s nothing else that’s super important to them.

Dealing with Family Dynamics

All of that brings us to family dynamics. The more complicated the family dynamics, the more complicated a whole family portrait list or picture list can get. However, it’s better to think things through ahead of time because you can build a shot list based on what will keep everyone happy.

As you’ll see later when I build a family picture list, I try to build a list that will be most efficient for moving people in and out of the frame. If there are people that can’t stand next to each other or be in a photo together, the efficiency will change. But sometimes it’s important for the experience to keep certain people separate.

In a similar vein, I will often change the shot list order if there are small children or grandparents who for whatever reason can’t be as patient as the rest of the families. I always ask my couples about family dynamics as well as the mobility of grandparents and the patience of small children. Then, I’ll use that information to help inform who goes first.

What About All the Other Cameras

When I’m taking family photos I snap a handful so that there is a high likelihood that everyone will have their eyes open in at least one image. The biggest disruptor to that success is when other family members are trying to take pictures at the same time. Then, people don’t know where to look and it harms the quality of the photo.

The best thing to do is either to tell everyone ahead of time that the photos will be shared and they don’t need to stress. But people will still want their own photos. The second best thing to do is to just let them go first.

They’ll snap a photo really quickly because they’ll feel guilty for being in the paid photographer’s way, and then they’ll stay out of your way. It works most of the time and is peer pressure at its finest. The posed pictures taken with the professional camera are going to be much better than an iPhone snapshot anyway.

Backdrops for Family Photos: The View Versus the Light

Now, speaking of the opinions of others, there is some controversy around where to do family portraits. Do you do them in front of the epic view? Do you do them where the best light is?

Or do you do family photos where it’s most convenient for everyone to walk and stand? Many people will have strong opinions on the answers to those questions. Ideally, you want all three and sometimes that works out if the ceremony backdrop is the prettiest view and the light is cooperative.

Otherwise, you have to prioritize, and while in my opinion, the wedding family photo is about the family and therefore soft light on everyone’s faces is most important. However, in the opinion of most of my clients and their families, they chose to get married somewhere epic so they want epic views in their photos. Therefore, we often need to find solutions to how to get nicely lit photos with tricky lighting with a nice backdrop somewhere that everyone can easily get to.

Sometimes, you need to light the family photos to accomplish your goals. While I’d rather use natural light for group shots since flash is slower, if the view is vital sometimes artificial light is necessary.

Timing for Family Photos

One of the easiest ways to know whether the backdrop is going to be a problem is to identify the timing for the family wedding portraits and what the light is going to be like. In a dream world, you would plan everything around beautiful light.

For wedding day family portraits the timing typically comes down to when it works best with the wedding day schedule. I almost always vote for right after the ceremony because everyone will be present and accounted for. Inevitably if I try to do the group photos just before the ceremony to save time during cocktail hour, someone is missing or late and we have to re-do the shots anyway.

If it’s immediate family only, I think you can get away with a lot more flexibility because the bridal party is often getting ready with the bride anyway and the bride’s parents want to be ready when the bride is. But often in trying to save time and getting photos done before the ceremony, we just end up with prolonging the efficiency of the photos.

Recommended Family Photo Shot List for Your Wedding Day

Below I’ll share a sample shot list for your wedding day.

You’ll see the way I build up a photo trying to minimize how often I’ve moving anyone in or out of a photo.

Traditional Family Wedding Photo Groupings

If you’re dealing with a traditional family, meaning parents who are still married to each other, you might end up with 24 picture combinations. Here’s an example of 12 pictures that might be important to do.

Example of Bride’s immediate and extended family photos

1. Bride with Mom

2. Bride with Dad

3. Bride with Mom and Dad

4. Bride and Groom with Bride’s parents

5. Bride and Groom with Bride’s parents and siblings

6. Bride and Groom with Bride’s parents, siblings, and siblings families

7. Bride and Groom with Bride’s parents, siblings, siblings families, and maternal grandparents

8. Bride and Groom with Bride’s parents, siblings, siblings families, maternal grandparents, and maternal extended family

9. Bride and Groom with Bride’s parents, siblings, siblings families, and paternal grandparents

10. Bride and Groom with Bride’s parents, siblings, siblings families, paternal grandparents, and paternal extended family

11. Bride and Groom with paternal grandparents

12. Bride and Groom with maternal grandparents

Then, you would repeat the list with the groom’s immediate and the groom’s extended family. This is a lot of photos, even though you might cross off some combinations depending on the families. You’re looking at 24 photo-combinations and that’s without adding any special combos like mom and grandma or all the cousins.

Divorced or Blended Family Wedding Photo Groupings

The possible combinations grow as the family combinations get more complicated. In the example below you’ll see 19 combinations of just the bride’s side which puts the total photo-combinations to 38 if both families do the same.

Example of Bride’s extended and immediate family wedding photos:

1. Bride with Mom

2. Bride and Groom with Bride’s mom

3. Bride and Groom with Bride’s mom and stepdad

4. Bride and Groom with Bride’s mom, stepdad, and siblings

5. Bride and Groom with Bride’s mom, stepdad, and siblings families

6. Bride and Groom with Bride’s mom, stepdad, siblings, siblings families, and maternal grandparents

7. Bride and Groom with Bride’s mom, stepdad, siblings, siblings families, maternal grandparents, and maternal extended family

8. Bride and Groom with maternal grandparents

9. Bride with Dad

10. Bride and Groom with Bride’s dad

11. Bride and Groom with Bride’s dad and stepmom

12. Bride and Groom with Bride’s dad, stepmom, and siblings

13. Bride and Groom with Bride’s dad, stepmom, and siblings families

14. Bride and Groom with Bride’s dad, stepmom, siblings, siblings families, and paternal grandparents

15. Bride and Groom with Bride’s dad, stepmom, siblings, siblings families, and paternal grandparents, and paternal extended family

16. Bride and Groom with paternal grandparents

17. Bride and Groom with Bride’s mom and dad

18. Bride and Groom with Bride’s mom, dad, and siblings

19. Bride and Groom with Bride’s mom, dad, siblings, and siblings families

You can see how quickly family photo lists can grow. And some combinations are more important than others. I think it’s important to think about what photos might actually get printed by someone. Focus on those and cross out the rest.

Honoring Moments With Grandparents

Lastly, one of the things that has become more important in life to me over the years is making sure to honor moments with grandparents. I’ve resent family photos to couples over the years when a grandparent has passed and they’re looking for good photos of the grandparent.

Sometimes the grandparents talk to the couple before or after the posed shot, this is a fun and great time to honor the moments with grandparents.

More Wedding Photography Tips

Here on the Bergreen blog, we teach the basics of photography for both Brides and photographers. We offer tips for planning for wedding from location advice and beyond.

Learn things such as the exposure triangle and camera settings. We also review some of our favorite gear. Let us know what you’re interested in and we’ll do our best to help take your photography to the next level.

Next, check out our candid moments shooting guide, marketing guide, or our 9 Best Tips for Outdoor Wedding Photographers. Links to products are affiliate links.

About the author

I am Brenda Bergreen, one half of an Evergreen husband and wife photography team specializing in Colorado wedding photography and videography, and adventure photography. If you need wedding photography tips or advice on the best gear for your goals, reach out.

Download our free guide on how to build a creative business and a life you love. Don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know how we can help!

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What I mean is going beyond the style of the photography. I’m going to talk about the style of the photographer and how their interaction with the wedding couples impacts the stories they are telling. As storytellers, most photographers put a little bit of themselves into their work. Therefore, you can see why the photographers’ style matters.

In this article, I’m going to go beyond the style of photography for wedding pictures themselves and talk about the style of the photographer. How does the wedding photographer impact the wedding photography? Or to go further, how do they impact the wedding experience?

Less Talked About Wedding Photography Styles

Let’s be honest, have you been to a wedding where you remember the photographer? If I were to ask that question to a room full of people I would probably get three different answers. Here is how I would categorize them.

Impressions of the Wedding Photographer

1. Yes, I remember the photographer at this one wedding and they were terrible. We spent hours taking photos and it was so hot and boring. We just wanted to celebrate.

2. No, I don’t really remember the photographer. I remember the food or the dance party.

3. Yes, I remember this one photographer who just helped make everything go so smoothly and efficiently. They were unobtrusive to our day but also made the experience so much better.

Do you understand where I’m going now? I’m talking about a less talked about wedding photography style that can make or break a wedding day. Because the photographer is always there and always around. They should be an asset, not a liability.

The “Other” Wedding Photography Styles

Let’s talk about the three different types of wedding photographer and their wedding photography style. This is beyond if your images come out dark and moody or if you shoot in a photojournalistic style. In this section, I’m talking about how wedding photographers act at the wedding and how that impacts their couples.

The Hollywood Director

Some wedding photographers fancy themselves Hollywood directors. They want to produce epic wedding photos and they’ll choreograph the wedding day to make that possible. This is great for couples who want a highly produced wedding day but less great for those who want to enjoy their guests and have their photographer capture some candids.

Fly On The Wall

Completely opposite of the wedding photographer who is directing the day is the photographer who takes the photojournalistic style to the other extreme. This wedding photographer is a fly on the wall that doesn’t interfere with the wedding at all but rather tries to capture everything in its pure form. This is great for the couple that doesn’t want photographer interference.

Unobtrusive but Helpful

Somewhere in the middle, and the exact balance will depend on photographers own unique style, is the photographer who tries to remain unobtrusive while also being helpful. They will direct certain aspects of the day when necessary or even immerse themselves in the moment, but their goal is to enhance the moment by utilizing their expertise.

The Photography Styles You Typically Think Of

In this section, I’m going to review the popular wedding photography styles that you typically think of, mostly because I don’t want to disappoint if that’s the reason you clicked on this article. These wedding photography styles are important to note too because they’re part of what sets one photographer apart from another.

If a bride is looking for and expecting a certain wedding photography style, it’s important that they find a wedding photographer that fits what they’re looking for.

Traditional Wedding Photography

The wedding industry has grown but traditional wedding photography is what you think of when you look at wedding photos of grandparents. It’s typically more about posed photos of who was present. Most couples want at least some traditional-style photos from their wedding, meaning they want some family portraits even if they want the rest of their photos to take on a different style.

The classic images from a wedding day are those key shots like the first kiss, exit from the aisle, or cake cutting. The right photographer for any particular couple will capture the right amount of these classic shots and posed shots. Some couples have less traditional weddings where the wedding day is less prescriptive so that can

Editorial-Style Wedding Photography

The editorial photography style is what you think of when you look at a magazine photoshoot. Similarly, editorial wedding photos are going to include a lot of details to show the style of the wedding. Many photographers shoot some editorial-style photos in their image collection.

Photojournalistic Wedding Photography

The photojournalistic style is popular for couples seeking to capture candid moments that seem more real. The candid photography style tries for minimal interference from the wedding photographer so that moments are more genuine. Different photographers have different standards for how strict they are about interfering.

Lifestyle Photography for Weddings

Lifestyle photography for weddings falls somewhere between editorial and photojournalistic wedding photography, in my opinion. There might be real moments but sometimes they are more staged and directed in order to make it look a certain way. This isn’t a common term used for a wedding photography style because most photographers will fall into one of the other categories but the more directive a photojournalist gets the more they move away from pure photojournalism to something else.

Fine Art Wedding Photography Style

When you think of fine art photography you think of photography that is about the creative expression of the artist. Fine art wedding photography is similar where the photographer might express more through their photos than what meets the eye. In my mind, this is about quality over quantity and a photographer might spend more time on fewer images.

Wedding Photography Editing Styles

Beyond how a photographer approaches the day comes how the photographer edits the wedding day. This is where you get the photos that are edited differently. Some photographers deliver moody images while others deliver airy photos, while some of this is based on how the photographer shoots much of it happens in post-production.

If a bride wants vintage wedding photography, black and white photography, or dark and moody photography, that really applies more to how the photographer edits their images than their approach to shooting. A photojournalist might be dark and moody in their editing, for example.

I think that the post-production style has the biggest impact on whether you end up with timeless images or more trendy images. Wedding photography has evolved over time but it’s also still wedding photography. The style of wedding photography doesn’t change the subject of what we’re photographing.

Other Things That Impact a Photographer’s Style

Let’s talk about a few other things that can impact a photographer’s style. Sometimes the venue plays a part in the style of wedding photography. Outdoor weddings, for example, are easier to shoot natural light or aerial photography.

Wedding photojournalism is popular but sometimes the wedding photographer has to play the part of wedding planner by helping things move along. If the wedding party doesn’t know when to go where, the wedding photographer choose to keep people on task. The different wedding photography styles then can start to blend together and feel less like any one particular style.

On that note, a photographer might embody more than one style resulting in their own signature style that is a blend of different styles. This is actually great because in creating their own style they’re able to differentiate themselves from other wedding photographers and set expectations for their wedding clients.

Choosing the Style of Photography for a Wedding

So how do you choose your wedding photography style? Or how does a bride choose a fine art wedding photographer over a photojournalistic dark and moody photographer? It comes down to what a couple is looking for in their photography and whether that’s compatible with how a photographer likes to create images.

Arguably, a wedding photographer could simply edit in various post-processing styles to get a dark and moody style or a light and airy style. Some of those looks come from your shooting style and how you’re using the natural light or camera flash. But some of it comes from how you edit.

Either way, many wedding photographers have both a personality style, approach to how they shoot, and vision for how they edit. The different wedding photography styles are based on what someone likes to create. For example, if you love flying a drone you might develop an aerial wedding photography style. And then similar a bride will choose the right photographer for her based on her interests.

More Wedding Photography Tips

Here on the Bergreen blog, we teach the basics of photography for both Brides and photographers. Learn things such as the exposure triangle and camera settings. We also review some of our favorite gear. Let us know what you’re interested in and we’ll do our best to help take your photography to the next level.

Next, check out our candid moments shooting guide or our 9 Best Tips for Outdoor Wedding Photographers. You might love these marketing tips for growing your business or pricing tips. Links to products are affiliate links.

About the author

I am Brenda Bergreen, one half of an Evergreen husband and wife photography team specializing in Colorado wedding photography and videography, and adventure photography. If you need wedding photography tips or advice on the best gear for your goals, reach out.

Download our free guide on how to build a creative business and a life you love. Don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know how we can help!

In the meantime, remember to…

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I’m going to talk about budgeting and how having a starting point financially is crucial before you move forward. Then, I’ll discuss why knowing who you don’t want to work with is important for battling burnout and saving your mental health. Finally, considering diversification will help give you peace of mind in a volatile and unpredictable landscape.

As you read through these tips, I encourage you to think about what your business pain points are. What scares you, excites you, pushes you forward, or holds you back? These tips are my way of solving those problems for myself.

Budgeting for Photographers

This might sound basic but I feel like it’s an overlooked aspect of starting a photography business. Heck, it’s an overlooked aspect of running a business even years into it. I can’t tell you how many photography business owners I know who don’t have a firm grasp on their income and expenses.

Here’s the thing. If you’re spending more than you’re making, you’re not profitable. That includes paying yourself a salary.

For some people, this means we need to step back from the business side of things and make sure we have a personal budget too. Personal and business finances should be kept separate but personal and business finances are interconnected. You need to know how much your life costs so that you know the salary you require.

Take a Step Back: Personal Budget

If you don’t already have a personal budget, that’s a good place to start. Calculate how much your life costs so that you know where your money is going. It’s freedom to spend money consciously rather than not knowing where it’s going.

Getting a handle on your personal finances will help you build goals for your business as well. You’ll start to set goals for your money which will inspire and direct your work ethic. Maybe you want to work less so you cut your budget or maybe you want to spend more so you work harder.

Knowing where you stand before diving into this next section will help you have the right mindset when we start to look at our photography business. Professional photographers wear many hats and CFO is one of them. Having a business bank account is one step towards managing what that business bank account does.

Step Forward: Building a Business Budget

Now that you know how your photography business impacts your personal life, you can take a dive into your business finances. When it comes to your business bank account, you want to make sure that you’re making more than your spending, including paying yourself a salary.

Some of your costs will be fixed monthly costs while others are variable depending on print or product sales. Write down all of your expenses to get an idea of how much it costs you to run your photography business.

Professional photographers might have a variety of income streams so it’s good to set income goals for each one. When you look at your own photography business, do you have data showing where your highest profits are? It’s helpful to separate out your income sources so that you know where to direct your energy.

start a photography business Smart

If you’re looking to get started, you’ll want to keep your photography business startup costs low. Your photography business plan should include a budget and a marketing plan. Your budget should include the essentials such as a photography business website, photo editing software, business insurance, and any other business expenses.

Remember we’re going to keep business finances separate from personal but any business debt is essentially personal debt so avoid debt and build a budget instead. That means your marketing costs will be time, not money, at least in the beginning. Go where the potential clients are, finding clients for free or sweat equity will help you be profitable sooner.

Only later when you have a foundation built will you start to worry about specific business structure or paying more to conduct market research or email marketing software. Until then, market research is you. (On that note, don’t get carried away with expensive photography equipment!)

Know Who Your Ideal Client Isn’t

One of the most important things I’ve learned over more than a decade of running a photography business is that it’s important to know who you don’t want to work with. Everyone talks about the ideal client avatar and knowing your ideal client. But I’ve learned that it’s key to know who your ideal client isn’t.

When you find yourself working for the wrong person, it feels terrible. You might compromise your creativity, values, mental and emotional health, or more. Remember, you didn’t start your own photography business to have a terrible boss.

There may be a season when you put up with a terrible client but you need to fire them as soon as possible. This is the only way to avoid burnout and stay true to why you started your photography business in the first place. As a professional photographer, you have the right to expect professional behavior from your clients.

Choosing Your Clients

The best part of owning your own photography business is choosing your clients. That might mean the type of work you want to do or it might mean the type of person you want to work for. You might not know everything when you first start a photography business but you probably are aware of a few things you want to avoid.

Make a list of the type of work you want to do and the type of people you want to surround yourself with. Target your search for a potential client towards new clients that fit your vision. You’re a small business so one terrible client can have a big impact on your personal and professional life.

Instead of taking pictures, you’ll find yourself dealing with clients instead.

Diversify Your Photography Business

Now, going back to money, let’s talk more about those various income streams you have. When you start a photography business, everyone tells you to specialize, specialize, specialize. This is generally good advice when you’re just starting a photography business.

To start a photography business, you need a place to start. You need to know what photography services to offer and what skills you need to develop. It helps to specialize and be known for being really good for one thing in particular.

The problem with specialization is that your niche might be too small to be sustainable or to allow for growth. You’re also putting all your eggs in one basket. If instead, you diversify your income streams, you can handle the ebbs and flows of different aspects of your industry.

The Argument for a Diverse Photography Business

Let’s take wedding photography as an example. Wedding photography can be very seasonal and you might have a limited number of weekends that you can photograph a wedding. One choice is to work like crazy during the wedding season and then try to recover in the off-season.

I can tell you that way of working wasn’t sustainable for me. Instead, I prefer finding some non-wedding work in the off-season to help balance my income so that I don’t have to work an unrealistic schedule during the wedding season. Additionally, some years seem to be hotter for weddings than others, and having other income streams during certain years (such as a pandemic) can be a business saver.

Wedding photography is just one example. Real Estate photography can be very seasonal as well depending on where you live. When you start a photography business, you might focus on one niche and grow that to be strong but you might also take any photography work offered to you.

Summary of Photography Business Survival Tips

I hope you gleaned something helpful from these 3 photography business tips. Based on over a decade of experience I think some overlooked aspects of photography business are: budgeting, knowing who your idea client isn’t, and diversifying your income streams. When you’re building your own business, be sure that your creating and meeting your own goals.

Is your goal to be profitable, successful, or famous? And when you break that down further, what does success look like? Are you looking to save money or just live your dream.

A photography business grows when you serve more clients. Your photography portfolio and your photography career benefits too. So don’t overlook the importance of a budget or finding the right clients.

More Reading for Your Photography Business

Whether you’re looking to start a photography business or increase your photography services, we’re here to help. We have reviews on photography equipment and posts on coming up with a marketing strategy. I can’t wait for you to start your new photography business!

Recent Building a Life and Tips for Wedding Photographers you might enjoy:

• Our 9 Best Outdoor Wedding Photography Tips

• Creative Mindset Discovery and Growth

• Creativity Test | Either you’re creative or…

• Creative Business Owner and Mom Seeks Calm Mind

• Minimalist Wedding Photography Gear

Let us know what else you want to hear about on the blog! We’ll share our favorite drone accessories and more.

We are Marc and Brenda Bergreen, a husband and wife photography team specializing in outdoor weddings and other adventures. Capturing people in nature and the mountain lifestyle is a passion that became a dream that became a life.

We don’t link to a lot of things but when there are books or gear we love we’ll share it and links to Amazon are affiliate links.

Based in Evergreen, CO we travel throughout the state as Colorado adventure wedding photographers. We also frequently travel to California and other wedding destinations to document love and adventure in a variety of memorable settings. Don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know how we can help! Be sure to follow us (weddings instagram & adventures instagram) and/or like us (facebook) to stay tuned.

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For us, as wedding photographers, we love the opportunity to get to know our couples so that when we show up on the wedding day they relax. Not only do they know that they’ll look good because they’ve seen the results of the engagement session but they know us too. They also know what to expect when it comes to how to pose because they experienced it through their engagement poses.

This guide will talk about engagement photoshoot styles, poses, and other little details to make the engagement session a success. Whether you’re a bride or a photographer looking for ideas I hope one takeaway is that engagement photo shoots can be enjoyable! I’ve been a wedding photographer for over a decade and am excited to share what I’ve learned.

Engagement Photoshoot Outline

1. What is your engagement photo style?

2. What to wear for an engagement shoot

3. Questions from Brides

4. Capturing candid engagement photos

5. The little things

6. Final Tips for Photographers

First, let me just discuss the questions are engagement photos necessary? I personally think engagement photosessions are a great way for the couple and photog to get to know each other and know how to work together before the wedding. If you’re hesitant, look for engagement photo inspo that speaks to you such as if you want engagement photos with kids, look for engagement photo ideas with kids.

When it comes to engagement photo pricing you want to make sure whatever you get results in actual tangible engagement photographs. Engagement session pricing might start around $200 but most photographers charge more like $800+ with digital files included.

What’s Your Engagement Photo Style

First off, I think it bears mentioning that every photographer is different, and therefore every engagement photo shoot is going to be a little different based on the photographer’s style as well as the bride’s style. For example, we have a certain photography style but we also customize our shoot based on the individual couples and what they’re looking for in their engagement photos. The point is that our wedding photography and engagement photography are cohesive.

Our couples know what to expect if not on their engagement shoot then on their wedding day. That doesn’t mean we don’t listen if they have an engagement photo idea, in fact as I said I like for the couple to get unique engagement photos that really speak to their style.

You may have heard of wedding photography styles, the traditional versus photojournalist versus romantic or fashion. As you can imagine, engagement shoot styles are similar from artsy engagement photos and beyond. Below I’ll describe some photography styles and then some of the reasons our couples like our engagement photos and then you can use that to help guide you to define your style.

Photography Styles

I dive deeper into this topic in my post on understanding wedding photography styles. Essentially, photography has evolved from traditional portraiture to be as unique and numerous as the photographers that shoot. Wedding photographers might specialize in photojournalism, fine art, editorial, trendy, timeless, adventure, fashion, or many other styles of wedding photography.

Then, photographers might have a variety of styles of engagement photography too. Do they do a short session or a long session? Who pics the location?

To give you an idea, let me talk about what many of our couples want or expect from their engagement photoshoot. For example, when it comes to our couples we want to have plenty of outdoor engagement photo ideas. Keep reading for engagement photos inspiration based on theme from sunset to romance and more.

Sunset Engagement Photo in the Mountains

Most of our engagement photo ideas revolve around the environment. In fact, it’s less about engagement photo ideas and more about engagement photo locations. Where is a cool place we can go to get unique sunset engagement photos in the mountains of Colorado?

For us, the engagement shoot is a portrait session with fewer time restrictions so we almost always plan around sunset. The exception might be when we talk our couple into sunrise. For us fun engagement photos involve allowing our couples to experience a beautiful and memorable location.

The setting is important in our style of photography, it’s the background for the love story. While on the wedding day, we might be limited on how much time we can spend on portraits, the engagement photo shoot doesn’t have the same time restrictions. Therefore if we have an engagement photo idea we can take the time required to make it happen.

Romantic Engagement Photos at Golden Hour

Golden hour happens before the actual sunset and is the perfect time for those romantic engagement photos. When the sun is low in the sky the light is very warm and that warm light of golden hour is what contributes to that romantic look you see in engagement photos. The warm light of golden hour is also soft and flattering light.

Sunset and Golden Hour are two different things technically but the point is that it’s beneficial to plan your engagement photoshoot around great light. There’s nothing like golden romantic light, it’s one of the tried and true engagement pic ideas.

Sure, photographers should be able to take great photos in any light. However, photographers should also know how to plan and prepare for the best light possible. We always plan around the best light possible and use an app or our knowledge of an area to time everything as perfectly as possible knowing that we can’t control the weather.

What to Wear for an Engagement Photo Shoot?

Dress how you feel most comfortable. If you have a unique style embrace it but don’t wear something you wouldn’t ever actually wear. Instead of aiming for matching outfits, aim for a matching level of fanciness.

We personally love vibrant solid colors that will pop from the background. We shoot a lot of environmental portraits where we want the couple to stand out from the trees or scenery. In fall you might choose colors that compliment fall colors, for example.

Avoid busy or distracting patterns. Avoid clothes that don’t stay in place when you move around. And I’ll say it again, avoid anything you won’t feel natural in. If you have an engagement photo idea that involves a certain style of outfit, incorporate that and you can always try multiple outfits. In fact, we typically recommend at least two outfits with one being more casual and one being more dressy.

Dress for Comfort

The first tip that we always tell our couples is that we want you to be comfortable. That’s the number one thing to consider even as you go through the remainder of these tips. We’re not saying you should wear your sweatpants but we want you to feel like yourselves. The more you feel like yourselves, the more you will like how you look in the photos. This might mean you dress up or are fairly casual or a little of both.

Planning for Variety

Now, something that will help with how comfortable you look is choices. Many of our couples buy new clothes for their engagement shoots. You definitely don’t have to do that. I think that it can kind of be a fun part of the planning, assuming you like shopping. However, sometimes if you haven’t worn something you won’t know if you like how you look in it. That’s why we generally recommend at least two outfits. We also recommend one more casual outfit and one more dressy, this give you variety in your artwork when you end up hanging photos in your house or using them for wedding details.

Considering Colors

Marc and I really like vibrant colors. Vibrant is defined as bright and striking. If you think about our style of photography, we think it’s beautiful when the couple stands out from the background. Complementary colors for engagement photos depends on the background. Check out this vibrant red shirt and how it pops!

Don’t Forget Footwear – Shoes

As much as we love the environments that we shoot in, there are some practical issues to consider. If you’re planning to wear dress shoes, consider bringing a change of shoes to hike from point A and point B. Alternatively, consider shoes that are both fashionable and hike-able (and then send me what you find because I’m always on a hunt for some!)

Bring Layers

Even though we had been sunning ourselves in California prior to our move, I’m a Colorado native. This means that I know that the trick to what to wear in Colorado begins with layers. The temperature can go from hot to cold, the weather can go from rain to sun. Layers aren’t always what you’re looking for in your engagement photos but it’s nice to have something warm to put on for the transitions especially if we’re hiking to and from a location.

Taming Hair

When it comes to the wind, our philosophy is generally to embrace it. We can turn you into or away from the wind to make your hair blow one way or the other. If you choose to get your hair done, let your stylist know that you’ll be outside in the environment. Many wedding hairdressers can make sure your hair looks good despite wind or crazy dance parties.

Environmental Concerns

The locations that we photograph have a tendency to be windy and mountainous. Our couples look amazing and we don’t think that you can be over-dressed for the dramatic settings. We love the magical and romantic wind-blown look that the wind can create with flowing dresses and hair.

7 Engagement Photo Ideas to Take the Pressure Off and Have fun

can’t go wrong with a picnic:

Many couples main concern is feeling unnatural during their engagement shoot. They’re worried about not knowing how to pose or how to be. Don’t worry, posing is the photographer’s job. Your job is to be you (check) and to be in love (double check.) Having a picnic is an easy way to give yourself something to focus on other than the camera

loosen up with a hike:

If you like to hike, let’s go for a hike on your engagement PhotoDate. Hiking has two main benefits. Number one, it get’s us to some beautiful destinations to enjoy and view and take some epic pictures. Number two, it gives us a chance to loosen up, bond, and take our mind off the pictures. One of the best ways to “be natural” is to do something that makes you feel natural.

My favorite engagement picture poses are natural so doing something natural will help with that.

let us be your guide:

Too much to plan? Too many decisions to make? Give us an idea of the where and what and let us take it from there. We’ve gotten pretty good at picking locations and being tour guides especially if you want to do engagement photos outdoors. We love showing people around some of our favorite places or taking them somewhere new. If you can relinquish control, your engagement shoot becomes like a guided trip.

return to the scene of the crime:

Did you get engaged or have a first date somewhere special? Is there a place that has become important to your relationship? We’d love to see it, hear the story, and capture you in that location. Not only does it give us context on your relationship in order to capture your love, it gives you a reminder of what is really important to you.

When thinking of an engagement photos themes, think of something that means something. You don’t need an engagement photo theme, it just can be a fun way to think about it. Its great for inspiration for funny engagement picture ideas.

who needs an excuse for a vacation?

We travel. We’re at the coast or in the mountains or somewhere else cool for someones wedding or an adventure of some kind. Meet us there. Turn your engagement shoot into an excuse for a weekend getaway, we all know you need it. Have you been dreaming of wine tasting, hiking, or relaxing on the beach? Let us know where you want to go and we’ll find a time that works. But don’t let our map hold you back. If you have a unique location in mind, we’ve been known to be talked into going all kinds of places. The only limit is your imagination.

neighborhood highlights:

Is there a place that documents this phase in your life? Are you living somewhere that you might be leaving soon? Let’s hit the highlights of your favorite place and document it for your memory. (Not that you’ll forget, just in case you need a little reminder now and then.) Let’s stop at your favorite coffee shop, walk through your favorite park, sit in your thinking spot, and do the tourist activities that you never actually do as a local.

hobbies shared or not:

Some people love doing things together and it is a hallmark of their relationship. If you met at the tennis court or climbing gym, maybe that should be incorporated into your engagement shoot. If you always hike together or go to the beach, lets capture that. Alternatively, maybe one of you wants to teach the other a favorite hobby. You don’t have to share everything for all time, but maybe you like teaching or sharing new things.

Questions from Brides

What if I’m not photogenic?

A lot of our couples tell us they’re nervous or not that photogenic but by the end of the shoot, they are comfortable and having fun! The pictures always turn out great. As it turns out, most of us believe we aren’t photogenic but have just never had professional pictures taken.

Not to mention, we look our best when we’re staring into the eyes of our significant other since our smiles and expressions are real.

What should I expect?

Our engagement shoots are called PhotoDates. We like you to think of them as part photoshoot and part double date. It’s a chance for us to get to know each other so that you’re familiar with us on your wedding day. It’s a chance for you to get comfortable in front of our cameras. Perhaps most importantly, it’s a chance for you two to celebrate your engagement. We like to have fun and make memories in addition to taking your photo. We often start by meeting up for a beer or coffee. Sometimes we’re getting to know each other on a hike or drive from various shooting locations. Therefore, if there’s anything you’d like to do on the PhotoDate, let us know.

Can I bring my pets?

A lot of our couples like bringing their pets on engagement shoots. We completely understand that a pet can be like part of the family, our dog Riley certainly was. We enjoy photographing dogs and their playful personalities.

That being said we sometimes go places that dogs can’t go so make sure you’re ok leaving the dog in the car for part of the shoot. Additionally, if we are somewhere with a leash law we ask that you keep your dog on leash and obey all rules.

Think about your dog and how well he or she listens, we want you to have a great experience whether that means bringing your dog or leaving him or her at home.

When should engagement photos be taken?

There is no time constraint for engagement photos unless you plan to use your engagement photos for save-the-dates. In that case, you’ll want to have them taken with enough lead time to count for your photographer’s editing time and the time it will take to design and print the save-the-dates. Many of our couples actually plan their engagement photos around the best Colorado season for the location they’re interested in having their engagement photoshoot: fall, summer, winter, or spring.

Most of our engagement shoots take place in the evening. We love the sunset. We love the hour before sunset called “golden hour” when the golden light created by the sun being low in the sky creates a romantic look. We also love it when the sky explodes with vibrant colors after the sun goes down.

Not all locations allow for both sunset and golden hour within one session but when we can we like to shoot both. We can’t control the sunset (working on that) but we can certainly plan to be in the right place at the right time. Due to this, our engagement shoots don’t typically have a strict end time. We are done when you’re tired of smiling, too cold, or the light is gone.

How long do engagement photos last?

Engagement photos might last anywhere from 30 minutes to 2 hours depending on your photographer. Our engagement shoots are often about an hour and a half. We often do two locations with some travel time and an outfit change between the two.

We like to have enough time with our couples so that we can get to know each other, loosen up, and get some really amazing shots. Our sessions might go longer if the sunset is really epic and just keeps going or we need to plan more time to hike to certain locations. We have done extended engagement photoshoots where we spend more time doing something more technical or going somewhere harder to access.

How much do you spend on engagement photos?

We include engagement photos as part of our wedding packages because we believe they are a win-win-win. Not only do you get some great professional portraits in non-wedding attire but you get a chance to be in front of the photographers’ camera before the wedding day. It always builds confidence and saves time for wedding day portraits.

We also love getting to know our couples before the wedding day and photographing them in conditions where there are no time constraints. Often we can take couples somewhere beautiful or meaningful that we might not have time for on the wedding day.

Typical engagement photo pricing seems to be in the $600-$2000 price range depending on what you get from the session and how long it is. That’s a big range for average cost of engagement photos so it’s key to think through your priorities and budget. And does the engagement photos average cost include any albums, prints, or digital files. The higher numbers probably do the lower are likely just the session.

Do people still do engagement photos?

Engagement photos are an amazing addition to wedding planning. Like cake tasting, engagement photos are one of the fun things a couple gets to do in preparation for the wedding. An engagement shoot is a great way to get to know your photographer, get comfortable in front of their camera, and know what to expect from your wedding photography.

When it comes to engagement photos vs wedding photos you’ll see that engagement photos give you more time to capture something artistic which will help you prepare for great photos of the real moments of your wedding day.

How many photos should I get for engagement photos?

Again, ever photographer is different in how they structure their sessions which means what they deliver will be different as well. For an hour long engagement shoot I would probably expect around 50-150 images depending on the experience level of your photographer and the cost of the session. We personally deliver on the higher end with our goal being to deliver a variety of types of images without duplicates.

Our engagement shoots generally come with two photographers so we’re also delivering photos from two cameras but generally we just deliver higher quality rather than quantity. When we’re working together one of us is able to spend more time perfecting one particular shot verses needed to get a variety.

What are engagement photos used for? Getting to know your photographer, getting comfortable in front of the camera, and then having professional photos as a couple just for enjoyment or for save-the-dates etc.

Do you take engagement photos after proposal?

Typically engagement photos are scheduled after the couple is already engaged. A few times we have done some engagement photos after photographing a proposal. This can be fun if you want the proposal captured because you already have a photographer hired.

The main downside is that the bride or whomever is being asked might not be expecting it so they might not be dressed as they would be if they were planning on an engagement photo shoot. Some of our clients plan for this by telling their partner they’re going to a fancy dinner after a walk or by scheduling a longer shoot so that they can have time to go back to their hotel and change.

When it comes to the engagement photos timeline it really depends on what you need the photos for. If it’s just for getting to know your photographer you’re in less of a rush than if you’re using them for save-the-dates.

Capturing Candid Engagement Photos

Let’s talk about engagement photo poses. A lot of couples want candid shots but it’s also clearly an engagement photoshoot so how do we feel natural in such an unnatural setting? Engagement photo poses are a great opportunity to practice being in front of the camera so that the couple knows what to expect on the wedding day.

The couple may be ready to get married but it’s their first date with the photographer. Sometimes it takes some warm-up pictures before you’ll be able to capture an intimate moment. It will get easier as the shoot goes on.

For me, it’s not about some staged fake pose that I force a couple into but the precious moments that capture the couple’s personality. The real moments make the best photos which is why the best poses for couples are natural candid and connected. Candid engagement photos are hard because it’s hard to act natural which is why it’s important for the photographer and couple to connect too.

Engagement Photo Poses

The best engagement photo poses, again, are the ones that look natural to the individual couple. If the couple is fun, a fun pose might work best. With a cute couple, a cute pose will be a better fit.

How does the couple naturally interact with each other and how can we expand on that? Sometimes it’s more about starting with simple poses and then adjusting them based on the light or the mood. From there, I focus on building engagement photo poses that compliment the style of the couple, play to the camera, and allow for moments to happen.

One challenge might be dealing with height differences. Sometimes you can’t do anything about a height difference and focusing too much on trying to make it disappear will only make it more prominent. However, there are some things you can do such as having the taller person stand in a wide-leg stance which makes them shorter and then you shoot tight so that the viewer doesn’t see the legs.

To Smile or Not to Smile

It’s our job to make you look good in your photos. We consider it your job to relax, have fun, and enjoy spending time with your soon-to-be husband or wife. Therefore, we’re not heavy on posing. Instead, we have you move into positions that are more natural for you and work from there.

Walking, holding hands, and hugging are some examples. Every couple is unique and we want to tell your individual story. That being said if you have any photo concerns such as liking your right profiles better than your left you can let us know.

Get Them Moving, Talking, Laughing, Interacting

Sometimes it’s not about the pose but what happens between the poses. Let them talk to each other, ask them questions about themselves, get them moving around and having fun. Whatever your personality, use it to bring out the best in your couples.

The best photos often happen towards the end of a engagement photo shoot both because that’s when the light is best and that’s when the couple is the most comfortable. That’s the secret to awesome engagement pictures.

The Little Things

Don’t forget about the little things that can make an engagement shoot special. I don’t always remember to focus on engagement rings but a nice shot showcasing the engagement ring can tell a great story about what the photo is saying.

Another important thing I try to do is shoot people from different angles and discover what I or they like. Does a bride like her smile or her serious look better? It’s best to find out those sorts of things at the engagement shoot.

Other small but important details are where the eyes are looking, what the hands are doing, and where you crop the images. Did you cut off fingers or put a tree behind someone’s head? Some details like a ring enhance the images whereas others detract from the images.

Final Tips for Photographers

Let’s talk about a few more engagement photoshoot tips for photographers. Hopefully, these tips will help your engagement photo shoot be more fun and your engagement pictures be more breathtaking.

Do an engagement shoot

You should either include an engagement shoot in your wedding packages or at least encourage your couples to do them. They are one of my favorite parts of being a wedding photographer because there is less of a time crunch to create magic than on the wedding day. I also get to build trust and a relationship with my clients which always makes the wedding day go smoother.

You can give your clients ideas for what to do with their engagementpictures such as engagement photo book ideas. Or, I’m even open to engagement videography as a fun add on to the wedding website. Think how you can serve your clients.

What makes a good engagement photo?

A good engagement photo captures the love and chemistry between a couple in a style that matches them or their personalities. For me, location plays a big part as it’s the setting for the love story. Then, it’s about conveying a message of love, joy, or passion.

Great engagements photos are personal to the couple or go beyond a typical session. For example, imagine a astrophotography engagement for space lovers.

We need to offer something better than when you can take your own engagement photos just by googling “engagement locations near me.”. That means going beyond engagement photo prop ideas. You can even do a studio engagement photo shoot as long as you bring something unique like playful lighting.

Don’t just have a script

Some photographers just do the same thing for every client. But every client is different. And every couple is very different. (Thus their engagement pictures should look different.)

Some couples are very comfortable with PDA while others are less so. Some we to wear flowy dresses while others want to wear jeans. The more you focus on capturing the client in front of you in their best light, the better the photos will be and the more they will mean to that particular individual.

Don’t force anyone into a pose that doesn’t make sense for them. I mean you can, but some poses work for everyone and some don’t. Go with the flow and get creative and inspired by your unique couple.

more on photography skills:

• camera settings guide

• ND filters

• women’s camera backpack

• wedding photography tips for beginners
• Exposure Triangle

more on wedding planning:

• how long does wedding photography take? – timeline and turnaround time

• how to choose a wedding photographer (that doesn’t suck)

• what to do with your wedding photos | after the wedding

• understanding wedding photography styles | wedding photography tips

• good light for great wedding photos

• how to find wedding vendors that fit your style

• shooting in low light

Don’t hesitate to reach out for our availability or engagement photo session prices.

FREE comprehensive e-guide: Prioritize your planning so your wedding is a memorable adventure.

We are Marc and Brenda Bergreen, a husband and wife photography team specializing in mountain wedding photography and other adventures. Capturing people in nature and the mountain lifestyle is a passion that became a dream that became a life. Thanks for stopping by our blog, we’re here to help and we love talking about love.

Based in Evergreen, CO we travel throughout the state as Colorado adventure wedding photographers. We also frequently travel to California and other wedding destinations to document love and adventure in a variety of memorable settings. Don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know how we can help! Be sure to follow us (weddings instagram & adventures instagram) and/or like us (facebook) to stay tuned.

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In this article, we’ll talk about the best camera settings for low light photography. Then, we’ll discuss the best camera gear for low light. And finally, we’ll talk through some tips and techniques you can use to achieve well-exposed photos regardless of the lighting conditions.

Hopefully understanding these concepts will help you feel more confident as the light starts to fade. Have no fear, it is possible to create sharp and interesting photos in low light. Just like everything it takes a little practice and exposure (pun intended) to a variety of conditions. After reading this article you’ll be ready to tackle engagement and wedding photography low light.

Breaking Down The Best Camera Settings For Low Light Photography

The first thing you’ll want to understand before heading into low light conditions at a wedding or other event is how your camera sees light. In this section, we’ll talk about the best camera settings for low light photography. Getting the settings right will help you obtain sharp and well-exposed images.

A better understanding of the camera settings required for low light photography will also help you choose the right gear and techniques to learn. We’ll start by talking through the exposure triangle and how to balance aperture, ISO, and shutter speed in order to deal with the conditions you have.

Check out this post on camera settings for weddings if you need an in depth review of how settings impact other aspects of the wedding day.

Setting the Widest Aperture (F-stop)

In low light conditions, using a camera lens with a wide aperture (low f-number) is essential to let more light into the camera. This will also create a shallow depth of field, which can add a beautiful bokeh effect to your photos. Aim for an aperture of around f/2.8 or wider, depending on your lens.

In low light conditions you’re aperture decision is often made for you and you’ll want to use a wide maximum aperture or the fasted aperture available to you. The main consequence of a low aperture is a shallow depth of field which is often a pleasant effect as long as you get accurate sharpness. The wider aperture you use the less you’ll have to push your ISO or lower your shutter speed which has other consequences.

To let in as much light as possible, many photographers use lenses in the f/1.4 or f/1.8 range. You’ll find that these are almost exclusively prime lenses. Though they can be expensive, you can find cheaper alternatives from off brand manufacturers like Samyang (the cheapest) or Sigma (good quality).

When to Push Your ISO Higher

In low-light situations, you may need to increase your camera’s ISO to get a brighter image. However, higher ISOs can result in more digital noise or grain in your photos. Try to find a balance between a bright enough exposure and an acceptable level of noise.

Most modern cameras can handle ISOs of 1600-3200 without too much noise. In the next section, we’ll talk about choosing the right camera gear to handle your expectations.

Choosing the Best Shutter Speed

In low light, using a slower shutter speed can help you capture more light, but it also increases the risk of camera shake and motion blur. To avoid this, you can consider using a tripod or other stabilizing device to keep your camera steady. If you’re hand-holding the camera, try to use a shutter speed that’s at least as fast as the focal length of your lens (e.g. 1/50 sec for a 50mm lens).

Keeping your shutter speed high enough is one of the hardest parts of shooting in low light. Having a camera with in body image stabilization is great but that only helps with camera movement. Regardless of how stable the camera is, if your shutter speed is too low for the movement of your subjects, you’ll have blurry images.

In most cases, having a shutter speed of at least 1/200 is a good starting point. This minimum shutter speed will freeze people as long as they’re not moving quickly. If you expect fast movement (dancing, running, etc) a faster shutter speed (1/500 to 1/1000) will be required. You’ll need a higher iso setting or a wider aperture to let in more light.

If you are incorporating flash into your photography you can use the flash to freeze the motion which is an effective way to shoot at slower shutter speeds. You might even embrace some aspects of motion blur to make more interesting compositions.

Shoot in Raw

Shooting in RAW format allows you to capture more information in the image and gives you more flexibility in post-processing. This is especially important when shooting in low light, as it can help you recover detail in the shadows and adjust the exposure without losing image quality much. Even if avoided motion blur and slower shutter speeds, your image may still be a little dark. During the edit, you’ll be able to bring back 1-2 stops of light by increasing exposure.

So if the question is between camera shake and blurry images, choose higher shutter speeds and make sure you have sharp photos. Then just increase the exposure in the edit. Of course, this is not an option if you have an old camera or are shooting at very high iso settings because the file will start to look grainy and washed out.

Focus Mode

In low light, autofocus can struggle to find focus points depending on your camera. You can switch to manual focus to have more control over what you want to be in focus. Use the magnifying feature in your camera to zoom in and check the focus before taking the shot.

Another option with manual focus is to utilize the hyperfocal distance of your wide angle lenses. This allows you to prefocus manually and know the distances at which your images will be sharp. For example, if you pre-focus at 9 ft, your 16mm lens at f/2.8 will be sharp from about 4ft all the way to infinity. You can experiment with this and use a depth of field calculator to get familiar.

Lastly, using a newer camera body, a fast lens (f/2.8 or faster), and a wide focus area will allow you to more accurately lock focus. Get to know your camera in low light and it will perform better for you. Low light conditions are a challenge so I strongly recommend lots of testing & practice.

The Right Camera Gear for Low Light Conditions

When shooting in low light conditions, having the right camera gear can make a significant difference in the quality of your photos. Fast lenses with wide apertures, full-frame cameras, image stabilization, high ISO capabilities, and a flash are all important pieces of equipment to consider for low light photography. Remember, the key is to find a balance between the camera settings that we discussed in the above section and the equipment you have.

If you want to dive deeper into wedding photography gear, here’s a gear checklist you can start with.

Faster Lenses

You’ll want a fast lens with a wide aperture, such as f/1.4 or f/1.8. The wider the aperture the faster shutter speed you’re able to use. That’s why wide-aperture lenses are often referred to as fast lenses.

As we talked about above, wide apertures will let in more light which will keep you from needing to push your ISO or shutter speed too far. You might have a variety of lenses that you like using throughout the day but in low light conditions, you’ll want to use your lenses that have the widest, maximum aperture, and, low f-number capabilities.

Some of our favorite lenses are listed below. They are not the fastest lenses available but they are great in low light situations and we have had great luck:

• Sony 20mm f/1.8

• Sony 35mm f/1.8

• Sony 55mm f/1.8

• Sony 85mm f/1.8

Full Frame Cameras

A full-frame camera has a larger sensor than a crop-sensor camera, allowing it to capture more light and produce less noise in low light conditions. Full-frame cameras also tend to have better low-light performance than crop-sensor cameras, making them an ideal choice for low light photography. Our current favorite for low light photography is:

• Sony A7SIII – One of the best cameras on the market for low light photography

• Sony A7IV – A close second to the A7SIII and a great low light photography camera

Image Stabilization

As I mentioned briefly above, Image stabilization can help compensate for camera shake when shooting handheld in low light conditions. Many cameras and lenses have built-in image stabilization, but it’s important to check the specifications before purchasing. Almost all the Sony mirrorless cameras have in body image stabilization (IBIS).

IBIS is key for combatting blurry photos because the photographer wasn’t steady but isn’t the only solution to sharp photos. You still have to have slow moving subjects if you want to shoot at a slow shutter speed.

ISO Capabilities

ISO measures the sensitivity of the camera’s sensor to light. A camera with a high ISO capability allows you to shoot in low light conditions without needing to use a slow shutter speed or wide aperture, which can lead to blurry photos. Look for a camera that can handle high ISOs without producing too much noise. As I mentioned above, one of the best cameras on the market for low light photography is the:

• Sony A7SIII

Flash

A flash can be used to add additional light to a scene when shooting in very low light conditions. However, it’s important to use it correctly to avoid overexposing or creating harsh shadows. Consider using an external flash that can be tilted and rotated for more control over the direction of light. This allows you to bounce the light off a nearby wall or ceiling to make it more dispersed and effective.

The main suggestion I encourage is to get your flash off the camera. The easiest way is to look at a wireless system like the one from Godox:

• Godox X Pro S II Trigger – a compact wireless trigger that will control your Godox Lights

• Godox V860III – On camera flash that also works as a trigger to control other Godox Lights

• Godox AD200 – this is a more powerful flash (2-3x that of a typical speedlite flash)

In addition to a trigger and a flash, you’ll also need a light stand of some kind. We typically use to different styles:

• Travel Stands – great for throwing on your backpack and using a variety of situations or on trips. We often hold these for each other since they are not very tall and getting a higher angle on the subject is helpful.

• Full Size Stands – great for setting up in a room where they won’t move much. We often use four these to light the dance floor (don’t put it somewhere that it will get kicked).

The most important thing is to control the direction of the light so that it hits your subject in a flattering way and doesn’t spill all over the backdrop. One thing that is super helpful for this is a grid. Our favorite:

• Magmod Grid

Control What You Can

Once you understand the camera settings and have the best gear for shooting low light photography that your budget will allow, it’s time to get creative. Below are some low light photography tips that might help you have better compositions, exposure, or more interesting photographs. We’ll talk about things like how to use available light, add light and play with long exposures.

Position Subject Closer to the Light Source

When shooting in low light, it’s important to make the most of any available light. This could be natural light from windows or doors, or artificial light from candles, chandeliers, or lamps. Sometimes you have control over your subject and can place them in the available light.

If you’re capturing candids and can’t move your subject, you can still move yourself in order to get the best angle on your candid subject. Look for beams of light and stories they might tell. Wait for moments when your subject passes near interesting ambient light.

One of the most challenging and rewarding things is to find a good pocket of light, then wait for a subject to pass through it. This can be a challenging game to play but can yield some incredible results if you stick with it.

Use Other Light Sources

If the available light isn’t sufficient, consider adding artificial light sources such as flashes, speed lights, or continuous lights. These can help to illuminate the scene and create a more dramatic look. However, be careful not to overdo it, as too much light can make the photos look harsh and unnatural not to mention ruin the vibe of the day.

We’ll probably need to write a whole post on using flash for wedding photography but as you can imagine it’s possible to be very creative with flash.

Ambient Light

Amblient light can also be considered as a design element. Picture the beautiful bokeh of market lights or candles in the background. Dark images aren’t always bad, they can create a mood.

Look for layers of ambient light to create an interesting composition. Then get your couple in position and use off camera flash to compliment the scene tastefully.

Shoot Long Exposures

If you can’t beat them, join them. Or in this case, if you have to shoot with a slow shutter speed why not capture a creative long exposure?

You might even try combining a long exposure with a flash. Use the flash to freeze the motion of your subject and then let the long exposure capture the motion blur of the surroundings. This is great for sparklers or showing a crazy dance floor.

Using a Tripod or Monopod?

In low light conditions when you might be shooting with a slower shutter speed. It’s important to keep your camera steady to avoid blurry photos. A lot of people suggest a tripod or monopod to help keep the camera stable. You’ll have to consider if it’s practical or makes sense to use one for the image you’re trying to create.

We often find them cumbersome but some images just wouldn’t be possible without a tripod.

Proper Exposure

Some of us have the habit of underexposing images in low light because we’re trying not to push the camera settings too far. We’re afraid to use a slower shutter speed or a higher ISO. In these cases it’s important to remember that if you expose too dark you will lose shadow details. If you’re not maxing out your settings, make sure you have an adequate exposure for the scene. Increasing the exposure in post will add even more digital noise).

Post-Processing

Finally, let’s talk about post processing and how you can edit your low light photos after the fast. Whether shooting a high ISO made your images grainy or you need to open the shadows, there’s a lot you can do with modern software.

Noise Reduction

If you had to shoot at higher ISOs to deal with the low light conditions, you might notice digital noise in your photos. Fortunately, most photo editing software includes a noise reduction tool. Be careful not to overdo the noise reduction, as this can result in loss of detail and a “plastic” look.

Find a preset that works for you and apply it to all the images above a certain ISO (i.e all photos ISO 2000 and above).

Sharpness

If your low light photos lack sharpness due to camera shake or noise reduction you can add sharpening in post-processing. It will help bring back detail and make your photo look more crisp. Be careful not to over-sharpen, as this can result in a “halo” effect around edges.

All the sharpening in the world won’t bring back a completely out of focus or motion blurry images.

Adjust Exposure

When shooting in low light conditions, it’s common to end up with underexposed photos that are too dark because you were trying not to push your settings too much. Adjusting exposure in post-processing can help you recover details in the shadows, bring out more brightness in the photo, or balance different areas of the composition.

Adjust Contrast

Low light photos can often lack contrast, resulting in a flat and dull-looking image. Adjusting contrast can help add depth and dimension to your photos. Use the curves or levels tool to adjust the contrast and make the highlights brighter and the shadows darker.

Summary of Low Light Photography Skills

Shooting a wedding in low light can be challenging, but with the right equipment, techniques, and creativity, you can capture stunning photos that will be cherished for a lifetime. Remember to use the available light, add artificial light if necessary, shoot in RAW, and get creative with your photography. With these tips, you’ll be able to create beautiful and memorable wedding photos, no matter the lighting conditions.

Next, you might tackle other challenges light shooting in the rain or outdoor weddings. Or you might head back to the basics and consider the rule of thirds. Wherever you are in your photography education, wishing you happy shooting.

more educational content:

• Outdoor Wedding Photography Tips

• Wedding Photography Tips for Beginners

• Wedding Photography Gear

• Adventure Photographer Gear

• Photography Portfolio Creation

• Photography Tips for Mountain Landscapes

• Photography Marketing

• How to Price Wedding Photography

about the author

I am Brenda Bergreen, one half of a husband and wife photography team specializing in Colorado wedding photography and videography and adventure photography. If you need someone to encourage your creativity, I’m here.

Download our free guide on how to build a creative business and a life you love. Don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know how we can help!

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First, we’ll talk about understanding camera settings and how they apply to wedding photography. Then I’ll talk about the best wedding settings to use. I’ve been a professional wedding photographer for over a decade and it’s imperative to understand your gear so that it can make you better.

This guide will help you whether you’re shooting natural light on a mountain top or off-camera flash on the dance floor at a wedding party at night. After all, you need to be able to shoot both! Too advanced? Check out our post on tips for beginners or this basic camera settings guide or our ND filter guide.

If you’re here, it’s a sign! Let’s find some beauty and capture it!

Understanding Wedding Photography Camera Settings

Below are several camera settings that can be adjusted to control the exposure, focus, and other aspects of your wedding photographs. We’ll talk in-depth about how understanding each of these can make you a better professional wedding photographer.

1. Exposure Triangle: Aperture, shutter speed, ISO (and exposure compensation)

2. White Balance

3. Focus Mode

4. Metering Mode

5. Image Quality

6. Drive Mode

7. Flash Settings

After we run through these settings we’ll talk about which camera settings to use based on the situation you’re in. And then we’ll talk about how we choose our wedding photography gear based on the settings we need to utilize.

Understanding the Exposure Triangle

If you need to, back up and check out this post on understanding the exposure triangle.

Aperture

The aperture, or the opening in your lens, is a crucial setting when it comes to wedding photography. A wider aperture, such as f/1.8, will create a shallow depth of field. This will allow you to isolate your subject and create that coveted “bokeh” effect in the background.

However, a narrower aperture, such as f/5.6 or f/8, will provide more depth of field. This is great for capturing larger groups or landscapes. You would use a higher f-stop number aperture for group photos (family photos and large group photos) to ensure everyone is sharp even if they aren’t perfectly in the same focal plane.

A fast lens with a wide aperture will allow you to shoot in low light conditions without a flash with less stress about your focal point. This can be less intrusive and more natural. Despite this, off camera flash can add a whole new dimension to your images.

Don’t pigeon hole yourself as a “natural light” photographer because you bought a fast lens. It’s about the quality and directionality of the light. It’s not just about having a wide enough aperture to shoot in the darkest environments. You’ll consider the same things when determining the best aperture for low light video.

Shutter Speed Settings

The shutter speed determines how long your camera’s sensor is exposed to light. A faster shutter speed, such as 1/1000th of a second, will freeze almost any movement. This is perfect for capturing those quick moments like the first dance. On the other hand, a slower shutter speed, like 1/20th of a second, will create a sense of motion blur.

This can be great for capturing the flow of a wedding dress. You might even experiment with speeds as slow as 1/10th of a second to give your images an ethereal feel. Do this sparingly as the images will be mostly blurry.

ISO

ISO refers to your camera’s sensitivity to light. A higher ISO, such as 3200 or 6400, will allow you to shoot in low light conditions without a flash. However, it may also introduce more digital noise in your photos. A lower ISO, such as 100 or 200, will produce cleaner images. But, you’ll need more light to achieve the correct exposure. Also, you should use the lowest ISO setting on your camera to get the best dynamic range. If you want to have a lot of detail in the highlights and shadows in high-contrast scenes, you’ll need as much dynamic range as possible.

Exposure Compensation

The adjustment of the exposure value in order to make the image brighter or darker. This is only applicable while using one of the automatic modes such as shutter speed priority (S) or aperture priority (A). It can also be used in Program mode (P) but won’t work in Automatic (A) mode. Some people use this as a way to transition toward shooting in full manual mode. They leave one element of the exposure triangle on auto mode and use the exposure compensation dial to adjust. I find this method to be overly complicated and encourage people to dive right into shooting in full manual mode. It may feel intimidating at first but with some practice, you’ll be spinning dials faster than you thought possible!

White Balance

White balance refers to the color temperature of your photos, which can be adjusted in-camera or in post-processing. Tungsten lighting, for example, can create a warm, yellow-orange color cast in your photos, while fluorescent lighting can create a cool, blue-green color cast. It’s important to adjust your white balance settings to accurately capture the colors in the scene. The most important thing to do is shoot in RAW so that your photos can be adjusted in post. White balance is a setting that can be non-destructively edited later as long as you shoot in RAW. With most modern cameras auto white balance will get close. You may tweak it slightly in post so that all your images have the same tone. If you’re shooting video, you won’t be able to easily edit white balance. Make sure you get this set correctly in the camera especially with indoor wedding videography. Additionally, don’t forget to adjust it each time you enter a new room.

An Argument for Shooting in Manual Mode

As an experienced wedding photographer, I understand the importance of capturing every precious moment on a couple’s special day. The lighting conditions can change rapidly and can vary greatly from one location to another. In order to produce high-quality and consistent results, shooting in manual mode is essential. It will be slower at first but soon you’ll be a master of your camera settings and know exactly what settings to adjust to get the proper exposure.

When shooting in manual mode, the photographer has full control over the camera’s settings, including aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. This allows for precise adjustments to be made based on the lighting conditions and the desired creative vision for each shot. Shooting in manual mode also ensures that the photographer can maintain consistent exposure across all photos, which is crucial for creating a cohesive and visually stunning wedding photo album. It also makes culling and editing much faster. Applying bulk edits instead of adjusting each image can save a huge amount of time.

But shooting weddings in manual mode is not just about technical control. It also requires the photographer to be highly attuned to the emotions and experiences of the couple and their guests. In order to capture the special moments that unfold throughout the day, the photographer needs to be present and empathetic. Shooting in manual mode allows the photographer to focus on the people and the emotions, rather than being distracted by constantly adjusting the camera’s settings. I recommend locking in your settings for a particular scene and then focusing on anticipating the moment. Thinking ahead to what will happen next allows you to adjust your settings prior to the moment happening. This anticipation is key to capturing the peak of the moment.

Manual Versus Aperture Priority Mode

Aperture priority mode can be a simplified way to start transitioning to shooting in manual mode. However, it also means that the camera has control over the shutter speed limiting your creative control. One of the primary reasons why a wedding photographer might choose aperture priority is to control the depth of field. By setting a low aperture, they can control how much of the scene is in focus, creating a shallow depth of field. Alternatively, they can increase the aperture for a sharp focus throughout the image. The danger here is that your exposures will vary from image to image making it harder to cull/edit after the event because the camera will meter each image separately.

Stop shooting in Aperture Priority

Shooting in aperture priority mode could be useful in situations where the lighting conditions are consistent, and the photographer wants to maintain consistent exposure throughout the shoot. However, in situations where the lighting conditions are constantly changing, the camera will adjust the shutter speed to maintain the exposure. Think fast-moving clouds with the sun going in/out. This can result in images that are either overexposed or underexposed if the lighting changes dramatically.

Additionally, aperture priority doesn’t work if the wedding photographer is trying to capture motion in their shots. Lastly, in low light situations, the camera may select a slower shutter speed to maintain the exposure, which can result in images that are blurry due to camera shake. It seems like a great option at first but it doesn’t work all the time. Many cameras have the ability to set a minimum shutter speed for aperture priority so you avoid blurry photos. I recommend at least double your focal length as a minimum. I.e. 200mm lens should have a 1/400 of a second minimum shutter speed. This is only a starting point though because if your subject is moving quickly, this may not be fast enough to freeze the motion. I recommend you test various shutter speeds and see what works for you.

Manual Versus Shutter Priority Mode

One reason why a wedding photographer might choose to use shutter priority mode is if they need to freeze motion in their shots because they’re worried about camera shake as I mentioned above. For example, if they are shooting a couple’s first dance or a candid moment where the subject is moving quickly. Then, they may want to use a faster shutter speed to avoid motion blur. In this case, setting the shutter speed to a specific value in shutter priority mode allows the photographer to ensure that the camera is selecting the correct aperture & ISO to achieve the desired exposure.

On the other hand, like aperture priority, shutter priority mode doesn’t always work. For example, if the lighting conditions are changing frequently or if there are significant variations in the light levels within a scene, the camera may not be able to select the ideal aperture to achieve the desired exposure.

In this case, shooting in manual mode is a better option. It allows the photographer to adjust both shutter speed and aperture independently to achieve the desired exposure.

It all depends on how well the camera can meter a scene and determine the best exposure but I prefer to be in charge of the camera instead of letting it decide how my picture should look. An example of a situation where cameras often get the default exposure wrong is in the snow. Because cameras want to meter everything to an 80% gray value, snow will cause your images to be underexposed.

This further illustrates why shooting in full manual is a better choice.

Shooting in Full Manual Mode

As I mentioned above, shooting in full manual mode will give you the most consistent results. And it will force you to understand your camera better. Additionally, when you introduce off-camera flash, a solid understanding of how to shoot in manual mode will be very helpful. It can be tricky to know what settings to adjust when you add flash into the mix. It adds a fourth variable in the exposure triangle. After you’ve been shooting weddings manually for a while, things will be much easier when adding flash to the mix.

You’ll definitely want to know your settings when it comes to shooting church venues for weddings. Low light performance will be crucial for amazing photos.

Focus Mode

Focus mode is the method used to focus the camera lens, such as automatic or manual. The focus mode determines how the camera’s autofocus system works. There are several focus modes available on most cameras, including single-shot autofocus (AF-S), continuous autofocus (AF-C), and automatic autofocus (AF-A). Each of these modes is useful for different shooting situations within wedding photography. Your chosen camera may label these differently but most modern cameras have a similar setup.

Single-shot autofocus (AF-S):

This autofocus focus mode is useful for still subjects, such as posed portraits or still-life details. In this mode, the camera locks onto the subject when the shutter button is pressed halfway. It remains locked until the image is captured. This mode was great for older DSLR cameras that didn’t have as efficient autofocus as modern mirrorless cameras.

Automatic autofocus (AF-A):

This focus mode is a combination of the above two, and is useful for situations where the subject is moving but may stop. In this mode, the camera automatically switches between single-shot autofocus and continuous autofocus, depending on the movement of the subject. I don’t recommend this mode for wedding photographers because it doesn’t give you as much control over your camera. The most important thing is to know what your camera is doing at all times. I find the best and most consistent results when I make all the decisions.

Continuous autofocus (AF-C):

This focus mode is useful for moving subjects, such as during the wedding ceremony or the wedding reception. In this mode, the camera continuously adjusts the focus as the subject moves, allowing the photographer to capture sharp, in-focus images.

When it comes to wedding photography, some photographers choose the Focus Mode based on the specific shooting situation. For example, during the ceremony, the photographer may want to use continuous autofocus mode. This will ensure they capture sharp images of the couple, even as they move down the aisle or exchange vows. During posed portraits or still-life details, the photographer may prefer to use single-shot autofocus mode. This will ensure that the subject remains sharp and in focus.

However, we don’t really like changing our focus mode throughout the day. We almost always keep it on continuous autofocus mode. Most modern mirrorless cameras have excellent autofocus and can easily lock onto a subject.

Manual Focus

If there are low light conditions and the autofocus system is struggling we sometimes switch to manual focus. It has to be very dark but in situations like long exposures of the couple with the stars, manual focus is very helpful.

Back Button Focus – THE MOST IMPORTANT SETTING

The most important setting you can set up on your camera (in my opinion) is back button focus. This setting separates focusing and shutter actuation. This means that you can focus with one button and take photos with another. The biggest advantage is that it will allow you to take a photo at any time, with no need for the camera to lock focus prior to taking a photo. It also avoids the dreaded re-focus right at the peak moment.

A good example is during speeches. Many times the speaker will stand in one spot and I can lock focus one time before taking a series of images. It allows me to be acutely aware of the moment instead of worrying about if the shot is focused or not.

Get Control – Back Button Focus

Back button focus is the one setting that will give you the most control over the focus system in your camera. When you hold down the button with the continuous focus turned on, it will track a subject. As soon as you release the focus button, the camera will stop focusing. You can take as many photos as you want during this process independent of what the camera thinks about the image being in focus.

Many people may argue that pressing the shutter button halfway will give you a similar effect but the biggest difference is that your camera will focus every time. What if you want to take a photo without re-focusing? That is where back button focus is essential!

This setting can feel awkward at first but I promise you’ll get comfortable with it and wonder why this setting is not the default on all cameras. It becomes second nature to focus with your thumb and trigger the shutter with your pointer finger. Give yourself a few days to master this but it will make photographing weddings so much easier.

Metering Mode

Metering mode is the method used to measure the light in the scene, such as spot or matrix metering modes. Since we shoot in manual mode and with mirrorless cameras, we don’t use metering in the same way we might have in the past but it’s still useful to understand. In situations with high contrast or extreme lighting conditions, metering can help you adjust your exposure to avoid overexposed images.

If you shoot in manual mode, the exposure is locked in but the light meter at the bottom of the screen inside your viewfinder will give you an assessment of whether your images is over/under exposed.

Center-weighted metering:

In center-weighted metering mode, the camera measures the light in the center of the frame and uses this information to calculate the exposure. This mode is useful when the subject is centered in the frame and there is a significant amount of contrast between the subject and the background. It ensures that your subject is properly exposed.

Spot metering:

In this mode, the camera measures the light at a specific point in the frame, typically at the center of the focus point (check your camera manual to confirm this, some are only able to use spot metering at the center of the frame regardless of where your focus point is set). This mode is useful for taking photos when the subject is backlit or when there is a significant amount of contrast between the subject and the background. If the people in the frame are the most important element, it’s critical to make sure you have proper exposure on their faces.

Matrix, evaluative or multi-metering mode:

In this mode, the camera measures the light throughout the entire frame and uses this information to calculate the exposure. This mode is useful when there is an even distribution of light throughout the scene and when the subject is not significantly brighter or darker than the background (i.e. not in the snow or against a black backdrop)

Image Quality: Shooting in Raw

Image quality refers to the level of compression and file format used to save the image, such as JPEG or RAW. Shooting in RAW format will give you more flexibility in post-processing and allow you to adjust exposure, white balance, and other settings without losing image quality.

One thing to note here is that it can be nice to shoot in both RAW and JPEG modes. We use this setting to get a small secondary file alongside the raw file to make culling in Photo Mechanic much faster. Set up your JPEG files in the small or medium setting to get a quick preview to pair with your RAW files for culling.

Your camera may also come with the option for compressed or uncompressed RAW files. I typically recommend the uncompressed because you’ll have more data to work with and the camera’s buffer takes longer to clear if you’re using compressed file settings.

Drive Mode

There are several types of drive modes available on most cameras, including single-shot, continuous low, continuous medium, and continuous high. Single-shot mode takes one photo each time the shutter button is pressed, while continuous low, medium, and high modes take multiple photos per second. Continuous high mode is particularly useful for capturing fast-moving subjects such as dancing guests or popping champagne, while continuous low mode can be useful for capturing more subtle moments such as the bride and groom exchanging glances. Some cameras have a continuous high+ mode. This mode may lock focus, especially if you use an aperture above f/8. Read the fine print in your camera manual. I just don’t want you to make the mistake of selecting high+ mode for a key moment then having everything be out of focus.

It’s worth noting that using drive mode can quickly fill up a camera’s memory card and drain the battery more quickly. It’s important to be mindful of these factors when using this setting. You don’t want to fill up your camera on the first kiss and then miss the bride and groom walking down the aisle. You will have a certain number of files in the cameras buffer before it must eventually write all those images to the camera’s memory card which can be a slow process (this is where investing in a high end memory card can save you). Additionally, you won’t be able to adjust some settings while the camera is clearing the buffer. It’s also important to be aware of the noise created by the camera’s shutter when shooting in continuous mode, as this can be distracting during the ceremony or other quiet moments.

Silent Shutter

Many mirrorless cameras have the ability to shoot with a silent shutter (completely electronic, no mechanical actuation). This feature is one of our favorites for shooting wedding ceremonies. Being completely silent is awesome but it does have some issues. First off, I would recommend you almost never use it inside.

Avoid Flicker

Some lights that flicker at a certain frequency can cause large black bars across your image. The images will be impossible to recover from. We’ve tried lots of different things to avoid this but nothing works:

• Shooting at a shutter speed that matches the frequency of the light 1/50 or 1/60
• Shooting test shots to make sure it’s not an issue in that particular room

The bottom line is, even with taking test shots, you may go into a different room with different style lights. We’ve had to throw away so many photos that we recommend you avoid silent shutter indoors.

Avoid Distortion

The second issue we’ve had with the silent shutter is a bit of distortion at longer focal lengths. A fully electronic shutter reads the sensor line by line. This means that even at 1/8000 of a second, the image can look distorted with fast camera movement on a 200mm lens. If you’re shooting a fast subject beyond 50mm and you’re going to want to avoid a silent shutter with.

The Best Wedding Settings for Different Parts of the Day

The Best Camera Setting for Outdoor Wedding Photography

When shooting outdoor weddings in natural light you can use a low ISO such as 100 or 200. This will minimize noise in your wedding photos, and help to maintain the sharpness and detail of your images. It will also help to maximize the dynamic range of your image. It’s good to understand outdoor wedding photography if you shoot in places where it’s common to have an outdoor wedding ceremony.

Choosing Shutter Speed

When shooting wedding photographs outdoors, it’s important to use a fast shutter speed to avoid motion blur. A shutter speed of at least 1/250th of a second is recommended for capturing slow moving subjects. 1/500 to 1/1000 is even safer and unless it’s low light and your ISO is getting too high.

Determining Aperture

From there you can determine your aperture. Using a wide aperture, such as f/1.8 or f/2.8, can help to create a shallow depth of field, blurring the background and emphasizing the subject. This can be particularly effective when shooting portraits of both the bride and groom. There are other times you might want everything to be sharper and choose to use a higher aperture such as f8 or f/16.

Other Helpful Settings

You might need to use spot metering. The camera’s metering system may be easily fooled by the bright sky or the dark shadows. Spot metering can help you accurately expose your subject by measuring the light in a specific area. Lastly, try using a polarizing filter to help to reduce glare and reflections in outdoor scenes. It will make colors more vibrant and enhance the contrast in the image. Even if you don’t have any water in the image (a classic use case) try using a polarizer to cut the reflections coming off other objects. You will be surprised at how it can change the look of your images. Be aware that you will want to take off a polarizer indoors because it robs about 1 stop of light from your lens. Removing it will help keep your shutter speed up and ISO down in low light situations.

Best Camera Settings for Indoor Weddings

Best ISO For Wedding Photography

When it comes to indoor weddings, you may not have the option to use a low ISO such as 100 or 200 because you need to keep your shutter speed fast enough to avoid motion blur. Be mindful of noise that can occur when using high ISO settings. A good starting point is ISO 800 or 1600. This can vary depending on the lighting conditions of the wedding venue and the capabilities of your camera. If your ceremony is very dark, you might be ok with pushing your ISO up to 6400. The main consideration is how new your camera is. The latest generation of cameras looks pretty good at 6400. However, five years ago, I would not have been comfortable above ISO 3200. Make sure you test out your camera to find the limit of ISO you feel confident in. Another way to reduce digital color noise in post production is to convert to black and white. There will still be some grain but it’s less distracting without color.

Best Shutter Speed for Wedding Photography

When shooting indoor weddings, luckily you can sometimes use a slower shutter speed since the subjects are not likely to move as much. However, be aware of camera shake causing blurriness. A longer lens also will tend to exagerate camera shake more than a wide-angle lens. You may be able to shoot a lower shutter speed with your 35mm than with your 70-200mm. A good rule of thumb is: make your shutter speed double your focal length. For a 200mm focal length, shoot at least 1/400. For a 50mm lens you might be able to get away with 1/100 or less if you have steady hands.

Best Aperture for Weddings

Again, wide aperture, such as f/1.8 or f/2.8, can help to create a shallow depth of field. This will blurr the background and emphasize the subject. Additionally, the wider aperture you’re able to use the better you’ll be able to balance that with your shutter speed. Use evaluative or matrix metering to help to accurately measure the light in a scene with varying lighting conditions. An example is an indoor venue with bright windows and dark shadows.

Lastly, there may be times when you need to use a flash to help to add light to the scene and fill in shadows. This is especially crucial during the wedding reception when it’s getting darker. We also love using off-camera flash to highlight specific parts of a scene and hide everything else. This method can turn a busy (aka ugly) reception venue into a dark backdrop only showing the couple and whatever else is lit in the scene. This goes for best aperture for portrait photography too.

Wedding Photography Settings with Flash

The flash settings for wedding photography will depend on the specific lighting conditions of the venue and the desired effect you want to achieve in your photos. Ultimately, the right camera settings and preparation will help you capture the perfect shots on someone’s wedding day. So, grab your camera and get ready to create some stunning photos!

Here are some general tips for using flash in wedding photography.

Flash Settings

1. Flash power: The power of the flash will depend on the distance between the camera and the subject. Adjust the power of the flash accordingly to ensure that the subject is properly lit without overexposure or harsh shadows. It’s important to know that as the distance from your subject grows, you will need exponentially more flash power (look up the “inverse square law” for more details).

2. Flash mode: The flash can be set to manual mode or TTL (Through-The-Lens) mode. In manual mode, the flash output is set manually by the photographer. In TTL mode, the camera will automatically adjust the flash output based on the ambient light and the subject’s distance from the camera. TTL mode can be a good starting point but I usually recommend manual mode because it is more controllable and repeatable. It will also save your battery because the flash doesn’t have to do a pre-flash burst to calculate the proper exposure.

3. Flash synchronization (camera sync speed): The flash should be synchronized with the camera’s shutter speed to ensure that the flash fires at the correct time. In general, use a shutter speed of 1/200th of a second or slower when using flash. You can use High-Speed Sync which allows faster shutter speeds but you will lose flash output power. If you need the full output of the flash, stay below your camera/flash sync speed.

4. Flash diffuser: Using a diffuser on the flash can help to soften the light and reduce harsh shadows. A softbox or umbrella can also be used to create softer, more even lighting. We typically don’t use diffusers unless we’re shooting very specific scenes but they can be nice.

5. Flash angle: The angle of the flash can affect the lighting and shadows in the image. Experiment with different angles to find the most flattering and natural-looking lighting for your subjects. A good starting point is 45 degrees to the side and coming at a 45-degree angle down to create interesting light/shadows. We tend to prioritize the bride’s face for nicer light so coming from behind the groom is often the better choice.

6. Flash location: With off-camera flash techniques you might place the flash in a particular location depending on your goals. It might come down to the flash angle you want to create. Sometimes you might move it around like during your wedding couples portraits but other times you might need it to stay put such as during the wedding reception. Get a good solid light stand and test out various scenarios to find what works for you.

How I Choose Camera Gear for Wedding Photography

As you can see, wedding photographers have to be able to shoot at a variety of wedding venues in a variety of situations. That makes having the right settings and wedding photography equipment really important. You don’t want a little rain to slow you down.

How Dynamic Range is Important in Wedding Photography

It’s important to me to have a camera with a big dynamic range because that allows me to deal with challenging lighting situations and still have great exposure in my images from the darkest shadows to the brightest highlights. Even in the highest contrast scenes, you’ll be able to capture highlight and shadow detail if your camera has enough dynamic range.

Why Mirrorless Cameras are Good for Wedding Photography

Shooting with Sony mirrorless cameras has simplified my life because you can see in the camera’s electronic viewfinder (EVF) what your images are going to look like before pressing the shutter. I rarely have to worry about camera metering or exposure compensation because I shoot in manual. Essentially, what you see is what you get. One caveat is to not be fooled by shooting with a slow electronic shutter. You might end up with a shutter speed of 1/4 because you quickly rotated a dial and you aren’t listening the the click/clack of the shutter. This will result in lots of blurry photos This is why I love shooting a mirrorless camera. I used to photograph a wedding with canon camera and canon lenses so maybe in the future I’ll do posts on best canon camera for wedding photography or best canon lenses for wedding photography.

Why Wedding Photographers Love Low Aperture Lenses

Having low-aperture lenses is crucial for being able to shoot in low-light conditions. It can be hard to balance quality and price but I always recommend getting the fastest lens you can afford as long as it’s not too heavy to actually bring with you. Maybe skip the f/1.2 lenses!

Next check out our 9 Best Tips for Outdoor Wedding Photographers.

Cameras, Gear, and Lenses I Recommend

Below is a list of some gear I recommend that will help make photographing weddings easier. I choose my favorite cameras based on the above features such as high ISO capabilities, fast focus mode, and dynamic range. My favorite lenses are low-aperture lenses that are lightweight and affordable as well as my top choices for accessories.

• Camera Body: Sony A7IV

• Lenses:

  • Sony 16-35mm f/2.8 GM

  • Sony 20mm f/1.8

  • Sony 35mm f/1.8

  • Sony 55mm f/1.8

  • Sony 85mm f/1.8

  • Sony 70-200mm f/4 G

• Flash System

  • Godox AD200

  • Godox V860iii

  • Godox X-ProS

• Backpack: Shimoda Action X30

• Circular Polarizing Filters

• Drone: Mavic 3

• Travel Light Stands

• Large Light Stands

• Camera Strap

• Camera Holster

• Drone Accessories

I hope you found this post helpful! You might find this travel photography gear list helpful or these marketing tips. If there is anything you’re struggling with leave a comment below and we will do our best to help whether it is a specific camera setting or what camera to buy!

About the author

I am Marc Bergreen, one half of a Evergreen husband and wife photography team specializing in Colorado wedding photography and videography and adventure photography. If you need wedding photography tips or advice on the best gear for your goals, reach out.

Download our free guide on how to build a creative business and a life you love. Don’t hesitate to contact us and let us know how we can help! Links to products are affiliate links.

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