Wedding Photography How To

We teamed up with veteran wedding photographer Denis Reggie for our new Experience the Power of Canon site to learn his tips on an often tricky subject: how to capture formal group portraits at a wedding.

The late Mr. Newton was certainly onto something. I believe the overwhelming desire of most portrait photographers is to please the client, with seduction, amusement, and entertainment far from their minds. Let me submit this idea: shoot what the client says they want and then shoot something challenging their assumptions. Most wedding clients tend to be traditional but even introducing black and white or infrared images can increase sales and show clients you’re thinking outside the veil.

One of the biggest challenges when shooting indoors is dealing with unusual light that imparts ugly color casts to the images you shoot. This can even happen when photographing outdoors in ambient light when nearby or overhead objects may bias tones and make them appear unrealistic.

Photographing couples is an art form that should not be underestimated. Finding the right way to get two people, no matter how wellthey know each other, to pose and stay in a position worth shooting can be extremely difficult. Success requires the right combination of clear communication and dexterous shooting ability. That’s why it is so crucial for portrait and wedding photographers to follow a clear system in order to have time to both shoot classically-posed shots and fun, candid photos.

Sooner or later most photographers will receive the dreaded question: “Would you mind shooting our wedding?” If you’ve never taken on this daylong assignment, you may not realize how important and challenging it is. Be sure to watch this video before saying “yes.”

“My dad won a Nikon FM at a company-sponsored event when I was 12, and, the moment he handed the camera over to me, it was love at first sight,” Nels Akerlund recalls. Six months later, he’d built a darkroom in his basement and that love affair with photography has not abated. It carried him through the Rochester Institute of Technology, an internship with a White House photographer in the Reagan administration, and assignments for the National Geographic Society, The New York Times, and photo shoots worldwide. He shares this passion with his wife Anna, who is also his business partner and fellow shooter. Aside from weddings, Akerlund shoots architecture, food, small products, and of course portraits in his studio and on location. He and his wife operate a spacious, two-story, 2000-square-foot studio behind their home in Rockford, Illinois.