Graham,
Congratulations on surviving your first wedding! Kudos on getting some key moments, and getting them in focus. The first wedding I shot (years ago, similar situation, for free, but in my case not as primary photog fortunately) I had just switched to back-button focus... and hilarity ensued. I forgot to refocus on about 25% of the shots. It was a similar situation... relatives that couldn't afford a pro photographer so they enlisted two family members.
On photographing people, I go with just "reminding" the subject that they have their glasses on. "Hey... you have your glasses on. Not sure if that's what you want or not. It doesn't matter to me either way." About 80% of the time they take them off.
I've gotten much more confident shooting people, but only by continuing to shoot people. When someone is wanting to be photographed with someone they haven't seen in a long time (like at a reunion), I now try to be mindful of the fact there's no mirror for them to check themselves. For example, at events where people have name tags on, I always ask if they want to remove the name tags for the photo, and they almost always take them off. So basically, by shooting people more and more, you become more confident. You aren't thinking of the mechanics of the camera much at all. You're focusing more on the people and thinking "is this how I'd want to look in a photo?" Then just ask them, or point things out. - "You have some cake icing on your tie... let's get that off." "Do you want to keep your sunglasses on for this shot?" "Let's move over here where the light is a little better."
But all in all, you should feel good about giving your time, and the resulting photos are WAY better than cellphone photos would have been. That is a nice wedding gift!
- Ken
Congratulations on surviving your first wedding! Kudos on getting some key moments, and getting them in focus. The first wedding I shot (years ago, similar situation, for free, but in my case not as primary photog fortunately) I had just switched to back-button focus... and hilarity ensued. I forgot to refocus on about 25% of the shots. It was a similar situation... relatives that couldn't afford a pro photographer so they enlisted two family members.
On photographing people, I go with just "reminding" the subject that they have their glasses on. "Hey... you have your glasses on. Not sure if that's what you want or not. It doesn't matter to me either way." About 80% of the time they take them off.
I've gotten much more confident shooting people, but only by continuing to shoot people. When someone is wanting to be photographed with someone they haven't seen in a long time (like at a reunion), I now try to be mindful of the fact there's no mirror for them to check themselves. For example, at events where people have name tags on, I always ask if they want to remove the name tags for the photo, and they almost always take them off. So basically, by shooting people more and more, you become more confident. You aren't thinking of the mechanics of the camera much at all. You're focusing more on the people and thinking "is this how I'd want to look in a photo?" Then just ask them, or point things out. - "You have some cake icing on your tie... let's get that off." "Do you want to keep your sunglasses on for this shot?" "Let's move over here where the light is a little better."
But all in all, you should feel good about giving your time, and the resulting photos are WAY better than cellphone photos would have been. That is a nice wedding gift!
- Ken
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