Shoot Weddings Like a Pro: There Is No Retaking Wedding Photos. It’s Got to Be Right the First Time!
- The Trick for Low-Light Shooting in a Church
- Getting Soft, Diffused Light with Flash, Part 1
- Getting Soft, Diffused Light with Flash, Part 2
- Use Your Flash at Outdoor Weddings
- Keep Backup Memory Cards on You
- Formals: Who to Shoot First
- Formals: Where to Aim
- The Trick to Keeping Them from Blinking
- Reception Photos: Making Them Dance
- Your Main Job: Follow the Bride
- Formals: How High to Position Your Camera
- Formals: Dont Cut Off Joints
- Formals: Build Off the Bride and Groom
- Formals: The Trick to Great Backgrounds
- Shooting the Details (& Which Ones to Shoot)
- Change Your Vantage Point to Add Interest
- Finding That Perfect Bridal Light
- How to Pose the Bride with Other People
- What to Shoot with a Wide-Angle Lens
- Back Up Your Photos Onsite
- If Shooting JPEGs, Use a Preset White Balance
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Reception Photos: Making Them Dance
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There’s a problem with taking photos of people dancing. If you shoot them with a flash (and most likely you will), it will freeze their movement, so they’ll look like they’re just standing still, but in somewhat awkward poses. It still amazes me how people doing a line dance can be pictured as people in a police lineup—the camera just doesn’t capture motion—unless you tell it to. There are really two techniques: the first is in the camera. It’s called panning, where you take the camera and follow the movement of one of the people dancing (usually the bride, groom, a bridesmaid, or a groomsman), while using a slow shutter speed so the rest of the people have a motion blur, which makes them look like (you guessed it) they’re dancing. If you didn’t remember to employ this technique during your reception shoot, then you can add this motion blur in Photoshop. The first step is to duplicate the Background layer. Then go under the Filter menu, under Blur, and choose Motion Blur. Set the Angle to 0°, then increase the Distance until things look like they’re really moving. The last step is to get the Eraser tool, choose a really big soft-edged brush (like the soft round 200-pixel brush) and erase over the person you’re focusing on (like the bride, etc.) so that person appears in focus, while everyone else is dancing and moving around having a good time.