monterey wedding photographer - advice for brides - hair, hairstyles, and other hair style tips
monterey wedding hair salon and hair stylists
Advice and tips for breathtaking wedding pictures on the beach in monterey
Wedding Photography Tips for Brides
Return to the F.A.Q. INDEX
GROUP SHOTS
Q: I'm so excited that all my family and friends could attend our wedding & I want some group shots of all of us; *when* do you recommend we take these group photos?
A: The reality is that there really is only one "best" time for such group shots...immediately after the ceremony. And when I say "immediately," I truly do mean "immediately." I give this advice with, as you'll see below, much reservation given that this time (immediately after the ceremony) actually is ideal for intimate shots of the Bride and Groom; thus, I actually think anything other than shots of the bride & groom during this time is a poor use of time. Regardless, let me continue with the original question.
What really needs to happen is that everyone exit from the ceremony and go to a pre-determined location that will accommodate the size of the group being photographed. It would be wise to either have the officiate announce that guests should go to this specified location without delay or have a pre-printed enclosed with the program requesting the same. My word of warning to the Bride & Groom is to resist the inclination to linger around the ceremony site and then intermix with the guests as they exit. If you do that, to be totally honest, you are guaranteed to be engulfed by guests and not be able to escape for a considerable period of time....any schedule you had previously been adhering to will immediately go right out the window.
A second alternative is to have the photos taken during the reception. Of course, this is a significantly poorer idea than right after the ceremony. Some of these detracting factors include: (1) assuming I went with the bride & groom for couple's shots after the ceremony for 45-minutes or so, the guests were likely having a cocktail hour.....yes, you can see where I'm going with this...indeed it is always the case, whether we like to admit it or not, that someone is going to get a little to excited with the booze and will be a major distraction/hindrance during the group shots; (2) any little children attending will likely start to lose their patience (as well as the patience of their parents...and these emotions do not photograph well); (3) some guests may have medical conditions or very small children that simply cannot stay much longer than immediately after the ceremony, thus, you're running the risk of having certain "key" people not even be able to make the shot, and (4) depending on the time of day of course, if your reception is later in the evening (specifically, after sunset), then we'll need to set up strobe equipment to adequately expose a large group, this takes time to set-up and extra time to operate, again reducing the number of images we'll be able to capture.
The final alternative, which actually is only a partial option, is to shoot at least a few of the smaller groups of individuals before the ceremony. Obviously, both the bride and groom will not be in the photo (if they are adhering to traditon...which happens to be rapidly eroding away). Nevertheless, many photos of smaller clusters of family and friends will be available and taking shots during this time would reduce the time requirements later on during your event. One big word of caution, should you decide that we should shoot some group shots before the wedding, you must be totally aware that, depending on the package you book with us, there may be only one photographer to shoot your event (most packages have 2 though) and that it is in our strong professional judgment that taking group photos instead of the pre-event preparation (e.g., hair, makeup, dressing, detail shots, etc), could not be a more unwise decision. That is, these pre-event shots typically turn out (roughly 70% of the time or more) to be to the bride's great surprise, their "favorite" photos. Thus, be very very careful as to what you deiced to skimp on in order to capture the group shots.
Q: I've hears some mixed information regarding even having group photos at all; what's your opinion on this topic, should we actually have the group shots or not? My next question is, regardless of your professional opinion or not, we still want at least a few group photos so please tell us what factors will either help or hurt this process?
A: What I'm about to say is likely going to result in lost business due to someone's feelings being hurt of not having their opinion's validated; regardless, my goal is that the bride-to-be, or whoever might be planning the celebration, takes at little piece of my advice to heart because I know the advice is sound and well intentioned.
My experience has shown that, when discussing their event before hand, the vast majority of prospective clients truly place "group shots" extremely high on the priority list. Additionally, I can also tell you that an equally high percentage of clients simply are unaware of the challenge and drawbacks of such group shots. My goal here is to educate and inform you about the true "cost" of such shots so that when your big day actually arrives, you'll have made a sound decision regarding where you want your priorities to land.
To begin, let me first reassure you that beautiful and timeless group shots are absolutely possible and the final photographic product will indeed serve to make wonderful memories. However, as mentioned a couple paragraphs ago, you just must acknowledge the enormous amount of time and organization required to capture such images. Similarly, you must also be aware that, especially if only commissioning us for a limited duration (e.g., less than 8-hours), the amount of time spent on group shots will inevitably reduce the quantity and quality of shots documenting other aspects of your event (e.g., couple's shots, detail shots, emotion during the reception, and so forth).
My personal recommendation is to take group shots, but only do such: (1) *after* the intimate shots of the bride and groom have concluded, (2) if there is a designated family/friend to help "herd" the appropriate individuals up for the shots, and finally (3) not take so many group shots such that you and your guests have their emotional well being and stamina plummet (taking photos of tired, grumpy people during the reception is never a good combination).
Assuming you do want some group photos captured, there really are two key factors that will either "make" or "break" the group photo goal:
#1 key factor for successful group shots = Having a designated individual who is organized, detail-oriented and willing to serve as the "herder" to round-up the appropriate family members / friends for the photos. Without such a person, we'll be happy to take on this task but we of course can not attach faces to names of your family and friends; thus, it takes us considerably longer to accomplish the task.
#2 factor for successful group photos = Keeping the size of the group down to a moderate size. Large groups simply take longer to shoot...a lot longer. The real rub is that, for example, a group shot of 20-adults does not take only twice as long as a group shot of 10-adults; in fact, it will likely take upwards of 4-times as long, and maybe longer! Plan accordingly! Otherwise, it is simply debatable that the photos will come out well when you're frantically throwing a bunch of people in front of a camera and then rapidly tossing another group in their place. Good photos come when people are relaxed and acting natural, not up-tight and rushed (stress and negative emotions show up like a sore thumb in photographs. . . it's best to keep that to a minimum).
Q: OK, I get the drift you're not wild about taking group shots; would you just tell me the top few reasons why you're so concerned about them?
A: Hands down, the #1 reason why I'm not a fan of group shots is because they simply don't result in much "bang for your buck." That is, these shots eat away at the clock, typically it eats away at time that is otherwise at a premium and could be spent photographing the Bride & Groom. Along these lines, I'm always especially bitter when that "perfect light" is gobbled away and
Q: I still don't really understand why you say that it takes exponentially longer to take group photos as the number of people in the group increases; would you please explain where you're coming from?
A: Sure. Basically what I'm saying is that as the size of the group increases, so does a variety of "problems" that result in the photo becoming a "reject" as opposed to a keeper. These "problems" really aren't of consequence when you're only photographing one or two people but when you keep tossing more and more people into the picture, the probability of one of these bad events occurring increases exponentially,
I won't go into all the details, but just realize the following factors will in all reality (a) cause the group photography process to take longer than normal or (b) result in a poorly composed image requiring a re-take. So, in no particular order, here is the list of some factors affecting your group photos: blinking, hair falling in eyes, brushing hair away from face, looking away from camera, number of babies or small children in the photo, number of elderly or injured people in photo, temperature and overall comfort level of individual, poor weather conditions, poor lighting conditions, number of tourists (if an outdoor public event) that accidentally stepped in direct line of the photo, etc, etc.
I'll close by demonstrating how just one of these factors is dramatically affected by the increase in group size. Sorry to bring up your statistics class from school but the following graph, which is by the way inspired by research conducted by a physics professor and avid amateur photographer, is a superb example of this problem we're discussing.
This graph shows the average number of photographs one must take in order to get only one good shot of the group where everyone's eye's are open. The red dotted line represents "typical" lighting you might encounter on the day of your event; conversely, the blue dotted line represents absolutely ideal lighting for comparison (basically, if you have "perfect" lighting, the number of times one blinks is reduced because the eyes aren't as irritated). Anyway, after looking at this graph, just think for a minute (a) how many people will be in the group shots you want, (b) how many distinct groups of people need to be photographed, and (c) ask yourself if there will be any babies or small children in the shot and if so be sure to greatly increase the number of photos required to compensate.
