From the Wedding Tip Series, providing a new piece of advice every Wednesday to help brides get the most out of their wedding photography. This Wednesday, we are proud to unveil tip four:
“Kill the Shot List!”
Many bride’s assume that when they hire a photographer, they are helping them out by providing a long and detailed list of photos they might like captured on their wedding day, when in reality this is the biggest thing you can possibly do to sabotage your wedding photos. Allow me to explain:
First, most brides find it too time consuming to sit there and come up with their own list, so they search one up on the Internet, look at it briefly and send it over to their photographer. These lists can be 100+ shots long and include moments that many not even actually HAPPEN on their particular wedding day to photograph. No photographer is going to memorize a shot list that is so long the bride most likely didn’t even have the time to read it all the way through it before sending it over.
So where does that put us? It puts the photographer(s) there on the bride’s wedding day STARING down at a list, crossing items off as they go and, in the process, missing important candid moments that are truly what sets one couple’s wedding photos apart from everyone else’s. Not to mention, any experienced photographer already knows about and tries to capture most things on lists typically provided anyway without being asked.
Think of this way — would you rather have a shot of your makeup scattered around the vanity, or a shot of your maid of honor tearing up as she gives you an emotional hug? A shot of your 90-year-old grandma cutting a rug on the dance floor, or a photo of the food tables? There are many points in the average wedding day, where your photographer may have to choose between something on your list and a real, amazing, genuine moment, and if you’ve given them a list, they’re obligated to get the shot on the list. Instead of using their talent and vision to express your day the way it happens, your photographer will be scrambling to cross items off a list and set up fake, forced shots.
MY PERSONAL TAKE
All that being said, while I personally will not even accept a giant Internet list of shots, I will happily accept, and even ask for, a very short list that will actually help me prepare for your specific day. Here are things I ask for on a list, which should be as short as possible, and no more than ten shots long, not including the family formal/bridal party combinations. Your shot list should include three things:
1. Anything unique or unusual about your wedding that you want photos of that I might not expect or know about. For example, the heirloom ring tied to your bouquet, the apple pie you’re serving from a recipe that’s been in your family for generations, or your best friend as she sings a song she wrote for you at the wedding.
2.) Formal, posed family group shots and bridal party shots. Combinations of family, such as bride’s immediately family, groom’s immediate family, bride with cousins.
3.) Any shot that you would be absolutely heartbroken and in tears if you didn’t get.
Also, ideas for unique shots you may have thought up all on your own are always welcome! Whatever you do, just please, please, please do not include something on a list because you’ve seen other people get that photo or someone on a message board or in a magazine told you to; your wedding is unique, and your photos should be, too!
