Capturing consistently great group photos during the hectic atmosphere of a wedding day is no small feat. Take a behind the scenes tour of how a veteran photographer of over 27 years and 1,000 worldwide weddings gets it done.
As most of you know, getting your immediate family to agree on something as simple as where to go for dinner on a casual Saturday night is a difficult process in itself. Now, multiply that by 100, and you start to get a baseline for family portrait time during a wedding day. All eyes are on you, the photographer, to be patient, organized, and technically sound. The final product of this one-time event rests on your shoulders. With that said, it’s then part of your job to round up Uncle Bob, who is 30 yards away smoking yet another cigarette while sneaking in the big game highlights through the lobby windows, assure Grandma Jean who is desperately seeking shade and complaining about what this heat is doing to her hair that she is indeed photo ready, and encourage the bridesmaid, who is flustered from chasing her children whose attention spans are long past the point of no return.
Robert Evans, a veteran in the field, provides in this video some great pointers for large group portraits. Here, he displays how he utilizes his second shooter to keep this potential chaos tamed and everything under control. Evans essentially quarterbacks the room, keeping the group organized and ready to be posed while his second holds the post and captures the final results. This two-person game keeps everything flowing and avoids the sin of falling behind during the wedding day, losing precious time, time you likely won’t be getting back.
Loved his question: "Do you shoot what you want, or do you shoot what you get?" I was surprised that he's looking for 5-15 images (or maybe a few more) that wow him. I feel like I've placed an unnecessary burden on myself to love every image I take. It was refreshing and comforting to hear that his "love it" rate (my words) was that low.
Thanks for sharing this video!