Dealing with your headspace during a wedding day can be a challenge. You need to think about poses, timelines, and shots, all while managing the couple and their expectations. It’s a lot to juggle, especially when you're starting out. Here are four tips to help you manage your headspace and stay focused during a wedding.
Coming to you from John Branch IV Photography, this informative video breaks down essential strategies for maintaining a clear headspace during a wedding. One key piece of advice is to write your own timeline. You might think that the couple or planner handles this, but as the photographer, you know best how long different parts of the day will take. By creating your timeline, you ensure everything runs smoothly and you aren’t scrambling to adjust to someone else’s schedule. Of course, communicate this timeline to everyone in advance.
Having a predictable approach to wedding photography is another crucial point. While creativity is important, having a solid, predictable method helps reduce stress. By knowing exactly what shots you need and where to take them, you create a reliable product for your clients. This predictability also allows room for creativity without compromising the essential shots that make up your portfolio. Your second photographers can even predict your next move, streamlining the process further.
Rolling with the punches is essential. Even with the best planning, things can go wrong during a wedding. But if you have a clear headspace and a predictable approach, you’re better equipped to handle these challenges. When timelines shift or unexpected issues arise, you can adapt without losing your cool. This adaptability not only makes your job easier but also impresses your clients and colleagues. That's just the start, so check out the video above for the full rundown from Branch.
If you would like to continue to learn about wedding photography, be sure to check out "How To Become A Professional Commercial Wedding Photographer With Lee Morris and Patrick Hall!"
Having shot hundreds and hundreds of weddings myself, the best thing I ever did was keep my lens choices to really 3 lenses: 24 - 70 2.8, 70 - 200 2.8, and a 60mm macro lens. Early in my career I bought the 14mm fisheye and had the 12-24 ultra wide angle lens and the 35, 50, 85mm 1.4 lenses but after a few years, I boiled it down to those 3 main lenses.
There is no doubt that primes and ultra wide aperture lenses give you a slight increase in sharpness and bokeh, but they honestly didn't stand out enough for me to constantly be running back to my camera bag to change out lenses. There is so much creativity to make in split seconds that the stress of missing a shot because I had a prime lens on me was something that just didn't make sense to me.
Speaking of headspace, after a few seasons of shooting weddings full time, the only part of the day that really stressed me out was the traveling between locations or coordinating how to send an assistant to another location during the wedding. Traffic, timelines getting altered, and meeting expectations was always what stressed me out the most (and it didn't stress me out that much). Being creative and capturing great shots wasn't ever something that really stressed me out after about the 3rd year.
Oh and let me just say, shooting in aperture priority mode isn't something to be ashamed of. My camera's meter has saved my ass more times than I can count because I was running inside and outside quickly and my camera was in Aperture mode. Manual is great and feels more "professional" but understanding how Aperture mode and your exposure compensation button works can actually be a more professional setting in my opinion.