I had another wedding at the Holiday Cottage area in Brookgreen Gardens. I always love going there, you just can’t beat the background and lighting that you get with lots of trees and a garden. The weather had been so nice that a number of flowers were in bloom, this is always great in the background of a picture. This wedding was for the bride that I recently did the fun bridal portraits for, you can read about that a couple of blog posts down from here. I actually noticed at this wedding I didn’t take quite as many total pictures as I usually do, I think because they didn’t have as much dancing as they do at some weddings. But I think the quality of the pictures I did take was very good. I would be glad to show almost all the shots as examples of my work.
I like to give a photo tip with my blog posts. Something in particular I thought about with these pictures (I mentioned this briefly on Facebook) is the importance of really getting in close for a picture instead of trying to crop it later. I used to think it’s better to shoot wider than what you want in the final image, because you can always crop later. It is good to keep in mind when shooting that a 4×6 has a completely different aspect ratio from an 8×10, so you do have to try to leave enough room in the picture to allow for this. But if you want a close up of a face, you will get a much different look from shooting really close then shooting a wide shot and cropping into the face. This is due to things like the way the closer you get, the more the background is going to be out of focus. When you use a longer lens (more zoomed in like a 50mm or more) you also get a more flattering compression of features, a wide angle will make noses and ears look bigger etc. It also can make a subject look like it’s closer to a background. And there are probably other reasons as well, just know it looks a lot better to shoot close to what you want the final image to look like. Next time you take pictures try to get in really close to your subject by physically moving closer or using a longer lens and see what you think.
I tried to pick some of my favorite pictures to post below, if you like these pictures please let me know in the comments below, or click the Facebook like button above.
Bride walking down the cottage stairs - Brookgreen Gardens
Bride and father walking towards the ceremony area
