Behind the Scenes: A Wedding Shoot
An inside look at how a professional wedding shoot comes together from start to finish.
Wedding photography looks effortless in the final gallery, but the reality involves months of preparation, meticulous equipment checks, and the ability to navigate high-emotion situations with calm professionalism. Here is what a typical wedding day looks like from behind the camera.
Pre-Wedding Preparation
Weeks before the wedding, I meet with the couple to walk through the timeline, visit the venue, and discuss their shot list and style preferences. Venue scouting is critical: I note the direction of natural light at different times of day, identify backup locations for portraits in case of rain, and plan where to position myself during the ceremony for unobstructed angles.
The night before, I charge all batteries, format memory cards, and pack two complete camera bodies with matching lenses. Redundancy is non-negotiable in wedding photography. If a camera fails during the first dance, there is no second take. I carry backup flash units, additional memory cards, and even a spare pair of comfortable shoes.
The Morning: Getting Ready
Getting-ready coverage typically begins three to four hours before the ceremony. These candid moments, buttoning a shirt, applying lipstick, a parent’s first look at their child in wedding attire, produce some of the most emotionally resonant images of the day. I work with available light whenever possible, positioning subjects near windows and using reflectors to fill shadows.
Detail shots of rings, invitations, shoes, and flowers round out the getting-ready narrative. These images are small in scale but significant in storytelling, they document the carefully chosen elements that define the couple’s aesthetic vision for the day.
Ceremony and Reception
During the ceremony, I position myself to capture both the couple’s expressions and the reactions of guests and family. A second photographer covers the alternate angle, ensuring that key moments like the ring exchange and first kiss are documented from multiple perspectives. Silent shutter mode minimizes distractions during vows and readings.
Receptions demand versatility. I transition from the soft natural light of golden-hour portraits to the challenging mixed lighting of ballrooms and dance floors within minutes. Off-camera flash, bounced from walls or diffused through modifiers, provides consistent illumination while maintaining the ambient atmosphere of the venue. The goal is images that feel warm and natural, not like a flash was involved at all.
Delivery and the Final Gallery
Post-processing a full wedding typically takes forty to sixty hours. I cull the raw files from several thousand down to six or eight hundred selects, then apply consistent color grading, exposure adjustments, and retouching. The final gallery is delivered through an online proofing platform where the couple can share, download, and order prints. From the first consultation to the final delivered image, a single wedding represents over a hundred hours of skilled work, all in service of preserving one of life’s most significant days.