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Our Tips For Taking Keepsake Family Photos

  • Our Tips For Taking Keepsake Family Photos 1

Taking Keepsake Family Photos

Nowadays, almost everyone’s phone is equipped with a decent camera. People take photos of one another and of themselves at any old time of the day. Candid photos are nice to browse through every now and then. However, having proper family portraits taken by a professional are excellent keepsakes that you can look back on and pass on to your children and grandchildren.

Tips For Taking Keepsake Family Photos

If you want to capture milestones, take advantage of loved ones being in the same location, or you simply want to immortalize the present moment for future generations, here are few tips you can use to create beautiful family photos:

Hadley and her family

Dress using a similar theme

One way to elevate your family photos from the ordinary candid shots to encourage everyone to dress up a little more than usual. Decide on a color palette that you can all agree on. Be careful to choose muted, non-distracting colors that will flatter everyone’s skin tones. You don’t need to dress up in costumes or wacky attire, but rather give everyone some loose guidelines like wearing denim, or outfits in predominantly cream or light blue colors.

Family photographer Adelaide

 

Go natural

You and your family’s future generations will look back on your photos and will want to know all about you. Make it a point to look like yourselves, wearing your usual style of clothing and only a light layer of makeup. Avoid trying a new hairstyle in the week or a few days prior to your portrait session. You might end up with something you regret, and the way you look in that moment will be immortalized forever.

Little Family 🙂

Choose a photographer you are comfortable with

Professionals experienced in taking family photos will put you and your group at ease during your photography session. You may want to choose someone who has experience working with very small children, so they know how to get a good shot even with a fidgety baby in the group. The right kind of photographer will also be able to calm your nerves and elicit laughs and smiles from everyone in the group during the shoot. Be sure to have a chat with your photographer before you agree on services so you can see if they are the right fit for you.

Fussing family

Use levels

Make the photo visually interesting by providing a set-up that has two to three “levels’ all the participants can take turns shifting around on. Put a lower layer, with young children sitting on the floor or grass. Seated in the middle, you can have the head of the family, parents, or any grandparents holding infants. Finally, your top layer can consist of older children and adults standing around the rest of the family.

Duncan Family

Include those who can’t be there

If you have loved ones who can’t be physically present for the photo, there are still ways you can include them in the portrait.

For family members who have passed away, some people like to hold on to a framed photo of them, or even photoshop them in. Others wear a special dress, hat, or accessory that represents their family member. Even if they aren’t present to pose for the photo with you, there are still ways you can pay tribute to them and make them feel they are part of the memory.

If you are wondering when the best time for family photography is, the answer is: right now. Your children will grow up in a flash, your parents are advancing in age, and commitments may take you or your loved ones far and away from each other. Don’t worry about picking out fancy outfits or posing in front of a fanciful set. Find the right photographer and take your portraits now, so you can keep your memories for a lifetime.

Are you looking for family photography services in Adelaide? We’d be happy to help you capture your family’s special moments. Contact us to learn more and have a chat!

 

 

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4 Things Wedding Photographers Should Always Prepare For

  • Wedding rings on shoes

 

Wedding Day Preparations Every Photographer Should Make

Wedding photography is entirely different from studio photography. At a wedding, you can’t tell your bride and groom to redo their poses if you messed up your shot. You’re dealing with live moments, and you need to act fast.

A good wedding photographer knows how to adapt to any situation, and they know what to do when something goes wrong with their initial plan. This is a list of a few things that wedding photographers should always prepare for, but it isnt a list of common sense items like extra batteries or a second or third camera body as backups.

This is more of a list of things wedding photographers should prepare for that you might not have thought of yet.

4 Things Wedding Photographers Should Always Prepare For

  1. Outdoor photoshoot using natural lighting

As a wedding photographer, you should know when is the best time to do outdoor wedding photoshoots. Taking outdoor photos is more complicated than staying indoors as you will never know how much light or how good or bad the weather is on the day of the wedding.

I always hope for a little bit of cloud cover making the outdoors closer to being inside, but when it’s super sunny – as it so often is in Australia – I like to use the shade a lot.

Most non-photographers don’t know that taking photos at noon is not ideal since the sunlight is very bright and harsh. Unlike during the golden hour, the light is more flattering for the couples. If you can, talk to the bridal couple beforehand and request to take the photoshoot at a specified time of the day.

To help you out, here is a detailed comparison between midday and golden hour that you can share with your client:

Midday – the sun’s peak

  • Shadow is not flattering to the body
  • Creates shadows in the surroundings
  • Overhead light creates a strong shadow on the face
  • Hot temperature leads to sweaty and shiny skin
  • Light is strong and harsh, making the couple squint
  • Overall: awkward, over-exposed, and unflattering images

Golden Hour – one to two hours before sunset

  • Soft light keeps the face free of harsh shadows
  • Lower temperature relaxes the couple
  • Less intense sky is flattering to the face and body
  • Warmer tone light creates an intimate and romantic look
  • Overall: relaxed, flattering, and romantic images
Inglewood Inn wedding photo at the cottage
  1. Bad weather conditions

Weather is unpredictable, so you must always anticipate possible scenarios. Having a back-up plan for bad weather is one of the things wedding photographers should always prepare for. It is crucial that you know how to shoot in all weather and are prepared to get a bit wet sometimes.

Here are some things that you should have, in case of unwanted weather disasters:

During warm seasons

  • It’s going to be bright outside so try using an ND filter to keep your depth of field soft
  • If you have an assistant, carry a reflector to direct some light to the harsh shadows
  • A drink bottle to hydrate!

During colder seasons

  • Lighting equipment for dimmer locations
  • Bring umbrellas for the birde and groom and possibly your camera
  • Extra batteries as the cold weather drain the battery faster – but you should be doing that anyway.
Lightning
  1. Camera angles

Before the ceremony begins, make sure to check on the location regardless of whether it is outdoors or indoors. Assess the place and see what position captures a good shot of the bride’s entrance, the taking of vows, the wedding kiss, and other highlights of the ceremony.

Also, consider the lighting in the area, where is the best place to get a shot of the faces of the bride and groom, etc? Plan out how you will move around the place while the ceremony is on-going. If you have a team with you, it will help if you assign designated areas to each photographer.

Burbrook forest wedding tree
  1. Use of fill-flash

Fill-flash can also be used outdoors while the sun is up. Typically, a wedding photographer would not recommend a shoot at midday, as this creates sharp shadows in the face. However, the light from the flash will help fill out the under-eye shadows of the bride and groom. It also helps balance images that have backlighting.

As a wedding photographer, you should know when to use fill-flash to balance out the light to your images. It is not always necessary, in fact I try not to use it during the day as much as possible, but it is better to equip yourself with knowledge and proper gear in case it is needed.

Under a weeping willow

Wedding photography is a hard task because you are dealing with real-life events. If you messed up or missed a good moment, you will never get a chance to capture it again. Thus, wedding photographers are skilled and experienced professionals that anticipate every scenario to make sure that everything is in their control.

Hopefully this list of things wedding photographers should always prepare for has alerted you to some of the things you may not have thought of yet before heading out to shoot a wedding. I’ve tried to include points that arent in other, similar lists, so hopefully it was some help 🙂

If you or you know someone who is looking for an Adelaide-based wedding photographer, contact us at SvenStudios today – we can help capture precious and intimate moments on wedding days!

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7 Different Wedding Photography Styles

Wedding Photography Styles

Aside from the wedding programme, dress, cake, buffet, and décor, you should also invest money and time in hiring a wedding photographer that will help relive your special day through the photographic art they create. More than anything, wedding photos are something you can keep years after the wedding that will help you reminisce your special day. They narrate the important scenarios in your wedding and capture intimate moments.

Placing wedding ring on her finger

If you are getting married soon, and you still can’t decide what kind of wedding photographs you would like to have, here is a list of sevendifferent wedding photography styles to help you narrow down your options. While a wedding photogrrapher might lean towards using mostly a single style – they are all part of a competent professional’s repatroir.

7 Different Wedding Photography Styles

Style #1: Traditional or Classic Shots

Traditional shots pertain to wedding photography that your parents or grandparents most likely had. These shots are straightforward and are typically captured at eye level. Most of the time, wedding celebrants and guests pose for this kind of photography.

Best for:

Bride and groom standing together in forest
bride and groom in the long grass
Giving each other hugs

Style #2: Photojournalistic Shots

Photojournalistic shots epitomise mordern wedding photography in my opinion. These photographs capture stories and moments in your wedding that you would most likely miss as a bride or groom, and therefore has become quite a popular way to approach wedding photography in modern times.

Best for:

  • Capturing candid and heartfelt moments
  • Telling stories through emotions or actions
  • Unfolding memories of the wedding years after
Bouquet toss
Bride and groom holding one another on driveway
Bride about to leave for wedding ceremony

Style #3: Editorial Shots

If you and your partner like to pose on cameras, this style is the best option for you. It is great for a wedding that has a specific theme, as you can use these photos on your wedding invitations, wedding favours, and thank-you and appreciation cards.

Best for:

  • Themed weddings
  • Couples who like to have prenup shoots
Paxton winery wedding 2
Bride and Groom together in the vineyard
Inglewood Inn Wedding Photo

Style #4: Landscape Shots

Many couples today take their engagement and wedding photos with landscapes. This style is great if you want to feature the location of your wedding ceremony, whether it is on a beach or mountain. The beauty of the landscape also adds drama to your photos, making it look more intimate. Not to mention that it would look great when you decide to print a photo book of your wedding.

As a former Landscape photographer of the year – I absolutely love incorporating some landscape work into my photography!

Best for:

  • Scenic wedding locations
  • Couples who love nature or adventure
Belair National Park wedding photo
Thera, Santorini Wedding
Bride and groom under a fallen tree

Style #5: Aerial Shots

As with landscape style, using modern technology like drones, a photographer is able to capture a wider view of your wedding location. Capturing your wedding from a wider perspective can make the people looking at the picture feel that they are part of your precious wedding.

Best for:

  • Featuring scenic wedding location
  • Capturing meaningful moments of the wedding such as ceremony exits
Drone shot from above
Ekhidna wines wedding at sunset
Middleton beach Wedding

Style #6: Dark and Moody Shots

As the name implies, it is dark and moody, but it does not mean that the photographs will look sad and intense. Instead, these kinds of shots can make your wedding photos look more dramatic and intimate.

Best for:

  • Couples who would love to break wedding norms
  • Wedding locations that have great lightings
Bride and groom through the window
Wedding dress hanging in window
Belair National Park wedding photo 2

Style #8: Black and White Shots

If you want to have classic-looking and elegant wedding photos, then you should do this style. With these shots, photographers focus more on capturing moments and making them look dramatic through editing.

Best for:

  • Timeless photographs
  • Highlighting emotions and actions
Bride and groom through the window at Paxton Winery
bride and groom under Gollops Bridge on their wedding day
Tieing tie in front of window

 

There are many different wedding photography styles, and this list only barely scratches the surface of them all. If you want to have classic wedding photos, you should do traditional or black and white shots. For dramatic and intimate stills, photojournalistic, landscape, and aerial styles would be best for you. You can also do fine art, dark and moody, or editorial shots if you want to have themed and creative wedding photographs.

The easy part is finding a style of photograph you like, the hard part is matching your tastes with a photographer! If you are looking for a wedding photographer, get in touch with us today. We offer high-quality photography services that can help capture and relive the precious and intimate moments on your wedding day!

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5 Wedding Myths You Should Not Believe

  • Engagement ring

 

Wedding Myths that you should try to ignore

You’re probably planning your wedding by now and maybe feeling a bit panic-y about everything. Breathe and relax. That’s okay. What’s not okay is believing in these wedding myths our culture imposes on brides and grooms. They are not helpful nor encouraging, that’s why I figured I’d write about them in this article

To help you relax, we’ve compiled a list of wedding myths and help you understand why you should not really worry about them

You Should Not Believe These 5 Wedding Myths

Myth 1: To save more, try DIY – FALSE!

DIY crafts are indeed a good way to add a personal touch to your wedding, and might seem on the surface as a way to cut down on your budget. However, while you think you can save costs from buying all the materials yourself, know that in doing this, you also have to factor in the skill, time, and other back-up supplies in the sums.

Sometimes, hiring someone else to create your invitation for you can cost you less than the total expense from creating it yourself. You’ll even get quality output in a shorter time. Unless you have people willing to help you out, DIY is usually not the most budget-friendly option.

Invite

Myth 2: Stay true to the traditional format of weddings – NOT A MUST!

Just because everyone else runs their wedding day to a similar schedule, doens’t mean you have to! usually the wedding ceremony is first followed by the grand wedding reception at a grand hotel. Why not have a breakfast wedding if you really wanted to? No one will get mad if you don’t follow any of these “rules”; in fact it’d probably be a point of conversation for years to come!

Remember that your wedding is your once-in-a-lifetime union as a married couple. You can tweak the itinerary and celebration by how you want to experience and remember it. Nuts to anyone else!

Make the celebration as close to both your personalities as you want. If you want a simple brunch in the backyard after the ceremony or dinner for just the two of you, there’s no problem! Follow what your heart’s desires.

Bride holding a wedding sword

Myth 3: Not inviting some friends can cost your friendship – FALSE

One of the biggest challenges an engaged couple encounter during wedding preparation is determining who makes it to the guest list. Unless you have unlimited money, your guest list will definitely have a limit.

Stop thinking that it is a test of friendship. Real friends will understand and be happy for you no matter what. Stick to your budget and choose only the special people whom you want to witness your union.

Talking guests at sundown

Myth 4: Wedding planning is a full-time job – NOT REALLY

Wedding planning will require effort, yes, but it doesn’t need to be that stressful. If you work on the requirements, decide, and book everything ahead of time, you’ll have fewer headaches.

Whether you hire a wedding planner or do things on your own, the planning can be manageable as long as you focus your energy on things that are important. The last two weeks before the wedding can be super busy, but early preparations can help you handle the situation well. I’ve even put together a number of blogs to make it easier for you to plan a wedding.

Guests having fun

Myth 5: Your wedding day will be the best day of your life – YES AND NO

Yes, wedding days are indeed memorable, especially when you are surrounded by your loved ones. When you look back at your wedding photos, you’ll remember how you were able to gather and celebrate with all the important people in your life.

Is it the best? It is unforgettable, but there are many more days ahead of you and your life partner. You can create more memories and create more best days of your life, so don’t put too much pressure on the day. In fact often it’s the case that a bridal couple just want it to be over a done with 😛

Just enjoy it and make good memories to reminisce.

Bride and groom through the window

Being aware of wedding myths is important because it helps you focus on things that truly matter. More importantly, knowing that these wedding myths aren’t necessarily true can help you move forward with your wedding planning with less stress. Remember that your wedding is yours. Plan it like how you want it to be remembered.

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3 Mistakes to Avoid When Choosing Your Wedding Photographer

  • Groom picking up bride through window

 

Common Mistakes to Avoid When Hiring a Wedding Photographer

With your big day’s date set, your bridesmaids and groomsmen chosen, venue picked out, and invitations sent, much anticipation will come in the days leading up to your wedding.

As something that you’ve probably dreamt of ever since you were young, tying the knot with the love of your life is undoubtedly an unforgettable experience that should be done right.

Now that you’ve got almost all your arrangements in order and some deposits made, you may still looking for a professional wedding photographer.

Why it matters to choose wisely and what mistakes to avoid

Among all the different parts of your wedding ceremony that need to be sorted out, the wedding photographer you hire is especially important because they’re responsible for capturing the memories you’ll want to look back on in the years to come.

From the time before you walk down to the aisle to the first dance you have as a married couple, a photographer will be there to capture everything they need, and they’ll do it well.

Unfortunately, many couples end up overlooking this important detail and end up choosing poorly, only to find out that the photos they recieved didn’t quite capture the magic of the event.

Inglewood Inn Wedding Photo

Avoid These 3 Mistakes When Choosing a Wedding Photographer

Thankfully, making sure that your wedding coverage is in the right hands doesn’t have to entail going on some adventure or spending more than half of your wedding budget on a “pro-rated” shutterbug. In this article, we will share with you three mistakes to avoid when choosing your wedding photographer:

  1. Going for the cheapest photographer

Look, I dont like to say it, because it really doesnt hold true 100% of the time, but when it comes to your wedding photography: ‘you get what you pay for’. Going cheap, or asking uncle Bill with his fancy camera to take your photos may seem like a good way to save a few thousand dollars, but you’re more than likely going to regret it after.

Seeing that a wedding is a special event that you’ll never have again in your lifetime, it should make sense that going for a cheaper option is a tragedy waiting to happen. There are stories like this almost monthly on those horrible shows like Today Tonight. It happens, and dont think it wont happen to you.

That said though, you can do your own personal vetting, and you may find some very talented individual on the cheap as they might be startingout or something. I wouldnt risk it though.

During your search, it’s important to note that you should invest a bit more money into a team that has many good reviews, positive testimonials, and engaging shots. Try not to book a photographer without having looked through an entire album of a completed wedding they have done previously.

  1. Not having a meeting before the wedding itself.

Any professional photographer knows the importance of setting up a meeting with a couple before their big day because it gives a chance to iron out any requests and considerations. As a photographer, it also allows me to guage the kind of personality of the couple and work with that in order to produce images that perfectly reflect that couple’s day.

Overlooking the need for a meeting is a mistake to avoid when choosing your wedding photographer because you’ll go into your wedding day without any coordination or proper expectation of how your shots are going to look like.

By meeting up with your chosen wedding photographer, you’ll be able to make sure that you’re both on the same page in terms of style to ensure that they’re getting the shots you’ve always wanted! You can also browse previous weddings the photographer has shot and possibly samples of albums.

  1. Not checking out reviews

An easy mistake to avoid when choosing your wedding photographer is going for the very first option they see without first considering reviews. The beauty of the internet is that you’re able to gain access to many review sources of any wedding vendor written by previous bridal couples. Be sure they are from a reputable source though as some review sites can be exploited with fake reviews.

ABIA is one such review site with a good reputation as they thoroughly vette each review they recieve.

Thanks to the Internet, you can find out everything that you need to know about a particular professional, how they work, and what experience you should expect with them. With a quick search on the web, you can learn more about the past experiences and reviews that previous clients and couples have had with a particular professional and work up from there.

Photo of the year contest JessChris
Bride and groom amongst gum trees

As one of the most important parts of your big day, the photographer that you hire can make a huge difference in how it goes. This makes it even more important to avoid common and crucial mistakes along the way.

Thinking of these mistakes to avoid when choosing your wedding photographer, you won’t have to break a sweat over worrying about whether or not you have made the right choice!

Our team of professional wedding photographers based in Adelaide also services weddings in Darwin, Canberra, and Hobart. Schedule an appointment with us today to see how we can help!