Original subtitles

A very common question that I get all

the time about wedding photography is, I want

to be a wedding photographer, what is the

minimum amount of gear that you recommend?

Well, here's the thing, I've actually heard of

photographers going out there and photographing a wedding.

Let's call, let's call them photographers.

One camera, one lens, one memory card, and

then you go out and photograph a wedding.

It's irresponsible.

I've got to say guys, there's that, that

when we're photographing a wedding, there's going to

be a certain kind of redundancy that we

have to account for.

And there's always a backup.

We can always do something as best as

we can under the circumstances within the budget

that we have with the gear that's current

that we have and so on.

So what I want to talk about now

is the minimum gear that I recommend for

weddings at an absolute minimum.

This is what I believe you need.

In other words, you do not even put

yourself out there as a potential wedding photographer

until you have this kind of a gear.

Um, and then I'll tell, talk about a

bit more about what's a well-rounded kit

that I believe after all these years, this

is what I believe would work.

We'll talk a bit about lens compression and

different, uh, characteristics of lenses.

And, uh, and also we'll talk towards the

end about, um, what is the day before

a wedding look like?

What's the ritual that as photographers do who

photograph weddings, um, go through.

So let's talk about it.

What is the minimum gear I recommend, um,

for weddings?

Well, two cameras, you have to have it

just at least two, there's going to be

a time where you'll drop a camera.

And what do you do then?

Well, yeah, you can grab your iPhone out

and maybe take some photographs like that, but

two cameras is going to work one for,

you might need it as a backup.

You might need two angles, especially if you're

photographing with a digital camera, you are going

to want to minimize the times you actually

take your lens off and allow dust to

get onto your, onto your sensor.

So what I try to do is when

I'm photographing with two cameras, um, 80 to

90% of my weddings will actually be

photographed with the one camera because I might

use the 70 to 200 90% of

the time or the 85 1.8 most

of the time.

If I do that, then my, my go

-to camera, I'm minimizing the time I take

the lens off and put it back on,

which means I'll have less dust spots on

the camera that's going to be used the

most.

Then the other camera is my second angle,

but it's usually the one that's going to

be abused a little bit more where I

basically use different lenses on there too.

But please, um, as of 2020 and beyond

my suggestion is that two cameras is what

you'll need.

And I think it's sort of, I would

say it's fair, fair enough to say that

there should be a minimum of 20 megapixels

plus that's what I would recommend.

And in most of the camera systems, and

I've got to say, guys, it doesn't matter

what camera system that I use at the

end of the day, the camera is a

tool.

And I've got to say that all the

camera systems at the moment, uh, anyone who's

anyone, they're pretty damn good.

They're really amazing.

So you're going to pick your favorite system.

My suggestion to be for you is to

actually arguably rent the potential camera system that

you want to, that you want to buy,

use it, practice with it, because every camera

will feel different in your hands.

You might have cameras for different needs.

So rent it.

You feel good about it.

Love the quality.

Go for it.

Invest your money wisely and go from there.

I would rather you get rather than invest

in a cheaper camera, um, um, or lenses

or anything like that.

I'd rather you just rent until you can

afford to buy.

Um, don't there's any, there's no shame in

that.

In fact, it's probably even better for you

financially because of the, of what you, how

you can claim it and all those kinds

of things.

And you can keep updating the cameras.

And if you're only shooting 10 to 20

weddings a year, you'll be surprised that like,

if you want to keep updated with the

gear, that's always current, it might be a

good way for you to go, but I'll

leave it up to you.

Um, two cameras is what you need.

Um, two speed lights, you know, you're going

to want to be able to use on

camera flash.

Now I use on camera flash and I

bounce it in a way where it doesn't

look like flash.

So I recommend that you learn that.

And of course, if you've learned from me,

you'll understand how to do that.

Um, but two speed lights is what you

need.

And of course you've got one speed light

on each of the cameras.

And of course you've got a backup.

If one goes on the, the current, the

camera that you're using at an absolute minimum,

two lenses, a 24 to 70 is going

to be a good all rounder that you

can actually use.

Of course, your wide 24 would be, would

be amazing.

Um, and then the 70 mil, it just

gives you a bit of a range to

play with.

And of course you carry on that 70

mil to 200 with a second lens.

Now just going back to the cameras for

a second, I would recommend a full frame

camera.

It's just nice to know that you're 70

to 200 is in fact 70 to 200

rather if you go with a closer crop

or the DX crop or depending on your

camera system, it's going to basically like a

70 to 200 will be a one 50

to 300.

It's full frame is just easier, more predictable.

You know what you're seeing and that's basically

it.

Uh, you might grab one of those cameras

that have a different crop ratio and factor

where you're photographing in a safari environment, for

example, where you want your lenses to be

double the focal length or so on.

Um, a reflector is such an amazing tool

to have.

I would recommend it at least a minimum

of a five in one reflector.

That's going to be great for you.

Um, of course, memory cards, you know, these

days you can get, um, 128 gig, you

get 256.

I mean, you can shoot a whole wedding

on one card and won't have any problem

with, uh, having to replace it during the

day.

There's argument to say, you know, you should

basically change cards on every location.

Like there's a card for the grooms, a

card for the brides and so on and

so on.

And then at least you break up the,

the, the, the issue of only having one

card to rely upon.

Well, my argument is that the likelihood of,

you know, fumbling a card, missing the card

or having to reformat a card out of

those six or seven is probably more likely

for that to happen than your one card

in your camera being a problem.

Um, and again, depending on, obviously I'd recommend

a camera with two card slots.

If that exists with your camera system in

the camera system that you desire.

And if not, of course you can actually,

um, tether to your phone and then you

have a backup that way as well.

Um, I would recommend, recommend a continuous light.

It's going to be nice to sometimes where

you want the predictability of being able to

turn a light on and then illuminate whoever

you're photographing, whether it's for detail shots, whether

it's for a beautiful artistic portrait, whatever it

may be.

I think this would be a really good

minimum, um, gear kit, um, to photograph a

wedding.

And of course you should know your cameras

back to front.

Please read your manual because the camera can

do so much more than what you think.

No different than a video game where you

go to play a game, uh, like a

video game, PlayStation or Nintendo, whatever it may

be.

And then you just can only get so

far in the game because you don't know

this combination of buttons that can open up

a whole world of creativity.

No different than a camera.

So please read your camera manual, both for

your camera manual and your speed light manual.

But that is what I recommend at a

minimum.

If I had to afford to drop one

thing, I'd say continuous light important to have

not a deal breaker.

Take the continuous light away if you can't

afford it.

If you can't afford the reflector, take that

away, but they're pretty affordable.

The rest is just a given.

Um, you just have to have two cameras.

You have to have two lenses and you

have to have two speed lights.

Now, what is a well-rounded kit for

weddings look like?

Well, here's what I recommend.

Again, I recommend two cameras, um, for, for

your wedding.

If you have a third camera, that's fantastic

as well, because you are going to, there's

going to be times where you've got two

cameras going.

Like let's say there's a bigger wedding.

There's lots of, lots of cultural things happening.

Ritual things are happening.

You've got a camera, let's say on the

bride and the groom, um, doing a speech.

You've got the reactions of the speeches by

a second camera.

And let's say if one dies, you know,

I'd probably push that up to three cameras

as a, I'm saying well-rounded as in

here are the extras that I would include.

Um, but if you can't afford it, you're

okay.

You can survive without it.

But yes, three would be better than two,

of course, more than three, I think it's

a bit overkill depending on the size of

the wedding.

So, so I'll let you guys be the

judge of that.

Speedlights again, two speedlights and a remote trigger.

So I didn't touch upon the remote trigger

before, but the remote trigger is quite important

because there's going to be times where you

want the flash off camera.

You want to create a bit of a

direction of light, a bit of a shadow.

You want to backlight your subject.

So a remote trigger is great.

And there's many out there, of course, for

any, any, many camera systems work out the

one that you actually like.

I would suggest going on YouTube, um, and,

and, and looking at some reviews by people

that you, that you know, and you trust

and you respect, and that would be great.

Speedlight modifiers.

You'll actually, there's many companies out there that

actually make modifiers that fit on your flash

that help you sort of soften the light,

broaden the light and all these different things.

Um, so I would suggest looking into those.

A portable strobe, I would say 500 watt.

If you want to overpower the sun, um,

you are going to need a portable strobe.

When I say need it, you don't have

to have it.

You can do it with a speed light.

Of course, you can do it with two

speed lights, but sometimes you just want the

ease of getting out of strobe 500 Watts.

Bang.

You can just go, go ahead and do

it.

And of course a portable soft box, maybe

like a 24 inch soft box at a

minimum, obviously with a light stand, something like

that would be good because you may be

on your own.

You want to photograph the bride and groom

at a beach.

And what do you do?

Um, of course, light stand strobe or speed

light, and you can, you can go your

merry way lenses the way I would expand

it.

Um, and in fact, this is sort of

what I bring with me on a wedding

day.

Although I have more lenses than this, this

is sort of my, my kit that I

bring.

My sort of golden rule is that if

I can fit it in one camera bag,

it comes with me.

Now, yes, I've got a second bag with

lighting, but you know, the lenses are all

in the same bag, 40 to 24, 2

.8, 24 to 72.8, seven to 200,

2.8, um, a macro lens at 2

.8. So one of five.

So most camera systems will have a version

of a macro.

So I have the one at five.

Other systems will have a 100.

It just depends on what you want.

Um, and also you need something that has

a shallow depth.

So something at 1.2, something at 1

.4, in my case, 1.8, 1.8

is great because you're not playing with fire

too much, because if you're photographing on an

eyeball or an eye socket, like at 1

.8, like at 1.2 or even at

0.95, you're playing with fire.

It's a, it's a, you can very rarely

get any kind of movement shots with anything

sort of shallower.

Um, I like the 1.8 because it

sort of forces me to stop there rather

than play with fire and go, go shallower.

Although it's certainly nice to have, and if

you're in a controlled environment on a tripod

or someone's closer to you, it's more predictable.

Memory cards are important.

Please don't have just enough for a thousand

shots.

You have to overestimate quite ridiculously.

Um, I'm not a loose shooter.

I find I'm very controlled and measure what

I photograph, but I tend to find that

I always have enough for two to three

weddings with me at all times.

I very rarely change cards because I'm usually

at a 128 gig card in both cameras.

And I can't remember the last time I

had to change a card on a particular

wedding day, but make sure you have enough.

Make sure you also have a routine when

you're photographing.

So I have a very hard case that

I hold my memory card in my XQD

cards.

So what I do is that when they're

used, I turn them and flip them upside

down.

And that's a red flag.

Do not touch anything that's flipped around, which

reminds me that when you're photographing, make sure

you do never leave a wedding unformatted on

your card on a wedding.

And trust me, I have done this before.

You've probably done this before.

Whereas you start photographing a wedding and then

you look back at your photographs and you

scroll back and you realize you have like

two weeks ago wedding on the frigging card.

Now you don't know how many photographs you

have left.

Now you can't really format the card and

now you can't delete them individually.

And then you're running out of card space.

What do you do?

So don't make that mistake.

Make sure.

And we'll talk about this very shortly, talking

about the day before wedding ritual as photographers

that we should do that.

Your, your cards are all formatted.

They're all empty.

They're ready to rock.

There's some in your camera, there's some spare

ones and you know your system and you

stick to it.

Of course, I would suggest a reflector.

As I said before, a continuous light, of

course, is a well-rounded part of your

kit for your weddings.

A tripod.

I don't use a tripod often for weddings,

but there's going to be times where you

want deliberate movement.

You want this beautiful glide and sea of

movement, maybe with the bride and groom standing

and kissing in the, in the, on the

dance floor and they're static and stationary, everything's

moving around them.

I mean, there's so many cool things you

can do with a tripod.

And then sometimes you're doing family portraits and

you're doing 50 families in a row.

And to bring your camera up and down

is going to be real pain in the

butt.

So, you know, you might want to predictably

put your camera on a tripod.

That's going to suffice for most of the

shots that you take.

And then life is good.

And of course, the camera case is going

to be a fun thing for you too.

I first wanted to talk about camera gear

in general, rather than be too specific with

what I use, because really guys, I don't

want there to be a war on what's

best.

And Jerry uses this, or he doesn't do

that or whatever.

I'm telling you now, all camera systems, I

mean, in the current crop of, of brands

are pretty amazing.

At the end of the day, you, you

end up investing in a certain type of

equipment because it serves your needs.

It works well.

You grow with it.

And there comes a point where if it

doesn't grow with your needs, then you might

switch and that's okay.

But it's not about the gear guys.

I've been talking about this all along.

The gear is important.

We are specifically talking about gear right now,

but you just have to understand how to

use it and connect with your subjects.

To be more specific as of 2020, the

cameras that I use currently are the Z6

and the Z7.

Of course, they're mirrorless cameras.

I also have the D850.

I also have the, the D5, and I'll

use them from time to time on weddings,

other than the mirrorless for different reasons.

Um, if I'm photographing, let's say at a

very dark crypt of a church and I

can't use flash, well, the D5 is going

to perform exceptionally well.

Um, you know, the D850 I might use

for filmmaking.

Now the Z6 and the Z7 are incredible.

They have the uses.

My Z6 is going to be my, my,

my go-to camera.

Um, I'll wet it for wedding camera and

the Z7 would be my go-to portrait,

uh, fashion and anything non-wedding.

But of course that'll change and evolve.

And it perhaps could even change by the

time you're watching this video, but either way,

um, I know a lot of people ask

me and I thought I'd share with you

right now.

The speedlights, I have some SB910s, which are

amazing.

And of course I has SB5000s with the

WR10 and the WRA10, which is the trigger

and the, and the trend, the transmitter and

the receiver.

The speedlight modifiers, I actually don't use many

modifiers at all.

Um, but, um, when I do a mag

mod, I actually sell a great bunch of

gear and kit for your flashes.

Um, but also I like to use a

Westcott products and Profoto products.

So between the soft boxes that I use,

they're actually amazing.

So, um, Westcott modifiers are incredible.

Uh, the portable strobe as of 2020 and

beyond, I'm using the Profoto B10 plus, and

it's a 500 watt globe, a flash, and

it also has continuous light.

It's got lots of power.

It comes with a really cool trigger, the,

the, uh, the, the TTL air remote for

the Nikon.

And that's amazing.

And also you can get a digital one

that will fire off an A1 or an

A1X or, or a B10 plus.

So it depends on you and, um, what

you believe about that, uh, what you prefer.

Um, portable soft box.

Like I said, I use a Westcott products.

They're amazing.

And I've got the lenses as we discuss

it in the, in the Nikon range.

Memory cards, I use XQD and CF Express

is imminent, and I believe they're already out

and about in the XQD format.

I haven't, um, played with them yet.

So I'm looking forward to, um, the quality

and performance and the reliability of the CF

Express in the XQD format.

A reflector as of 2020, I'm using the

Omega reflector, which, um, I invented.

It's the world's first 15 in one reflector.

So, um, check that out.

You'll love that, uh, continuous light.

I also invented the ice light and it's

an incredible portable light with lots of uses

and is absolutely amazing.

And that'll actually help your life, um, be

a lot easier on a wedding day and

a tripod.

Um, there's so many brands out there, um,

pick the one that actually suits your needs

the best.

And it's a combination of what's, um, usable,

what's light, what you could travel with and

what serves your needs.

In fact, the one that you take with

you on a wedding day might be a

simpler, smaller version than the one that you

keep in your studio.

And as far as the camera case, as

of 2020, um, I use a roller derby

or roller derby, um, a think tank bag,

which is amazing because it's a, it's a

carry on size and there's wheels on it.

It's a, it's just a well rounded case.

It actually works really well.

What lenses do I have?

Um, there's, there's, there's a few more than

what's on this list, but you know, if

you want to get crazy, 70-200 2

.8 is amazing.

The F4 version is really fun because it's

actually a light lens and yes, you're sacrificing

an F-stop, but you actually, the lens

becomes so much smaller and so much lighter.

So if you're like me and you're in

your late forties and you're, you've got a

back problem, it might be a great lens

for you.

24 to 120, uh, is, I think is

one of the most underestimated lenses on the

market in most camera ranges.

I know some, some camera systems have the

24 to 100 or whatever, but don't ignore

having, like having one like that, because that

could be one of your best friends on

a wedding day.

Because let's say for example, you're, you've only

got, it's only, only you as a photographer

on a wedding day and the bride rocks

up to the, to the church and she

comes out of the car, you're going to

have to go from wide to close up,

then wide for the spire of the church,

then close up with the groom, the bride

of the, of the bride walking down the

aisle.

Like you have to change your cameras quickly

or simply shoot with a 24 to 120

and you get an incredible range.

24 to 70, you might say is redundant

because of that.

Well, yeah, it's sort of somewhat is if

you don't care about that extra F stop,

then you can save a lot of money

by simply just going for the F4 version.

So the 24 to 70, um, is covered

within that, but it's F4.

So you can cancel that out.

If you've got back problems or, you know,

you want to carry a bit lighter, you

can take that out.

Although 2.8 is going to be very

useful, but you might have the shallower depth

of field in the 85, 1.8. The

50 mils are also really, really cool being

at 1.4. We've already talked about the

14 to 24.

And of course, the macro is also one

of my favourite lenses because I love cropping

in close.

So I can use it as a normal

100, 105 mil compression lens, but I can

go really close and dissect the face and

photograph rings just like that.

So this becomes a really incredible go-to

lens.

In fact, I remember many years in my

career, this was like the only telephoto lens

that I had and not so much that

I couldn't afford this one.

It's just that that served my purpose really

well and it was lighter and that was

it.

I'm finding as of 2020, I'm sort of

using the 85, 1.8 probably 80%

of the time where I'd say the 70

to 200 2.8 was my go-to

longer focal length for quite a few years

as well.

So maybe it's a combination of being able

to have that very shallow depth of field,

but also have a light, longer compression, a

nice portrait lens that I can play with

as well.

Speaking of compression, I'm sure you've probably seen

this or maybe you've done this as an

exercise at home.

If you haven't, you should.

And that is, I want you to photograph

the same subject matter with different compressions of

a lens because it's amazing what it does

to a face.

Even though that I'm actually giving you this

information and you can digest it, it's in

front of you, you just have to know

what's going to happen.

Well, here's what happens.

I prefer a longer focal length because I

think everyone looks prettier with a longer focal

length.

So let's start from this way, 24 mil.

If you photograph head and shoulders, do you

see how the ears disappear and the body

disappears and then you've got distortion of a

face?

Now you might say, well, why on earth

would you actually do this?

Well, you probably wouldn't.

But how would I use this information on

a real wedding day with real people?

Well, is there a situation where you might

have a plus size bride who would really

appreciate her body disappearing and her face stays

a certain size and her body just dwindles

into nowhere without any liquefied oil?

Of course, I wouldn't go as dramatic.

So if you look at say 35 mil,

do you see how her body looks smaller

and her face looks reasonable without looking too

distorted?

So if you had someone with really big

ears, you could shoot with a 35 mil

up closer and the ears will disappear.

Also, you could photograph a 28 mil or

24 mil of a plus size girl or

a guy for that matter and then allow

a bit of breathing space and then the

body will just disappear.

See, it's funny because often comedians are photographed

like this where their head stays a certain

size, photograph up above and the body just

disappears with tiny little feet.

It's a form of ridicule.

So even though we're doing technically a mistake,

it's purposeful because we want to actually have

a bit of comedy with this photograph.

But you can use it purposefully in the

right context.

As we go to 50 mil, you would

say 50 mil is sort of like the

limit of a close-up shot where you

don't get a ridiculous distortion.

Now, when you compare it to 200 mil,

then you start to see the difference.

It's funny because have you ever had two

colors in front of you and there's rose

gold and there's gold and then you put

them together and you're like, oh, which one's

richer?

But then you look at it on their

own and you're like, oh, that's gold.

But then you put it with another gold

one.

It's like all of a sudden, oh wow,

this is not gold at all.

You need a comparison to really understand the

difference.

If you don't know any better, you just

see what you see.

I think 50 mil is great.

But when you start to look at the

difference of what it does, I just personally

appreciate the compression of a longer focal length.

And I think most people prefer themselves with

a longer focal length having given the choice.

But I would say, like for me personally,

I would probably never do it.

In fact, I don't think I've ever done

in my career a shot of a head

and shoulders with 50 mil, something like that.

It would be something that's wider, more people

in the frame, photojournalistic, something.

70 mil is sort of about my limit

if I photograph head and shoulders.

105 is looking really good too.

But you can see that the very, very,

very subtle differences.

What I want you to notice, look at

the nose, how much bigger it looks here

and look how much smaller it looks here.

I'm yet to meet a person who wants

to have a nose, their nose look bigger

than that, than it actually is.

So I want you to know that ears

disappear when you go to the wider focal

length.

Noses look smaller as you get a longer

focal length as well.

And of course, eyes, they look bigger here

and they look smaller there.

And of course, different parts of the face

will look bigger and rounder on the edges

like the forehead.

And then it looks more in proportion here.

You might say, well, what do what does

my own eyes look at?

Or if God could put a focal length

on the eyeballs, what would it be?

It's actually about 50 mil.

50 mil is the closest to what we

see with our own two eyes.

That's why you have many photojournalists that actually

stick with 50 mil because it's more realistic

through their eyes, I guess, as a witness

to different things.

So I want you to do this.

If you get a chance, just photograph the

same subject.

Do this for yourself with your lenses and

you'll understand basically what happens.

What I want to do now is I

want to show you some characteristics of different

photographs in these different focal lengths and give

you some little tips and tricks of what

to look out for.

Now, when you're photographing at 14 mil, so

short of having a fisheye lens, the 14

mil is going to be like not too

fishy, not too distorted, but you sort of

want to be careful of how this works.

Do you notice how I've got the bride

somewhat in the center of this frame?

The stairs and the railing can be distorted.

In this case, you can see very clearly

that this window is distorted.

I actually quite like it.

I'm not a big fan of distortion, but

I think in this context, it adds to

the grandeur of this photograph, which is part

of the charm of it.

So I'm OK with obviously the bride being

in the middle.

I like the fact that we've got this

coming out that makes it look larger than

life, and now she's blending into the environment.

So it works really well.

Now, funnily enough, this next photograph, I was

right in this corner shooting back this way

and I get this shot.

Again, I have my couple in the middle

of the frame because you can't tell whether

this is actual lens distortion or whether this

is the distortion of just the fact that

the railings were curved because that's the natural

nature of them.

There's actually a painted fresco on the ceiling,

so that's that, but I just want to

let you know.

So remember too, just if you're photographing people

with a 14mm lens, you can't have them

on the corner of the frame.

When I want something like that, for example,

there could be a shot where I'm photographing

a bride and groom with a big sky

in the background, dramatic sky, they're leaning towards

the camera, I'm lying on the ground, I'm

shooting upwards, then I might have the veil

in the corner or the veil softening the

arm of the bride because what will happen

is if you have an elbow on the

corner of a frame that's really wide angle,

the elbow would just pop out and just

look huge and look ridiculous.

So the veil will soften that or put

the guy on the corner because a black

suit's a black suit, you're not going to

look too distorted.

In this case, she's perfectly in the middle.

I've got the bottom of my frame parallel

to this strong horizontal line, so I get

away with it and it works well.

So again, 14mm, this looks a bit distorted,

but I've hidden the distortion of the bride

and the groom behind that place card there,

what do you call it?

A-board or whatever.

This is actually in Vegas, so it was

a deliberately kitsch wedding and it was just

fun that we did stuff like this, but

again, the distortion is not there anymore and

it works.

So 24mm gives us a bit more breathing

space and of course there's perspective control that

you can do in post-production and all

those different things and that's great, but I

love the fact that we can do this

and 24mm is a nice little well-rounded,

that's sort of considered like your standard wide

angle focal length that works well.

So love that, beautiful wide angle lens and

again, I try to keep my subject matter

in the middle of the frame so it

works well.

Remember how I told you about keeping a

groom maybe on the side of the frame,

even though it's 24mm, not as distorted as

a 14mm, I find that actually works a

bit better.

Here I've got off-camera flash, I expose

for the sky, I've got tourists everywhere, so

I lie on the ground and shoot upwards,

I get rid of the tourists, I illuminate

them both, beautiful catch lights in the eyes,

she was quite cold, that gave me the

idea of the pose, I put the jacket

around and there it is.

So this is what I was telling you

about, so I've got the comparative, I've got

the groom on the corner of the frame,

you can't tell it's distorted and now I've

got the bride on a 24mm shot, but

she's got so much tulle and veil there,

you can't really see the distortion and yes,

it's more forgiving than the 14mm that we

discussed.

But again, 28mm, it just works well.

When in doubt, keep your subject matter in

the middle of the frame.

Someone will tell you, well no, you have

to photograph the rule of thirds and it

can't be centred, you can do whatever the

hell you want as long as it looks

good and as long as it suits the

subject matter of what you're doing.

50mm gives us more of the impression again

of what we look, it's sort of like

a compression that we're used to seeing with

our own two eyes.

This was actually the exact same scene as

that previous shot that I showed you with

off-camera flash, but you can see all

the crap that I had to deal with.

At the very least, I exposed for the

background, they were in shadow, I had off

-camera flash and that's how I took this

shot as well.

50mm works, it works well, it is something

that we see all the time, that's why

I don't use a 50mm a lot because

I'm bored of it.

I was born with it, I'm on this

earth for 46 years, I'm sick of seeing

it.

I prefer the longer focal lengths, now I'm

starting to get into the range of what

I actually prefer the most.

Being able to get to a 70mm where

I've got a bit of negative space and

I don't get any distortion on the side,

being able to go closer at 85mm at

1.4, now I'm getting this beautiful compression

at 1.4, I'm photographing her, there's a

little sliver in focus and it just works

really beautifully.

Then I go the 85mm at 1.4

and again, no distortion, I've got nice compression,

the facial features don't look distorted in any

kind of a way, I'm not getting a

bigger nose or a bigger ears or whatever,

it just feels prettier, there's a beauty to

that focal length and beyond, which is what

I absolutely love.

In this case, of course, I just quickly

photograph her horizontally and I change my angle

and I change my orientation and then bang,

I've got the vertical shot.

Then 90mm, you can compress a lot of

what you've got in front of you.

When I say compress, I'm narrowing my field

of view and I can shorten lengths and

that's the way you can make the moon,

for example, you look up at the sky

and you see the moon and it's so

small, but then you use a long focal

length and you can have it contrasting with

something in the foreground, all of a sudden

the scale of it with what's in the

foreground can look sort of just massive.

It's one of those things where you just

have to understand what your lens is doing,

how it compresses, how you can isolate the

beauty of whomever or whatever you're photographing and

it works.

Again, now we're getting a bit closer, we're

going to 90mm, we're going to 105mm and

I can crop in close, I can use

my macro lens.

I love the fact that we've got her

eyes and her lips on the same plane

and everything else is softer because her nose,

as you can see, is quite a prominent

part of the photograph, but because it's out

of focus, you don't pay attention to it.

The 105mm is just such a beautiful lens.

Again, there are lenses in other camera systems

that have macro attached to it, but maybe

not at the 100 or the 105 mark.

You just sort of work out what you

like, what you appreciate and what works for

you, but it's such a beautiful lens.

So take your time, learn your focal length.

Just because I prefer this kind of a

range doesn't mean you have to.

We all have a different style and there's

many people that have actually popularised their style

by shooting it all with this kind of

a lens and that's good.

I would just say don't overthink it.

Just use what you feel is right for

what you're trying to say and that'll work.

Again, this one, I would much rather stand

right back, compress the background than going too

close and having to shoot wide.

You just get a totally different feeling from

the shot.

See, if I went really close and wide,

the background's going to look different.

I'm going to have a bit more space

in the left and the right, whereas now

I pull back, I tighten everything up and

then I shorten the length of the foreground

to the background, the middle ground and it

works really well.

I love this shot.

I was on an opposing boat.

It just looks like James Bond's about to

freaking get narrowed.

He's on a river and then that was

it.

But it's so beautiful to be able to

tighten up everything.

There is so much distraction in life, let

alone in what we see and what we

view through our cameras.

And I remember famously, I guess famously within

our small circle of workshop students, people were

talking about how I like to crop and

I'm a big lover of cropping and how

cropping can actually really create some amazing looks

and feels and really differentiate you from the

person next to you.

And one of my students basically, I think

we did a bit of a mashup of

the workshop and said, you know, you should

just crop the crap out and then all

you are left with is beauty.

And that's the same with photography and the

same thing with life.

And it was just a fun little metaphor

for life, let alone what we do in

camera.

This is 150mm.

It's such a beautiful compression.

It tightens everything up, like I said.

Yes, we could go further.

We could go to 400mm, 600mm, but then

you're getting this big glass, big camera cases

and great for sports photographers, not so great

for say portrait or wedding or photographers because

it's a little bit unrealistic.

This next shot is the last one I'm

going to show you.

This is a 200mm.

I thought I'd show you this because it's

a really unique photograph.

I was walking with this particular groom and

as we're walking, I'm looking at him and

I just focus beyond him and I see

the reflection of his silhouetted figure in the

window.

And then as he was doing that, the

bride was walking by and I'm like, man,

I've got an idea.

So I thought if he was elevated slightly,

so I asked for a step by which

they found.

If he was elevated slightly and I scooched

down, I could photograph a clean silhouette against

the overcast sky and the reflection.

So I do that.

But then I thought, wouldn't it be cool

to merge the bride right within his profile

and it gives us an in-camera multiple

exposure, an in-camera montage effect, but no

multiple exposure, no composite or composite.

And we get this shot.

So I can press the background.

It's 200mm, a beautiful metaphor for a two

becoming one.

And I get this beautiful shot literally out

of nothing.

So gear certainly is important, but gear is

only a tool.

It's certainly if you've learned from me, you'll

know that it's more about the relationships that

you create.

It's more about how you connect with your

clients.

The gear is important.

It's important to know the gear, but just

know that way beyond that, that no one's

going to connect with you while you've got

your head buried into your camera.

Yes, there's times where we have to look

into our cameras or the viewfinder, the back

of the camera to see the exposure or

see what's worked and what's not.

But once you get that test shot out

of the way, connect, have some fun and

go for it.

Now let's talk specifically about weddings.

I want to talk about what we call

a day before a wedding ritual.

What do you do a day before the

wedding when it comes to gear?

Well, there's many, many things and you have

to make it.

It's almost like this.

This is just a ritual that doesn't change.

I mean, I've even suggested to some people

who forget these things, like get a get

a laminated piece of paper with all the

things that you do for a wedding.

Get yourself a whiteboard marker and then you

just literally tick off on this on this

laminated letter sized piece of paper with everything

written down.

And why whiteboard?

Because you can tick it off, you can

wipe it, use it again the following week.

What do we do a day before the

wedding?

Well, there's many, many things, but I want

to bring attention to the most probably the

most important.

First of all, don't assume that your cameras

work because you could have photographed a wedding

interstate.

It could have just simply just been put

in your bag and you don't think about

it because you literally just photographed last week

and the camera worked.

You want to make sure that your I

call them your vital signs work.

Make sure that you can change your aperture,

f-stop, your ISO.

Make sure your focusing works.

All these different things.

You want to make sure that your cameras

are working flawlessly.

I want you to also check your lenses.

Of course, I just mentioned that about the

sharpness.

I want you to focus on your hand,

focus on a tree behind you like you

are using all the elements of what the

what of what your systems have.

I want you to time sync all your

cameras.

Please don't get into a position where you

don't think about the time you don't thinking

about putting your date on each camera to

match.

And then you've got three, four photographers jumping

around and photographing and you think, well, how

on earth am I going to sync all

these photographs after the fact?

Now, there are ways of doing that after

the fact easier than manually sorting them in

a program, but make your life easier.

The day before the wedding, all the cameras

that you're using for the for the wedding,

I want you to make sure that they're

on a certain time zone.

They're on an exact same date and their

exact same time.

And then you, you know, you basically set

the times and you press OK on all

those buttons simultaneously.

Make sure that all your memory cards are

formatted and load them into the camera.

And of course, including extra memory.

I want your routine to be exactly what

it is every single time you photograph a

wedding.

In other words, you photograph a wedding.

You put your cards a certain way once

they're once they've been used into your case.

If you go to 7-Eleven and buy

a drink after the wedding at midnight, do

not leave your cards in your camera bag

in your car unattended.

If your car gets stolen, you can replace

the car, you can replace the gear, you

cannot replace those photographs.

So get that hard case that you can

literally drive over, you know, those ones that

I'm talking about, right?

And put it in your pocket and no

one can touch it.

Even if you're photographing a wedding and you

have used multiple cards, put those used cards

in your camera in your case, put them

on your person.

Do not let that those cards out of

your sight for the rest of the day.

That's going to be really, really important for

you.

Obviously, check the batteries for all your devices.

Yes, you can buy disposable batteries for your

speed lights and things like that.

But of course, you can buy rechargeable ones,

look for the highest milliamp of your batteries.

And of course, you get as much juice

out of it as possible.

And make sure that you don't lose a

lot of power.

If you have to, of course, well, sorry,

some batteries, you have to discharge before you

recharge.

Some are actually known for the fact that

you can actually charge them, even if they're

half charged, and they don't affect the life

of the battery.

Now certainly, no batteries last forever.

But do your homework on the best ones

to use there as well.

And of course, make sure you have all

the appropriate gear for the needs of the

event that you're shooting.

For example, you might be shooting at a

venue that has very, very dark walls, dark

ceilings or red walls or blue ceilings.

And you might need some off camera flash

on a wedding day.

Well, you need light stands, you may need

an extra strobe, you might need a reflector

holder, as in, you know, an arm with

a stand, like you've got to go through

a checklist of realistically, what do I need

for this wedding?

What I'm saying goes without saying, but I'm

saying it anyway, because I have fallen into

the trap where I've gone to a wedding,

and I didn't have enough memory cards, I

literally had to go to a camera shop

and buy a memory card because I was

stupid enough to think, well, this wedding is

2000 shots or more than enough.

And all of a sudden, I go to

the bride's house, and there's some ritual that

requires another 300 shots.

And I'm like, I haven't got those at

all.

So technically speaking, the ritual is what we're

talking about that you need to go through

all of these things, pack everything nicely, get

everything ready to rock.

What I personally do, I also make sure

my clothes are all set.

So in other words, buy yourself some comfortable

shoes.

There's many brands out there that you have

like a sneaker bottom, as in you have

shoes that are very comfortable, but have a

spongy feel, but have a sneaker bottom that's

black.

So don't get a sneaker bottom that's white

and wear sneakers on a wedding day.

But you have like a brand like your

Johnson and Murphy, Cole Haan, those kind of

brands that basically have good looking shoes, but

have a soft rubber sole so you're comfortable

and you don't wear your feet out on

a wedding day.

Make sure that you basically have everything from

your shirts and pants and shoes and all

that kind of stuff, underwear, like everything ready

to rock.

Don't assume it's going to be perfectly good

weather the whole night or day, whatever it

may be.

So make sure you get yourself a jacket,

all that kind of stuff.

Food.

In Australia, we call them an esky.

It's like a little cooler, a mini cooler.

When I was shooting weddings frequently, as in

every Saturday, Sunday, I was shooting 100 weddings.

I mean, I had to, I brought it

down to a science.

I made sure I had sandwiches.

I made sure I had snacks, fruit, nuts,

drinks, you name it, water.

I would have aspirin or Advil, whatever the

brand is in your country.

You basically account for headaches.

You account for dehydration.

You account for all these things.

Also, you might want to have like a

little pair of scissors or you want to

have a sewing kit.

There's going to be things that happen on

the wedding day and all of a sudden

you'd be a hero if you bring these

things out on a wedding day as well.

If you want to be nice and kind

as well, buy a whole bunch of candy

or cookies or whatever for the bridal party.

You'll make best friends very, very quickly.

You might even want to buy some alcohol

with some shot glasses.

You will be best friends with the bridal

party as well.

I will often do things like that on

wedding days as well.

Also, don't assume that everything that you've pre

-arranged is actually happening on the wedding day.

In other words, a month before the wedding,

you'll have a pre-wedding meeting and there

you'll discuss all the things that will happen

on the wedding day.

What time you'll get to the groom's house,

what time you get to the bride's house,

what time is the ceremony, where is the

ceremony, the location of where they're getting ready.

In other words, you'll confirm the scheduling times,

locations, rituals, dynamics, relationships, are the parents, grandparents

with us, hashtag are they still alive, are

they divorced, are they married, are they on

speaking terms.

There's all these things that you have to

know but what I want you to do

is ring up the bride, ring up the

groom.

Say, hey, can't wait to photograph your wedding

tomorrow.

Just want to confirm the place where you're

getting married, I want to confirm the reception,

I want to confirm where you're getting ready.

Now, it could just be, which has happened

to me in the past, that the bride

has changed where she's getting ready from the

house, where she was born and raised to

a hotel.

She didn't tell you, she took it for

granted.

So there you are going up to the

house, no one's there, what's going on and

then you're running late.

So don't take anything for granted, check everything

and I'm telling you, it'll just make for

a relaxed day.

We have enough pressure as it is as

wedding photographers to photograph on a wedding day

where all these things are happening beyond our

control.

What we can control, we should.

Prepare for the, like expect the best, prepare

for the worst but just know that there'll

be pressures on the day that you that

you can't control but that's what I want,

is I want control back.

Let's just, I don't want me to be

the problem, I don't want my gear to

be the problem, I don't want my lack

of preparation to be the problem.

If there is an issue, it's beyond my

control but I will do my best to

actually navigate it on the wedding day.

I hope that gives you a really good

sense of the minimum gear that we need

for a wedding, the minimum, I'd say the

next level where this is a well-rounded

perspective of what might be good for a

wedding scenario as well and also understanding compression

and what lens choice will do for a

particular photograph and maybe some of the mistakes

that I had made, hopefully you don't have

to make and also really, as we just

mentioned before, is understanding that the day before

the wedding, make sure you don't go out,

you don't get crazy drunk, you know that

you get to bed a certain sort of

hour, like these are just responsible things that

you basically want to do, so it just

becomes part of the culture of what you

do and then you can go in there,

you know what to expect, your body sort

of knows what to expect, your mentally, physically,

gear wise, everything is set to go, you

go out there, you kick some butt and

then you go back to bed, you put

your head on the pillow and you say

to yourself, you know what, I let it

all out on the table, I did the

best that I could, so do your homework,

know what's best for the kind of weddings

that you actually photograph, do your homework with

the kind of gear that will suit you

of course, maybe rent before you buy and

once you've got it, protect it, make sure

you ensure your camera gear, that's a really

important one and I wish you good luck,

strength, have some fun and remember it's more

about what you say and how you say

it, more than the gear that you use,

but enjoy.