Original subtitles

You know, over the years, we've seen a

trend develop where we call it the reveal,

where the actual bride and the groom or

two brides or two guys, whatever, will actually

get together and see each other before they

get married.

And usually it's done either A, to just

get the nerves out of the way, get

the couple to soak each other in before

they get married, but usually it's because maybe

they want a certain format of wedding where

they want to get married a bit later,

don't have any time for photographs after the

wedding, and therefore will actually see each other

before we get married, take some photographs, get

that pressure off, and then they can get

married and go straight into the reception.

So we call this the reveal.

But in the context of actual family photographs,

what does this mean?

Well, and I don't know if I'm the

first person to do it, I certainly have

championed the cause and popularized it in the

photography industry, especially in the wedding industry, is

to do a reveal of the bride with

her family, and namely also the father, because

usually the father-daughter relationship is a very

strong one.

I'm not saying a mother-daughter is not,

it's usually the mother may have been involved

in the choosing of the dress.

So there's more of a surprise element when

the bride sees her father for the first

time as a bride.

And I'm not going to share this, I'll

share a story at another time about how

this sort of came about.

But I want to talk to you about

how important this is and how many great

photographs you can get out of it.

Now, you may have actually been privy to

a reveal like this one, where the bride

will walk down the stairs, for example, and

reveal herself to all the guests waiting for

her before we go.

Now, in this case, I've got the bride's

parents in the mirror, we've got an auntie

or two over here and the girls, and

then her best friend escorting her down, and

we get a beautiful series of shots.

Or we can get it this other way,

where basically the bride's coming down, and of

course, you can get a sense of the

anticipation of everybody and it's hyping up.

But the idea of being able to go

out of your way to tell the bride,

I want to make a moment out of

you seeing your father for the last time

as a single girl, and then telling the

father, please don't walk into this room or

whatever, we're going to let you know when

you can see your beautiful daughter for the

last time as a single girl.

So sure enough, in this particular next example,

I had, there's a wall between us.

So imagine there's a wall right here, right

where in line with me, we've got the

father on one side and the bride on

the other.

So then you've got the anticipation photograph of

where the father is just sort of waiting

to see the bride.

The bride's all nervous because she wants, I

mean, let's face it, we want our parents

to be proud of us.

And especially if you've got your hair and

makeup done, you're looking gorgeous, you want to

feel gorgeous and you want your mum and

dad to be proud of you and soak

in that energy and beauty and all that

kind of stuff.

So then she turns the corner and then

we get this incredible reaction.

And then you've got that beautiful warmth.

I love the endearing, just that warmth of

the way an affectionate father will look at

his daughter.

And then of course her wiping her tears,

but it's such a beautiful story.

Now I'm going to tell you that you

can do it in many different ways.

There are sometimes you can do it just

with the wall.

Sometimes I get a father and a daughter

back to back so that you can feel

each other's energy and then all of a

sudden they turn around and then bang, this

happens.

You know, they had a very playful relationship.

And so when they turned around, she was

like, oh my God, and then he just

was like, come here, big hug.

And then they're having some fun.

And that was one of the best reactions

to a reveal that I've ever actually seen

and had the privilege of photographing between a

father and a daughter.

And then sometimes, you know, it'll be a

bride or a mother will walk actually inside

a bedroom and I take the shot of

their reaction and then knowingly afterwards, I might

just simply get the bride to look at

her parents, but go from the other angle

and photograph between the parents.

Now here's the thing, I'm not going to

interrupt the moment while this is happening, but

I'll take that shot.

But what I wish could happen, that I

was also behind them photographing the bride.

So I take all those shots.

After all that simmers a little bit and

I get that story, then at one point

I just grab the parents back the other

way and then I make her laugh and

I use the father and the mother as

a foreground to frame the bride and now

I get that shot.

At this particular wedding, it was really funny

because I had never, I'd done a reveal

with parents before, I'd done a reveal with

a dad and all that kind of stuff,

I'd never done a reveal with grandparents.

So I thought, let's do it.

And I struck gold straight away.

I mean, look how beautiful the look of

a grandmother is and how granddad's sort of

looking on and wiping her tears and that

little brow pressure is so beautiful and I'm

like, I'm on a roll here.

I've got this incredible reveal with parents, I've

got an incredible reveal with grandparents.

By this stage, the bridesmaids did not actually

see the dress yet.

I'm like, this is perfect.

Let's get the bridesmaids and the sisters to

see the bride for the first time.

So I build anticipation, they walk in and

we get these incredible shots.

And remember that you can just simply change

your perspective and then you've got this perspective

as well.

So certainly if you are two photographers on

an event like a wedding day, for example,

then yeah, you're not going to want the

other photographer in the way, but hopefully you

get the bride from a certain angle and

then you could come from this angle as

well and get the bridesmaids reaction as well.

But I love the fact that we can

do this, that we could get the reaction

of mum, we get the wiping of the

tears of the bride, get the hug, and

then at one point I flip the switch

so to speak.

It's almost like shooting a movie where you

shoot the same scene from different angles and

then you piece it together.

And then this beautiful hug and embrace between

bride and parents because, you know, you will

often, as if you are an only child,

you will often hug your parents and this

will happen a lot in your life.

And then coupled with all of those shots

that we did of the same family, if

you look at maybe pinning of the flower

there on dad's jacket there and then the

traditional one, but the interactive ones, now we

have a complete story.

So I love the fact that we can

do this.

So remember, I've just shown you a reveal

with the father, grandparents, the sisters, the bridesmaids,

and remember to take advantage of those different

angles as well.

This could add incredible value to whatever you're

doing.

Now I don't care, it could be, for

example, a quinceanera that you're doing, it could

be the first time this girl is wearing

this beautiful dress and dad hasn't seen her

yet.

Don't just have, don't even let it happen

where dad just walks by, oh look you

look beautiful and then he walks off.

Make a moment out of it.

Sometimes you'll get gold and then sometimes it

will be okay.

All I'm saying to you, it'll be better

than what it would have been without, with

your direction.

So remember that we want to celebrate relationships,

build anticipation, remind people of the importance of

the occasion, in this case a wedding, and

I'm telling you this could add so much

flavor to the photographs you take.

Next we're going to talk just briefly about

how to capture families and groups in a

natural environment.