Original subtitles

Bridal party.

Bridal party.

So this is another part of the wedding

day that we actually don't pour a ton

of creative energy into.

We try and get it done as quick

as possible and we try and keep it

as light and fun as possible as well.

Right and that goes for at our workshops,

real in-person workshops.

This is one of the most fun parts

because what we would do with you is

you would become the bridal party for us

and we would demonstrate for you exactly sort

of how we coach them and get the

shots right.

Yeah and basically what we're trying to do

is we're directing moments.

So when we're with the bridal party we're

directing moments and scenarios to give us something

interesting to photograph because people just standing in

a line looking formal at the camera isn't

very interesting for me.

But actually I would say we're not directing

moments as much as we're allowing them to

direct their own moments.

That's true.

So and we get this request a lot

especially in the questionnaire that we sent out

our clients.

They always say I want fun bridal party

shots right.

That's and we know that's a common request

among wedding photographers.

We really want fun bridal party shots like

maybe we could be jumping or we could

have a Tyrannosaurus Rex chasing us and my

answer to that is always okay we can

do fun bridal party shots but your bridal

party has to be fun in order for

the photos to be fun.

Okay so Landy and I have to make

it fun.

It's our job to make it fun.

So we've got a few different little games

that we play.

But first we start with just the straightforward

standard shots right.

Yeah generally we start with a straightforward standard

shots which is very similar to the family

formals where they're standing the bride and groom

are in the middle.

I there's an equal number of bridesmaids and

groomsmen.

I'll do boy girl boy girl boy girl

boy girl on each side.

And then we just have them you know

standing if the bride and groom are in

the middle like this then everybody on this

side standing with their left shoulder forward and

everybody on this side standing with the right

shoulder forward.

Then just like a normal family family formal

right typical.

In fact sometimes it happens right after the

family formals in the same location.

Yeah and then then we'll start inserting some

fun stuff.

So we've got a few different games that

we play.

These we cannot take credit for.

We learned these from our friend James Day.

If you're not familiar with James Day's work

he's a photographer out of Australia.

He is probably the most fun photographer in

the world.

Especially for bridal party.

He's the king of bridal party.

He's been like two hours yeah photographing the

bridal party and he'll have them in stitches

the entire time.

They have the time of their lives.

They have the time of their lives.

I don't want to spend two hours with

the bridal party never in my life would

I want to do that.

But we've got those these games from him.

Yeah he's a good friend of ours and

he's given us lots of tips.

So not all of them we've got from

him but some of them we've got him.

So they're standing they're smiling looking at the

camera.

After that one I usually do something along

the lines of it sounds so ridiculous saying

it to a camera while I'm videotaped.

It's way better in real life but I'll

say something along the lines of the bride

and groom are like peanut butter and jam.

And you guys are pieces of bread and

I want you to squish the bride and

groom until the peanut butter and jam come

out the sides of the bread.

And we usually get a good moment there.

The important thing is is the camera is

up the whole time.

Because there's the moment where they squish and

then there's the release of the moment.

And the release of the moment where they're

laughing at the ridiculousness is what's really funny.

Yeah and this is a good starter one

because what we're trying to do is get

them loosened up warmed up kind of you

know just get them being who they are

as friends.

You know often our bridal parties are lifelong

friends.

Yeah.

And you know that what they've done all

their life when they get together is not

dress up and stand prim and proper right.

They have fun and they goof off.

So we're trying to get them back into

that state.

Give them permission to be themselves and do

what they do as friends.

Yeah.

So we'll just give you a few more

examples of some of the games that we

play.

Right and I would say that after that

first one once we move into these next

ones it's for the right bridal parties only.

And we'll know ahead of time like we'll

get we'll have a sense of yeah these

games aren't gonna fly for this bridal party.

And it's fine and we sort of know

and we don't but with the right bridal

party you know when the clients want to

have fun photos we'll start to go into

some of these kind of games.

Yeah for sure.

So one of them is secret telephone.

Right where I'll say who who's the dirtiest

person on your bridal party.

And they'll usually laugh and they'll pick someone

up pick someone and they'll go to the

one end of the line and I'll say

who's the loudest person on your bridal party.

That person will go to the other end

of the line then I'll say to the

dirtiest person I want you to think of

something at least x-rated and whisper it

into the person's ear next to you.

And then that person is gonna whisper it

to the next person until we get to

the end of the line and then you're

gonna yell it out as loud as you

can.

Okay and cameras are off the entire time.

Yeah as they as they start you know

doing it relaying the message you'll start to

see these really cool little moments between each

other as it's happening.

It's not it's not just that final big

belting out the dirty phrase at the end

and then the laughter that happens it's everything

leading up to you get all these money

little moments between each other.

Yeah so is that um then there's the

batshit crazy game.

Okay so the batshit crazy game which is

a total James Day original.

Yes can I take a stab at this

one?

Yes.

Okay totally James Day is the king of

this but with the right bridal party it

can help you get some really cool fun

type shots because the thing the thing with

fun photos is if we direct it like

if we tell them to do something ridiculous

like like throw the bride up in there

they're gonna look look at us like we're

ridiculous.

They're gonna be like what?

But people love to make their own content

so if we let them create come up

with these crazy ridiculous ideas then it's much

less awkward and we get something much more

unique and interesting so.

And unpredictable.

Yeah so the batshit crazy game looks something

like this we're all lined up okay guys

so this is called the batshit crazy game.

Okay so on a scale of of one

to ten you know one being super tame

and lame and ten being the most batshit

crazy thing you can imagine like one one

is what you guys are doing right now

okay you're all standing here boring that's a

one okay ten would be like create like

a giant orgy okay so on a scale

of one to batshit crazy one one to

ten think of four like like like like

like the Harlem Shake.

Gangnam Style.

Gangnam Style would be like a two out

of ten.

Maybe three okay so now they're getting an

idea of this batshit crazy scale and so

they're starting to nod okay okay okay so

you guys we want you to come up

with pick a number.

Three out of ten.

Start low.

Three out of ten and so they start

looking at each other and at this point

often it's still a little bit awkward.

Yeah what do you mean like hey it's

up to you guys right and we'll let

them kind of huddle in and come up

with a plan and we get ready with

our cameras and then we say okay you

guys ready let's see let's see that three

out of ten and usually what happens is

something really lame because they're awkward and people

aren't sure and they do something really lame

and then we call them out on it.

Yeah just remember while you're doing this and

we talked about this at the beginning of

the course you have to go through that

failure to get to the success.

Even with this they always do something lame

at first expect that.

And so then we tell them that was

like that was a 1.5. That was

a 1.5 out of 10 at best.

And now we're kind of posing a bit

of a challenge they're starting to feel a

little bit challenged like oh okay well we

can do better than that and so now

they're warming up and we're like all right

we want to see a five.

You guys have a five out of ten

in you.

So then they're taking it a bit more

seriously now and somebody's got an idea and

if you've had like throughout the day if

you've had a groomsman or a bridesmaid who's

the one with all these ideas about this

jumping photo I got this idea that I

saw it's like okay I got the perfect

time for you to shine and that's now

right somebody's gonna come up with a cool

idea and now it's their own content right

so they're taking ownership and they do something

more interesting hopefully okay and then we'll give

them encouragement it's like okay well no that

was that was a three we're getting there

and so then we move to maybe a

seven right.

And you've got to let them do it

at least three or four times before they

warm up but this is how we've gotten

all those really fun interesting bridal party shots

where the brides being thrown up in the

air where the grooms got a hand coming

around his crotch or being lifted up.

I mean we haven't coached them into doing

that that would be like very awkward and

ridiculous for us to imagine that and ask

them to do it but when they create

that content themselves it works.

Yeah yeah it totally works it works especially

if they've you know been in the limo

and they've been drinking champagne on the way

over there plus it gives them memories yeah

right when they look at these photos they

remember what they were feeling at that moment

as opposed to standing prim and proper for

the photo.

Yeah it's a fun experience right oh that

was fun right yeah so we do that

with the entire bridal party right yeah and

then usually we'll do I'll just say usually

on that batshit crazy like they have their

30 seconds to huddle in and then we're

like all right let's see your 7 out

of 10 we're ready usually with with a

wide lens and a bigger lens so we'll

get the whole group but often then we'll

move hone in on like often there'll be

little moments and we'll kind of get in

and fill the frame with all of that

fun stuff that's happening.

Yeah totally yeah yeah so then that's the

entire bridal party and then we'll go into

and and we've worked this all out with

the bride and groom beforehand in terms of

what they want for compositions but if she

wants one just with her just with her

girls we'll do one just with the girls

but we'll always start with those big groups

because that residual energy that we've created through

those games and that fun atmosphere is gonna

carry us through the rest of the shoot.

Okay so then we'll do one with just

the girls and I've got some great little

games and cues for the girls as well

I think there's some in the behind-the

-scenes coverage of that and then we'll do

one of just the guys and then we'll

often do one of the bride with the

guys usually don't have any games it just

it's usually just you know kind of stand

you know smiling maybe arms crossed you know

stone-cold album cover to do a couple

and we've got we show that in the

behind-the-scenes coverage and then if they

want one with each person separately you'll also

see that I've got a series of different

actions that I give them so should we

demonstrate it it's hard sitting down well that's

it's in the behind-the-scenes yeah it's

in the behind-the-scenes coverage but you'll

see that that series of actions that I

give them it's for that final photo it's

for that final photo where they've gone through

all the actions and then they have that

release of the moment.

Well just quick what is it?

It's standing looking at the camera smiling then

looking at each other giving each other a

hug and laughing then looking back at the

camera yeah you'll see you'll see it in

the video it's for that last shot at

the very end yeah yeah and that's that's

pretty much it for bridal party and usually

we try to get that bridal party out

of the way and done before like bride

and groom portraits because then you know bridal

party can go off back to limo whatever

they can go get the party started and

then the bride and groom can go off

and relax do the portraits without worrying about

you know the hecklers following them around sort

of thing yeah very rarely very rarely like

I'll say like I can count on one

hand we're asked to do more formal bridal

party shots like think Vanity Fair or something

that's that's a little bit more high-fashion

looking the wedding that we're showing you happened

to be one of those times where we

were asked to do a more formal shot

so out of our comfort zone out of

our comfort zone but you'll get to see

us do one of those as well so

that's bridal party and now let's look at

behind the scenes all right so the couple

wanted to do one more sort of Vanity

Fair style bridal party shot indoors which is

totally totally out of our comfort zone but

we started off with this just with the

same lighting setup that we did for the

family formals that you already saw one sort

of bear flash over on the left here

and then the softbox over to the right

and I've

tried to compose the group here whoop whoops

I've tried to compose the group so that

there is different levels I've got a few

people sitting in chairs and I've got kids

I'm trying to make triangles so that it's

interesting for the eye to look at so

as you can see I've sort of got

a triangular grouping here I've got the bride

and groom here and then I've got a

bit of a triangular grouping here on this

side as well so

the lighting is not bad in these shots

it's fairly good but we thought we'd try

something a little bit different that we've seen

a lot of other people try and this

was actually our first time trying this but

using the softbox here and lighting the group

up in three different pictures and then merging

those pictures together in Photoshop so compositing them

basically and then the middle of the

grouping here so the idea is is that

we'll composite those three pictures together in Photoshop

and we'll see how it turns out okay

so that was our formal bridal party shot

now we're outdoors we know we have to

be fairly quick here because it's bloody freezing

out and we haven't got a and I

probably rushed into this a little bit too

much to be honest I found this I

was just looking for a nice even background

you can see the Sun's gone so we've

got even light I'm not too worried about

the light it's it's not great but it's

not awful either but I'm just looking for

a night I was looking for a nice

even background that I could put them on

so that they would pop in retrospect I

think I might have put them on the

cityscape or maybe not had them up on

this hillside I was feeling a little bit

rushed which is my own fault and something

that we're all guilty of I also think

we could have maybe added a little pop

of flash here but these photos they're all

about the moments keeping

my camera up during all these moments

so

here I'm setting up for the the broken

telephone game okay

okay so okay so you're gonna think of

something at least x-rated okay and then

oh no no you're supposed to be on

that you have to think of something x

-rated okay so you're gonna think of something

x-rated okay whisper it in her ear

and

you

can see here that

I'm positioned a little bit closer to the

action than Lanius but but Lani actually had

a much better lens on back here he

had compression working better for him it was

just a much better perspective than I had

and he also completely abandoned me during this

section so I'm shooting all this entirely on

my own without any help from him he's

stressed out I think I think he's stressing

out about portraits and I was really mad

at him after this for completely leaving this

entirely up to me and that

was probably one of the lamest games of

broken telephone we've ever played and I told

them it was lame I'm just doing all

the bride and the bridesmaids together that one

worked pretty well and what I'm doing here

is I've given them each a number and

one through six and when I call the

number they each have to look at that

person whose number I'm calling and laugh and

it usually ends up in some really great

moments you're gonna look at each other and

laugh then you're gonna give each other a

big hug and then you're gonna smile and

look back at the camera okay okay so

I'll show you so you're gonna go ahhhh

and then you're gonna go ahhhh like that

just boom boom boom oh god it's painful

watching these after the fact I'm so annoying

when I do bridal parties ahhhh and it's

all about that last photo right like I

make them do all that crazy stuff but

it's really about that last photo.

It just makes that last photo so much

more authentic as opposed to a fake smile

looking at the camera.

Do you want to just scout out portraits

for later?

Yeah, I mean, I'm hoping we can hit

some of those, that sun.

I don't think we're going to be hitting

any sun.

We're getting further and further away.

Manny's completely stressed out because he realizes the

sun is going and it's not within our

power to finish the bridal partying time to

take advantage of the sun.

So we're, I'm trying to be patient here

with him.

So he's going to scout out for some

portraits and hopefully he'll have something ready to

go after I'm done bridal partying here.

He left me all alone to do groomsmen

portraits and I've never done these.

But I just gotta fake it till I

make it.

And again you can see we're not pouring

a lot of creative energy into these at

all.

We're directing some moments so that we get

some laughter and smiles and stuff like that

but we're not, you know, using fancy lighting

techniques or fancy compositions.

Mostly just sticking them together and making them

laugh and that's it.

And then getting the transition shots again, right?

So she stops for a smoke before she

gets into the van and this is a

lot of the times where photographers will, you

know, put down their cameras and really this

is the opportunity to get some pictures of

her and her bridesmaids in a much more

natural manner.

Same in the limo.

Although in retrospect I don't think we should

have been in that limo especially with COVID.

But these are usually our favorite things to

photograph because everybody lets their guards down once

they're in the limo and it's not so

much about the photos it's just about enjoying

time with their friends and that's really what

we want to document.

This is a second location we went to

and it's very rare that we go to

a second location with the bridal party.

They had requested a picture with the cityscape.

By this point it was really freaking cold.

It was a nasty wind so we had

to be really really quick.

As you can see the Sun is setting

now.

We've got dusk light.

We're doing a really simple lighting setup.

We've exposed for that dusk light in the

sky and we've got a softbox on one

or sorry a B10 on one side and

an A1 on the other.

Nothing fancy.

Just trying to get it done as quick

as possible before they freeze their asses off.

All right so that's bridal party for you

and it's very rare that we do bridal

party in three different locations.

Usually we encourage our couples to just pick

one location for bridal party.

It's usually the same location as family formals

to be honest and we get them done

in ten minutes.

We do the big group.

We play a few games.

We do the bridesmaids together if they've requested.

We do the bride with each of her

bridesmaids separately and the groom with each of

his groomsmen separately only if it's requested but

we knock these off as quick and painlessly

as possible and save as much time for

portraits as possible.

Usually that's the priority of our couples as

well.

This wedding was a little different and we

ended up doing it in three locations but

it's great because then you could see us

see us work three very different locations.