The key is to quickly be able to get everyone to the place you want them to stand, and to be ready to get the shot without having everyone stand around for too long. The beauty of getting up high is that you include everyoneвЂ™s face, and you can fit a lot of people in a single shot. This might mean getting a tall ladder, using a balcony, or even climbing on a roof. The way IвЂ™ve done this is to arrange for a place that I can get up high above everyone straight after the ceremony. One thing IвЂ™ve done at every wedding IвЂ™ve photographed is attempted to photograph everyone who is in attendance in one shot. While the majority of the images in the end album will probably be fairly вЂњnormalвЂќ or formal poses, make sure you mix things up a little by taking shots from down low, up high, at a wide angle, etc. Keep in mind that images can be cropped or manipulated later to give you some more artsy/abstract shots that can add real interest to the end album. The problem with this is that you might just be getting rid of some of the more interesting and useable images. The temptation with digital is to check images as you go and to delete those that donвЂ™t work immediately. Ideally, youвЂ™ll want uncluttered areas and shaded spots out of direct sunlight where thereвЂ™s unlikely to be a great aunt wandering into the back of the shot. Particularly with the formal shots, scope out the area where theyвЂ™ll be taken ahead of time and look for good backgrounds. One of the challenges of weddings is that there are often people going everywhere, including the backgrounds of your shots. One of the fun things IвЂ™ve seen more and more photographers doing recently is taking a computer to the reception, uploading shots taken earlier in the day, and letting them rotate as a slideshow during the evening. One of the great things about digital photography is the immediacy of it as a medium.

Weddings can present photographers with tricky lighting that results in the need to manipulate exposure and white balance after the fact, and RAW will help with this considerably. I know that many readers feel that they donвЂ™t have the time for shooting in RAW (due to extra processing), but a wedding is one time that it can be particularly useful, as RAW gives so much more flexibility to manipulate shots after taking them. Learn more about using flash diffusers and reflectors. A lens with image stabilization might also help. If you canвЂ™t use a flash, youвЂ™ll need to use a fast lens at wide apertures and/or bump up the ISO. If youвЂ™re allowed to use a flash (and some churches donвЂ™t allow it), think about whether bouncing the flash will work (remember that if you bounce your flash off a colored surface it will add a color cast to the picture), or whether you might want to buy a flash diffuser to soften the light. YouвЂ™ll find in many churches that light is very low. The ability to bounce a flash or to diffuse it is key. YouвЂ™re driving the show at this point of the day and need to keep things moving.

During the formal shots, be bold, know what you want, and ask for it from the couple and their party. In a ceremony, I try to move around at least 4-5 times, but I try to time my move to coincide with songs, sermons, or longer readings.

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