Wow, what an exciting opportunity to be able to have input into the wonderful journey a photographer embarks on when they decide to take their wedding photography to the next level. DPC’s 5-day Wedding Photography Workshop provides the perfect platform for two of South Africa’s foremost wedding photographers to share their insights into this competitive and fast-paced field of photography.
Trompie Van Der Berg and Warren James presented a knowledge packed, hands-on workshop over two theoretical weekends and an all-day practical.
Here is a short overview of what was covered during the 5-day Wedding Photography Course:
Day 1-2: Commercial and Marketing Aspects of Wedding Photography
On the first two days, we focused on the commercial and marketing side of wedding photography. This includes discussions on developing a personal style, branding your business and other administrative and creative issues that a wedding photographer faces.
Day 3: Wedding Shoot at Black Horse Brewery
We were fortunate to shoot at Black Horse Brewery, one of Gauteng’s most scenic and photogenic venues. Our practical shoot, with a very attractive couple, Rynhard and Jasmin, encompassed an engagement, and wedding shoot. We covered various basic and creative lighting techniques; from working with natural light to more elaborate flash and artificial lighting setups. We also covered important aspects related to posing and working with the couple.
Day 4-5: Digital Workflow for Wedding Photographers
On day 4-5 we covered digital workflow; from image selections to editing, and creating wedding albums. Our focus here is to establish consistency and accuracy without sacrificing creativity by using the latest and greatest editing software, custom-presents and online services.
Wedding Photography Techniques Learned
The “wedding shoot” is the highlight of the wedding course and I would like to share some of the techniques we covered:
Engagement-shoot
We discussed the different approaches to ease your new (and often times nervous) clients into a relaxed, playful and enjoyable photo shoot.
Using your reflector to create soft and romantic light it which to shoot your clients during early morning sunlight.
Shooting for the Wedding Album
It’s important to be able to tell stories with your images that flow naturally into each other. This entails careful selection of lens choice, lighting conditions, poses, emotion and composition.
Posing your Clients
We understand the “moment” shots are what counts but when it comes to picture-perfect portraits wedding photographers need to be able to pose their clients in an effective way. Here Warren James is demonstrating highly effective ways of getting the best out of your clients. For more about our posing workshop presented by Warren visit: Posing 101 Workshop
Detail Shots:
Here we showed our students how to use interesting surrounding elements with simple lighting techniques to create beautiful wedding detail shots:
Getting Ready Images
Here we showed how to use your indoor as well as outdoor area’s to create depth and elegance for getting ready images.
Shooting in harsh light.
As wedding photographers, one of the biggest challenges we face is difficult lighting conditions. Being able to shoot in any lighting condition is a wedding photographer’s most important tool sets, and this includes harsh daylight sun.
Flash Photography
Here the DPC team showed our students how to effectively balance the bright ambient light from the sky and distant hills using high powered strobes. Here Trompie demonstrates how to use a large soft-box and the Photon 600W strobe light powered by a portable battery pack to create punchy and eye-catching images.
Conceptual Storytelling
We all know how effective the power of story is. Being able to translate your client’s wedding story into imagery is essential for wedding photographers. Warren demonstrates here how to embellish your client’s wedding story with conceptual images.
Using Soft light to your advantage.
We all know that the golden hour gives us the best light. That does not mean that we cannot make it even better. Trompie demonstrates here how to capture a beautiful sitting shot during the “good light” photo session.
Sunset Images
Without a cloud in sight, we showed our students how to extract added colour from a sunset using custom white balance methods and using a silhouette image to tell the sunset story.
Credits
Thank-you to everyone involved in putting together another very successful wedding photography course.
- Course Admin and Makeup: Jenna Bester
- Models: Rynhard Maritz and Jasmin Cloete
- Outfits were provided by Dream Bride
- Venue: Black Horse Brewery and Restaurant
Learn Wedding Photography
If you would like to learn how to do wedding photography, or step up your skill-level, check out DPC’s next Wedding Workshop!
