Wedding Photography Tips: DIY Wedding Photography

"A wedding photography tip for all brides out there: DIY wedding photography is a must have. If we didn’t have do it yourself digital wedding cameras to back-up our “professional” photographer, we wouldn’t have gotten any good wedding pictures. Instead, we got over a thousand great wedding pictures from our DIY wedding photography digital wedding cameras!" – Jocelyn E., Bride

Summary: DIY wedding photography can save you thousands by replacing a wedding photographer. DIY wedding photography can also be a great complement to your wedding photographer. Either way, these tips will give you the best DIY wedding pictures possible.

Read This If: You are interested in saving $5000 on your wedding photography or are interested in making sure that you have great wedding pictures.

The DIY Wedding Must Haves

Whether you are planning a full-out DIY wedding or are just looking for a few easy ways to cut costs, DIY wedding photography with digital wedding cameras is a must. At worst, DIY wedding photography with digital wedding cameras backs-up your wedding photographer and gives you hundreds of candid wedding pictures. At best, DIY wedding photography with digital wedding cameras saves you $5,000 to $10,000 by replacing a wedding photographer.

"Overall, my recommendation for engaged couples is to seek a professional and skilled wedding photographer. But if the high cost of wedding photography is simply out of your reach, getting friends and family to take digital pictures is a good alternative."

Bottom line: whether your goal is do it all yourself, just to back-up and supplement your wedding photographer, or simply to free up $5,000 of your wedding budget so you can go on the honeymoon of your dreams, DIY wedding photography with digital wedding cameras is the way to go.

But how do you make the most of your DIY wedding photography? Simply follow the top seven DIY wedding photography tips from the experts at CameraRenter…

The Top Seven DIY Wedding Photography Tips

Note: All of the wedding photos below are actual DIY wedding photos from CameraRenter clients.

DIY Wedding Photography Tip 1: Take Your Digital Wedding Cameras Everywhere

The ability to “be everywhere” is DIY wedding photography’s greatest advantage, so be sure to give your digital wedding cameras to trusted friends and family who will be where the action is before, during, and after your wedding.

Also, make sure that your friends and family keep the digital wedding cameras on them at all times, and take as many pictures as possible (running out of pictures is not an issue as each digital wedding camera holds over 450 pictures). And don't discriminate! We’re talking pictures of everything from the karaoke the day before, to pictures of the bowling event the day after; it’s all part of your wedding weekend and worth remembering.

When you have ten of your closest friends and family snapping pictures before, during, and after your wedding, you won’t just have wedding pictures; you will have a complete end-to-end photo documentary of the most important days of your life. This is awesome and you will love it for the rest of your life.

If you remember one thing from this article, remember to take your DIY wedding photography digital wedding cameras everywhere.

DIY Wedding Photography Tip 2: Use a ‘Shot List’

In addition to snapping pictures of everything, you want to make sure that your friends and family capture certain extra special moments. This is easy by giving them a ‘shot list.’

Thanks to our friends at ‘shot list.’ Thanks to our friends at About.com, at the end of this article you will find a great shot list that you can print and pass out along with your digital wedding cameras. This way you can be sure that your DIY wedding photographers won't miss any of your classic wedding moments.

DIY Wedding Photography Tip 3: Choose Your "Do It Yourself Wedding Photographers" Wisely

Despite clear instructions and a flawless shot list, if your DIY wedding photographers don’t take good pictures (i.e. they shake the camera, turn off the flash, zoom excessively, etc.), you won’t get great wedding pictures.

This is easy to take care of by consciously choosing who you give your digital wedding cameras to versus just setting the digital wedding cameras out and hoping that someone takes pictures. I recommend starting with your wedding party and going from there. Great DIY wedding photographers can take great DIY wedding pictures. Bad DIY wedding photographers can take bad DIY wedding pictures. So choose wisely! Choose Your Photographers Wisely

DIY Wedding Photography Tip 4: Take Candid Action Shots

Now that you have a set of good DIY wedding photographers, make sure that they get a lot of candid action shots. A huge advantage of do it yourself wedding photography is that everyone knows your wedding photographers. You do not have some random person with a giant camera and huge flash making your guests uncomfortable while they try to take candid shots.

When family is photographing family, and friends are photographing friends, you can capture truly candid shots. So make sure that a lot of them get captured!

DIY Wedding Photography Tip 5: Take Pictures of More than One Person

One hundred pictures of your wacky Uncle Steve will make everyone smile, but make sure that you also get pictures of Steve with other members of your family.

When you get more than one person in a picture, you also get a picture of their relationship; and that can be a lot of fun. Weddings are all bringing friends and family together, so make sure that your DIY wedding pictures are of your friends and family together!

DIY Wedding Photography Tip 6: Take “Deep” Photos

This is super simple and super powerful: include something in front of the people you are photographing. For example, in the DIY wedding photo below, the limes in the foreground add great depth to the picture.

Whether it’s finding glasses, flowers, tree branches, or even limes, this simple wedding photography tip will give your DIY wedding pictures a professional feel.

DIY Wedding Photography Tip 7: Details, Details, Details

If it is beautiful and meaningful, then get a picture of it. We’re talking rings, the backs of dresses, shoes, place settings, the cake, guest books, the sunset, etc.

When the celebration is over, and you are reliving your day though your DIY wedding photos, these details will make all the difference.

Wrap-Up

DIY wedding photography with digital wedding cameras is a must have in addition to or in place of a wedding photographer. And if you follow the DIY wedding photography tips outlined above, you’ll have DIY wedding pictures that you and your friends and family will cherish for the rest of your life.

PS You may also want to check out the handy Wedding Photography Quiz which helps you easily pick the best photography option for your wedding.

About the Author: Jonathan Bailor is the Managing Partner of the premier affordable wedding photography service CameraRenter.

© 2009 CameraRenter®, all rights reserved. Feel free to distribute this article exactly as presented here. You are welcome to quote the article if you link back to the original so that your readers can get more information if they would like to.

Appendix: Traditional Wedding Photography Shot List

Courtesy of http://weddings.about.com/od/photographer/a/Photogchecklist.htm you can take all the wedding pictures your wedding photographer would have, and save thousands of dollars

Wedding Photography Shots Before the Ceremony

___ Wedding dress lying over a chair

___ Zipping up or buttoning the wedding dress

___ Mother of the bride fastening the bride's necklace

___ The bride's garter

___ The bride's veil

___ A close up of the bride's shoes peeking out from under the dress

___ Bride looking into a mirror

___ Bride looking out window

___ Bride and bridesmaids putting on makeup

___ Bride pinning corsage/boutonniere on mother/father

___ Bride hugging parents

___ Bride touching up

___ Bride and parents leaving for ceremony

___ Groom tying tie

___ Groom looking into mirror

___ Bride looking out window

___ Groom pinning corsage/boutonniere on mother/father

___ Groom hugging parents

___ Bride and parents leaving for ceremony

Wedding Photography Shots At the Ceremony

___ Outside of ceremony site

___ Guests walking into ceremony site

___ Bride and father entering ceremony site

___ Parents being seated

___ Grandparents being seated

___ Maid of honor walking down the aisle

___ Bridesmaids walking down the aisle

___ Flower girl and ring bearer walking down aisle

___ Groom waiting for bride

___ Ceremony musicians

___ Officiant

___ Altar or canopy during ceremony

___ Close up of bride, just before she makes her entrance

___ Bride and father walking down aisle

___ Groom seeing bride for first time

___ The back of bride and father walking down the aisle – with the groom waiting in the distance

___ Bride's father and Bride hugging at end of aisle

___ Shot of the audience from the bride and groom's point of view

___ The unity ceremony

___ Close up of bride and groom saying the vows

___ Wide shot of bride and groom saying the vows

___ Exchanging the rings

___ Close up of hands

___ The kiss

___ Bride & Groom walking up the aisle

___ Receiving line

___ Bride & Groom outside on steps

___ Guests throwing confetti/rose petals/birdseed

___ Bride & Groom hugging guests, laughing, getting congratulations

___ Bride & Groom getting in car

___ Bride & Groom in back seat

Posed Wedding Photography Before the Reception (These can also be taken before the ceremony

___ Bride alone (full length)

___ Bride with Maid of Honor

___ Bride with bridesmaids

___ Groom with bridesmaids

___ Bride with parents

___ Bride & Groom together

___ Bride & Groom with parents

___ Bride & Groom with families

___ Bride & Groom with entire wedding party

___ Bride & Groom with flower girl and ringbearer

___ Groom with parents

___ Groom with best man

___ Groom with groomsmen

___ Bride with groomsmen