How We Photograph a Wedding: Our Roles

O'Brien Photo > Blog > Business > How We Photograph a Wedding: Our Roles

Pat and I now have a flow of how we manage our business and what roles each of us have on a wedding day. I have to admit, it took a while to get to this point…but we’re here now. Since we’re not the typical first shooter, second shooter situation per say, things got a little confusing at first. Having clearly defined roles has stopped us from stepping on the others toes (which is very easy to do) and it also makes the day run much more smoothly. We now have both mental and written lists of what each one of us does. This helps tell the couples story much better in the final product.

Here it is in all its glory!

Kate:

• Figures out the timeline for the day.
• Photographs the girls getting ready in the morning. This includes all details of dress, shoes, flowers etc.
• Chooses a First Look location.
• In charge of directing family formals and wedding party photos. I also get “the big picture” of it all.
• Gets wide shots of the ceremony. This means I use wider lenses than Pat has on at all times.
• Directs pictures of the couple. This includes posing, making a fool of myself to get genuine smiles and choosing the locations.
• Takes the detail shots of the reception; centerpieces, gift table, cake etc.
• In charge of feeding Pat at dinner…amazingly, this is for real. More on this in Pat’s role!

Pat:

• Photographs the guys getting ready in the morning.
• Takes detail shots during wedding party photos. This includes shoes, flowers lined up from the side etc.
• Takes the tight shots at the ceremony; ring exchange, first kiss, holding hands.
• Always uses a different lens than me for the photos of the couple. He usually uses the 70-200mm lens to crop in close. I direct but always have the couple throw looks to Pat to get a different perspective.
• Sets up our off camera flash equipment while I get the reception shots.
• Creates the same day slideshow at dinner. This is why I must feed this man! We’re usually eating so fast and just telling each other the quickest yes’ and no’s you’ve ever seen in your life to get it done before dancing starts.

Of course things change up some times depending on the situation but this works for us the majority of the time. Photographers, how do you do things differently?