5 Tips for finding a great photography location
How your guests will get to your wedding location? Are tablecloths included at the venue? How loud your music can be past 9pm?! There are a million things to consider when planning your wedding locale, and maybe the last thing you’ll think about is how photogenic will it be? Well worry no more, because here is my guide to finding the best wedding photo spots in any venue.
Preparation
What I do before getting to your wedding day is head out and scout the location to find the best private portrait positions! Some venues are so vast and beautiful that you will not need to leave for any of your photography, some are beautiful but not actually great for photography. My points below are what I’m thinking about on your wedding.
Open up
Wide open spaces are your friend. You can create some incredible images on empty beaches, big flat paddocks, hilltops. When in doubt, look for the most open space in the area and it will likely work! Hilltops are one of my all-time favourite places to photograph as it is impossible to not have great space around you. In the middle of a flat paddock can seem like a boring place to get your photo taken but this allows the photo to really focus on you.
Check the light
Lighting is so important for photography. If you are doing the majority of your photos in the middle of the day or mid-morning (I’m looking at you, first-lookers!) then having somewhere with some shade is so important an outstanding photograph. Shade will give even lighting ̶ and a break from the heat of the day!
Despite my tip about open spaces, having a dense forest setting can be great at creating even lighting over everyone’s face.
Is it personal?
If there is a location that is meaningful to you and your partner, this is a great way to bring meaning into the photos. A riverside photo session could represent the river you first camped at together, or a beach photo session could represent the coastal town where you first met. It could be a mountain top from where you can see your childhood homes… Maybe you take a helicopter up to a spot where you’ve hiked... The sentimentality might not feel very strong, but if you can create a sense of purpose to that location I guarantee the photos will be all the more special! When I asked my now husband to marry me, I chose the beach near our place at sunrise. I did this because I knew that even though we would move on from that city, the sea is all connected. Sunsets are great but give me sunrise any day. Wherever we were in the world, sunrise near the sea will always take us back to that special, meaningful time.
Get High
Having a bit of altitude in your location will allow the photos to have blank space as a backdrop behind you. This creates a studio-like focus around you (the couple) and pulls the focus of the image to you. By having the clean uncluttered background, there will be nothing distracting from the main subject. It doesn’t even need to be on top of a mountain either, even just a small rise can dramatically improve the overall photo.
Lonely is good
When it comes to getting your photos taken, most of us are reaching (or running) past the edges of our comfort zones. The portrait session is one of the only parts of the day where you are alone (nearly, try to ignore me snapping away!) and can actually take a minute to be in the zone, enjoy each other's company and soak up those just-married vibes. This is not something that you want a lot of onlookers for, whether you know them or not!
Try and think of a space where you will be mostly alone, or at least able to find spaces where you won’t have too many people wandering around distracting you from each other. And if it seems like too much to worry about now, that’s what I’m here for!