We can’t believe it’s already been more than 5 years since we received our very first paid wedding photography gig! We earned $500 for a 6-hour intimate wedding that day. Since then, we have gone to document some of the most beautiful best-days-ever, from elopements in the California desert to 300-guest weddings overseas. The amount of experience we’ve gained in a relatively short time is pretty mind-blowing and for that, we are extremely grateful.
We’ve always been wary about sharing our process, the gear we use, how we work, and how we get inspired; not because we don’t want to but because we’ve always thought that everything we know is *probably* already somewhere out there - Youtube, photography blogs, Reddit (haha), etc. Also, imposter syndrome is real, y’all.
In 2019, though, our eyes were opened to the joys of mentoring. We found that not only does it help prepare the next generation of creatives, wedding photographer or not; it also inspires us as artists and validates everything we’ve learned throughout this journey.
Now, we are happy to share some of the basic tools we love - our favorites - that help us keep doing this job. May this mini wedding photographer guide help anyone who has been curious about or is already building a photography business. Please be reminded that these are merely tools, and this is our very own experience; ultimately, what matters are how these tools are used, what your motivation is, and how ready you are to do ALL the hard work.
CAMERAS AND LENSES
We love the Nikon D750! While there are so many new and more advanced (yes, we mean mirrorless) cameras out there, this particular one is what we have thoroughly mastered [cue Abstract: The Art of Design’s episode on Platon]. It doesn’t make sense for us to go into the specs of this equipment so we will just share some of our favorite things about it. mostly mundane. We are slightly obsessed with its swivel LCD; it works well for Gaile’s 5’1” stature, big group portraits (which we’ve happily been doing more often recently), and shooting at a variety of angles. We also love how it fits and feels in our hands. Before we settled with this camera, we did try a bunch of other cameras, testing them in shoots and even whole day weddings [quick tip: rent cameras to try out before deciding on what to buy for yourself]. We quickly learned that any camera will pretty much do the job. It just so happened that the D750 felt great to hold, with its rugged, sturdy feel and still relatively light weight.
Our go-to lenses are the 50mm prime and 24-70mm f2.8 zoom. We add the 70-200mm f2.8 zoom to our day-of gear for weddings. These three pretty much cover all kinds of photos we want to take during the wedding day, from details, to portraits, to (again) big group photos. Working as a duo, even with other people from our team, we have developed some favorite/must-have shots. It’s important to understand that the lens we use plays a big part in how these shots are taken. For instance, Gaile is huge on dynamic photos of moving subjects; examples of which are the newlyweds walking down the aisle; the wedding party, all in one row, walking across the lawn together Coachella-style; and fun/wild dance floor photos (THE BEST). Shooting with a wide-angle lens, ie the 24-70 zoomed out, helps make this happen. Jei, on the other hand, is the master of portraits. Haha. Seriously though, we’ve been told multiple times how the subject(s) in our portraits (which he loves to take) look very striking, like statues or paintings, as if they were frozen in time. His mastery of the 50, among other things, affords him this result.
Having said all that, we are never saying never to changing/upgrading our base photography gear. When that happens, it will be our personal decision (no to peer pressure haha) and will most likely overlap with the use of our current equipment because #masteryourgear.
OTHER WEDDING DAY MUST-HAVES
A Speedlight - for some reason, this is the only gear we have that we easily drop and break, hence we’ve had to replace it a few times or make do with one that has an imperfect exterior. Good thing is, we rarely use one - only for some fun dance floor photos and in *emergency* situations when there is literally no light. We really don’t mind using third-party products as well, such as the ones from Yongnuo. On second thought, when there is barely any light, we still prefer using…
A portable, dimmable LED light - it isn’t the most ideal light source but it helps us still get sharp photos in low-light situations. We typically bring them out during group photos, especially when indoor. We prefer it over flash mainly because it allows us to shoot faster and is less distracting/annoying.
Lots of extra camera batteries and SD cards - at least 2 of each for every camera. We use a variety of batteries, even non-Nikon ones, and Sandisk 64gb Extreme Pro cards have always been reliable for us. The D750 has dual card slots so we’ve set it up such that the 2nd card will be an instant backup copy.
1 to 2 pairs of extra shoes - we’ve learned from one of our colleagues/friend-ors that one way to survive an 8 to 12 hour wedding day (from preps to reception) is to change footwear every several hours. It literally was one of the best advice we’ve ever received! We just keep a few pairs in the trunk of our car or, if possible, bring one with us wherever we go that day. Gaile likes to stick to her Miista flats while Jei loves his oxfords and Adidas sneakers.
FOOD - working as wedding photographers is physically tiring. We always anticipate a long day of walking with weights (our gear) and not a lot of breaks. We thank ALL the couples we’ve worked with who have never failed in keeping us comfortable during our long days of work, offering us snacks and drinks and then feeding us a meal along with their guests. But, what we found worked well for us was bringing our own hearty meal - usually rice, veggies, and some kind of protein main dish - to quickly eat on mid-day breaks, while driving (Gaile feeds Jei haha), or when we just need a quick pick-me-upper.
POST-PRODUCTION AND IMAGE DELIVERY
Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom (Adobe Creative Cloud) - still the most efficient and most dynamic programs for us to cull, edit, and export photos. As you may or may not know, we post-process ALL the photos we deliver. Even though we look at post as a small part of our whole process, it really does add more character to images we take, much like what editing, mixing, and mastering does to recorded music. We do editing of most photos on Lightroom then deep-dive into images we absolutely love on Photoshop.
Presets - We love the simple, slightly grainy edit of VSCO Film (discontinued) and used to kick off our Lightroom-editing with that. These days though, we use presets we’ve developed through the years - each inspired by people we’ve actually worked with and places we’ve been to (because natural light looks different everywhere). Our work has repeatedly been described as romantic, nostalgic, and a little bit edgy. Our aim in developing our own presets was to embrace this signature look; and our hope is that one day we get to share these to the rest of the world. If you are interested in keeping up with announcements related to this, make sure to sign up with our no-spam-ever mailing list at the bottom of the page.
JPEG Mini Pro - A life (or storage) saver! Our high-resolution JPEG’s file sizes are decreased by almost half without sacrificing the quality of the image. We keep 3 back-ups of all our files (a secure online back-up, an external hard-drive back-up, and an SD card back-up) so being able to save on storage makes the process faster and easier for us.
PASS galleries - We’ve used PASS since back in 2014 and we’ve always loved it! It’s a beautiful way to share images online with family and friends plus it has several other options such as high-resolution downloads and an online prints store. The niftiest feature for us is the PASS gallery mobile app which allows us to easily access high-resolution photos anytime, especially when we’re sharing them on social media while traveling. We imagine it’s the same for couples who want to share their photos as well!
USB Memory Direct for custom flash drives - Although online galleries are awesome, back-ups are always great. That’s why we still send a flash drive with a copy of the high-resolution photos to all our wedding clients. We love the availability of modern, minimal designs from USB Memory Direct and, of course, the customization option. It’s a great way for couples to remember us and our brand. Use the code PHOTO10 for 10% off your first order of flash drives!
And, here are a few maxims we’ve lived by when it comes to our work: some profound, some commonsensical.
Photographing people in, to be specific, important events in their lives is less about the outcome, more about the experience. Inasmuch as a beautiful image is one of our goals, our main goal is for people to remember the moment, its details, and their emotion when they see that image.
You have to love people to photograph people well. It doesn’t mean you’ll have to be ultra extroverted. It just means that you need to be genuinely interested in them, what they do, how they met, what their passions are, what makes them happy, things that matter to them, etc.
Having access is so important in photographing people. We are essentially photographing couples in one of their most emotionally intimate moments, and them giving us their trust and vulnerability makes us capable of capturing their best and truest selves. But, it’s not just about them…
It’s also about you, the photographer/artist. Trust and vulnerability goes both ways. If you want access to, essentially, a stranger’s life, it just makes sense to give them access to yours, too. Find something in common, talk about it, share personal experiences, be friendly!
Be intentional in finding inspiration. Traveling and experiencing other cultures have been our biggest source of influence, that’s why we’ve set up a lifestyle where we are able to do it often and not just for work. We purposefully limit our exposure to wedding photography and, instead, find inspiration in other creatives’ works: fashion, design, architecture, visual art among others.
There is room for everyone. In a seemingly over-saturated industry, there really is room for everyone! Instead of trying to fit in, find a way to stand out. Identify and actively find the couples you’d ideally like to work with. Project your personality out there so you’d attract the same. Embrace a certain style or aesthetic that you resonate with, even if it feels out of this world (haha). Visionaries always win the long game so do not dismiss weird ideas.
Collaborate. With the couple, with the whole wedding day team, with other creatives.
And lastly, be kind.