Should we give our wedding photographer a shot list or photo ideas from Pinterest?

This is a question that pops up from time to time; “Should we give you a complete list of photos we want, or send ideas of photos we want from other peoples weddings?”

So let’s break this down into a few sections.The check list…a exhaustive list of photos usually pulled from rubbish wedding blogs, Photo ideas from Pinterest and a list of your family groups.

A photograph check list

There are numerous wedding blogs and Pinterest posts that say “give this list to your wedding photographer” and provide the most ridiculous list of photos known to man. Many of them are blatantly obvious and others are ridiculous staged photos of pretend moments.

Here’s an example of one I saw:

Before the ceremony:

I won’t continue with the never ending examples such as the bride walking down the aisle or the ring exchange. Truth be told a many of the shots on the list are just captured as standard. I mean if you really need to tell your photographer to take a photo of the bride walking down the aisle you’ve probably booked the wrong photographer! Other photos are so staged you’ll cringe when you see them. Let’s not expect people to be actors, not everyone cries or looks nervous.

The other problem with lists like this is they’re putting a huge amount of pressure on you… they’re telling you what shots you think you should have and telling you certain things should happen on your wedding day. They make people believe they should react a certain way and if they don’t you may start to wonder why. There are no hard and fast rules as to what should happen or how people should react on a wedding day.

Finally, and the reason why I can’t work to these lists, is you won’t get the best out of me if I’ve got my nose buried in a tick sheet. There’s no story-telling with lists like this, the pictures wont reflect your day at all. While I’m taking a photo of an invitation I could be missing something funny or emotional happening between two people that isn’t on the script. I bet non of these lists has ever said “a photo of the bridesmaid biting mum on the shoulder”

Your wedding is unique and has its own story. A story-telling photographer needs to feel part of the day so they can shoot it as the unique occasion that it is. A tick sheet means you will end up with a very sterile collection of photographs that don’t reflect your wedding. Have a read of this blog on Junebug.

So you don’t need to know anything…..?

So without trying to contradict myself I do need to know if you’ve got anything unusual planned or there’s something super important happening at a certain time, its good to give me the heads up. Examples might be:

We’re bringing my husbands horse to the wedding to surprise him, she’ll be there at around 3pm and I know he’s going to well up.

My grandmother will be coming into the prep room at about 11am, she can be quite emotional.

I’ll be wearing a photo of my late grandfather under my suit jacket. It’ll be tucked away so not obvious to see, can you get a photo please.

As you can see, this is giving the photographer a heads to to make sure we capture those moments or items. It’s very different to a massive list of fake moments or never ending items such as invitations and slippers.

Examples of photos from your venue or Pinterest

This one is a little more complicated. Let’s address photos from Pinterest first. Sometimes couples look for ideas of posed photos from Pinterest. This might be a good idea in the early days to help you understand what style of photography you like. But once the photographer is booked I’d advise again this.

I think I was in my second year shooting weddings when someone sent me a huge Pinterest board of bride and groom photos they wanted at their wedding. Most of the photos were fantastic. Extremely good looking couples, on a beach in the low Californian evening sun. They looked great. The problem was my couple were getting married in Derby at the end of November. All the natural and location elements that made these photos great just weren’t going to be available to us on a dull autumn day in Derby city centre. We can do other cool things in that location and lighting, but we can’t do sunsets on a beach.

It isn’t at all unusual for Pinterest photos to be from styled shoots, rather than real weddings. A styled shoot is set up between suppliers such as the dress makers and make up artist to create portfolio images using professional models and unlimited time to get the best photos to showcase their work. Professional models are very skilled at posing themselves and it isn’t fair to expect most normal folk to hold themselves like professional models. They’ll also take hours setting the photo up, something we don’t have time for on a wedding day.

What about photos from the venue taken by the same or other photographers

You shouldn’t really need to do this, but of you do just send one or two.. If you’ve looked at your photographers work enough to book them you should really trust them to shoot the wedding in their style. I must admit I don’t really mind if my couples send me one or two examples from the venue, it doesn’t happen very often and I never guarantee to recreate them exactly. I don’t want to copy another photographer and I certainly don’t want you to be copying another couple.

Even if the examples the couple send are my own photos I still may not recreate them on the wedding day. There are various elements that make a photo great. Light is a huge factor. Good locations on sunny days may be awful locations on overcast days and vice versa. Other factors will be the time of year, are the trees green, orange or without their leaves. When posing a couple their height and body shapes may be taken into consideration to give the most flattering pose. Some couples are naturally more comfortable posing, so the photographer might try more varied poses. Other couples are less comfortable posing, so the photographer would stick to the more relaxed poses. There’s no point taking a photo of a couple who look awkward.

Experience will teach your photographer to use the best light and locations on the actual wedding day. They’ll see how the poses are working for you and adapt as they go. Having covered over 600 weddings this is second nature to me.

Ultimately if you’ve researched and selected your photographer carefully you’ll trust them to capture your day to the best of their ability. If you’ve looked at their portfolio and blog you’ll know what they do and won’t need to worry about giving lists.

So no lists, got it…well there is one exception, family group photos

Yes, this is when you should give your photographer a list and I’ll explain why:

Group photos can take a long time and having more than you need wastes precious time on your wedding day. So many couples say to me that the day went so fast, which is why I always advise on having the minimum number of formal groups that you need. Group photos take longer than most couples expect. Every second is like gold dust, let’s not waste it on photos you don’t really want and especially don’t waste it having photos you don’t want but think you should have to keep other people happy.

The reason I ask for a list of your must have family photos is that family means different things to different people. Theres no point me taking a photo of you with Auntie June if you don’t really like her and she’s only there to keep your mum happy. But I don’t want to miss a photo with second cousin Mick from Australia, who you speak to every week on zoom but only see once every 10 years. So planning ahead with a small list of 5 – 8 of the most important groups helps make sure we get them done as efficiently as possible. Before the wedding I send my couples a guide to planning their groups, this really helps to ensure we don’t spend longer than we need which means you get more time to party with your friends!

So we enjoy our day and let you worry about the photos?

This will always give you the best photos. Let us do our thing and you guys crack on having a blast with your besties. You’ll enjoy receiving the photos more if it’s a gallery full of surprises than knowing what to expect from a tick sheet. Your photos will represent your day and tell the story of your wedding. This is better than trying to copy someone else’s wedding. Research and book your photographer wisely, give them the heads up about key events or unusual surprises so that on the day you just need to worry about looking amazing and getting married.