I’m going to make an effort to share a bit of Wedding Wisdom on Wednesdays (yes, I love alliteration … what can I say). This first one is not a pretty post filled with beautiful examples of what to do. It’s rather what to avoid. Which is really just as helpful, but just not as pretty. Here’s what’s fresh on my mind from Saturday’s wedding:
If your DJ uses lights like this …. then your dance photos will turn out like that (many times across your face rather your dress!).
Wedding Reception Lighting
I’m not knocking the DJ — he was a really nice guy and great to work with. (He graciously turned them off during the special dances, and bouquet & garter toss.) I honestly don’t think DJs with these “cool” lighting setups realize how it does impact the photographs. There are things your photographer can do to minimize the impact. First, we can shoot facing the lights so they only show up on the edges of the bodies, but then the DJ and his area are in every shot ( (I love you guys, but your working space isn’t all that great for a backdrop!). Second, we can increase our flash to minimize the impact, but it only minimizes it.
I have tons of good reception shots for this sweet bride because I knew what those lights would do and took measures to work around them. And, in the spirit of full disclosure, I actually took this one just to illustrate the point. But this is something you may want to discuss with your DJ when you book him/her if your reception images are important to you.
While preparing the blog post I realized there are probably other important things to discuss with your DJ so will follow up on this in a later post. I don’t pretend to have the skill set needed to address how to choose a professional DJ. So, I’m already talking with Jim Dunham, Grand Poobah of The Music Guys, about guest blogging some pointers for us. Look forward to that one!
