Oh, hey there, Monday! You know, the day where as photographers we’re back-in-action on Insta, scrolling and getting beautiful inspiration from weddings in seaside vineyards… old historic cathedrals… or dare I say… France? Yes. Always France!

Aaaaand it’s also the morning where — as a budding wedding photographer — I’d get a little green-eyed over what popped up all over social media. Here I was, trying to make sense of all these weddings I’d booked, but looking at other wedding photographers and thinking, “there’s no WAY I can master light like that. No WAY I’ll ever walk into a wedding day with confidence.”

And then lo-and-behold, here I am 6, almost 7 years later, walking in to shoot a wedding with Kate Middleton-like poise.

And friend, it’s not because I’m some special snowflake. Listen up — NO one, not even the insanely talented Mary Marantz herself, comes outta the womb knowing all this. It’s learned.

It’s because I worked hard to improve my lighting game … which went hand-in-hand with building my confidence as a wedding photographer!

And now? I want you to learn the VERY same tricks of the trade when it comes to lighting on wedding days, so you can be your MOST confident wedding photographer yet.

So read on to get 3 instant tips to give you a confidence boost for your next wedding day!

1) Understanding Golden Hour will transform your portraits!
Oh golden hour, youda, youda best.

Here’s the thing: As photographers, we pretty much all LOVE this time of day. I mean, what’s not to celebrate when there are ZERO worries about unsightly shadows underneath your clients eyes, noses, or chins — all due to the sun is coming from the SIDE instead (instead of from above, casting that downward shadow)!

First things first: Golden hour is the 45 minutes BEFORE sunset (or after sunrise, but obviously that’s not likely on most wedding days). To get nerdy on you, the sun is between the horizon and 6˚ above … giving a warm, buttery feel to your images.

What does this mean for you as the photographer?

If you want that stunning golden halo of light around your subjects, have have to start shooting your subjects backlit — otherwise, skin’s going to look REALLY warm (and borderline jaundiced, because of how YELLOW the sun’s rays are at that low of an angle). With your couple or family facing YOU — and the sun behind them — golden hour will give you that warm, stunning glow, lending to natural skin tones. That means I’m gonna need you to try shooting INTO the sun as the photographer.

Use golden hour to your benefit, and you’ll start feeling more boss in no time!

2) Consider nixing the flash during the ceremony
I choose NOT to use flash during 95% of the ceremonies I photograph. (Yup, even if I’ve been given the green-light by the church wedding coordinator or priest!)

I know. It’s surprising perhaps, but it pains me to think I may be the source of distraction for someone during a once-in-a-lifetime ceremony.

So how do you get around this? Well, it’s ultra-important that you have a camera body that can handle low-light situations … for example, in those old, sweeping churches & dark cathedrals, my gear of choice is the Canon 5dmarkIII + my 85mm 1.2 lens. The wide aperture allows me to let in more light, and for really dark churches, I’ll up my ISO to 4000 or 5000 (like the photo above). With the 5dmarkIII, the grain is never SO visible that it detracts from the subject in the photo.

When DO I use that off-camera flash? Well, when I’m quite certain my camera settings alone won’t work … like for an indoor, Jewish wedding where the beautiful, uplit chuppah means the bride and groom are completely in shadow. For this kind of situation, I’d set up off-camera flashes on the very edges of the room (like I did in the photo above)… that, coupled with a slower shooting speed, and I feel better about those pops of light!

3) Learn the things most wedding photographers aren’t.
Okay, so I saved the best for last.

The thing is, if you can tackle the nerdiest, most detailed lighting parts of a wedding day … my friend, you’re gonna have confidence like Neville Longbottom when he finally gets turnt up for Dumbledore’s Army!

Here’s an example:

You pull a photo in for editing and seen that purple or orange haze around someone’s head. Know what I mean? That used to drive me NUTS! I mean, I had no idea how to get rid of it, and if the haze was bad enough, I’d usually just trash the photo.

I chalked it up to just being a bad photographer.

But that wasn’t (fortunately) the issue at stake. That haze is called chromatic aberration — told you I’d geek out a little over here — and when highly-contrasted areas of a photograph meet, sometimes, the lens can’t bring all the wavelengths of the color to the same focal plane.

Case study: Black tux jacket meets white shirt. Dark, wavy hair meets cloudy, moody sky. Metallic details (like cufflinks), intricate beading, etc.

Verdict in all cases? Like ^that^ close-up zoom on one of Steve & Kara’s wedding, you get purple haze (turns out it’s not just a Hendrix song).

Fortunately, there’s a super simple fix. Want in? Head to your Develop module in LightRoom, scroll to Lens Correction, and click the “color” tab. Scoot that Defringe amount up by 10 … and boom.

Problem solved.

Like I said, NO photographer showed up at their first wedding shoot knowing this, ok? Truly!

What if it were actually possible to drill down your lighting ability, so you can shoot your best wedding next weekend?

(I thought so!)

I’m teaching a crazy-valuable, FREE masterclass with 7 more types of lighting to learn to get your wedding day confidence game on. Class starts tomorrow night at 7pmEST!

If you’re down to make 2017 the best year for your wedding photography business yet, grab your seat to the free training!

“Yes, Abby! Reserve my seat!”

Hop to it, friend! I’ll see you Tuesday at 7pm!