In modern wedding photography photos of all the detail during a couples big day play a major role in a wedding package. Sadly this is still neglected  by many wedding photographers. In South Africa in certain areas photographers tend to concentrate more on the detail than in other areas by other photographers. Especially in the Cape Town area the photographers concentrate largely on capturing the detail whereas in the Free State/Northern Cape this is neglected rather often and photographers really have to step up to compare with the rest of the country.

Residing in the Free State and mainly working in the Free State area with regards to wedding photography I try to study what’s going on in the market by looking at the work from other photographers in different places or areas and also abroad and try to adapt accordingly. While taking detail images at a wedding I am normally making use of a macro lens(Nikon 105mm F2.8 and a Nikon Full frame camera] to ensure optimum quality. The reason for using a macro lens is two – fold. Firstly to get close enough to really emphasize the detail and also because of the shallow depth of field to draw the attention to the exact point on the image that I want to emphasize.

My setting on my camera is normally as follows:

Camera on manual, F-stop between 3.5 and 4.5, shutter between 1/250 and 1/1000 depending on the light source and the ISO between 200 and 2000 also depending on the amount of light. Normally the detail photos are taken indoors and because of this the amount of light is not always exactly what one expects it to be.

Detail that one must concentrate on differs from wedding to wedding but normally it is of all the brides detail like the wedding gown, rings, ear rings, bouquet ext. All the detail during the church ceremony and also all the detail at the reception.

If possible I am always making use of a low angle but this is a personal preference. You have to sort out for yourself what suits your style and what looks nice to you. It is very important to always be true to yourself and to really take images that you believe in and not copy other peoples work. Still it is important to look at other photographers work for input and to continue asking for advise. You are simply never too important to learn. Photography by the way is just a way of living and a learning process for life…