Wedding events are full of people, expressions, and emotions. The wedding venue has multiple beautiful corners with natural light coming through the glass windows, illuminating the hallway and providing ideal circumstances for great photography. Weddings are usually a full-day event, thus giving you ample time to capture as many photographs as you want. You must be thinking that wedding events are an ideal opportunity to polish your photography skills. If yes, then read these 5 tips on using the Nikon D610 for wedding photography.
One of the most stressful aspects of wedding photography is having to take great portrait shots of the wedding party and guests in a cramped venue. This is also problematic when try to take group shots and squeeze everyone into a tiny frame. Not to mention how annoying it can be if someone accidentally blinks or moves. Couple this up with kids running around and the pressure to take stellar candid photos, and the stress of wedding photography is clear.
It’s a never-ending list of expectations versus reality when it comes to wedding photography. Luckily, the Nikon D610 can bridge the expectation gap thanks to its premium features, such as a 24.3 MP FX-format sensor, a 14-bit analog-to-digital conversion, and a 39-point AF system. With the Quiet Release Burst mode, you can capture the photographs silently without getting noticed.
Read the following 5 tips to nail wedding photography skills with the Nikon D610.
Scout A Good Venue
Scouting the wedding venue beforehand is just as important as the rehearsal dinner. The couple spends a lot of their time and energy to find a perfect venue for their wedding. On top of that, they decorate it with flowers, lights, candles, and what not.
The couple makes sure that the wedding venue reflects their taste and liking and as a wedding photographer, it is your duty to capture all the beauty and allow the couple’s efforts to be appreciated even after the wedding is over.
You should inspect the wedding venue to check for:
- Artificial and natural sources of lighting
- Background colors
- Outdoor location
- Low-light venue
- Full-frame venue
After marking all these locations, you can use the customizable settings of the Nikon D610. You can preset the aperture and ISO settings to suit the different venues the wedding will be held at. You can also save the last used autofocus position for both vertical and horizontal orientations, both of which are required when it comes to wedding photography.
The switching between these two directions can be annoying at times, especially when you’re capturing continuous shots. One tip to increase your efficiency when working at a wedding location is to set the camera to memorize your last used focus position, as we said above.
Know Your Camera Well
A rule of thumb is not to test your camera for the very time at the wedding venue. You should familiarize yourself with your camera well beforehand, including all the buttons and their functionality.
As discussed earlier, the Nikon D610 is a one-of-a-kind full-frame camera with advanced features and personalized settings. There are two options marked as U1 and U2 on the mode dial present at the top of the camera. You can use these to choose to shoot in continuous quiet mode, mirror lock-up, and self-timer.
The Nikon D610 has a wide ISO range of 100-6400 to capture wedding photographs in different types of lighting conditions. It comes with 39 AP points to capture sharp and precise candid photographs of the couple and their guests. You can view the image in the 3.2 inches viewfinder with 921K dot points, which allows you to capture all the details of the wedding event.
The exterior setting buttons on the camera are placed at the standard Nikon position. So, they are easily accessible while operating the camera during the event. Another feature of the Nikon D610 is the customization of all the mode buttons, which are available at the back of the camera.
It is up to your discretion to change the modes between AE-L/AF-L, shutter, Fn, and Preview button according to your requirement at the event. A great tip we can give you is to customize the buttons according to the venue to improve your time management.
You can modify the outside buttons as well as the picture control buttons for capturing photographs in JPEG mode. This also implies that you can play around with the sharpness, contrast, and brightness of the photographs to ensure symmetry in the image quality.
Have A Backup Equipment
Once you have preset your camera settings according to the marked venues, the next step is to have backup equipment. Before moving towards the discussion of backup equipment types, let’s discuss their importance. Having backup equipment plays a significant role during the wedding event.
Wedding event scenarios can be challenging at times, especially if the camera falls from your hands or you accidentally erase photographs from the camera while changing the settings.
There are multiple types of backup equipment required for the wedding event:
- Memory Card
- Battery
- Battery charger
- Portable battery charger
Although there are two memory card slots in the Nikon D610, you must have backup memory cards in case of some data corruption or excessive memory utilization. The battery capacity is directly proportional to the type of photographs you capture too. Luckily, the Nikon D610 saves battery consumption by allowing you to preset settings. The time you save by not shifting modes preserves battery.
You can also make use of a dual-battery charger to charge two batteries simultaneously. A portable battery charger will make your life easier by saving you the hassle of finding a charging point at the wedding venue.
A vital aspect of having backup equipment is ensuring that they are not just handy but lightweight as well. This ensures that it’s hassle-free task to carry them around at the venue.
Manage Your Gear Well
Gear management is essential for any wedding photographer. The wedding party expects their wedding photographer to be quick on their feet so they can capture all the important moments of a wedding. However, this isn’t possible when you’re carrying two lenses, some flashlights, and a camera in your hands. You don’t want to set a wrong impression by being preoccupied with juggling your gear and missing an opportunity to capture a memorable moment.
With the Nikon D610, you don’t need to shift between different gears. This is a one-for-all and all-for-one DSLR equipped with exposure compensation and a faster shutter to adapt itself to its surroundings.
Gear management also includes camera protection and logistics. The Nikon D610 is a compact and lightweight camera, which can be carried easily around the wedding location. You can carry the camera around your neck all day long without feeling any sort of strain.
It is also important to ensure the safety of the camera while using it. First, use straps to carry the camera around your neck. The wedding location is a crowded place where someone can bump into you by accident. You can also encapsulate the camera in a metallic rectangular cage to protect the camera body if it falls. The camera strap and metallic bracket is a perfect combination to secure your camera body from any kind of external damage.
Capture The Right Poses
This is the trickiest part of wedding photography. Weddings are happy occasions with people chatting and laughing. It’s the couple’s special day, so they are the center of attraction. But we need to understand that the couple and their guests aren’t professional models who know how to pose in front of the camera.
As a wedding photographer, one of the biggest parts of your job description is to capture the real emotions and expressions of the couple and their guests. Capturing the right poses is all about shooting exclusive candid and portrait photographs.
The Nikon D610 empowers you to capture the right poses with its exposure compensation (EC) feature. You can also use different props like backlit lamps to capture poses using the dynamic range feature. The camera offers five types of DR Active D-Lighting (ADL) modes such as Off, Low, Normal, High, and Extra High to capture the highlights and shadow details. You can capture all the intricate details of the bride’s gown in a full-length portrait photograph with the ADL feature.
The Nikon D610 can capture exceptional wedding poses in both daylight and low light conditions. There is a lighting button available at the top of the camera, which allows you to toggle between the two types of lights. The four main components of capturing the right poses are:
- Background light
- Background location
- The happy couple and their guests
- Supporting props
Keeping in view the above composition, you need to select a rate between 5.5 frames per second to 6 frames per second. You can also capture poses from different angles from behind or above the shoulder to capture the side poses.
