Some of my clients come to me because they want to know how to look good in their wedding photos, so I do get asked from time to time if I can recommend a wedding photographer. I thought it might be useful therefore to include a few words of advice on that subject:-
Before choosing your wedding photographer you need to think a little about what you want. Wedding photographers can have very different styles and there can be a considerable difference in cost.

Location

It is generally more practical and less costly to commission a photographer who is based in the area in which the wedding is going to take place. So local contacts, Thompson’s Directory and Yellow Pages are useful sources of information. You may, of course prefer to use someone that did a particularly good job for your friend/relation a hundred miles or more away. If so, ensure that they can provide you with the time and service that you require at a price that is acceptable to you.

If you are having your wedding at a special venue or hotel, it is worth asking them about local photographers that people use frequently. As we will see later there is a considerable advantage if your photographer is familiar with the venue and and the exact spots that lend themselves to good photographs. (I’ve seen too many bride and groom photos spoilt by the obtrusive drainpipe in the background)

Style

There are a huge number of photographers’ sites on the web which are well worth looking at, to formulate your ideas of what you like and what you don’t want. For example do you want everyone looking as though they have just stepped out of Vogue, or do you want something more relaxed. Do you want mood and attitude or do you want smiles and alleged reality. Do you want lots of family groups or do you want lots of impromptu shots of family members enjoying themselves.

None of these things are mutually exclusive, you just need to decide what you want. Have a look at some photographers’ work and decide what you prefer. You can’t expect your photographer to be a mind reader. You have to tell him or her what you want. Don’t be afraid to show him or her examples that you have seen and liked. More importantly, obtain samples of work done by your prospective photographer. Wedding photography is a commercial business. You need to shop around for what suits you best.

Chemistry 

Okay, call me a romantic, but I still think you need to bond with your photographer. When I say you, I mean you, your partner, your Mum & Dad, bridesmaids etc. There are some fantastic technically able photographers who have little in the way of people skills. Look Good on Camera would not exist if every photographer knew how to get the best out of their clients.

So I would advise you to choose someone you are comfortable with, and who is going to be receptive to your needs and requests. I would also recommend that you look at the tips on this website to ensure that you are going to look your photogenic best.

The days when wedding photographers just turned up on the day, took a few standard photographs and rushed off to attend another wedding are long gone. You should expect your photographer to give your wedding the attention and time that it deserves. You need to interview prospective candidates and get a clear picture of the service that they are going to provide.

In my view a good wedding photographer will meet with you and your partner, and possibly other family members, ushers, bridesmaids etc beforehand to determine the scope and timing of the photographs. You may wish them to include photographs of the wedding party’s preparation for the ceremony (hair styling, suit fitting, make-up application etc), so choose someone who you are going to be comfortable with photographing you in those situations.

Familiarity

Your photographer needs to be familiar with your requirements and the venue/location in which he or she is going to take photographs. As a UK based photographer, I am only too familiar with the vagaries of climate and weather. Your photographer has to have contingency plans for fine and foul weather conditions in/near your wedding venue. Don’t forget to ask about them.

Background to wedding photographs can be so important. We can’t all get married on a Hawaiian beach with the sun setting behind us, but your wedding photographer should be able to choose an appropriate background near to the Wedding venue for you to pose for those photographs that are going to adorn the homes of your nearest and dearest for years to come.

Cost

Prices vary. Make sure that you compare like with like. I would advise getting a package that includes a set number of appropriately sized photographs plus a disc of all photographs taken that you can use to print more photographs at a later time, if you so desire. [Please note that you do need to ensure that the photographic files are of a sufficiently high resolution to allow good quality prints to be made from them. As a rule of thumb the file sizes should be in megabytes rather than kilobytes. This may sound a bit geeky but it is important. You should remember that copyright stays with the photographer unless otherwise negotiated.] 

In conclusion, I believe that the choice of a wedding photographer is a very personal matter. I can only hope that the above few paragraphs are of help to you. Good luck with your wedding plans.

Forget about the hand gestures which are so often the hallmark of insincere politicians. Disregard the carefully rehearsed actor’s rhetoric. The most expressive parts of the human body are the eyes. If you really want to send a message to the camera, use your eyes. Sorrow, mystery, anger, joy, compassion, sensuality, fun:- The list is endless. Don’t be camera shy. Engage withe camera. Use your eyes to talk to the camera and change the way you look in photographs. Yes, it takes practice, but it’s great fun. You can use your eyes to scold, to flirt, to question, to disapprove, to chastise……Be they blue, brown, or green they should always be seen. Your eyes are your individuality and using them will greatly improve how you look in photographs. By using your eyes you will add interest to your photos and look better in your pictures.

email bob@lookgoodoncamera.com to find out more about looking good in photos or telephone 07920 130985

Go to Home Page www.lookgoodoncamera.com 

I don’t claim to be an expert on hair styles but I do have an opinion about what suits an individual best. As an interested third party I find it surprising that the vast majority of brides want to wear their hair up on their wedding day (even our cartoon of the camera shy bride depicts her with her hair up).

Now there are women who look very good with their hair up, women who look good with it down and some who look good with it up or down (Alex, the bride on the front page of our website is one such lady). However girls, if you will permit a mere male to give his opinion, many of you look better with your hair down.

Putting your hair up can give you a very severe look and can emphasize your neck and ears.  Hair can provide a frame for the face and have a major softening effect. If you have decided that a certain style suits you best for everyday purposes, why change it so drastically on your wedding day? 

Another problem with wearing your hair up is that the laws of gravity dictate that at some time it is going to start falling down. You therefore run the risk of having your photograph taken when your hair is becoming increasingly untidy. If you have short hair or wear your hair down, it is a lot easier to do a little titivation prior to posing for your photographer.

If you disagree with me, at least have your photograph taken with your hair up beforehand. That way you can judge for yourself and/or show the photos to a few people who you know will give you an honest opinion.

In a look Good on Camera photo-shoot we give you the opportunity to be photographed with your hair up and with it down. 

email bob@lookgoodoncamera.com to find out more about looking good in photos or telephone 07920 130985

Go to Home Page www.lookgoodoncamera.com 

Throughout my career as a practising clinician I was obsessional about patient confidentiality. I believe that confidentiality has to be absolute. The very fact that someone had come to see me was confidential, let alone the reason for, or content of, that consultation. It was not for me to decide what my patient would want me to divulge and what they would want me to keep confidential. Some people are prepared to discuss their most intimate medical history with strangers while others prefer to hide quite common and trivial things from their closest friends and family.  

I believe that the same principles should hold for a photographer and have therefore added a section on Client Confidentiality on the About Us page of the website. I know that some other photographers do include a Client Confidentiality clause in their Terms of Business. For publicity seeking extroverts that may seem somewhat strange, but there are people who find having their photograph taken almost an invasion of their privacy. Yes, there really are people who are incredibly camera shy. It is this latter group that benefit most from a Look Good on Camera photo-shoot. Confidentiality is therefore vital to our business.

So you can be assured of our absolute discretion before, during and after your photo-shoot.

Go to Home Page www.lookgoodoncamera.com 

The human body comes in many shapes and sizes but generally we are all wider full frontal than we are side-on. The ratio is about 3:2. So you might expect that being photographed side on will make you look a whole third slimmer - and if you have one of those straight up and down figures it probably will. But if like me you are a little over your ideal weight, you will know that those extra pounds are not evenly distributed and being caught side-on can show the odd bulge in the wrong place. It’s also quite uncomfortable to screw your head round through 90 degrees to look at the camera. 

So the answer is to stand at 45 degrees to the camera (i.e. half way between full frontal and side on). In this way you will reduce your body width by about a sixth without profiling those ever so slightly podgy bits! 

For those of you who feel you are a little on the slim side, then present your body full on to the camera. 

A Look Good on Camera photo-shoot will give you the opportunity to practice this along with many other tips on how to look better and achieve your photogenic best in photos and pictures. Believe me, you really can look better in pictures and photos and become more photogenic. It just needs a little practice. Don’t be camera shy. Give me a call. I’m here to help.

email bob@lookgoodoncamera.com to find out more about looking good in photos or telephone 07920 130985

Go to Home Page www.lookgoodoncamera.com 

A group photo is really only as good as the least photogenic person in it! That makes taking group photos a deal more risky than taking one to one shots. If you want to look good in group photographs then take some time in making yourself more photogenic. Give the photographer some angles. Relate to the camera and make sure you are in a good position to be seen. If you’re worried about your height don’t stand next to a very tall or short person. If you think you’re a little skinny don’t stand next to a tubby, and if you’re overweight avoid being photographed with stick insects! With a little thought and preparation you can look so much better in those photos.

These are the Copycatz, a 4-piece covers band playing danceable, guitar-driven classic pop from The Stones to Green Day … and beyond! They needed some promotional shots for music agencies and their website which they are currently re-building. Good luck lads.

If you would like to have your band or group photographed - get in touch.

email bob@lookgoodoncamera.com to find out more about looking good in photos or telephone 07920 130985

Go to Home Page www.lookgoodoncamera.com 

A friend has just shown me some 50 to 60 photographs that she took at a girlie night out. I hate to say it, but practically all her fellow revellers look like demons from hell.

It’s the old red eye problem. It’s caused by reflected flash. As most point and shoot cameras will automatically use flash indoors (and even outdoors if the light is poor), it is a very common occurrence.If you want to look good in photos and avoid having the centres of your eyes looking like the mouths of a volcano, don’t look straight at the camera lens when flash is being used.  Preferably look just over the top of the camera. This will make you appear to be looking at the camera without the hell fire effect.Simple little tips like this can make you look so much better in those impromptu photographs. This “snap” was taken with flash although it was daylight outside. The ambient light therefore wasn’t too low - so not a red eye in sight.

Red eye is caused by light from the flash bouncing back off the retina, the light sensitive area at the back of the eye. In poor light, when flash is likely to be used, our pupils are relatively dilated (wide) to allow more light in so that we can see better. When the pupils are dilated the retina is more exposed and it reflects more light.

If the eyes are looking directly at the camera then the light reflected from the retina will hit the lens full on and be recorded by the light sensor in the camera. As the retina is red in colour this makes the pupils appear bright red.These days the photographer can use the red eye reduction feature on the camera, or failing that edit the red eye out by means of digital editing software. However not everyone does this, and it is better to avoid looking directly at the lens, rather than risk appearing in subsequent photos as a half-crazed banshee ! (the dictionary definition is a wailing female spirit of Irish folklore origin).

email bob@lookgoodoncamera.com to find out more about looking good in photos or telephone 07920 130985

Go to Home Page www.lookgoodoncamera.com 

Are you one of those people who frequently appear in photographs with their eyes closed? 

Well even the most photogenic model gets caught out that way occasionally, but there is a reason why it happens more to some people than it does to others. It comes down to blink rate. 

Quite simply the more often you blink; the more likely you are to be caught on camera with your eyes shut. Blinking is something that we all need to do. It’s essential for cleaning and lubricating the outer surface of our eyes. 

A minority of individuals are unlucky enough to have neurological or nervous conditions that cause them to blink more often. However the majority of us can exercise a degree of control over how often we blink. Do you remember trying to stare other kids out when you were a child?

Just as the conscious mind has a degree of control over blinking, so the sub-conscious mind effects blink rate as well. Research has apparently shown that we blink more when we are not concentrating, when we are tired and when we are worried or embarrassed. 

Now I’m not suggesting that you consciously try to stop yourself blinking when you are having your photograph taken. That would be far too uncomfortable and having your photograph taken should never be uncomfortable. 

However if you are comfortable and well rested and you concentrate on providing the camera with interesting images, you will significantly reduce your blink rate and the chance of you being photographed with your eyes closed. That way you are going to look a lot better, no matter who is taking the photograph.

One of the things a photo-shoot will do is get you feeling comfortable in front of the camera and thereby significantly reduce the chance of you being photographed with your eyes shut in the future.

email bob@lookgoodoncamera.com to find out more about looking good in photos or telephone 07920 130985

Go to Home Page www.lookgoodoncamera.com 

Being photogenic and looking good on camera have a lot to do with self-esteem. If you feel positive about yourself then you will present yourself in a positive way with naturally out-going body language and confident posture. As a consequence you will look better in photos taken of you.

Psychiatrists and psychologists have recognised the importance of raising self-esteem in the treatment and prevention of many cases of mental ill-health. As a physician myself, I am surprised that techniques to raise self-esteem are not used more widely to help mentally well people perform better, feel better about themselves, and thereby derive greater pleasure out of life. 

Our Look Good on Camera photo-shoots are designed to enhance self esteem and give you tips on how you can feed your self esteem whenever you have self doubts. Come on, book yourself in and start feeling good, looking good and enjoying life more than you ever thought possible.

email bob@lookgoodoncamera.com to find out more about looking good in photos or telephone 07920 130985