I’m just taking a test shot.

When I first started wedding photography I’d see a scene I wanted to photograph, like a flower girl skipping, so I’d compose the shot, rattle off a few frames and then later when I checked the images on the camera monitor they wouldn’t be the way I wanted, they would be too dark or too bright, the depth of field would be too shallow or too deep, she would be too sharp or too fuzzy. I was that caught up in capturing the moment I didn’t stop to look at how I was capturing it! Sometimes as photographers we get so consumed about the “decisive moment” we feel we have to quickly get the shot other wise we’ll miss the moment, OK this is sometimes the case but more often then not we have got time just to slow down, recognise a scene worth taking, imagine how we want it to look, take a test shot, look at it, is this what I wanted, yes, take some more. If it’s not what I wanted I change my camera settings and take another test shot. As my skill as a photographer improves I find that second test shot is where I want it to be, so I’ll shoot away or depending on the situation I’ll take another test shot.

The best bit of advice I can give to beginner photographers is to adopt the maxim “my first shot is a test shot”. It’s no use seeing a scene, taking a dozen photos and then realising when you load them on the computer you have a dozen mediocre images. It also helps you to hone your skill as a photographer because as you get more experienced you’ll begin to instinctively know what that first camera setting should be. Yes OK sometimes things happen in a split second and you don’t have time for a test shot but I guarantee you’ll end up with more keepers if you adopt this philosophy of “first shot is a test shot”. I can hear some wedding photographers out there saying “what about the first kiss, you can’t mess around taking test shots there”. That’s right, but you have to remember they didn’t just appear out of the blue with no warning, they’ve been stood at the top of the aisle for the past half an hour!

A great trick when taking portraits is to tell the sitter you are just taking a test shot. In the following shot of Chris I’d set up a softbox camera right and Chris had sat down waiting for his partner. He could see me messing with the camera settings and then I pointed it at him. As soon as he saw me do this he looks straight at the camera, bolts upright, stiffens his shoulders, puts on a fake smile, (so basically not the most conducive pose for a portrait!) and I said “it’s alright Chris I’m just taking a test shot” at which point he relaxed back into the chair. Click.