Chennai Wedding Photography

Shift Focus

2009-07-25T00:47:00.000-07:00

What is the state of mind of a creative photojournalistic wedding photographer when he is asked to do a wedding where a VVIP is the chief guest to conduct the marriage?

It was rather a very different experience for every one of our team when the Chief Minister of a state was invited to solemnize the wedding recently in a five star hotel. Apart from the elaborate security check (every bit of our equipment was put into task by the personnel who suspect everything in our equipment carrying case), we could feel the entire focus on the wedding was shifted from the couple, family, relatives and friends to the VVIPs of the evening.

The host of the wedding, hotel authorities, photographers, decorators, wedding co-ordinators and every other person involved in the wedding services were expected to dance to the tunes of the security officials. All these were for the very brief presence of the VVIP. The evening looked as if it is yet another official function of CM.

The couple was lost in the attention given to herd of VVIPs. Despite of the huge money spent on the event, there is no celebration, no joy, no natural emotions, and no free interactions among the guests. In a nut shell, the event was remembered as a VVIPs meet and not as a wedding.

For the close relatives, it was an event where they could not really participate (most of them came from abroad and the other part of India)

For the couple, it was not an occasion where they can enjoy the togetherness and exchange the secret sign of love.

For the hosts, it was something they did to satisfy the VVIPs and not to their own kith and kins.

For the guests, it was a very long wait (guests where expected to come atleast an hour earlier to avoid last minute rush in security formalities) to see a very brief activity which lasted just little more than ten minutes. There where disparities in the seating and dinning arrangements as well.

For the photographers, it was just an aim and shoot game. Nothing creative worked out (how can you give creativity when your movement is restricted by security officials of many departments and the shooting angle is decided by people who are not photographers?).

Everything looked rich and posh. But it was the real happiness and cheers that was missing. It looked like an event to show off the contacts and influence the host had with the VVIPs.

As the parents of the couple, why cannot we make the events like weddings very personnel and make it unforgettable by our mutual joy and happiness. May be couple can visit the VVIPs after the wedding, if they are very close to the family.

Above all, the VVIPs and celebrities could politely say no to such invitations to keep the ‘life of wedding celebrations’ alive.

It's for you

2009-04-07T17:38:00.000-07:00

How can you expect to get great shots in your weddings when some one in your own family is constantly restricting the movements of the photographers and instructing to shoot from a particular position.

This happened in one of our recent weddings. The father of the groom was angrily directing the photographers to stay away from most of the events and shouting at them constantly.

When a person like him restricts our movements, we only get mediocre shots. Some clients forget that the photos are shot for them and not for us. It is for them that we work hard and try something different. When our clients can direct us on our jobs, then it is not our output. When the professional freedom is not given to any artist, he performs very average. He loses on his job and his creativity is killed.

Great photography happens only when professional freedom is given. For me photography is not a job, but passion. When I am not allowed to do my work with passion and dedication, I prefer to stay away than to shoot some insensible pictures. Great photography happens not with expensive cameras, but with lot other accomplishments. A cheerful mood and professional freedom is most important in it.

However, I wish all clients co-operate in our assignments for their own benefit. After all, all the effort invested is for them.

Mask or Make-up

2009-04-07T17:36:00.000-07:00

Good wedding photography has to be complemented by sensible makeup and styling. Well, make-up for social purpose or parties may not be suitable for photography.

There are few good professional make-up artists who can make you look good both in person and in front of the camera. But unfortunately most of the brides settle for some one who does their regular hair cut, pedicure, bleaching, etc for their bridal make-up because they are familiar to them.

In one of my recent wedding receptions, the make-up person was trying something for the bride that looked good on some popular movie star. But unfortunately at the end of the day the bride looked like a ‘clown’ (she was other wise really beautiful..!). We really had a very tough time to get our shots good. Most of the paid employees of parlors have no obligation to do a sensible make-up. Remember, all the expensive make-up materials applied randomly on the face do not make it look great. It is the aesthetic sense of the true artist that makes the difference.

A good make-up is not something that makes you look fair or evenly painted. Remember, ‘make-up is an art’. A good professional make-up artist knows to handle the make-up to suit a particular person. Make-up has to be always customized.

There are a lot of things that complement a good wedding photography. Professional make-up is the most important part of it.

An ultimate reward

2009-01-01T03:42:00.000-08:00

The ultimate purpose of a good wedding photo book is to recall the emotions of a wedding like it has happened just now!

I had handled an emotional wedding recently. It was wonderful to shoot a Vietnam bride and a south Indian bridegroom uniting in marriage. The couple were from different countries and cultural backgrounds. What I found common in them were the emotions and values of human relationships.

During the reception, I was asked to screen few of the childhood images of the couple, along with glimpses of the wedding that happened a few days ago. The brief slide show with mild music contained few of the wedding pictures with the emotions neatly captured. As the pictures rolled on the screen, it brought back to them memories of their wedding.

The couple and their relatives became emotional with tears. At the end of the slide show, the couple couldn’t control their emotions. With the tears in their eyes, they called me onto the stage, congratulated and hugged me and said that the pictures were wonderful. I become emotional too; as I thanked them for the given opportunity.

It was a great moment in my life and wedding photography career. It was a priceless appreciation and an ultimate reward for my work. I shared this moment immediately with my associate photographers present over there.

What else can make my life as a wedding photographer more meaningful than moments like these? I am proud of being a photographer, who can make remarkable difference to people through my pictures. These moments really prove the power of the great art – ‘Photography’. Let our cameras make pictures that touch the heart of people, because it is the ultimate reward a photographer must aim at.

Are they not expressive enough?

2009-01-01T03:38:00.000-08:00

Most of us are generally very conscious in front of a camera. We underplay our expressions, try to be modest and look very artificial while facing a camera! This is especially true with most of they Indian brides, who are otherwise so expressive and lively as ‘girls’ in real life. As ‘brides’, they are very conscious about themselves – keeping their body and look very stiff and unnatural! This becomes even bad, when a photographer calls their attention or just aims his/her camera in front of them.

But in one of my very recent wedding assignments, I found this young bride coming out with millions of expressions every second all through the events! I could observe her fantastic moods through her changing body language, responsive eyes and expressions. Her eyes, the smile, her hands, her hair and everything that changed quickly were communicating her joy and involvement in the wedding. She was natural and unmindful about our cameras which focused on her.S

When you identify such a lively subjects, you end up with lots of lovely pictures. It was really a feast for all our cameras. We caught her in various moods and expressions and the wedding book was designed on the theme of the ‘Bride’s Expressions’.

In the general scene of south Indian weddings, the brides are mostly stiff, timid and concerned about everything in and around them. Most of them react so artificially in all situations. This restricted pattern of behavior unfortunately brings out the not so real ‘bride of the girl’.

Why can’t our brides come out of the conventional timid expressions to make photography true to life!

This is not manipulated…!

2008-05-31T23:50:00.000-07:00

Well, sometimes you surprisingly get what you never planned for…!. This picture, shot in a traditional South Indian wedding in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India, is very peculiar and it shows the oneness of the couple in a unique form!

While trying something with a long focal length lens and to get a very shallow depth of field, during the ‘Oonjal ceremony, the face of the groom except one of his eyes was almost hidden behind the face of the bride and looked as though it is a single face, with a strange appearance..! The level of the camera was carefully aligned to get the shape of the face as one, made this picture look different..!

As I always tell my students and fellow photographers in the photography workshops, “Professional Photography is never boring; if you try to find something unique and different in all photography situations”.

- KL.Raja

Can your Wedding be replayed…?

2008-05-31T23:09:00.000-07:00

Weddings in India are so special with every event carrying a unique significance, portraying our deepest values of Indian culture practiced by our ancestors long before.

Well, the couple may be from countries abroad and the celebrations may be lavish, but when it comes to their weddings, I find there is always a ‘touch of tradition’ in the expression of the couple. The couples prefer not to come out of the traditional values though their lifestyle maybe that of the westerners. I have witnessed some of the brides leaning on the chest of the groom in ceremonies like this, unable to hide their coyness and the new feeling of togetherness. Such a true expression from a bride or a groom usually motivates me to go for a very tight close-up to show them in oneness.

The meaning for a wedding in India is much more than just the union of a man and woman. It means the unconditional love, the true value of two souls and their families. The ‘long and live’ ceremonies, performed during the weddings prove that they make the couple understand the value of living a life together.

The touch of contemporary style of photography to document the values of people in their own mood and world during a wedding is what I prefer to do than just asking them to smile at my camera.

- KL.Raja

‘Bifocal’ vision…!

2008-02-15T02:22:00.001-08:00

Elders are mostly silent in the weddings and at they are even ignored by others in some weddings. Elders will mostly be searched for while organizing a family group photograph at the end of the event. But as a photographer, I always keep an eye on them, especially if they are closely related to the couple. Like children, elders are also very expressive. But most of the times their expressions are very mild and calm, hence go unnoticed.

This is a photo of an elderly woman, closely related to the groom of the wedding, which was shot when the wedding mass was in full swing. I find this respectable woman, unable to stand and finding difficult to read the handbook of the wedding. She was sitting throughout the church session and struggling to read the hand book using a magnifying glass on top of her spectacles. I was impressed by her involvement in reading and shot her from behind in close range.

You will get a lot of nice expressions from such elders if you observe them around in a wedding scene. They could finely be organized as candid pictures in the wedding photo-book.

- KL.Raja Ponsing

The unusual reflections !!

2008-01-20T07:45:00.000-08:00

Capturing reflections in wedding photography is not something new. In fact every other photographer will certainly capture the reflection of the bride when she gets ready in front of the mirror. But this is an unusual picture of the couple whose reflections are captured in the mirrored ceiling of a posh hotel. Well this is a concluding picture of the couple when I was shooting their portraiture using the wall pictures of the interiors.

In the process of adjusting the lights, I raised the level of a light and I could see the couple’s reflections in the huge mirror fixed on the ceiling of interior. It was very different point of view as I see them upside down. I decided to do few shots of the reflections of the couple (You can probably see the side column of the wall showing the top of the interior). I had specifically instructed the couple not to look in to my camera in the reflection but to see away from it just to generate candidness in the shot. The couple was responding to the smile of my assistant through the mirror and that is how I got the spontaneity and candid expression in their faces.

It is a good idea to look around your subject from various points of view to get some thing different and unique. Undoubtedly the young couple was amazed to see them upside down.

- KL.Raja

Look beyond your working limits..!

2008-01-20T07:41:00.000-08:00

I was handling a wedding assignment in a historical church in our city, Chennai recently. As the Mercedes carrying the bride groom halted in front of the church, I did shoot a few regular pictures and had been looking to get something really different. It was then, I spotted an out door display (hoarding) right opposite to the church on the main road with a tag line saying “100% Simple, 100% Happiness”. It was looking as though the child model was pointing his hands towards the car and saying 100% Simple and 100% Happiness.

I sat behind the Mercedes with the floral decoration to get the hoarding in my picture. Though the picture was spontaneously shot, I had all appreciation for my presence of mind and photo journalistic approach by the clients when I digitally projected some of the wedding images (for the benefit of the guests who were not able to attend the wedding in the church) on a large screen in front of the guests attending the wedding reception.

It is true for some time you may have to look beyond your working limits and territory for some interesting pictures.

- KL.Raja

Portray the ‘character of the couple’ in Portraits…!

2008-01-01T12:49:00.000-08:00

I generally prefer to shoot the couples informally in my studio after the wedding. In this process I instruct them to be of their own and try to capture them as they interact with each other. The very purpose of this post wedding portrait sessions is to get few good shots carrying the character and expression of the couples. But this is generally very difficult with Indian couples as they are usually very stiff and timid in front of a camera. Some of them even give a very stale and standard expression in all the shots

It happened recently, when my assistants were re arranging the main lights after I just finished few formal portrait shots of a couple in their wedding dress. As I was looking at the completed shots in my laptop, and waiting to go in for the next set of posses, I find the couple was casually talking to each other. In fact the bride was facing away from the camera as I just took a couple of shots where my front lights were not firing as they are plugged out by my assistants.

But still I liked the shots with an effect of a semi silhouette with just only a background light. Though the faces of the couples were not clearly visible, I found a different mood in this shot which of course the couple too had liked a lot.

Most of my post wedding portrait session will contain shots like this and they can be very effectively included in the wedding photography album or photo book. This picture is a very good example of getting the location mood in the studio portraits.

- KL.Raja

‘Wedding receptions’ – Are they meaningful or enjoyable…!

2007-12-17T04:29:00.000-08:00

I had an opportunity to participate a couple of wedding receptions during this week , not as a photographer but as a guest. Indian weddings are becoming more lavish and crowded than before. People prefer to participate in receptions mainly because it is held during a comfortable time, and it extends till late evenings ..... sometime till 11.00pm. Unlike participating in weddings, you have a Indian Stretchable Time (IST) for receptions.

In those days, receptions were generally organized when the wedding is celebrated in a different place. But now, weddings are made simple to make receptions grand. Well, the purpose of a wedding reception is mainly to meet the couple, their family and few common friends but I found in the recent receptions, that the purpose is to just to mark the attendance and part a gift in the hands of the couple even without seeing their face and talking to them properly. We go with a preoccupied mind and want to leave the place as early as possible.

It is also strange to see people rushing and pushing each other when they want to meet the couple. Unfortunately none of us like to go in a 'queue' and wait for our turn patiently. Some times there are few ‘smart guests’ who gain entry from the exit platform; not minding lot others waiting in the other end. These ‘smart guests’ confuse the whole event and there is a mess of actions happening in the center of the reception dais. The hosts from the both families feel delicate to handle such 'smart guests'. They also make the job of the photographers and video personnel confusing. The couples miss out the opportunity to share their joy with the people around and many important group pictures are missed because of this confusion.

Remember, all these things happen and get over in about half an hour (you can call this as 'peak hour of a wedding reception') and after this confusion the reception platform is relatively free; and by then most of them had gone to the dinning area to create the same confusion in the buffet dinner also.

There are few unanswered questions which remain in my mind every time I go for wedding receptions….

Why cannot we understand the meaning of a wedding reception and plan a time for it?
Why cannot we really have the heart and mind to wish the couple?
Why cannot we follow the discipline of standing in queue and wait for our turn?
Why cannot we value others time and follow the basic rules and avoid the ‘smart shortcuts’?
Why cannot we be civilized enough to behave properly in a gathering of selected invitees?

These questions are almost endless…

Finally for the organizers of the wedding,

Why cannot we stop the noisy (I wonder if the noise pollution control norms of ‘so many decibels’ applies to these music/noise troupes) ‘so called light music’, playing a great havoc in a small gathering where we want to talk to our fellow guests and friends?
Why do you call people and make them just sit and close their mouth and ears..?
How can we speak to some one when we cannot hear them in the noise of music?

Let us make our life and relationships meaningful.

- KL.Raja

The most precious moment of a South Indian wedding.

2007-12-11T02:26:00.001-08:00

Weddings are of course most important on everyone’s life. During a wedding, there are lot of events and ceremonies performed by the kith and kin of the couple. But there is always a climax for a wedding celebration… and that is called ‘Muhurtham’ (The groom tying the ‘Thali’ – ‘mangalsuthra’ around the neck of the bride) in south Indian weddings. It is this moment which is very precious in the couple’s life as they are declared officially and religiously as husband and wife. This moment may be compared to the exchange of wedding rings in western weddings.

The emotional content of these pictures are usually very high as it reflects the cultural values of the Indian weddings. The bride and her close relatives (the bride’s parents and grand parents) burst out in peak of emotions. I had captured the emotions of the brides and her fathers, collecting tears at the corner of their eyes during the 'muhurtham' in some of the weddings.

I saw the above expression (first picture) of the bride; while the groom ties the ‘Thali’ around her neck. She became excited, closed her eyes tightly and buried her head in between her legs and the photographers were not able to capture her face clearly. Well, even though the face of the bride is not clearly visible, I liked this picture. For me, the momentary expression and the body language is more important to tell about the mood of the occasion than showing her face. (Look at the ‘tongue biting’ expression of the groom also).

But the other photographer did wait to get the couple pose for a shot as tying the ‘Thali’ (the second picture). I never believe in such kind of ‘posed photos’ as they look very artificial and the looking into the camera with a framed expression is not exactly real and natural!

Let us capture the inner mood and expression of our subjects, especially in a wedding.

-KL.Raja

Temples are powerful…!

2007-12-03T09:02:00.000-08:00

India is a country with thousands of temples with diversified architecture and cultural background. Indian temples can offer a feast to your camera and a travel photographer can have a lot of good shots. I get fascinated about temples and they are one of my favorite subjects when I travel. I love every bit of the sculptures and the great history behind every temple. Though I had visited most of the temples in India, I am more comfortable with my camera when I visit temples in Tamil Nadu.

For me, temples are more of a subject of photography than a place of worship. Well, what can you shoot when you are in a temple? Most of us obviously shoot the facade and the exterior of a temple. But there is a lot more to look into when you plan to shoot a temple with your camera. Well, a temple elephant, the corridor, the temple pond, children enjoying a dive into the pond, the typical attire and body language of the priests, the candid shots of the devotees and foreign tourists, the pillars and galleries with beautiful sculptures depicting the style and period of the kings and emperors who had built the temple are some of the fascinating scenes. The small vendors and the local transports are also some of the interesting subjects around a temple. The typical lifestyle of the people around the temple is also yet another beautiful subject for your cameras.

I had shot lot of the above subjects during my recent visit to Kancheepuram, known as a ‘temple town’ which is about 60km from Chennai. But I liked the late evening shot of ‘miniature cradles’ tied on a tree inside the temple. The childless couples believe that they will be blessed with children if they give an offering of ‘miniature cradle’. People across the globe have several beliefs about their life and a contemporary photojournalist shooting a temple should also document the popular beliefs of the people.

Get the pleasure of shooting temples and enjoy the unknown perspective of it.

- KL.Raja

Silence Speaks…!

2007-10-28T23:29:00.000-07:00

I had been shooting a Christian wedding in Delhi on a fine winter afternoon. The old church looked too good for my camera and the light through the ornamental windows and doors made me go mad for available light photography. I always prefer to use available light as the main source where ever possible. As the evening was setting in, the light become fairly warm and soft and gave me some interesting shots depicting the mood of the event and location.

But the video personnel from Delhi were too conventional in their approach towards the wedding coverage. Despite me warning them, many times they were hitting me just in front with their powerful video light. Of course, I had also lost some of my good shots with an unexpected light flare in my lens.!. I found that there is no point in making them understand my problem. I decided to take advantage of the situation by getting some shots with the beautiful rim lights with a touch of gold. This is one such shot where I did use only the video light to tell the mood of the picture. Yes, I think even if I had used my powerful flash, I would have got only an average picture.

I liked the shot as it clearly tells the calm and emotional feel of the couple when they close their eyes in a prayer. The clear profile of the couple with glowing edges defined their purpose; and the light through the wedding bouquet made it even better. Though the picture looked very silent, it spoke a loud about my professional approach. Many times I find less is more than required..! Yes, less light here made the picture more than beautiful! Though I had to open the lens aperture in full to get the correct exposure, the resulting shallow depth of field made a special impact on the appearance of the groom in the picture. Events like weddings contain lot of moods and the available light makes it perfect in a photo journalistic style of wedding photography.

This particular wedding photo book contained lot of images like this and I must thank my ‘unknown friend’ who lit for these pictures freely with his video light.

- KL.Raja

Challenges of Indian Wedding Photography

2007-10-12T04:34:00.000-07:00

Yes, unlike the western weddings, the weddings in

India

are very elaborate, with a lot of events and ceremonies. Most of the ceremonies are difficult to photograph and become a grand challenge to the photographer. Some times there may not be enough space to move around and people may not co-operate with the photographer. The events many times may not be happening as per the plan or time schedule. Photographers are not informed about the delay or change in the sequence of the happenings and they need to be always prepared for the make shift arrangement at any point of time. It means that, you are always expected to deliver some thing superlative even when your creativity is at stake.

When I was covering an important event in a most popular and famous church in Chennai a few days ago, the chief priest instructed our team not to move from a particular place. The place specified unfortunately was not a vantage point for the event to be covered. I requested him that we might be allowed to move around a limited area without disturbing the proceedings of the mass. But he bluntly argued saying that, “Our ceremonies and functions are more important than your photography”. Of course he was right, but then why we were there? Maybe he failed to understand that we were there to aesthetically document the whole proceeding…!

Sometimes the wedding couples do not give us the bare minimum time for spot wedding portraits though they afford to wait for hours to do the make-up and styling before they get ready. When they don’t even want to stand in front of a camera for a couple of minutes to do a neat wedding portrait, then what is the point of spending so much of time to get ready?. Remember a good wedding portrait at the location immediately after the wedding is very important as it is almost impossible to do it again afterwards.

Many of us forget that the wedding pictures bring back the real memory of our wedding day, and a wedding photographer is an important person in a wedding, who has to be given enough time and facilities to make your wedding pictures look truly great!

Despite the constrains in Indian wedding photography scenario, I always try to explain my clients about the challenges of wedding photography and make them understand the importance of 'photography' in weddings. Nowadays, I am able to achieve the difference that I had always wanted. They respect my photography because they believe that our team is capable of projecting their wedding in terms of International style and standards.

- KL.Raja

Indian wedding photography in International style

2007-10-12T04:31:00.000-07:00

Can Indian weddings be photographed the way the international weddings are done? This was my question in my mind for a long time and now I have an answer in my website, www.chennaiweddingphotography.com

The approach of Indian wedding photography was to just document the events in a sequence. Now I have clients who can probably understand that wedding photography is much more than that. I made it happened recently through some of my wedding assignments. Weddings are very important in everyone’s life. This is the first thing every wedding photographer must understand before he carries his camera to cover a wedding event. For me, Indian weddings are truly emotional and have great cultural values. The people, places, dresses, food, jewels and every thing is so much vital and a complete wedding photographer must try his best to reveal all these and above in his photos.

I have designed a special way of working for weddings. This is because of the prolific knowledge I earned being a news photographer, fashion photographer and most importantly – a people photographer. My wedding photo book will carry pictures with finer details of even small things including expressions of not only the couple but also the guests, relatives and friends. I give importance to shoot from different angles in an unconventional point of view. I do not dither to use different kinds of lenses and apertures to get a variable effect of perspective and depth of field. Some of the shots I tried with my 17 mm lens on my Canon IDs Mark II and Canon EOS 5D had come out splendid.

Of course Indian wedding clients do not allow you to do either rehearsals or wait for a photographer to give an important shot. I some times make it a point at least to meet the couple well in advance and brief them a bit about the need and preparations to bring out powerful pictures. I also visit the location of the wedding to understand the lighting and plan of the event lay-out. This gives me time to think about the suitable lighting and need for an extra length extension cables or slave triggers.

In fact, I spend more time in shooting the activities around the main event area when most of my photographer friends sink into the events and functions. There are clients interested in shots which speak about the silent happenings around the events. My shots are always not posed and this is what I specialize in my wedding and event photography assignments. I some times refrain from shooting people who spontaneously set themselves for a posed shot when they see me with a camera!. I simple say ‘sorry’, and move away with a smile. For me, in an event like wedding the original expression of the people is lost when they stare in front of a camera.

Though shooting Indian wedding is a greatest challenge, I propose to deliver and have delivered something very different to varying categories of clients who understand and cherish the art and technique of photography done in unrestrained working conditions.

- KL.Raja

No.. No….. No Flash …. Don’t kill the mood..!

2007-10-12T00:25:00.000-07:00

Wedding photography is mostly done with the flash either directly or indirectly. This is true for most of the wedding events happening in the indoors where the available light is not there or it is very low. But there was an interesting but challenging demand by my client, where I was requested not to use the flash through out the function.

It was a ‘cocktail get together’ in the evening, following the mehandhi function in the afternoon. There were beautiful decorations and the entire hall, floor, ceiling and furniture were decorated in black & white. Surprisingly the dress code of the couple and the guest was also in black and white. Obviously, I also had attire matching the theme and the challenge is not that. Shooting the event with full of actions like dancing, cake cutting and partying without using the flash was not that easy. Imagine moving around with a tripod mounted camera on a dance floor in a dimmed light ambience.

Well ,in order to avoid the shift of colour and to match the theme black & white, I did decided to shoot in the black and white mode of my digital camera using high ISO settings – mostly in 800 or 1600. To my surprise the pictures were having minimum level of noise that of course revealed the mood of the event. The gentle blur in the pictures caused by the movement of the people and disco lights added the impact of action as well. The entire evening my flash took rest unusually.

I was there shooting for about three hours enjoying the mood and music not revealing myself as a photographer. Remember that part of the wedding photo book contained mostly black and white pictures

Did any of you have similar experience in your life?

- KL.Raja