Cheers! The toast portion of the wedding day is such a special moment for our couples. They get to hear from the people who are closest to them in the world on the biggest day of their lives. It’s beautiful, it’s emotional and we want to make sure we’re capturing every minute of it for them. But let’s be real! Toast photos can also be a challenge!
Photographing people when they are talking and making it look GOOD is actually one of the hardest jobs we have as photographers! During toasts, the lights are usually dim, the subjects are moving back and forth, and to top it off, they’re talking and changing facial expressions constantly! When we first started shooting weddings, we were easily frustrated during the toast portion of the day because we just weren’t happy with how our images were looking, but over time, we put some strategies into place that have really strengthened our toast images, so today we’re going to share three of the things we think about that have helped us when we shoot toasts.
1. Stay in the Lens
When we’re shooting people who are talking, staying in the lens is key. Think about it, we all make lots of not-so-cute faces when we’re transitioning from word to word during a speech, and every millisecond our expression is changing. And of course, the milliseconds that get frozen in time for all of eternity always seem to be those awkward in-between expressions that look completely normal to the naked eye in the moment but actually make us look like aliens on camera. Trust us, we are the worst at this! Some of the most unflattering photos of us we’ve ever seen of ourselves are the ones where we’re teaching, or even just talking for a long period of time, and while they make for a good laugh in our home, most of our clients don’t want to remember their best friends looking like aliens on their wedding day! So when we’re photographing toasts, even when our arms are sore and tired at the end of a long day, we hold it together and stay in the lens. We keep our lens up the entire toast and wait for those pretty laughs in between words, the gestures that look confident and the faces that are flattering — and that’s when we fire the shutter. When we’re patient and wait it out, we always get better results. The same goes when we are shooting the bride and groom reacting to their toasts. We stay in the lens and fire when they react emotionally to the toast. The result is worth the wait!
2. Light the Toaster
We laugh every time we call the person giving a toast the “toaster,” as if they are going to produce a Pop-Tart (rainbow sprinkles and strawberry filling, anyone?), but we don’t know what else to call them! Since the toast section of the reception is the “toaster’s” big chance to shine, we want to make sure they look their best. At almost every reception we shoot, we are lighting the entire night with both on-camera and off-camera flash. We love the fun “rockstar” look of rim-lighting because it adds an extra pop to our reception images, so during toasts, we place one of our kickers behind the toaster for that effect, and then stand at an angle where their bodies will block the light stand from being seen in the image. While one of us does that, the other places their kicker light behind the bride and groom, so we’re backlighting the three most important people in the room at that moment, the person giving the toast as well as the ones receiving it.
3. Don’t Forget About the Guests
Early on in our wedding career, we were so focused on the bride and groom and the “toaster” that we forgot all about the other guests! It finally hit us that there are other people in the room that our bride and groom care about who are also reacting emotionally to the toasts! Maybe it’s the bride’s mother, or the groom’s childhood friend. Maybe it’s the bride’s grandfather putting his arm around her grandmother, or a little sister who can’t stop smiling. Even though they might not be the ones giving the toasts, the seated guests are a big part of the story, too, so as soon as we’re confident that we have a great, flattering shot of the “toaster” (preferably horizontally and vertically) we move on and focus on other VIPs. The beauty of having two shooters is we can cover a lot of ground quickly, and really increase the value of the final product for our clients. Depending on the length of each toast and the number of “toasters,” this may not be possible, but if you do have extra time, a good goal would be to get shots of every member of the bridal party and immediate family members in addition to the “toaster” and the bride and groom.
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