Wedding photography tips: 7 common setbacks and how to overcome them

Wedding photography is a demanding but hugely rewarding profession. To succeed, you need to be highly skilled at engaging with people, thinking creatively under pressure and ensuring your business stands out from the crowd in a very competitive field.

Fabio Mirulla is one of Italy's most celebrated destination wedding photographers. Born and raised in Tuscany, where he is still based, he travels the world photographing couples in spectacular locations.

Carmen and Ingo are a husband and wife photography team based in Austria. The pair met and fell in love in 2003 and have been photographing weddings across Europe since 2006.

We asked both successful wedding photography businesses to identify the biggest challenges they face, and to explain how those issues can be overcome.

Weddings are planned months or even years in advance but the big day will often throw up unexpected problems. "Bad weather, poor lighting conditions, an ugly location – sometimes you feel everything is against you. But it's not the conditions that are the problem, it's you," says Fabio. "You need to stop wishing for something else and shoot the story that's actually happening.

"To create striking images, you should look for the possibilities and be prepared to experiment. If you try to work to a formula, within preset limits, you can miss out on a chance to create something great."

On a wedding day, hectic preparations, crowded scenes and busy backgrounds can be at odds with intimate photography. "It's vital to keep connected to your subject," says Fabio. "I work with Canon prime lenses, mostly 35mm and 85mm, for one reason: they force me to move closer or further away from my subject. This movement forces me to really 'look'.

"In a chaotic room filled with people, such as when the bridal party is getting ready, movement gives me the opportunity to change my point of view," he says. "I change my position and find that interesting points of view present themselves. It's just as important when you're outside. If you're in a city or at a location where there's a fussy background, moving around or shooting from high up or low down can make all the difference. Canon's vari-angle LCD screens are great for this."

Carmen and Ingo love backlit wedding images, but sometimes autofocus can fail to lock onto subjects when you're shooting into the light. "A simple fix is to raise your hand up to block the sun from shining into the lens," they say. "Activate autofocus and lock the focus position, then simply move your hand before you shoot. Another option is to move slightly sideways so that the person you're shooting blocks the sun. Again, autofocus and lock the focus in place, then move the other way to compose the shot."

Another common problem is shooting certain wedding environments in low light, but choosing the right kit can help with that. "Some people think that f/2.8 is fast glass but it's really not," Carmen and Ingo continue. "Canon makes some fabulous f/1.4 and even f/1.2 L-series lenses but, if you don't have the budget for these, invest in a Canon EF 85mm f/1.8 USM, Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM or Canon EF 35mm f/2 IS USM prime lens instead. It's less expensive glass, but still great quality."

When lockdown restrictions were introduced, Carmen and Ingo advised many of their clients to postpone their wedding plans for a year or two. Keen to put the extra time they suddenly found themselves with to good use, though, they decided to update their marketing materials.

"When you find yourself with gaps in the diary, it's important to stay creative. Getting your personality across is a really important aspect of the marketing process. People aren't buying pictures, they're hiring people to create memories, so you need to build a relationship. A bonus of the vari-angle screens on many Canon cameras is that you can flip them around to take interesting self-portraits.

"We took our EOS R5 and EOS R6 with tripods up to the mountains here in Austria and experimented with different lighting. We had a great time and it's not just about practising new things. You can shoot stills and video where you're interacting with the camera, and create material that you can use very effectively in online marketing."

Anyone working in a creative profession can suffer from a lack of inspiration. "Being a wedding photographer is a way of life," explains Fabio. "We are so lucky to be able to do this kind of work, but sometimes you can get creative block and that's really hard – it feels like you've lost a part of yourself.

"When you're at a wedding and you can't think of the next step, or the next picture, the answer lies within you. It can help to think back to how you've solved problems in the past, or you could try something different.

"I've found it a real inspiration to change the way I shoot – using a mirrorless camera instead of a DSLR, for instance. For me, it's the natural evolution of photography. With a mirrorless camera, you can see the image even before you shoot. This is incredible because it can help to give you creative ideas, and then enable you to play with how you handle shadows and light to create something beautiful. Canon's mirrorless cameras are an inspiration."