A question for all the togs

There are a number of ways of shooting both barn and marquee weddings. A marquee may well have white ceilings, although there are ways of dealing with that...then alternatively a barn can be a big black abyss if not handled well.

Each has their own dynamic and there are ways of getting great results whatever the location.

Peter

If he knows what he is doing then he shouldn't have a problem with it so try to stop worrying ?. barns tend to be very dark and obviously marquees are very light, there are techniques for both types of venues.

As the guys have said above, if he/she is a good photographer he will adjust to the light available and offer amazing results. If your really worried why not ask him/her for some examples of marquee weddings to put your mind at ease. xx

I know its not quite what your asking but here is a nice page with loads of marquee decor idea's I stumbled across looking up for my wedding (which isn't even in a marquee!) https://www.pinterest.com/county_marquees/marquee-decor-ideas/

I'd just chill, dramatic is perfectly achievable. There are lots of pluses to a marquee wedding too from my perspective... they can be great for making use of the last light later in the day and the ceiling works as a giant reflector if you need to use flash for any reason... the walls and ceiling offer opportunities for a pretty uncomplicated background that won't make the image overly busy...

I wouldn't worry, your photographer should know exactly how to use your location to it's best advantage. I'd have a chat with them if you're really worried, I'm sure they'll be able to put your mind at rest

Yes there is a big difference, but they are no harder or easier than any other venue, they are just different. Some marquees are plain some come dressed with swags in the ceiling and chandleries, some have plastic windows some come with full wall height glass,or the sides can be opened. Also the marquee has to be somewhere right? so it must sit on some land and so you should have some out door space too depending on the time of year and weather, If you have to have everything inside then it can be tricky even in a hotel. If your photographer has not done any/many marquee weddings then they most likely have not done many weddings full stop.Dressing the marquee for the day will involve more but when it comes to the night then uplighters can work wonders and it will never be white. Give me a marquee over a inner-city hotel any day of the week. A marquee vs. a stately home - it could be said that a marquee has a much more relaxed atmosphere, but then again some stately homes will be using a marquee attached anyway.

I think that the 3 types of venue are as far apart as you can get from each other, and is a very good demonstration why I love shooting weddings, people often ask "don't you get bored of weddings" ---no way, as every single one is different and those 3 venue types just prove it.

Stately home kind of stuff - not everyones taste but not every shot looks like this, as its just a "go for it" shot

But you will always have lots of outdoor space with it too as they are mostly farms - or were, and so you should have lots of countryside

Marquees are nice and light for photos

And should have at least some outdoor space

And should look good at night, although if in the summer your lighting is not going to do its work untill much later as they let in so much light from outside.

Thanks everyone

i guess I'm concerned as our tog recently shot at our venue, and the pictures were terrible. Nothing *at all* like any of the other pictures/weddings we'd seen of his and I'm more than a little worried that it's our venue that's doing it. For example, he shoots lots of dramatic poses in doorways and staircases; he's tried to do the same at ours, but it's just not the same type of building and looks, well, terrible. There are also quite a few places on the grounds he's missed, and the marquee shots look really bleached out and amateurish. I simply don't understand it - he's an awesome photographer and some of the pics away from the marquee show some of his normal brilliance, but as soon as you get inside, they are pretty bad, almost like he's working to a formula for composition that just doesn't fit our venue.

He did tell me that he found the positioning of the tables tricky, but that surely can't account for the lack of any atmosphere at all? He was also only there for a half day, which presumably makes scouting time a lot harder.

I'm just not sure what to do now; we've signed no contract, so have no legal obligation to him whatsoever. I'm in two minds whether or not to just go with our second choice who I have seen marquee shots from, or a stick with him, whilst giving him a really clear outline of the sort of things we do and don't like. As a tog, how much 'at direction' do you find helpful from a client?

IMO you shouldn't have to art direct your Tog, that is their idea. Of course, show them things you like/don't like, but they should be able to work with the venue.

If you're having doubts about your tog, and you won't lose out, I would maybe reconsider as photos are something you will have forever and you don't want to regret your choices.

Where are you based?

Yeah, I see what you're saying. Thing is, there are so many places he missed that would be much better for pictures than the places he used, and there are some things he's done at other venues I'd like to see him try there. And there are some that I would be pretty unhappy if he did!
I guess really we need to have a chat with him to find out why these photos are so uncharacteristically bad before making any decisions!

We are getting hitched in Warwcks

Was the wedding he did which you saw pure reportage? If so, he/she may have been tied to what that couple wanted.

It is worth discussing with your tog exactly what you are after from your coverage. This is why seeing a whole wedding does not always reflect the photographers range of ability.

Peter

No; he's mainly reportage, but also does posed shots. I think we have to talk to him about what happened; the lighting is awful in all the marquee shots (to the point where I'm paranoid that I've booked the wrong place!) and the places he chose for posed shots just don't really work.

I'm hoping it's because he had so little time there to scope it out, but both B&G got ready at the venue, so he would have had some time. And the church pics are pretty rubbish too; although I know he can't do anything about the lighting in there - or the fact that I suspect the vicar had told him to stay out the way - it was backs of heads all the way!

All venues have their quirks

Barns tend to be dark and in many cases have light only at one end. This makes is pretty hard to balance ambient and natural light.

Marquees tend to be quite flat and low contrast because essentially everyone is in a great big softbox (in laymans terms a big white lampshade) so all the lighting is soft and diffused, great for wrinkles though).

Mansion houses are lovely but often quite dark or have mixed lighting which is troublesome.

Either way you can't win. But, marquees tend to give a tog lots of space to work from and they reflect bounced flash better. As long as you have a tog who know what they're doing.

Barn wedding: HERE

Marquee Wedding: HERE

Has he shot at the venue more than once? If so can you see a different wedding? If not, can you just see a different gallery of another wedding?

I had a marquee wedding and all my photos came out beautifully. Bright, light, No darkness in sight.

I know my photographer has shot other weddings in ti-pis too and they've always turned out amazing too.

If your having a worry over this already, I'd really give it some food for thought. You want to be 100% happy with your choice of photographer. It's one of the biggest wedding day expenses and at the end of the day, you want your photos to be as you hoped they'll be. If you're having worries over your first choice of photographer, then I'd ask to see photos of marquee wedding from both sources.

Jen x

When shooting in a marquee the camera can get confused because of all the white / cream colours.

The problem is that the camera sees the white, thinks it's too bright and creates a dark image. So it's important for any tog to overexpose the shots to compensate for this.

If they don't then the images can look really dark and muddy.

It gets complicated further if you overexpose for the room, then point it at Aunty Jean in her red dress without changing the setting back...then all hell breaks loose.

Good tog = no problem

I would say go for the venue you want, if you're worried a marquee looks like a white tent you can decorate it and there's some lighting options like coloured uplighters. With regards to how it's captured, the tog should be able to capture the light correctly regardless of table layout (not sure how that affected him, maybe restricted movement?) as Chris said, they just need to expose for the face and not the room, or they might choose to use fill flash. Barns can look dramatic but also a poor tog can fail there too, if it's super dark the tog might not be able to deal with the low light or know how to use flash well.

Essentially what I'm trying to say is that it's the togs job to take good pictures in any venue and you shouldn't have to change venue because they might not do ok. I don't do any scouting to be honest, I just adapt to the scenario at the time!

Yeah, I think the thing we liked is the more dark and moody shots - of which there were none out of this set. Hoping it is down to the lighting they used that eve, but it looked shocking. And I don't understand as he *is* a good photographer - I've never seen anything on his blog, the full weddings, his site or anything he's shown us that's like what he's just done.

Nope - never been there before; thinking some of the posed shots were a bit crap as he didn't have time to scope; doesn't explain the awful pics in the marquee though. Wondering if it is because it's a pretty big space with not that many people in it...

The lighting is still really flat and sh*t though :/

Can you be sure it was him that photographed that wedding, I have heard it so many times where a photographer is so busy that they will double book a weding and pass it out to someone else, just a thought.

Yeah, you see, we *like* dark and moody.

I don't think we are going to get anything remotely approaching that in a marquee, which is fine, but what I don't want is completely flat, shadowless images. They just are so unlike anything of his I've seen and am really confused/concerned. We're showing them to a tog friend tomorrow to get his opinion on what's happened - like us, he believes the guy's a great tog so hopefully he can help us understand what's going on!

Yeah, we picked this guy as he only really works with natural light, leading to some pretty epic evening shots and I wonder if being in what is essentially a massive light box has meant that he's having problems.

We are dressing the hell out of the venue (including getting some fabric for draping, candles, fairy lights etc to create more atmosphere) which I'm hoping will help too.
Still thinking I might have to change tog... :/

Unfortunately - definitely him! :/

I can recommend such a tog. She is actually our pro togs second shooter and is amazing (and lovely).

https://caseyavenue.co.uk/

In case you decide to change your mind, of course!

It could have been down to the couple not wanting that type of shot! I have brides with all types of taste. Two weeks ago the bride wanted some night time shots outside and I loved it. Those kind of shots that you like might not have been to that couples taste hence why they weren't there.

Lots of photographers work with natural light, imo photographers should be able to work in a way that best matches the lighting situation. If there's pretty ambient light then I'd use available light, if there's not much to be had there is a point where it's necessary to get out the flash gun!

This reminds me of a quote my mentors in wedding photography. 2 ex presidents of the BIPP used to use:

If you have to buy a flashgun, never take it out of its box

If you have to take it out of its box, don't put batteries in it.

If you have to put batteries in it, don't switch it on.

If you have to switch it on, dont fire it.

If you have to fire it, make sure that its pointing nowhere near your subject.

Of course, this was a bit tongue in cheek, although makes the point that many togs use too much flash and often destroy beautiful natural light in the process. Another line of theirs, is that that the quality of the light is more important than the quantity of light.....There are though times when only flash or paglights or LED lights will do.....(as Marrianne suggests)

I wonder if the comment about flat lighting might be overuse of direct flash.

***Disclaimer***, I have nothing against flash, just excessive flash abuse.

Peter

Thanks everyone.

We've had another tog to look over the latest pics and they agree - they're a bit rubbish. We are going to contact the tog to see what he says and then make a decision. But the search may be back on :/

We have recently had a photo shoot done for our wedding venue and although I wasn't overly concerned with the how the photos would result (because I knew the photographer was good) I was keen to see them to see what had been achieved.

I couldn't of been happier with the results but what made them was the interior decorations for which we had an external design company in to theme and dress the marquee. We do many weddings each season and I see many clients without much of a budget for the internal bits. This means they have a standard wedding marquee consisting of linings, flooring and furniture ready to be bought to life but it never really gets there.

See our photos on our facebook page, you might see some inspiring ideas.

https://www.facebook.com/wilkswoodvenue/photos_albums - select the "styled photo shoot" album