Documentary-Style Wedding Portraits

Class Preview

Develop your signature style as you learn to create unique compositions, work with available light and capture compelling images of honest emotion.

The Documentary Style

Meet your instructor, documentary photographer Kirsten Lewis, as she shares her portfolio and philosophy for taking amazing photos. Kirsten guides you through the process of finding and branding a style and offers tips for creating a captivating website.

Creative Indoor Light

Kirsten shows you how to transform average indoor light and compose beautiful shots with only ambient light. Discover how to change your composition as the light changes. Kirsten demonstrates the importance of being mindful of your background and how to turn any location into a setting for captivating images. Plus, Kirsten shares tips for shooting dynamic silhouettes.

Outdoor Light Options

Learn to tell a story in every frame as Kirsten takes her subjects outside to shoot them in shade, direct sunlight and even natural spotlights. Learn to pay attention to the details of your composition and to shoot your subjects in the most flattering light — and from the most flattering angles.

The 360-Degree Challenge

Only have a few minutes to shoot the wedding portraits? Not a problem with Kirsten’s innovative 360-degree shooting technique! You can easily transform the look of your pictures by traveling around your couple and shooting them in light from every direction. Learn key composition techniques to make sure every frame illustrates the couple’s relationship.

Lenses & Image Variety

Harness the energy of the city to shoot dynamic images. Create strikingly different photos by alternating between long and wide-angle lenses as you change the depth of field in your image. Understand how moving just a tiny bit can dramatically change how an image is framed. And finally, Kirsten shows you how to embrace your environment to create one-of-a-kind photos.

Unique Composition

Take advantage of unusual locations to make creative portraits. Kirsten travels to a local aquarium and creates inventive compositions by using reflections, silhouettes and shooting through objects. Learn about the importance of shooting in the moment and deliver photos to your clients that no one else can give them.

Deliver Your Best

What makes a collection strong? The answer is a selective and unattached editing eye. Discover techniques for “editing in” as Kirsten shows you how she decides which of her photos make the cut. She shares what she looks for in terms of lighting and composition as she decides which shots will get delivered to clients and their relatives, and what she will put on her blog and website.