The New Indian Bride

TNIB is simply ecstatic to feature photographer Jigar Champaneria of San Francisco based Samay Studio (www.samaystudio.com) this week.  His expert insights continue today with fabulous tips to ensure your wedding day portraits are AH-MAY-ZING!

TNIB: What is the biggest challenge in taking great portraits of the bride and groom?

Jigar: Time…or lack thereof!  Most Indian weddings last from morning until night and there is something going on the ENTIRE time! Even while taking portraits, many couples stress about their agenda, whether they look their best and whether everyone who is supposed to be in the photos are there on-time.

TNIB: What can couples do to stress less about time?

Jigar: Here are some suggestions that will help.  First, set aside enough time for both formal portraits with your closest family and bridal  party.  Also be sure to set aside time for romantic couple’s portraits. It is not tough to get formal portraits of everyone in 30 minutes or less especially when it is before the baraat begins.  However, if in addition you want relaxed, natural portraits, set aside some extra time and make sure you get away from all your family and friends. I suggest a private location on-site or somewhere nearby the venue. Keep in mind that it will be tough for you to just flip a switch between formal and romantic portraits. Work on this plan with your photographer in advance and they will likely find great spots nearby and ensure you do not get delayed for the rest of your agenda. Plus they will help plan things such that you can relax from the stress of the family portraits (and yes, posing and smiling through 50 family photos will be tiring so try to make the most of it and have some fun).  Also be sure talk to your guests before and after your portraits and everyone will walk away smiling and more relaxed!

TNIB: What time of day is best for portraits?

Jigar: Take your wedding portraits before your ceremony.  Taking your portraits after your ceremony generally means you do not look your freshest. You may have a messy tikka on your forehead, you may have several pounds of garlands around your neck. Even if you clean up the tikka and remove the garlands, your make-up and clothes will not be like they were in the morning. I had a bride on the verge of fainting in the afternoon heat so we had to cut the portrait session short and let her sit down and re-hyrdate. Above and beyond all of this, note that morning and sunset light is much better than mid-day afternoon sun. Keeping away from the mid-day sun alone will help you look your best.

TNIB: Should someone be assigned to manage the portrait schedules with family?

Jigar: If you plan for lots of group portraits, then yes have someone organize it on the day-of. Some brides go to the extent of giving numbers to each family group so they line up next to the mandap. Even if you organize things to this extent, someone still needs to be running this show.  Hand this responsibility to your cousin, friend, or even the photographer.  A good photographer can keep things running smoothly without making anyone feel rushed.

TNIB: Does the heavy wedding garb worn by Indian couples help or hinder portrait pictures?

Jigar: The heavy jewelry and garb that most Indians wear on their wedding day is what makes the day so special. As a photographer, it’s my job to make sure those details look amazing in your portraits. I will pose the couple to specifically show off how stunning they look on their wedding day. Plus, I personally love it when a bride tells me something special about her lengha or sari. I remember that detail and try to show that off in the portraits.

In case you missed it, Jigar was the contributing photographer to TNIB all week long! Catch his previous insights here http://thenewindianbride.com/category/photography-week/ Oh and if you didn’t figure it out, he is married to another TNIB featured guest , upcoming cupcake artist Radha Champaneria http://thenewindianbride.com/2010/08/30/sweet-week/!

Photography week continues on TNIB today with tips on how to use your wedding photos.  Your photographer clicked 1000 plus images of you and your loved one on your wedding day.  You probably framed some for your home, your parents, the in-laws, maybe even Grandma and Grandpa.  But now what?  You have amazing pictures of your wedding day and not a clue how to use them.  Well, TNIB is here to help.  Photography week continues today with tips on how to use those wedding photos.  Can you say SCRAPBOOK? 

You can of course work with your wedding photographer  to create a wedding album or as TNIB suggested yesterday you could DIY on the wedding album.  It’s a big job but if you have the time and are keen to save on the photography budget it is a doable option. 

If you are a more creative couple, you could use your wedding album to create a scrapbook.  A scrapbook allows you to capture not only your amazing wedding photographs but also other momentos and cherished treasures from your wedding day.  Your scrapbook can be as complicated or simple as you like.  Your only limitation is your own creativity!  For example, you may include pictures of you and a special family member along with the wedding card/letter they sent to you.  You could keep a picture of the priest alongside a print out of the particular hymns which were sung.   You may have other treasures that you want to keep – monogrammed cocktail napkins, dried flowers from your centerpiece, one of the bangles you wore, a crystal that fell of your dress or other physical items from your wedding that you want to keep and look back upon for years to come. A scrapbook is a great way keeping these memorable treasures!

Photography week continues today with DIY wedding albums.  Whether you hired a professional wedding photographer or solicited the help of trusted friends or family to snap images of your special days, more and more couples are considering creating their own wedding album as way to save on overall photography costs.  Jigar Champaneria of Samay Studio Photography is back on TNIB to give his expert photography tips on making your own album! While he advises letting the pros do the job there are some key things to think about if you do it yourself and when you collaborate with your photographer on the final product. The DIY brides are going to love these fabulous suggestions!

TNIB: What options are available to couples who want to create their own wedding albums?

Jigar: Let me first step back and say that making your own elegant wedding album is not as simple a task as you might think. If you choose this route to save money, be ready to spend a LOT of time to get your album looking just like you want. For my clients, I typically use Adobe Photoshop and start from scratch including selecting photos, adding embellishments, backgrounds, and the like, but there are a number of professional-level tools available to ensure the best layouts. If you want to make your own album and you don’t have experience with Photoshop or InDesign, then it’s best to use a bookmaker which offers software to help you layout your photos into pages. Blurb, Shutterfly, and MyPublisher are common consumer options. AdoramaPix (www.andoramapix.com) also offers some options and they print on actual photo paper rather than thinner paper which can easily tear. If you are on a Mac, there are also some tricks to lay out your book using the cool templates found in iPhoto and then saving money by using other vendors like AdoramaPix or Blurb to do the actual printing.

I can’t re-iterate enough though that going this route will require dozens of hours of effort on your part, so be prepared to spend a lot of time in front of your computer!

TNIB: There are so many photos. Where do I begin?

Jigar:  If your photographer has not done so already, organize your folders into themes based on your wedding day – getting ready, baraat, entrance, main ceremony, candids, portraits, etc. Once organized, you can review your photos in small chunks rather than having to scroll through 1,000 plus photos every time you want to find a photo.

TNIB: How do I know which photos to pick?

Jigar: Fewer photos are better. Don’t feel bad if you can’t squeeze in a photo of every single uncle, auntie, and cousin into your album. Your wedding album is YOUR album, not theirs.

In terms of selecting specific photos, you should pick what you are most emotionally tied to, but also photos that help tell the story of your wedding day. Pick a few photos of your sari or lengha, a few of your bouquet and decorations, and a mix of candid and posed photos. If you do this, you’ll find that album feels more like a story rather than just a mish-mash of 4×6 photos.

TNIB: How many photos should I pick?

Jigar: A 10×10 album will look cramped if it has, on average, more than four photos per page. A 12×12 album will look cramped with more than five photos per page. That doesn’t sound like much, but from experience, couples are most pleased with no more than three photos per page!  

Think of your album in two page spreads. When you open a book, you can see just two pages at a time so select your photos trying to group them based on the two pages together. If you plan to have four photos per page, then a two page spread should have just eight photos based on the themes you created. Pick eight photos from the baraat and no more. If you would like for your ceremony to spread across six pages, then pick twenty-four photos from the ceremony and no more.

TNIB: Final thoughts?

Jigar: Be prepared to spend a LOT of time laying out your album to your liking…WAY more than you expect!

If you missed it, Jigar was featured on TNIB yesterday with tips on how to get the best wedding photographs. Revisit that post at http://thenewindianbride.com/2010/09/14/photography-week-at-tnib/.  You can follow him at www.facebook.com/samaystudio or www.twitter.com/jigarchamp or check out his website at www.samaystudio.com.