Wedding First Dance Photography

Most couples, as part of their wedding celebrations have a first dance of some sort and although sometimes it’s a fully choreographed event – often a couples first dance is a slow shuffle around the dance floor with instructions to the guests to join in as early as possible.

Recently I’ve been tempted to have a portfolio that’s solely first dance photos. Which seems strange, as I often refuse to use anything but the ambient light to capture it & I often drive home at the end of the evening expecting to find photos that will need tons of editing or simply be unusable.

Of course I’ve been through that cycle enough times now to know it usually throw up something awesome. But I still brick it when the lights go down.

You can read all about my music picks for an alternative first dance here. But this is just a brief article about photographing the wedding first dance (albeit in an alternative, daring, unique, authentic way)

Bride and groom First Dance at The West Mill Exlusive Use Wedding Venue

Shooting the wedding first dance without flash

If you’re familiar with my work you’ll know I’m very much a natural light / ambient light photographer. (In fact I was going to write an article about this, but discovered I was already ranking and didn’t want to rock the boar)

I think the light can dicate the mood of an event, so it’s important for me to capture that feeling as accurately as possible. Whilst some photographers set up lights for capturing the first dance. I’m really keen to make the most of the ambience that already exists.

Also, it seems a bit weird if I’ve been subtly capturing the ambience of the day in my style all day, and then you’re lit like a bad TV production once it gets dark.

Bride and Groom First Dance at Swancar Farm

This may seem like an odd and rare choice, and you’d expect the results to be terrible (I go into each first dance bricking it for exactly this reason – but at the end of the season I always find it hard not to just show dance floor shots in my portfolio. (You can check out my portfolio here to see how many actually make it through!)

The trick is to try and capture the light in the briefest of moments that they actually help tell the story. I won’t lie, focusing is difficult, capturing these moments is tough and often photos can get a bit blurry / grainy. But to me that’s all part of the appeal.