Back in the day, a wedding photographer needed mastery over shutter speed and aperture. Today he needs mastery over photo editing, video editing, cinematography, album designing, reel-making, drone operating and even music video directing. Oh, and did we mention shutter speed and aperture?
Wedding photography in the 21st century is hydra-headed and offers way more than a fat album and a three-hour long video of guests handing gifts to the couple on the podium.
A wedding package these days comprises stills, video, Instagram reels (short videos, a minute or so long), as well as two or three-minute teaser videos to share on social media.
Short is sweet
“Previously, you could hand the video camera to any Tom, Dick or Harry and he couldn’t go wrong. Because he had to blindly shoot everything — food, rituals, guests…. Those videos were boring,” says Pratyayan Dey, a photographer with Baguiati’s Mirror Studio who stays in AH Block. “Today we wrap up a full-length video in 20 to 40 minutes and the shots are cinematic with staged poses, creative angles, transitions, effects, and a medley of Bollywood songs as the background score.”
Rupa Banerjee agrees. “I got married in the early 2000s and don’t think I’ve ever seen my own wedding video a second time,” says the lady who runs the photography company Heart ‘N’ Soul. “But the reels we make today are so crisp that you keep returning to them without investing much time. I dare say couples who view them after a fight will want to make up quickly too,” laughs the FD Block resident.
A Karunamoyee bride browses her pre-wedding photo album
Wedding BellsCF Block’s Studio Manorama opened in 1981 and so witnessed the glorious days of analogue videos. But partner Dwaipayan Chakraborty does not miss the days. “The technology was cumbersome and we’d take over a month to ready the videos,” he says.
The VHS cassettes would catch fungus too. “Even today we have many clients coming to convert their wedding cassettes to digital format,” Chakraborty says. “Now we hand over everything on pen drives within 10 days, although the teaser video has to be given instantly, sometimes even while the ceremony is in progress.”
Pre-wedding delight
“Many brides confess they’re getting married only for the pictures,” shrugs Banerjee. “Everyone is raised on a Bollywood diet and this is their chance to feel like Sridevi or Shah Rukh Khan.”
But the wedding day runs on a tight schedule and the bride is restricted to wearing a Benarasi sari or lehenga. “What if she wants to pose in a gown or a short dress?” she argues.
The solution is the pre-wedding shoot that Dey says eight out of 10 couples are opting for these days. “Soon, the figure will be all 10 out of 10,” he assures. “Many couples do this shoot a year before the wedding to spread out the expenses.”
A bride turns the pages of the pre-wedding album
The pre-wedding shoot acts as a teaser to the wedding. The stills get blown up to be posters and the video is played on loop at the wedding.
Depending on the budget, the shoot can take place in Ladakh or living room. “We love shooting in north Calcutta lanes, Kumortuli, Princep Ghat, College Street, Rajbaris…” says Indrajit Bhattacharya of Wedding Bells. “Of late Darjeeling, Sikkim and the tea estates of Tripura are picking up too.” Eco Park, the maidan, and empty plots of New Town are cost-effective options.
“The shoots take an entire day, especially if there are outfit changes. Many couples hire make-up people for these and some couples ask for music videos to be made, with them lip-syncing to the songs. These work well if the couple is uninhabited and expressive,” Dey says. A few couples ask for interviews of them sharing their love stories.
Been there drone that
The equipment at wedding shoots can be rather fancy. Multiple lights, state-of-the-art lenses, camera gimbals (used to stabilise video footage and create smooth shots), monopods, tripods, filters are used. “Drones give a unique perspective but we don’t push for it where it is not necessary — like confined space and indoor banquets,” says Bhattacharya.
Dey says many clients are well-versant with technology these days and “specifically ask for say, fullframe or mirrorless cameras. The demand for drones is still not enough for us to buy one so we hire it whenever necessary,” he says. “They work well at destination weddings like in Mandarmani or Santiniketan.”
Priest vs photographer
Priests and photographers are sworn enemies, say the shutterbugs. “For best results, we have to stage some elements or take false shots after a ritual is complete but the puritan priests shout at us!” laughs Banerjee. “Despite explaining, they bring their hands into tight frames and ruin shots.”
Nairit Dutta Gupta and his team shoot a wedding
But Dey says some priests are making pace and co-operating. “They make space for us in the mandap, tell the couple where to look so pictures will be good… we have to co-exist so we might as well help one another,” he smiles.
Photo album 2.0
The wedding album has got a makeover beyond recognition. “Back in the day, pictures would be inserted into flaps in the album but now the pictures come printed on the pages. They’re laminated, which makes preservation easy,” says Chakraborty of Studio Manorama.
“Previously a photographer would spend a maximum of two film reels at a wedding; that’s 70 pictures. So there wasn’t room for out-of-thebox creativity. My parents’ and your parents’ wedding photos have the exact same shots,” says Banerjee.
With digital cameras, she has three photographers clicking a total of 3,000 pictures per ceremony. “If I’m not satisfied with a flower-shower shot, I can check the camera instantly and ask for five more takes till I’m happy,” she trails.
The photographers hand over all the snaps to the family, whose choose, say, 500 of these to be printed into coffee table albums.
“Hard copy albums are created primarily for parents of the couple. The young couple is content with softcopies and edited photos for social media uploads,” says Bhattacharya. “Sometimes, NRI clients come to India to get married and then they return. In such cases, they may create the albums to leave with their parents.”
Photographer is king
Another welcome change is that of clients appreciating the role of photographers in a wedding. “More couples are making sure that we are formally introduced to the family and that we get our due respect. Then and only then, can we mingle freely with the family and capture the best moments,” says Bhattacharya, a CL Block resident.
Dey agrees. “Previously, we were treated as irritants. Keu patta ditto na, bhabto amra jalai. But now rituals are getting wrapped up quickly to make way for elaborate photo shoots,” he says.
For the sake of better pictures, Dey says Bengali clients are shifting to a lighter shade of turmeric for the gaye holud, that was traditionally used by other communities. “They apply, maybe just a tika for the ritual, and then come to us. We conduct the ceremony as per the best lights and angles,” he says.
Such is the urge that Nairit Datta Gupta of Dariya Events was called upon to shoot a wedding at a star hotel poolside on Wednesday around 3pm, the golden hour for photography, but beyond the prescriptions of the almanac for a Bengali Hindu wedding.
Another client told him clearly that rituals mattered little to them as his team was briefed to shoot candid moments as they partied on the wedding day from the morning over drinks as smoke bombs went off at a central Calcutta hotel. “They also held an engagement cocktail on a launch on the Hooghly in an event low on rituals,” recalled Nairit, a New Town BC Block resident.
“Clients now realise that the wedding will conclude in a few days but the pictures will remain forever. This is what they must invest in,” Dey said.
Picture happy
Abhirup Chatterjee had no idea how professional the wedding photography market had become till he got hitched a few days ago. “When my brother got married 16 years ago, photographer selection was done quite casually. Now these guys have to be booked a year and a half in advance,” says the Ultadanga resident. “And the price they quoted - Rs 1,50,000 – can be the budget of an entire wedding! This business is so lucrative that I’m tempted to switch professions and become a wedding photographer myself.”
Chatterjee’s photographer offered three packages – silver, gold and diamond – of which he went for the middle one. This will get him a hardbound album, a standard quality video, an HD quality video and a reel.
“My wife and I hardly share anything on social media,” says Chatterjee. “She had, in fact, threatened to call off the whole thing if I so much as mentioned a pre-wedding shoot. But maybe I’ll end up sharing a reel after all. The team of 10 worked very hard and the results are bound to be good.”
