Here below I have a few of my personal favourites from the shoot but in fairness, almost everyone produced really interesting work to an extremely high standard & I was really impressed with what they produced!

As always, I’m sure they & myself would love to hear what you think in the comments box below!

Hi Viv & Jim, I hope you like this small selection of images, which have been roughly edited & put together from a much larger selection quickly, in order that you will have something for Xmas day!

Without further ado, here’s a special Christmas message & the images!

“Happy Christmas to a wonderful mum & dad. We have put together this very special gift for you to treasure forever! With all our love from your loving children & adoring grandchildren xx”

Due to the sun’s position at the time of doing the group photo’s we had to work quickly & in the limited space available but each & every guest reacted quickly & took direction brilliantly & the group photo time ended up being a personal highlight of mine! Danielle’s dress was absolutely gorgeous & was quite simply perfect for her, she looked stunning! Here’s a small selection of my personal favorites from what has to be one of my  favourite weddings so far! Thanks Danielle, Sean & all your awesome guests – we really had an epic time!

Thanks again Leigh + Daniel, here below I have for you a small sneak peek of my personal favourites for you to enjoy! Don’t forget to let us know what any of you think by leaving us a comment in the box below!

Thanks again to both of you, as well as all your family & friends who made us feel so welcome at such an important day in your lives! Here is a small selection of some of my personal favourites from the day!

As always it’s great to know what you think, so leave a comment & let us know in the comments box below!

Sam + Phil’s wedding day took place at The Parsonage Country House Hotel near York, the weather was stunning & the day was simply awesome from start to finish! Here, in a selection of my personal favourites, you really get a sense of the fun & heartfelt emotion prevalent throughout the entire day!

As always we’d love to know what you think, so please, leave a comment in the comments box below!

As always the work they produced was great, with a certain few showcasing skills & final concept to design that are truly incredible, especially considering they’re first year students! Bearing in mind that none of these girls are professional models & had to help each other out when showcasing their designs, I think you’ll agree the images are fantastic – well done girls!

Here below is a very small selection of my personal favourites, a few of which simply screamed out for a little extra attention in post production! As always, its great to hear what you all think so please leave a comment at the bottom of the post!

From the flowers by Simon’s mum to the music provided by his good friend everything went perfectly! The atmosphere at the wedding was fantastic & you could really tell just how much everyone was enjoying themselves, especially during the fun yet heartfelt speeches! Everyone looked great but none more so than the gorgeous bride Caroline in her absolutely stunning Maggie Sottero dress which made for some excellent photography!

As is customary here at Lance James Photography, here is a small selection of my personal favourites from the day! Thanks to everyone who attended for making us feel so welcome, especially to you Caroline & Simon, and of course the beautiful Beth – we really had an incredible time on such a special day in your lives!

Lance James

p.s. – Both ourselves & I’m sure future bride & grooms would love to hear what you all think of this initial sneak preview by leaving us a comment on the bottom of this page!

Katie Stevenson, whose immediate family I’d had the pleasure of shooting just over a year prior, contacted me to arrange a special gift for her mother who is currently battling cancer. Having earlier that year, our own cancer scare, as my Mum had all her lymph glands taken from her right arm – I could, albeit in a very small way, relate to what they were going through & agreed that their idea for a shoot was a great one!

The idea for the shoot was to get her whole family together on one day to create some special memories for their mum & of course the whole family!

The shoot, as planned was great & we all had a lot of fun – The Human Pyramid was one of my personal highlights of the day!

The Sunflower has long been regarded as a symbol of loyalty & longevity and associated with many cancer related charities, and so Katie & her family felt that it would be a great idea to include this symbolism within their shoot!

Here below you can see a few of my favourite shots from the day, but before that I’d also like to mention that Katie’s brother Phillip Lynn is attempting a truly amazing feat in order to raise money for his mum & other cancer sufferers through Macmillan Cancer Support, to find out more about this truly astonishing feat that he’s attempting click HERE, visit his fundraising page & please give all you can – at this time of writing they only need a further £220 to reach there £2500 target – so please check it out & remember any donation, no matter how small will be greatly appreciated!

This top image below was of a group when I was forced because of weather conditions to shoot indoors using a wide angle lens, although this is a perfectly acceptable image which I must say my clients do love, it’s not the way I like to shoot groups & to get the most from a group shot! Further below you will see an example of what can be achieved if you follow my advice to drastically improve your group shots!

There are basically 4 things you need to remember & consider when creating AMAZING looking group shots, they are;

1. Equipment

2. Lighting

3. Distance/Background

4. Settings

So let’s start with equipment, for 99.999% of my group shots, especially at weddings, I use a Canon 5D Mark II with the Canon 70-200 f2.8 L series lens attached. You could maybe get the same results or similar with a different camera & lens combination but what is most important here I think, is the focal length of the lens which, given the right distances produce group shots that have;

- Everyone in Sharp Focus

- And Backgrounds which Melt away leaving your subjects to really pop!

By using the Canon 70-200 f2.8 L series lens, it brings the X-Factor quality to your shots & I’m a firm believer that there are certain shots in terms of intangible awesomeness that can’t be achieved on an inferior lens, this lens really is the the ‘Bees-Knees’, pure magic when used correctly!

Moving on swiftly to technique, what you’ll often find with a lot of photographers group shots, especially those just starting out is that their subjects just blend into the backgrounds because its sharp all the way throughout, or worse still if its a group with multiple rows, only one of the rows is sharp with the other rows being blurred out, something you’ll really want to avoid!

When creating a fantastic group image the way I do it, you’ll need to consider both the lighting of your subject & your location simultaneously, shooting in complete shade is always great but if, like me, most of the weddings or groups you shoot is in the lovely summertime when the sun is shining brightly in the sky, and you want to make use of the lovely scene, find out where your sun is & position your groups back to the sun so that you are technically shooting into the light! What this will give you is an added layer of separation between your group & the background, as your group will have a lovely backlit rim light which looks fantastic! Always be aware when choosing your location, the quality of your lighting comes first before a beautiful house or fountain etc as a fancy background, the best backgrounds are those with the least amount of visual chaos as possible, but you’ll need somewhere either in complete shade, or with the sun to the back of the group and a place which simultaneously allows enough space to get the ‘optimum’ distance!

What you’ll want to do is start off by creating a good distance between you & your subjects & between your subjects & the background, for the distance between your group & the background you want to look at as much distance as humanly possible but a bare minimum of 4-6 metres is a good start & then the distance needed between you & your group is simply how far you can get back while having the group filling a good amount of the frame but still leaving a little space to crop if Mum or Dad want to purchase a 10×8 which is a slightly more square format.

For settings, you want to aim at shooting at a focal length of somewhere between 135mm to 200mm (the longer the better), shooting in AV mode, set your F-Stop at F5.6, I can & I encourage you to try & get away with using wider apertures for less depth of field because the further you get back the small depth of field can still cover your entire group, you just have to be careful, what I often do is shoot at F5.6 for a safe shot and then I’ll do another couple of shots stopping g down to F4.5 or even F3.2!

And that’s pretty much it, so here’s the process again in bite size, easy to remember chunks!

• Check your equipment – full frame camera with good quality 70-200mm lens.
• Position your group for the best even lighting in either full shade or with the sun at their backs.
• Consider your background which allows a great amount of distance between you, your group & the background while also taking into consideration the best lighting as discussed in the last point.
• Shoot using the following settings – Focal Length 135-200mm (The Longer the better), AV Mode, F.56

And that’s pretty much it – get out there and start producing amazing group shots – let us know how you get on with the advice detailed here or if you have any comments to improve the technique!