LENSEL is the email news for wedding photographers just like you. So welcome friends. Here’s what we have for you today:

• How to moodboard better

• A clothing launch just for photographers

• Insta inspo of the week

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Results of last weeks poll: What AI tools do you currently use?

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ None (35)

🟨🟨🟨⬜️⬜️⬜️ AI Culling program (35)

🟨🟨🟨🟨🟨⬜️ AI Editing program (60)

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Generative Fill (65)

195 Votes

PREPARATION

Moodboards and shooting a billionaires wedding

How do you create work that pushes the boundaries? Or perform under pressure shooting huge weddings? It all comes down to preparation. Putting together ideas and thinking through your creative process so that when the times comes on a wedding day, even if you get just 5minutes to shoot - you know what the heck you are doing and you can execute your idea and vision. Win! Some of us screenshot randomly, some just save social posts, others might pull together a pinterest board and the best might even put together full moodboard spreads in Figma, Canva or Photoshop.

But we can prepare better. We can moodboard better.

Our reel about the incredible Egypt/Safari/Billionaires wedding shared a few screenshots of Bottega 53’s moodboard and how they prepared to capture such a big event. Not big, it was HUGE! Covering 8 days and spanning the entire length of Africa. Below is a further glimpse into how they made it work and planned their shots. Jump over to their insta stories for more on this - getting shared today!

But howwwww?

A moodboarding process: 5 (maybe more) things to consider when moodboarding:

• General/Specific - The golden rule of moodboarding is to be both general and specific. Curate the overall world you want to build, the vibe and feeling you want to create, but also get very specific with things you will actually shoot. (specific things below, which you can even save into different sections).

• Location - curate images shot at similar locations to yours. Don’t board hotel rooms when you are shooting a desert.

• Action and posing - save references of actions and movements you would want to use. Pose ideas. Take out your board and show couples too, they’ll love it and know exactly what the vision is.

• Angles and frames - ideas for the actual frames and perspectives you want to shoot. Wide 24mm. Close up. Through the crowd. Over the shoulder. Let the board prompt you to change up your natural framing.

• Things that build the world - this is not just couple photos, it’s the other things that help you build the vibe and feeling you are going for. Shooting in Tuscany? It’s the dry grass, the weathered stones of a building, the grapes on the vine.

• Light - don’t forget to save examples of the kind of light you want to use. Want to shoot moody window light? Save some. Soft flash? Save some.

• Edit - often overlooked is moodboarding for an edit. Consider a section of your board for the kind of edit you want to go for. Give yourself reference colours to edit from, shot in similar locations and light.

More than Pinterest
Pinterest is great. There is so much good stuff there. But there is also so much trash. Consider checking out COSMOS. A new and highly curated moodboarding tool that includes a bunch of cool features, like searching images by color. Or saving reels and post from social directly into your board/cluster.
Cosmos is invite only but you can access with the code “DESIGN”
Also check out MyMind.

NEWS

Happening this Week

• Clothes specifically for photographers. How to be comfy, styley, warm enough, cool enough, flexible enough… This week Cassidy Lynn release a line of dresses and jumpsuits, “Necessidy” made specifically for wedding photographers.

• Stock photos vs AI. Apparently “Real photos of real things are still in demand” but stock photographers are not so sure. Check out this converstaion between the CEO of Shutterstock and the WSJ here.

• Editing gets an upgrade. Narrative released ‘EDIT’. Their powerful new AI editing software.

• Last nights Met Gala went full bridal. Read this breakdown here.

• Sony’s big time offer. A 26 billion dollar deal is on the table for Sony to acquire Paramount pictures. See details and what this might mean here.

• Music Video Future. Tyler Stalman discusses this music video made entirely by AI and why the director should still be proud of what they/AI created. Check it out here, it’s pretty wild.

• Apple, if you are quick. Jump on live now to watch Apple’s new iPad release happening RIGHT NOW.

WORKFLOW

What photo delivery software is right for you?

Probably a very silly question, because Pic Time is the very obvious answer. If you are still sending Dropboxes, USBs or any other kind of medieval delivery method, you need to jump over onto Pic-Time today.

Not only does it look beautiful, impressing your clients, it WILL also make you money. Easily set up a print store and make $ in your sleep.

You can get a free month when you join here.

Feel free to ask us any questions about working with Pic-Time. And if you want more info honestly, their Youtube channel is actually awesome.

IG HIGHLIGHTS FROM THE WEEK

Film tones forever.

Just pure, beautiful work in this set by the ever wonderful Nirav Patel.

The imagination of Marcijus Studios in these crazy set ups.

NYC magic by Samm Blake.