How to feel natural on camera

At some point in nearly every enquiry call, usually with a small apologetic laugh, someone says it. We are really awkward on camera. We hear it so often that we have started to think of it as part of the booking process. So let us put the worry to bed properly, because the truth about wedding films and self conscious couples is much kinder than you might expect.

Here is the secret. The couples who warn us they are awkward on camera usually film beautifully. They have no interest in performing, so they simply get on with their day, and getting on with your day is the entire job. The cringe you feel watching yourself back on an Instagram story has nothing to do with how you look in a real film, shot from a respectful distance while you laugh at your best man.

Nobody looks awkward hugging their mother. Nobody dances badly with the person they just married. The day takes care of you.

How we actually work

We shoot on long lenses from across the room, which means the camera is rarely near you during the moments that matter. We do not pose you, stage fake exits, or ask you to whisper into each other's ears for the eighteenth time. If we move you at all, it is a short walk in nice light while you chat to each other about anything except the camera. That is the full extent of the direction.

There is also a reliable pattern to every wedding morning. For the first hour, people notice the cameras. By the ceremony, we are furniture. By the speeches, your guests have genuinely forgotten why we are there, and that is when the real film gets made.

What genuinely helps

• Meet us before the day. A video call or a coffee turns two strangers with cameras into two people you know. It is the single biggest difference maker, which is why we build it into every booking.
• Write something down. Letters, personal vows, a card swapped in the morning. Your own words, read in your own voice, will carry the film further than any soundtrack we could choose.
• Build in one quiet moment. A first look, or ten minutes alone together after the ceremony. Take it for yourselves and let the footage be a bonus.
• Tell us about your people. Forget shot lists. Tell us your granny flew in from Boston, or that your brothers will cry first. That is the brief we actually want.
• Then ignore us. Eat the dinner, hold the hands, dance the dance. A couple enjoying themselves films itself.

If you would like reassurance from people who are not us, have a read of our kind words page. The phrase that comes up again and again is some version of we forgot you were there. That sentence is the whole craft.