The Big Day, The Lovegrove Way is a two-disc DVD set with one disc providing a documentary of a real-life wedding shoot and the other demonstrating the post-processing of the day’s photographs.  The DVD set is aimed at photographers who are new to wedding photography and wanting some advice as well as those who are established, but wanting to gain some insight into one of the most successful wedding photography teams in the UK today.

Disc One – The Shoot

The first DVD provides fly-on-the-wall coverage as the video crew shadow husband and wife team, Damien and Julie Lovegrove, whilst they spend their day and night as wedding photographers.  The footage not only shows the photographs they take during the day, but also the thought processes behind them and how they’re set-up.

What becomes apparent quite quickly is that Damien and Julie are used to working as a team as they manage to shoot the day without needlessly duplicating shots.  Starting off separately, Julie with the bride and Damien with the groom, they later converge as the ceremony gets under way.   This efficient team-working helps to ensure all of the important parts of the day are covered without wasting time nor missing opportunities.  Working together in this manner allows them to get the shots which are likely to be missed when just one photographer is covering the day.  For example, being able to shoot the bride and groom getting ready at the same time, but obviously in separate locations.

The viewing sequence for the DVD:

• The bride and groom getting ready separately including their interaction with bridesmaids and groomsmen.
• The church ceremony.
• The reception through to the evening.
• 2 weeks later – the preview and shot selection with the couple.
• 4 weeks later – when the finished photo album arrives.

As this DVD set is aimed at photographers rather than their clients or the general public, lots of useful commentary is provided throughout giving you a real behind-the-scenes view into what Damien and Julie are thinking and exactly why they’re thinking it.  Understanding their thought processes means the viewer can apply similar methodologies to a variety of different wedding scenarios which is infinitely more useful than simply offering a list of shots to take.

As well as showing the practical side of the photography, i.e. the shots, the set-up, the poses, the documentary also reveals the important human element and the interaction with subjects in order to put them at ease which in turn enables the photographer to get the best out of them.  They also dispel the old myth about working with animals and children as they show how they work to get some fantastic photographs of both.

What I really like most about this DVD is seeing how Damien and Julie find the best locations for shots and how they cope with the unpredictable.  Working with so many individuals and changing variables on what is usually an emotional day means that anything can happen.  The off-camera flash dusk set-up is something which I’ve not seen before at a wedding and done correctly can add real value to any wedding photographer’s offer.

There are so many useful gems given throughout the DVD that you really need to watch it a few times to pick up on them all and that’s what makes it such great value.  Any time you feel you need a refresher, say during the days leading up to a wedding shoot, you can just relax with the DVD and let it inspire you.

In common with Damien’s other DVDs, the production quality is excellent.  The video shows the photographers and subjects from a variety of angles and the sound quality is excellent making it easy to see what the situations are and hear the real-time commentary.

Running time of disc one is 79 minutes and this includes a slideshow of over 200 shots from the day at the end of the DVD.  For those who like technical details, the EXIF is provided for each of them.

Disc Two – Post Processing

The second DVD from the set runs for 70 minutes and sees Damien processing a selection of photographs from the wedding day.  It’s split into two parts, covering Damien’s preferred editing applications; Lightroom and Photoshop.

Topics covered include:

• Enhancing and balancing exposure.
• Cropping and rotating.
• Correcting white balance.
• Using keyboard shortcuts to speed up workflow.
• Feathering selections to blend adjustments.
• Applying localised curve adjustments.
• Understanding the value of shooting in raw.

Damien’s post-processing workflow is very ‘organic’ in its approach.  It’s processing by gut feel which can mean he spends less than 60 seconds on the basic editing on each photograph in Lightroom before going into Photoshop for more detailed editing.  This brevity shouldn’t be mistaken for a lack of due attention, but is actually efficient and established workflow.  It does what is required and prevents the processing of a typically large number of images from becoming a mammoth task.

If you’ve already grasped the basics of Lightroom functionality, but not sure how to incorporate it into your workflow then this DVD will show you one way.  Likewise, the same applies to Photoshop, but don’t expect the full functionality of either application to be covered by this disc.  To do that, you’d need much more than this one DVD.  Instead, Damien demonstrates how he works with only a subset of tools and shows just how powerful they can be.

In summary, this is another high quality, informative product from Lovegrove Consulting which is very easy for its target audience to consume.  If you’re a budding wedding photographer and you want to know what’s involved in professional wedding photography then this DVD set is a valuable addition for your reference library.

Read my review of Lovegrove Consulting’s DVD, Using Natural Light on Location.