Often times our couples will request pictures of them dancing at City Hall. This is especially true of our brides and grooms who actually do a lot of ball room dancing. In other cases, we will be the ones to suggest our couple go into a dancing type of pose. As with any action shot, the challenge of capturing a great image is to make sure the final result portrays movement. If you are reading this and thinking this should be easy, just take stop action shots and the picture will show movement. Sometimes that is true, but other times it just looks like the couple is frozen in place. The key to showing movement in a still photo is to catch moments where something in the frame is out of place. For example, when you spin in a wedding dress, the train comes out and moves in the air. Catch that moment and you have a winning photo. Hair or veils flying around will also portray this type of movement in a still photo. The key thing to look for before taking the picture is anything flying around that wouldn't normally be moving in a static image.
The photo below is one of those rare city hall weddings where the couple have a complete wedding party. This is tough to pull off unless you are doing a reserved wedding. It should also be pointed out that this image was captured before San Francisco city hall started to enforce the 6 guest limit. As you can see, there are more than 6 people in the photo!
Full wedding party with multiple guests. No longer allowed at City Hall.
