Vanessa Van Edwards teaches wedding photographers how to grab a group's attention without yelling. Stand central with open arms, pause five to ten seconds for people to finish talking, then use a clap or sound cue instead of raising your voice to quiet the room and refocus everyone on you.
As a wedding photographer, that's often trying to command large groups of people, particularly when doing family photos at a wedding. Do you have any tips on how to do that without yelling at them, getting their attention? Also, this works in big rooms. For example, if I raise my hand, you know that I want to say something. So the first thing you want to do is take as center stage as possible, and then you want to open up your arms. We know this as, look at me, give me attention. You got to give people a second to wrap their convo. So give them about 5 or 10 seconds to just wrap up their thoughts. So this is a visual mode. We've got a sound mode. If you have to— hey everyone! Your clap is much louder than your voice, and it's going to save your voice. Let them shush for you and then make them work for you.
