Mastering Multiple Photography Styles
Becoming a professional wedding photographer requires understanding and excelling at several photography styles. Wedding scenarios would require the photographer to have a command on portrait and group photography to be able to get candid snaps of the dancing couple and emotionally welled-up family members.
Wedding pictures also need different focal lengths and camera angles, ensuring both people and the decorations smile through the pictures. New trends are also catching up with wedding photography like levitation photography, aerial photography, and cinematography, miniature photography and underwater shoots, etc.
Guide To Photographing Your First Wedding
Have you just got your first wedding photography client? Are you wondering where to start and what to do? Worry not, here is a guide that will share with you tips on how to shoot your first wedding.
1. Keep it simple
Your first wedding, you may feel the pressure is on, this is it, a chance to do all those shots you have seen on Instagram, a chance to get those powerful and impressive shots that will look great on your website, but remember, this isnt about you, this is about the couple getting married and their day. A happy couple, a great testimonial and word of mouth is a lot more important.
Forget about what you have seen and what you want, focus on doing the job the best you can, focus on getting great shots of them, focus on telling a great story of the day through photos, dont just think about those single or creative shots and forget about those simple shots that are sometimes the best shots.
2. Scout the Venue
If you are not familiar with the venue then if you can go down there and take a look around, speak to the venue and perhaps they can give your a little tour, find the best place to take photos as they walk down the aisle, understand where they will come out, see where you could do some nice group shots and couple photos, are there any nice places in the grounds with a nice background.
This preparation allows you to know in your mind where you want to go and where you need to be. It is one less stress and worry, allowing you to be in position when needs be.
Its Not Always As Glamorous As It Seems
I vividly remember being on a flight to shoot my first celebrity wedding. I was 8 months pregnant, sitting in the back row of the plane, my seat didnt recline, and I was nestled in between 2 fairly large gentlemen flyers. Not quite what Id build that moment up to be! Ha!
Be prepared to WORK. Hard. Its not all glamor and glitz. Youve got to give your absolute ALL, to every single client, at every single wedding you shoot, ALWAYS. Dont get jaded. Dont lose your creative edge. Fight to stay in your best creative space . Each client deserves the VERY BEST you have to givewithout exception!
My friend Gina and I, after a 10 hour wedding in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. Exhaustion.
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Get Paid To Take Photographs
Imagine having a high-paying career that lets you use your creativity to take photographs of people, recording forever their images and their lives. Welcome to the exciting world of the professional photographer.
About a Career as a Professional Photographer
When you become a professional photographer and start your own photography business you will have freedom, flexibility, and independence.
As a professional photographer you can work in an indoor studio, or you can choose to shoot photographs at peoples’ homes, event locations, or outdoors. You might even have your own home-based studio.
When you become a professional photographer, you will have many career options. In the FabJob Guide to Become a Professional Photographer you will discover how you can start your own photography business and succeed in the popular and profitable areas of portrait photography and wedding photography.
When you think of portrait photography, you may be inspired by the work of celebrity portrait photographers like Annie Liebovitz, or the heartwarming sleepy infants of Anne Geddes. Or perhaps you admire the photojournalistic style of star photographer Denis Reggie, who has been called America’s premier wedding photographer by American Photo Magazine and the best in the business by Oprah Winfrey.
Your own unique style of portrait or wedding photography will be your greatest asset in the photography business.
Guide to Become a Professional Photographer
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Next To Develop Your Brand This Is Where It Gets Exciting
Before you can head out and connect with potential clients, you need to decide what your message will be as a wedding photographer.
And a brand is about so much more than a logo. Your wedding photography brand will encompass the promise you offer to clients, the values with which you work, and what experience clients should expect to have if they choose to work with you.
So, this is where it gets exciting: youve got scope to do so much with your brand, the hardest part is deciding what message to focus on.
As we mentioned before, think about niches which are under-catered in your local area. This could be same-sex weddings, or elopements, or out-of-season ceremonies.
Selecting a niche need to target doesnt mean these are the only clients youll ever work with, but youll soon see how identifying your target audience will help you develop leads and turn those leads into bookings.
Grab a pen and paper and dream up your ideal consumer what do they want from their wedding day, why is their wedding day special compared to other peoples, what can you offer them thats unique to what other wedding photographers have in their repertoire?
These seeds of thought will eventually blossom into your unique selling point, and then your brand.
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How To Know If Photography Is Right For You
Before embarking on photography as a career, youll want to make sure this is absolutely the right field for you. Thats because, at the end of the day, photography demands passion and sacrifice of course, those sacrifices can yield rewarding outcomes. You will have to spend time, energy, and probably some money to get really good at it. So before you dive in, its worth taking the time to evaluate whether or not you have the right personality for the world of photography.
Are you ready for the long hours and possible frustrations that come with photography? Are you passionate enough to withstand the ups and downs a beginning photographer faces? Answer those questions, and youll have a better understanding of whether or not photography is right for you.
How To Become A Wedding Photographer In 10 Easy Steps
Step 1: Hire a cheap wedding photographer for your own wedding.
If you hire a cheap wedding photographer for your own wedding, you will get thousands of mediocre photos and probably the full resolution copies as well. This will give you the confidence to realize hey, if he/she can do that, so can I.
You will also get a sneak peak into how easy it is to photograph a wedding from start to finish.
If you are already married, you can modify this step by getting divorced and starting over, or by hiring a cheap family photographer to take some family portraits.
You can find cheap wedding photographers and cheap family photographers for a dime a dozen on Craigslist. Or even better, find a Goupon deal like this!
Step 2: Get good camera.
Everybody knows that the better camera you have, the better your wedding photos will be.
I started my wedding photography career with a Sony DSC-F717 Cybershot and a ton of people actually paid me to photograph their weddings with that bad boy!
Of course, you can just use a cell phone for wedding photography, which makes adding some cool filters and uploading a lot easier but for some reason clients tend to want to hire a wedding photographer that has a fancy looking camera.
Of course you dont want to spend more on a camera than you did on your cell phone, so a Canon EOS T3 or a Nikon D3200 are excellent cameras for professional wedding photographers and you can get either of them for less than $500 and they even come with a lens.
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Understand The Power Of Storytelling
ISO 1000, 27mm, f/4.5, 1/200s. Ambient light.
ISO 2500, 70mm, f/2, 1/200s. Two Profoto A1X bounced.
ISO 6400, 105mm, f/4, 1/200s. Ambient light.
Telling a story visually requires a lot of thought. Showing up at an event and simply capturing what is happening in front of you is not storytelling. There are visual conventions that help move a story along and provide rhythm to a story, like using establishment shots, relationship shots and emotionally focused shots . Pre-planning with shot lists will help you tell a better story, and I am not talking about shot lists from some bridal magazine advice column. The photographer should be developing a shot list based on conversations with the wedding couple. They have a backstory the photographer needs to know it to tell the story correctly.
Scouting The Best Locations For Wedding Pictures
ISO 400, 70mm, f/5, 1/2000s. Ambient light.
Never start a portrait session without doing a little location scouting first. I prefer scouting the locations at the same time as the event the day before the event, when that is not possible, I arrive a few hours earlier than I am expected to get some location scouting in. Knowing where to photograph and having an efficient path to follow will help you to get better images, more images, and it will help you keep your clients on time. If you get a reputation for being the photographer who keeps things on time and still gets a lot of beautiful portraits, you will be at the top of every vendors list.
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What Qualifications Do I Need
Strictly speaking, you dont need to have any formal qualifications to become a wedding photographer. All you really need is a quality camera, some lighting equipment, as well as your own eye for the perfect shot and editing software. If youre pursuing a career as a freelance wedding photographer, its not imperative to have any qualifications, its far more important to have an excellent portfolio.
However, if youre after a role in a wedding photography firm, at the very least youll need a bachelors degree in photography or another related subject. This is important as a formal education will provide you with all the necessary skills for you to excel in your career, and prepare you for shooting in different locations, weathers and scenarios.
Add Pricing And Packages On Website
Depending on the client base and the location that you have in your mind, you can design the pricing and packages for each session. You have to keep moderate pricing for the event as nobody hires a beginner photographer at a high price.
You have to research a bit while setting up the pricing and packages for the shoot. The wedding itself contains four different events, you have to set up the package for each event differently or can offer the full package for covering the entire event.
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A Simple Guide To Become A Professional Wedding Photographer
- Modified Date: October 5, 2020
- Reading Time: 4Minutes
Featured Image Caption: Career in Wedding Photography
Jump to read…
The dress, décor, flowers, cuisine, jewellery, decorations, seating, families, and the bride and the groom can all look perfect on the D-day, but it is the skillful shooting, thoughtful composition, expert lighting, eye for the right moment, and a fly-on-the-wall approach that is going to paint the memories as one will look back on their wedding day.
Wedding photographers capture the portraits, moments, and details of the most intimate and memorable moments in someones life. While some approach shooting the wedding in a documentarian style, whereas others are all about showing off the sheer romance on screen, weddings can be huge and costly affairs, and across the world, they mostly are. And all things said, wedding photographers could never go out of business, just like love wont ever go out of existence.
Those who are passionate about capturing someones most important moments in life and would love to make a full-time career out of it, the option of working as a professional wedding photographer lies open for the taking. Heres a guide to standing out in making iconic gram-worthy nuptial memories.
Be Prepared For The Time Commitment
Wedding photography requires an astronomical amount of work. Yes, I know your mind flows directly to editing, and yes, that can be extremely time consuming, but Im not referring only to post production. Im referencing the booking process, the email correspondence, facilitating questions, managing expectations, shooting, editing, providing images and other products. Youre committing to being completely accessible to your client for MONTHS leading up to the event and months after the big day. Make sure you dont over commit and thus find yourself less available to your clients. Remember, this industry is relationship based. The better care you take of your current clients, the more likely they are to refer you to their friends. I equate more than 80% of my business to past client referrals. Thats pretty darn significant. Wouldnt you say?
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Getting Feedback Makes You Better
Just about the best part of working with other students in a classroom is getting regular feedback. This feedback comes from your classmates as well as the instructor and both provide valuable criticism that you can use to make your photographs better. Here are a few things to keep in mind when receiving feedback:
Listen first. When you receive feedback, youre learning. Youre seeing your work through someone elses eyes, cutting away your personal connection to the work so that you can understand it from a new perspective. Thats why you need to sit back and listen. In fact, most workshops will wisely have multiple students chime in with feedback before letting the photographer respond. This places the focus on those who are looking at the work rather than the creator of the work.
Ask the right questions. Once youve listened to what your classmates and instructor have to say, its time to respond with questions that will help you improve. For instance, if any feedback felt vague , ask for clarification. What about the photo failed to strike a chord? Ask tactical questions. See if any of your classmates have favorite photos that might have come to mind when they were assessing your photos, and then take a look at those photos.
