20 Invaluable Tips for the Aspiring Wedding Photographer

You’ve heard there is big money in wedding photography and you want a piece of the action. After all, it sounds like a good gig, right? Five hours of work one evening on a weekend and a $1000+ payday! What could be simpler?

Before the dreams of grandeur and big pay checks start clouding your vision, here are 20 tips I hope will help steer your growth so you are an asset to the happy couple entrusting you with their fond memories.

20 Invaluable Tips for the Aspiring Wedding Photographer.

 

 

The Wedding Crasher

Whilst researching I came across this blog by Michael Yamashita, he writes about wedding photography and the rather remarkable way it is undertaken in some places in China,

“Who hasn’t shot a wedding?  On Geographic assignments, it’s hard to think of a story where I did not shoot one as part of my coverage, sometimes by plan, but mostly by accident — you’re in a small town out in the middle of nowhere and a procession is coming your way from down the street.  What celebration/ceremony says more about a culture than an old-fashioned wedding, the ultimate cultural photo op? Everyone loves a wedding. On these joyous occasions, everyone welcomes a photo, not to mention the photographer taking them. But unique to China is the wedding studio, where the real wedding takes place before the actual wedding ceremony.  Here the couple can have their choice of any of several wedding scenarios, with sets and costumes to match.  A Japanese wedding at a shrine, a western church wedding, a cruise ship wedding, a Shanghai 1920s wedding, or an outdoor wedding – whatever the bride and groom’s preference.  Wedding packages $5000 and up include a video as well as stills.  Here’s a sampling.”...MORE

all photos by Orange Photography Studio, wedding photos and video – Shanghai, China

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Getting Started as a Wedding Photographer

Sometimes towards the end of a understanding your camera type course I am approached by a student with their new entry level digital slr and kit lens attached to it and told they are going to be a wedding photographer and do I have any advice to get them started. Ignoring the sheer arrogance I try to explain that having just completed a basic understanding your camera course might not be enough technical skill and that experience is vital as no amount or classroom teaching can allow for that moment when the heavens open and you are forced to shoot groups of 20 people in a corridor leading to the bar as that is the only open space available. On occasions I am blown away by the fact that said students give me their business card declaiming themselves as a photographer who will do your wedding, portrait, fashion, commercial, in fact every type of photography they have ever heard of.

Well now I can just direct them to this post, it really does define the minimum amount of professional equipment required, and the need for the understanding of how to use it, how having complete technical understanding is a pre-requisite before offering to mess up someone’s wedding pictures. There is no doubt that photography has always been an industry and profession that people have entered without formal college training, and that taking a professional approach and learning the craft is part of entering a profession.

Here is that article, before you decide you are ready have a look and see what a professional brings to the party, here is that link by Mark Stagi

Keith Barnes

 

Thinking of giving up the day job and becoming a photographer?

“On a daily basis, I work with amateur photographers who are considering the jump to becoming a professional photographer as either a part-time “side job” or as a full-fledged career photographer.  Almost without exception, they ask three questions, (1) Can you help me with my lighting, (2) How can I get more clients, and (3) How do I know if now is the right time?” this is from the Improve photography site, if you are considering becoming a full time professional photographer then read on  here

33 Useful And Informative Wedding photography Tips

I have photographed weddings for more than 20 years, mostly because they are such enjoyable occasions. The money is an attraction but not as much as the opportunities weddings offer a photographer who is interested in people. Getting started was, for me, something that came out of the street or reportage photography I did for my own interest. I was one of the first photographers around to work exclusively as a documentary wedding photographer, prior to about 20 or so years ago every wedding photographer organised groups and if pushed did a few ‘informal’ pictures. The basis of wedding photography was a specific number of rolls of film (12 shots per roll medium format) to capture the groups, the more groups the more film and so the cost increased, so something as un-defined as documentary shooting where they could be endless images to capture was not attractive to the old school wedding photographers.

Times change, many more photographers started offering ‘the story book wedding’ and when digital came along it seemed that everyone with a camera, a suit and a free Saturday wanted to be a wedding photographer. The skills needed were of course about camera control but also people skills, to get those seeming informal natural shots from an unnatural situation. Now there are a plethora of books and web sites which will help and guide would be wedding photographers, this article in Tripwire Magazine has a list of helpful tips

all pictures Keith Barnes Wedding Photography