What are the top 3 distinguishable features of your wedding photography?

[gmahler5th]

Can you clearly and concisely articulate the top 3 features of your

wedding photography style that set you apart from your nearest

competitors?

[steve_levine]

I shoot a mix of styles,so its important that I learn what each couple likes.I try to listen to the client,and not shoot a cookie cutter wedding.I also try hard to flatter my clients,by accentuating their strong points,and minimizing their weaker areas.Most important of all:I always remember its their wedding,"it aint about me or my pictures".Many wedding shooters have egos that dont allow them to recognize this simple fact.

[gmahler5th]

c'mon Steve, you can't be all things to all people! :-) What features define your style???????

 

One well known and quite successful photographer put it this way. Can you guess who I am quoting?

 

"Style is about selling a concept of who you are, and how you like to do things. The more you incorporate a style in the overall feel of your web sites and albums, the more you will alienate the mass of brides who are not risk takers! But you will pull in brides that absolutely love what you do- Brides who want to give you full rein to experiment and wow them!

 

Now that Iﾒve defined and developed my own style, I find that some brides see and recognize it in my work and need for me to use their wedding day as an outlet for my art. Brides actually tell me, ﾓyou do what ever you want; I know I will love it!

 

But wait! In order to sell your styleﾗthereﾒs a difficult task you have to perform: You have to describe your style, and once you know where you are, you can decide where to go next: You can develop your style further."

[todd frederick]

All that I want to do is to give my bride and groom a full coverage of their special day so that they will be pleased with the quality of the photographs and will looks back on them in 20 years, and say, "Job well done!" That's it.

[gmahler5th]

You guys keep thinking of the bride, and that's not a bad thing. But before you even sign the contract to photograph a wedding, what words do you use to describe your style to the potential bride? How do you articulate what the bride/groom can expect in their proof album??? How do you characterize your previous work in stylistic terms? In sales/marketing there is the notion of proactive marketing versus reactive marketing. You can imagine the connotations of each. If not, shoot me an email and I will explain it to you. Or just follow this illustration.

 

Consider a staircase maker...the finest staircase maker in the world. Staircases are his specialty. Wouldn't you be a little leary of the famous staircase maker if one day you went to him and said, "Hi, I have this wonderful idea for the most beautiful door for my entry way. Would you make it for me?" and the famous staircase realizes his revenues are low that month, so he says says "sure, I'll Sdo it!" He retools his manufacturing process, and makes your door. Now imagine doing this on a much larger scale. The increased cost of manufacturing process for different product lines, the added complexity of multiple manufacturing processes, and perhaps even a noticable decrease in quality and/or innovation in staircases because more time has been given to creating wooden doors.

 

How can you continue to push the envelope on the development of your personal style if you try to be all things to everyone? As they say, good is an enemy of the best. So why give the bride/groom exactly what they ask for, noting you listend to every word they said, if it will distract you from the expression of your signature style? This thread intersects with another question that has been tossed around in many forums; when do you decline work because your style/price doesn't fit the desires or the budgest of the bride and groom?

 

I NOT currently a full time photographer, but when/if that day ever comes, I will be highly selective about which assignments and venues I will accept to shoot at. Is your aspiration to create fine art, art which is in demand by discerning brides and grooms? Or do you want the bride/groom to tell you everything you should shoot, when, and how you should do it??

 

Here is another way to think about it. There is the Burger King version of a wedding photographer: "Your way right away!" and then there is the Red Robin version of a wedding photographer: "America's Gourmet Burgers and Spirits"

[gary_woodard]

Heavy.

[rodolfo_negrete]

not kiring

[fotografz]

I got into wedding photography to express myself. If a couple likes that form of

expression, they hire me.

 

Since my form of expression involves spontaneous sensitivity to what makes people

unique, each wedding album has an element of uniqueness to it, and feels spontaneous in

nature.

 

Part of expressing myself involves editorial choices after the wedding day. So I do a turn-

key service for my clients. The next time they see me after the wedding, I present all the

finished materials and album, including all the negatives and/or digital files I edited and

corrected. I occasionally make an exception to this approach IF the client is another

creative person. I'll have done 3 like that this year: one was another photographer, one an

interior decorator, and the third a children's portrait artist. They are hand crafting their

own albums.

 

I sum it up with my positioning line: fotografz. Romantic Photojournalism. The images I

show back that up. Semi-classical and romantic in design feel, yet spontaneous and alive

in content.

 

Competitively, there is only one other wedding photographer that shoots like that in my

area. But she is twice as expensive as me, and keeps all the negs.

[think27]

Natural, (uncontrived) expressive, emotive.

[timberwolf1]

Fashion look; believable affection and actions even if staged; background choices that flow around the subject. My subjects look kind.

[timberwolf1]

Long ago, I gave up the idea that all candid shots have to be "real" and unmanipulated in

any way. This was newspaper journalism procedure. But now I know that newspaper

photojournalists move furniture around and change things too! In my procedures, I am

thinking like both a portrait or fashion photographer and a photojournalist at the same

time.<p>

 

You see, I have accomplished hundreds of thousands of candid pictures. I have seen all

the ways that people react to the same situations of a wedding. At some point, I decided

that there were about 5 ways that people could react to a situation, and not many more.

So, having memorized these reactions to the situations, I decided that there were maybe

only 2 great ways to look best in my documentary from a choice of 5 ways. So, whether

they are walking down an aisle or doing a toast or cutting a cake, I know what looks good.

I give instructions to the bridesmaids jsut before they walk down the aisle, for example:

don't stare with a "zombie look", use a lowered chin, but tilt the head alittle to the side,

and smile. I know that if the groom starts swinging around the cake cutter, that this

could be symbolic of something not attractive to my customers. So, I give them freedom,

but I wait like a sniper until they do what I want them to do from a choice of perhaps 2-3

things. I remember what complaints and comments that my customers in the past have

said, and I apply them in real time at the wedding.

<p>

I have seen many wedding books and seen many photographers photograph at weddings.

I am always very critical of myself and them. I like being perfectionistic in wedding

photography. Rarely do I agree with what they are doing because they are missing the

nicer background just steps away. This happened a weekend ago. It is very hard for me

to not start commanding them to look at the nicer background. I don't want him/her to

think I am taking over! Or, they are distorting the couple with a fisheye lens, or they don't

see the klunky hand or arm or shoe position in the picture. The people's feet may make

them look like they just got off a horse.... whatever! The guys pants are sloppy around his

shoes! His hand positions look like a Neanderthal man!

 

 

I don't use dark shadows to foreshadow gloom and doom like is done

purposefully in "film noire" or in many fashion photographs (industrial look).

 

I use some "art photography" influences to sometimes treat the portrait as a mystical art

portrait. Think of Wynn Bullock, for example, This is not symphonic romance, either.

<p>

[mike dixon]

Timber, do you have site where we can check out the kinds of

images you're talking about? The few in your photo.net portfolio

are of the formally-posed variety,

 

I don't describe my wedding work with a list of features. My

general approach is to document the day, with a focus on telling

stories rather than just showing what things looked like.

Capturing natural interactions is far more important than having

the prettiest poses. Couples can see my visual style by looking

at samples.

[kimberly c.]

Unobstrusive, romantic, and raw if they like my work they hire me - if they

dont then they will hire someone else. It's very simple in my world.

[Marc453]

I usually do the old style, stand and shoot and move with the groove of the wedding. Part classic and part P-J. My main points are that I will cover the bride from early morn to saying goodbye at the reception. Fast turnaround of photos.

 

Each wedding is different, even with a list of proposes shots to take I never get them all. I go for the story-telling "This is my Wedding--Don't I look beatifu!" shots. I keep my equipment simple and as uncomplicated as I can, yet provide the best image I can get from film (or digital).

 

The main things are that I will be there, when I say I will, and I will be the one taking the photos. Also I will stay as long as the wedding lasts.