training to become a wedding photographer

[rebecca_g__rp_]

Hi!

I am new to this site and have been very impressed with the info posted.

Here's my background. My husband and I were recently asked to photograph my

SIL's wedding in December. Wedding photography has always been an interest to

me but we have not done anything formal yet. I am looking for tips on how some

of you got started in the whole business. Did you do classes at a college or

JC? Did you learn from a professional photographer? Did you read any books

that you found extremely helpful?

I have taken many photos of my family over the years. I've done some formals

and many candid shots. I have a fairly decent camera. I just need to know

where to start so I can be the best prepared. Thanks! becca

[phillip hurd - atlanta ga]

Rebecca,

Consider a professional photography course from somewhere like the NYIP. http://www.nyip.com/ This should give you all the basics.

 

Beyond that having a "fairly decent" camera is a requirement but not really the issue you will face. It is the business aspect that you really need to know. For example I can tell by your post that this is going to be, at least at first, a second career for you and your husband, so how do you figure out how much you need to charge to remain profitable considering your tax bracket (remember you will be taxed at a rate based on a combination of both incomes)? How will you calculate your ROI? What segment of the market are you going to go after? What is your target income goal? How will you advertise? How will you design your workflow? Where will you get your assistants? How do you want to present a portfolio? Will you design your own website or will you have someone else do it? The list of business questions goes on and on and on.....

 

When I started several years ago I made the mistake of thinking good pictures sell photography services. Although many others may debate this comment, in my experience the pictures themselves, while a necessary component, do not sell anything. You as the photographer must sell YOUR services. Many brides, in MY experience, consider photography a commodity. Meaning they think photographer A can do as Well as Photographer B. This mentality means you must understand YOUR customer. You must be able to place in the mind of your bride, or Mother of the bride, as is often the case, an adequate motive to buy YOUR brand of services.

 

In short if you really want to start a photography business consider a business startup course, then a selling course (Get some Zig Ziglar tapes to start.)

 

Good luck.

[merle_white]

Hello Becca,

 

Timing is everything ! Weddings are a tough assignment, you need to learn to be in the right place at the right time. Get connected with a Pro. and work as his assistant for at least 3-5 weddings take notes, why does he do what he does when he does it. Go to your local pro camera store and purchase a couple of books and study posing. Classroom training may prepare you for the technical side, but no class room I have ever been exposed to will teach you to handle a wedding. Learning people skills will do a lot for your future success. You need to present yourself as, in charge, but warm and friendly, helpful and in control at all times.

 

If you like creating beautiful images that people respond joyfully to, then you will enjoy the business.

 

Good Shooting To Ya!!

 

Merle

[steve_levine]

This is actually "the" most often asked question on this forum. And there are many replies running from the informatively helpful, to the short and sarcastic. (Try an archive search, and you can feel the love.)

 

That said, I think a well stocked book store, (or AMAZON) should be your starting point. You need to read several "101" photo texts, so you can fully understand the mechanical and optical concepts.

 

 

Next I would get a good primer on wedding work, and study it, and learn to emulate the photos.

 

 

And finally, in order to excel(or even be mediocre), at anything you need to practice, practice, practice.

[35mmdelux]

Several years of general photography school *

Lots of self-assignments *

Several weddings w/ pros *

Lots of Books * Magazines *

Initially shot weddings at cost *

 

"I have a fairly decent camera." Is it pro/reliable level? What about all back-up gear?

[picturesque]

Start with Steve Sint's book, "Wedding Photography: Art, Business and Style". Not the only one out there but one of the basic ones.

[daniel_green]

I started with basic classes at a 4-year college, completed NYIP's distance course, read books on wedding photography, and went to every wedding I could for a year to watch different pros and even shot over their shoulder if they would let me (close friends weddings). Then I started taking photos for friends at the cost of developing and worked up from there. One piece of advice I strongly recommend when getting started in wedding photography (and continuing) is not only to take a backup camera, but to use it. I have an EOS 20D and a Nikon D70 for backup. For the really important photos (ceremony and formals), I shoot with both cameras side by side. They use different chips and sometimes I like the photo better on one camera than the other. However, more important is this: cameras are machines and machines malfunction and fail. I heard of one photographer that was not able to copy photos from a card after a wedding and had no backups - disaster. I had a fellow photographer who accidentally bumped one of the buttons on her camera (easy to do) and all the photos from the ceremony were too underexposed to get prints from. She had to go to the couple and tell them she had no photos of their ceremony - none. Believe me, you do NOT want to ever have to do that. Granted, she was using film and groos errors usually show up in the viewfinder, but viewfinders can be +/- 1 stop off in my experience and there are plenty of other things that could happen. Using a backup is very cheap insurance. You don't have to print the backups, but it will give you peace of mind to know they are there. You could even have your spouse do backup photos right after you take a shot. Hope this is helpful.

[conraderb]

I have a very low opinion of NYIP - unless you are not a serious photographer (I take it that you are serious photographer), they tend to gloss over details and make confusing generalizations in their lessons.

 

rebecca - first, you must be competent to the point where you can walk into a room, be asked to shoot anything, and come back with an image that would be good enough to show a potential client. even better, you are dead competent - you can go into a room and be asked to shoot ambient only, or flash only. you can walk into a room and tell me what the color temperature is, and even better, within 1.5 stops, what the ambient exposure would be like. 1 stop is even better.

 

that said, I would recommend that you READ a lot about wedding photography, SHOOT a lot, THINK about what you are shooting. watch this forum a lot.

 

offer to assist a local photographer. perhaps you can offer your services for free if you can just watch.

 

heck - go to your next wedding and watch the photographer. watch them closely. they may be good, and they might make mistakes.

 

me? I was asked to shoot a college friends' wedding a few years ago. I said yes, and then assisted a local photographer for two weddings. I shot the friend's wedding myself and it went well. more friends, and more friends, and more friends asked. I put together a collection of nice 8x10 prints and I was on my way.

 

assisting another photographer was of enormous help - it is good to see the pace of the day and how to manage people. wedding photography is different from shooting in a studio - a lot of it is relating to people, being friendly and managing large #'s of people in a short time when called upon to do so.

[armando_reyes]

Rebecca, my wife is also learning wedding photography. Seminars are a good way to learn the craft, but very expensive. We decided to suscribe to the Photovision video magazine and bought the Photovision Digital Wedding Techniques among others. This along with

the instant review of digital has given very good results.

The videos will present to you several photographers with their unique style, then you can practice the technique that you like.

However, the use of your gear must to be second nature when you

are working on a wedding, does not matter if is a Pentax K1000/283 Vivitar combo or a top of the line pro camera.