Wedding Photographers: Do you photograph for yourself? Or have your clients dictate?

[kit_b1]

<p>I hope I am asking this question in the right category, and I apologize if I am not.</p>

<p>My question is:<br>

Considering your style of wedding photography, be it consistent with the way you take photographs, your editing style, your composition, etc, do you photograph solely for your own perceived outcome? Or do you exclusively take instruction from your client who wants you to photograph them in a specific way.<br>

It's a complicated question I'm trying to ask, so let me try and give you an example:</p>

<p>--If a client hires you based on your style, seeing your images, and liking them, but then tries to dictate the style of photos she wants done and you don't really do them that way, do you simply do them the way you normally do because she hired you to do them? Or are you open to changing your style to suit their needs?<br>

In other words do you alter your style of photography to suit the client or do you shoot soley for yourself?<br>

Sorry if it sounds like a stupid question, and I hope I asked it clearly and precisely. Thanks</p>

[BrianS1664879711]

It's not a difficult question but you set the question

up with absolutes - unreasonable polar opposite

options. The answer is in the middle. The client is

your customer; you are a vendor, not an artist. The

secret is to limit unreasonable requests. Doing

portraits of all out-of-town family members as part of a wedding

package, for example, might be unreasonable and

would set the vendor up for disappointing the

client.

[lightrasp1664881197]

<p>Follow up to your previous post as well:<br /><br /> When you are an ESTABLISHED ARTIST...one that is easily recognized by your style, genre, and talked about by everyone in the art world - you will have EARNED the right to shoot to your own style and satisfaction. IMHO, a decade is barely time enough to become 'established'. <br /><br /> Right now, however, you are none of those things and need to shoot the way your customer dictates, no matter how distasteful it is to you. <br /><br /> Rejection and disappointment are the mainstay in the world of creative arts, if you truly can not lunch on rejection and failure - this is not the business for you!<br /><br /> Can she file suit (asked in your other post )? Sure she can - and there is a good chance she will be awarded some compensation. THAT is why you have incorporated and have business insurance. <br /><br /> Your choice is simple - explain how you shoot and refer the customer to someone more in line with his/her wishes<br /><br />Questions?</p>

[Dave Gardner]

<p>We photograph our style...and do not take any instructions from anyone. Something about too many cooks. During the interview...we explain this to the client...so there is no interference the day of.</p>

<p>They also initial the contract stating they understand our style of shooting...and that we will not deviate from it. </p>

[mac_mex]

<p>Hello Friends I Am New User This Forum.</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<blockquote>

<p>Questions?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yes, one. Was the tone of that reply really called for?<br /> ____</p>

<p>To the OP:<br /> It all boils down to business decisions, and understanding the risks of each decision. Sure you can refuse to have clients dictate your way of working (after all, they do choose you for your portfolio, so it's not like they're in the blind). However, such lack of flexibility on your behalf may cost you customers, and leave you with a potential smaller market. If your style is unique enough, that might work out. If there are plenty others around who can do the same style, it might be (much) harder to sell.<br /> The argument that only established artists get to dictate how they work is misleading; nobody becomes an established artist overnight, and sticking to a certain style, approach and artistic integrity is what most great artists actually did do. But again, it's a tougher game, because you do have to stand out enough and really deliver the goods always. So, it's tricky, I think.<br /> Part of the choice is also how you feel about your business; long term, you do have to feel right about what you're doing, the end product you deliver and so on. If you start working against your will, then things will go terribly sour or worse. But, you also have to calculate that at some point you will always have some unhappy customer - it happens in every single business. It's part of the deal, and you need to deal with them in a business-like way: seek a solution that keeps the customer satisfied, and your bottomline sufficiently protected. It's not personal, it never is - it is business.</p>

<p>So, it's - in my view, as a non-pro with a slight bit of business sense - always down to business decisions. How do you want to run your business, what is the product you want to deliver to your customers, and how big is that market, and at which price can you pitch that product? Does that make money in the long run? Maybe tweaking your style a bit may be enough, maybe you get away with adhering strict to your standard, maybe you need to be fully flexible. It all depends on competition, price, the amount of jobs available and so on. Do the math, and then decide.</p>

[fotografz]

<p>Here is a different perspective to consider. Business fulfillment and artistic interpretations are not mutually exclusive.</p>

<p>Most, if not all, wedding clients come to us with some expectations. Most of those expectations concern the content of some pictures. In fact, the amount of time that planned photos take up at a wedding is a fraction of the whole wedding. Most of the remaining time concerns candid work as events unfold.</p>

<p>As a business person, you can choose to accommodate those planned expectations ... however, <strong>how</strong> you actually shoot those images can then be the artistic challenge. It is also the opportunity where you can creatively distinguish yourself from others who just competently shoot what they were asked to do. This is the basis of most all commercial photography. For example, an ad agency art director comes up with an idea, then hires a photographer for their creative ability to enhance that idea. </p>

<p>When a client comes to me with tear sheets of other people's work, or fashion shots from Vogue that they want to duplicate, I diplomatically suggest that I'd prefer creating something just as special but exclusively for them ... which they rarely disagree with. Then my creative challenge is do exactly what I promised.</p>

<p>That task is easier than it may seem. It just takes some pre-thinking/pre-planning so you are ready. Often the place where the wedding/reception takes place will provide the necessary inspiration. Many wedding shots do not take advantage of the location that the client paid for. Again, it is then up to us to make art of it.</p>

<p>Part of the preparation is to have the tools and knowledge necessary to take advantage of almost any eventuality. Not that you'd carry everything you own to a wedding, but with a bit of investigation you can take exactly what you'll need to pull off a special image. Lighting is one of those tools, for example. </p>

<p>Here is a shot that the client requested. I found out that the ambient lighting was extremely poor for what the client expected. I took lighting with me and placed it in an unexpected manner rather than a flat front lighting scenario that most photographers would have done (which looked horrible). The client got their "content" and I made a "bit of art" of it.</p>

<p>- Marc</p>

<p> </p><div></div>

[BrianS1664879711]

<p>Great points, Marc. And a really nice portrait... your client had good idea and you have a good eye!</p>

[shawn_mertz]

<p>Wedding photography is a craft or art, stick to your style as much as possible. If a potential client doesn't match what you do encourage them to look into other photographers and explain why. Starting out they might say they love your work but they really just love your price. Your sales talks need to draw out what they want and if a poor match you can back out. Ideally at the end of the process both the customer and photographer should be satisfied with the results.</p>

[pavl_kay]

<p>My clients hire me to photograph their weddings as I bear witness to them. In fact, my contract states that they are hiring me for <em>my</em> photographic interpretation of their event. While I make small concessions here and there, now and then, I do not aim to capture what I think the client will like; my goal is to always capture the wedding in the way I feel is most appropriate. I'm quite open about this with clients and it's stated without any uncertainty throughout my website. If prospects don't appreciate this (and the majority of website visitors don't) then that's too bad -- they can hire one of the other thousand photographers in the area and end up with photos that are interchangeable for everyone else's. Personally, I'd rather eat glass than shoot what typically passes for wedding photography these days.<br>

<br /> A great benefit of taking such a stubbornly artistic position with regards to my business is that I've never had a client I didn't enjoy working with. No bride- or groomzillas with princess and prince complexes.<br>

(Edit: I would like to point out that wedding photographers are not vendors and need to stop referring to themselves as such; we do not vend or peddle small goods. Every time I see a photographer referring to themselves as a vendor, I feel that they're inherently cheapening the perception of their services.)</p>