1 – Create your own style
Be yourself. Post authentically. Don’t try and be someone you are not. Find a style and vision that is your own. Make sure it matches what you believe in and stick to it. Study others but let that influence translate into your work and push your work to a new level.
If you don’t have a style yet – keep shooting! Following on the sports metaphors, the more at-bats you get, the more time you spend on the range, the better you know your equipment, the better your results will be.
Make a Wish by Photocritic.org on Flickr
2 – Build your portfolio
When starting out it is vital to gain experience, so build your portfolio carefully. It is a bit of chicken or egg dilemma but eventually someone will let you shoot their wedding for free. Once you have one, use that work to get another one.
At first, look for unique weddings (e.g, exotic locations, ethnic weddings, unique style of wedding, etc.) to shoot – this will allow you to distinguish your work more easily. Be prepared to shoot many wedding for free as you build your portfolio. When you have enough excellent shots, put together your portfolio and begin telling your story.
Dance little sister by katialo on Flickr
3 – Use color
Many ‘experts’ insist on B&W and many clients will tell you they only want B&W – I don’t buy it. At times will B&W give a better feel? Sure. But not always. Use color as an additional element in your work. Watch how the light hits colors in your frame and capture it. Look for patterns in colors or color sequences and see let them work for you…you can convert to B&W anytime.
Touched by Photocritic.org on Flickr
4 – Use the internet
I can’t imagine building a wedding photography business without it. The internet is a great equalizer. it let’s you broadcast your message, your style, and your work just as wide and far as the other professionals in your field.
Leverage Twitter, Facebook and weddings sites where potential customers hang out online. Build a blog and update it often with valuable information. Spend time and energy in building your online portfolio – this is your virtual handshake and look in the eye. It better make a good first impression.
5 – Use a Second Photographer As there are no timeouts and no retakes, consider using a second photographer. Be sure you can work with him before jumping into a partnership. It is very important his style meshes; if his style is highly post-processed with studio lighting and equipment – probably won’t mix well with your handheld photojournalistic style.
Right: A Bride by Neona on Flickr
6 – 3 G’s – Get Good Glass
Lenses – buy the best glass possible. Digital cameras might be the biggest marketing hoax in the history of marketing – buy the glass. Going from standard kit lenses to professional series lenses is a watershed change in quality. Forget megapixels, forget sensor size – it’s all in the glass boys and girls…
If you can’t afford Canon L-series (or whatever Nikon’s top-of-the-line equivalent is), try using high-end Sigma or Tamron lenses (their cheap lenses are even worse than Canon’s own kit lenses, but the top-end stuff is 90% as good as L-series glass at 40% of the cost). Failing that, buy yourself a couple of nice prime lenses.
7 – Be Ready
Adrenaline junkies apply here. You’ll love shooting weddings. You should always be ready to shot – keep your finger on the trigger – you never know when the shot of the wedding is coming. Without fail, the shots that are the best are never the ones you think they are or going to be. I almost always find them when searching through pics afterwards….
8 – Know your bride
Well, yes, and the groom as well. Getting to know your bride/groom/wedding party is critical. The better you know them, the more comfortable they will be with you and the easier time you will have make them at ease and getting your shots. As you get to know them, you will feel more and more comfortable moving them around and asking them to try different things.
Most importantly you will be more likely to get authentic, true emotion. Like here:
Photo by Tom Wicky
If I had not been on good terms with this wedding party – I never could have gotten them to light up like this. That emotion makes the shot.
9 – Be Prepared
Go to the venue(s) ahead of the big day, get them to provide you with a brief about who the key people are (Bride and Groom are obvious, but can you tell the groom’s mother from the groom’s mother’s best friend?), and find out if there’s any issues or frictions you should be aware of. I (Haje) once screwed up really badly in one wedding by asking the groom’s mother to pose with the groom’s father – only to discover that they hadn’t been married for 20 years, had gone through a deeply acrimonious break-up, and scarcely were able to stay in the same room together. Needless to say, the photo didn’t come out very well.
The last wedding I did – for a good friend of mine – I didn’t actually make it to the wedding ceremony in time. I blame my satellite navigation system, London Traffic, and the weather, but nonetheless: If you think it may take you 5 hours to get somewhere, plan 10 hours. There’s absolutely no excuse for not showing up at least an hour in advance – in fact, I’m damn lucky they’re still talking to me.
10 – Visualise
Would you let you shoot your own wedding? If the answer is ‘no’, then don’t even embark on this particular adventure – but if it’s ‘yes’ – how would you shoot it? What would you want to have photographed? Which of your guests would you definitely want to appear in the photos somewhere?
Go on, storyboard the top 10 photos you’d like of your own wedding – and then do the same for the wedding you’re about to do. Whatever you do, don’t show these storyboards to anyone, but the process of putting them together will go a long way towards thinking up new ideas ahead of a photo shoot.
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