Wedding Photography - Starting from the Groundup

orljustin · Jan 14, 2011

#1 Odd highlight on chin. Strange pose. No particular reason to B&W it. Over processed.
#2 Why is she on a ladder in a field with a purse? Blow highlights on dress. Face underexposed. Foot and hand cut off.
#3 Ok image of woman reading a book. White balance off a bit.

Claire Pacelli · Jan 14, 2011

I am learning a lot from this forum and to echo what I have learned so far.

1. Don't overprocess you want things to look as natural as possible.
2. Be aware of lighting and limbs. Backlight is nice, maybe a reflector to light up her face, shoot wider to get all body parts in the photo, then crop close.
3. Make sure objects aren't growing out of your subjects head.

These are small errors I see in my own photos and would suggest to be aware of in your own shooting =)

Goodluck

ddbowdoin · Jan 19, 2011

Thank you for all the C&C so far... really appreciate it.

cliffy13 · Jan 20, 2011

3 pages in and it amazes me that nobody has mentioned the very first thing I was told as an assistant to a wedding photographer.
Can you get on with and handle people because if you cant wedding photography is not for you.

Remember that you be spending many hours on the big day having to handle crowds of potentially hundreds of people and keep the happy couple relaxed on the most stressfull day of their lives,you need to work with registrars or church ministers and hotel managers and car drivers all of whom will blame you if timings go off and turn to you if they need the couple to kill some time as the meal is a bit late etc etc.

So if you can say yes to all that you are on the right road

KmH · Jan 20, 2011

The lighting in all 3 is poorly done. Addressing the lighting only -

#1 - Dappled sunlight makes for poor photos. In this type of situation a diffuser is placed between the subject and the sunlight, in effect creating shade. Strobe light is then used to light the subject and visually separate the subject from the background. (light advances, dark recedes)

#2 - The subject is back lit, requiring fill lighting (reflected, strobed, preferably both) to properly expose the subject. By using strobed lighting the background can be made darker than the subject so the subject 'pops'. At the least, strobed lighting allows balancing the bright background with the shaded subject. (light advances, dark recedes)

#3 - The lamp light is overexposed. Again, strobed lighting allows control of 2 exposures:

the ambient light exposure
the strobed light exposure

You will need to use strobed lighting to shoot quality wedding images.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photographic_lighting

Fill flash or "fill-in flash" describes flash used to supplement ambient light in order to illuminate a subject close to the camera that would otherwise be in shade relative to the rest of the scene. The flash unit is set to expose the subject correctly at a given aperture, while shutter speed is calculated to correctly expose for the background or ambient light at that aperture setting.

starseed1116 · Jan 21, 2011

red1013 said:
As far as your dream goes go for it!!!! We all had to start our buisness some time. Just know when shootin a wedding you only get one shot at it so be sure you know what you are doing and have the ability to do it without thinking about it. as far as equipment goes you'll need
2 high quality camera bodies w/decent iso ratings
I use fast lenses with continuous aperatures like f2.8 all the way through your zoom

It's nice to see a constructive statement on here, with a legitimate response to the question that was posed. So many smarta*s remarks on here make me scared to even ask some of the questions I wanted to post. Thanks for being real.

Fujito · Jan 21, 2011

Photography is an art. Art has a lot of critics. If you can't take criticism then don't do art. Now whether you consider commercial photography art is a whole different discussion...

There are a lot of bad wedding photographers out there, and they make a living. So obviously it's not all about your skills as a photographer. Like others have said, it's about marketing yourself. PPPP--price, place, packaging, product. Those are the four P's of marketing. There are five if you include positioning. Your product may suck, but if you do well in showing prospect clients why you have the best say price and packaging for them then you can maybe make some money.

ddbowdoin · Jan 22, 2011

starseed1116 said:
red1013 said:

As far as your dream goes go for it!!!! We all had to start our buisness some time. Just know when shootin a wedding you only get one shot at it so be sure you know what you are doing and have the ability to do it without thinking about it. as far as equipment goes you'll need
2 high quality camera bodies w/decent iso ratings
I use fast lenses with continuous aperatures like f2.8 all the way through your zoom

Click to expand...

It's nice to see a constructive statement on here, with a legitimate response to the question that was posed. So many smarta*s remarks on here make me scared to even ask some of the questions I wanted to post. Thanks for being real.

trust me, I feared the same thing. There's always those types out there, even on forums. Some people love being the tough guy behind a screen... oh well.

peeper · Jan 22, 2011

this isn't exactly about the business end of things, but i can speak from my own experience with wedding photography.....

assist a pro that is willing to mentor you....

i was lucky enough to be befriended by a local pro who invited me along for a wedding.....i brought my gear, stayed out of his line of sight....fetched cards, lenses and camera bodies for him.....for free......in return, he told me what he was doing and why....ie settings, angles, and what shots were "musts"....later, in editing, we went over my images as well as his and he offered critique and insight....

we got along well and he invited me to yet another weddding.....i still fetched, but i was also given the task of detail shots of the reception and decor....

at the third wedding, i second shot...i got a grip on the "must" shots....edited.....and was paid well....

i've shot several weddings on my own now and ....honestly, had i not assisted my mentor beforehand, i would have muffed up someone's special day......

to me, this experience was far more crucial to my business than any marketing or business strategy out there.....

dnavarrojr · Jan 29, 2011

The biggest issue with starting any kind of photography business, in my opinion, is experience. Especially if we're talking weddings. My photography skills have improved over the past year and I'm looking to add weddings to my portfolio, but I know that I am not a wedding photographer (yet). And I am not going to possibly ruin some bride's big day by claiming to be something I'm not.

So my strategy learning wedding photography is to make sure I get myself invited to weddings of everyone I know. I shoot pictures, but I make sure I stay out of the hired photographers way. If possible, I try and buddy up to the photographer to see if s/he will answer questions. I watch the photographers and take notes. Where they position themselves, what equipment they use, etc...

I have shot two weddings myself for friends, but I told them up front that they were better off hiring a wedding photographer and I'd only do it if they couldn't hire one (couldn't find one for their date, or couldn't afford one) and I made them look at my existing portfolio to see what my style of shooting was. Fortunately, in both cases, the bride was happy with my work. I have two more weddings I'm doing this year, again as favors, and then I think I'll be ready to actually add it to my services.

I have tried to offer my services free to a few local wedding photographers in exchange for learning, but this is not a good time for that. Even a few that I am friendly with are leery of letting someone else into the business. Two years ago there were 5 wedding photographers in the phone book, this year there are 31. Most of them don't have a web site to view their work and when you talk to many, they've never actually shot a wedding professionally.