Wedding Photography Buzz - Digital Wedding Secrets

There are two types of wedding photography assistants who you can hire: ones who have great potential to branch out on their own as a wedding photographer – and ones who have their hearts set on being a good one but have not acquired the necessary skills yet.

I tend to look for that delicate balance between the two. So essentially, what I personally need in a wedding photography assistant or a second shooter is someone who can almost read my mind. When covering weddings, it is my camera as the main photographer who the couple and their families will look at – so the second photographer should be willing to take a backseat in this department. One who likes to hog the limelight, I would not be able to work with harmoniously.

More importantly, a wedding photography assistant and a second shooter should like be an extension of my own arm. He or she should anticipate which items I would need and where we need to be next. Not getting to distracted by the events, being able to control a crowd during group pictures and being the ultimate professional – these are the qualities that you also need to look for in a second shooter if you want to succeed in the business.

Here’s the thing. When you are in the wedding photography business, there are 1,001 tiny details that you need to attend to. But two of the most important factors that you should not forget if you want your business to take off the ground are your websites and wedding photography portfolio. Let’s deal with it one at a time.

First, you do need to have a website constructed so that your existing and potential customers will have a way to gain access to samples of your work, or simply get more information about your wedding photography business.

Second, you do need to have a portfolio which showcases a collection of your best work. Make sure that it’s a concise collection, about 15 to 20 of your best photos will do.

Now, here’s a collection of some links that will help you out when building a portfolio and a website.

- GoDaddy.com and 1and1.com are a couple of cheap yet reliable web hosting providers – which is the first thing that you need to look for when building a website.

- When purchasing a pre-made portfolio, check out BluDomain.com which is known for their higher-end portfolios.

- CarbonMade.com is a site similar to BluDomain.com where you can buy pre-made portfolios – it’s a slightly cheaper but less flashy alternative.

- SimpleViewer and AutoViewer are flash galleries which are easy to use and customizable.

- Also, check out this report created by Photoshelter which indicates the factors that image buyers look for in a photographer’s website.

As a final note, make sure that the domain name that you will choose matches your business name – then you’re all set!

If there’s one aspect of running a wedding photography business that is bound to turn it into a resounding success, that is none other than networking. If you’re still in the startup process, go all out with your networking efforts. Use social networking sites like MySpace, Facebook, Flickr and even Twitter to get your work out there.

Have your closest family, friends and colleagues spread the word about the wedding photography business that you have. Create a network of everyone who is connected in the wedding industry and make sure that they know what your business is all about. Word of mouth is still the best form of advertising.

If you know that you cannot handle a particular wedding event by yourself, refer them to other wedding photographers who can. The ‘competition’ will follow suit and start referring clients that they cannot handle to you. By harnessing the power of networking, your wedding photography business will grow in no time at all.

Even if you are earning a living through creative means, it does not mean that you can do away with the legal mumbo-jumbo involved in the business. The same thing holds true if you are in the wedding photography business.

Basically, you do need to have a contract drafter if you are dealing with clients and you are delivering a type of service to them. The wedding photography contract should include the work being delivered, details like the date and time of the photo shoots, the rates, reproduction rates, copyrights and licenses that both parties should have.

To help you out, read the Business and Legal Forms for Photographers book by Tad Crawford.

One more thing – expert wedding photographers do recommend getting insurance. For a relatively low fee, you will have financial coverage in case something happens to your photography equipment or if something happens to you while you are out in an on-location photo shoot. To learn more about business insurance, check out Photo.net’s information page.

To start right off, what are the elements which should be combined if you want to establish branding in wedding photography? Naturally, you should first come up with the company name that you would like your wedding photography business to be called. It can either be your name, followed by the words wedding photography – or another, more innovative company name which reflects the style of photography that they employ.

Second, create a logo. This is something that should incorporate the image that you want to portray as a wedding photographer. Which type of design, what sort of colors and letter types can reflect the statement that you wish to impart to your niche market?

Finally, make sure that you will use a watermark – which is another crucial element of branding in wedding photography. Basically, the watermark is that stamp that you place on your photos as a deterrent to theft – and as a way of advertising your wedding photography business to anybody who looks at samples of your work.

When you put together all these elements of branding, you can create the exact image that you want to project for your wedding photography business.

Thanks to the improvements in digital photography, professional photographers no longer have to carry with them rolls of films when they are out covering weddings. There is no risk of the film being exposed to too much light and ruining the prints and there’s no need to get the film rolls developed on a lab – digital photos are just plain easier to take, print and publish.

It’s the last part that’s pretty interesting – because publishing your most treasured photos online and sharing them with friends, family members of even total strangers have become a must in this digital world.

I remember this one couple who had a pretty intimate wedding ceremony with only a few of their relatives attending. The first thing that the bride asked me was if I can upload all the wedding photos into an online account so that her friends and relatives who cannot attend the ceremony will have the pictures to look at. It turned out that most of her relatives are living in a faraway state and only a handful of them can make it to her wedding. Naturally, I immediately uploaded the pictures online so that the bride and her relatives can view the wedding photos.

No matter how opposed some photographers are to technology, it is a must to keep up with the times because doing so will allow you to keep up with your clients as well.

So to sum it up, here is a quick list of the reasons why sharing your wedding photos online is a must after covering a wedding. First, you can use the online photo gallery as a feature of the wedding photography packages that you are offering. If there are engagement shots, you can even create a movie or a slideshow which can be shown during the wedding reception.

Second, you can use an online photo sharing website as a convenient way to backup your clients’ wedding photos. Third, you can cater to the requests of the clients when it comes to how they want their online wedding photo galleries to be. Some couples choose to share their wedding photos with the entire world so it can be a public gallery – while others choose to keep the profile private so that only their closest family members and friends can view the photos.

All in all, sharing photos online is a safe, organized and fun way of letting others appreciate the events on a wedding day through the exquisite pictures that you took.

I first started my career in wedding photography by tagging along other professional photographers. Back then, I didn’t dare interfere with the pro’s posed shots so what I did was shoot from a different angle. Otherwise, I would be capturing on film the reaction that the guests have as a particular event during the wedding unfolds. Essentially, I became an unpaid second photographer until I was able to branch out on my own.

Now, does it really make sense for wedding photographers to come in pairs, so to speak, when covering a wedding event? For me, the rule is pretty simple. If it’s a pretty intimate wedding and the engaged couple is on a shoestring budget, I try my best to be everywhere all at the same time. This means that you can’t stay still even for a minute because there’s always a scene just begging to be photographed.

On the other hand, if it’s a medium to large event, I do encourage the clients to pay for the extra wedding photographer. This is especially true if the setting for the wedding ceremony and reception is large.

So what are the benefits that you will get to enjoy as a wedding photographer if you’re not the only one holding the ‘professional’ camera? First, it takes the pressure off of your being the only one who needs to capture the moments on film. You probably won’t even get to have a bathroom break if you’re the only go-to-guy when there’s a picture that the couple wants to be taken.

Second, an additional photographer would increase the depth and variety of the wedding photos that can be taken. For example, I tend to concentrate more on the shots with the bride and groom as the main subject. If the couple wants to capture the mood of the place, the romance of the day and the liveliness of the guests, the second photographer can perfectly capture these moments while I’m focusing on the newlyweds and the people who are physically closest to them.

Even the style that I can use for the photographs will differ from the one used by the second photographer. All in all, it’s a win-win situation as far as the newlywed couple is concerned because of the myriad of styles for the wedding photographs that they will eventually get.

I don’t know if it’s a good thing or a bad thing that engaged couples are still getting married despite a recession. It’s bad enough that almost all business industries are getting hit with the economic crisis, but what’s a starting-up wedding photographer to do if he or she cannot get clients who are willing to dole out money for a set of wedding pictures to be taken by a professional?

What if engaged couples just go with the trend of purchasing disposable cameras and allowing their guests to take their pictures? Or maybe they will just borrow a pretty decent digital camera from a friend and allow a trusted uncle or cousin to take the wedding photos?

This is where your business sense as a wedding photographer should come in. For me, offering scaled back wedding photography packages is a must if you want to keep clients coming to you for their wedding coverage amidst the economic recession.

I do have a few ideas in mind regarding this. First, you can take a look at the current wedding photography packages that you are offering to your clients. If you know that they are really on a shoestring budget, there is still a way for them to enjoy professional wedding photography without paying an arm and a leg for it.

Usually, it’s the prints which make up most of the cost of the wedding photography package. What if you offer them a purely digital wedding photography package? You can probably squeeze in 8R prints of five of their best wedding shots, but the other photos will be on an online gallery and on CD or a DVD copy. This will significantly lower the costs, and they can just order a physical wedding album later on.

If the couple does want a printed album, then you can try to lower the costs of the wedding photography packages that you are offering in other ways. Instead of paying an additional photographer, you can probably just cover the entire wedding by yourself and just use additional equipment.

The point is, you need to go to the financial level that your clients currently are in order to keep up with these tough economic times – and the best way to do this is by offering scaled back wedding photography packages.

As a photographer, nothing frustrates the heck out of me than dealing with the task of gathering the family members, friends and guests all in one group shot together. If the wedding ceremony site is different than the reception site, it could be that some guests have already left for the reception so you can’t get a picture of all of them together in one place.

This is where the help of a family photo coordinator comes in. Basically, the role of the family photo coordinator would be to call the attention of the guests, family members and friends of the couple when they are needed to pose for pictures.

Even if the couple agreed to have a photojournalistic wedding photo album, there will always be one member of the family who would want formal group shots to be taken. So prior to covering a wedding, have a long talk with the soon-to-be-married couple first.

Have them create a checklist of the shots that they want to be taken. Usually, there’s a favorite uncle, a niece who’s the darling of the family that the newlywed couple may want to have a formal picture with. These small details are important if you want to create a wedding album that the newlywed couple and their families will laugh and smile over, or even tease each other with.

While you’re at it, have the bride and groom assign a family photo coordinator for the wedding. On their big day, all that the newlywed couple needs to do is relax and enjoy the events of the day, so they should not be bothered with the task of gathering all their family members around.

As a photographer, it may be the first time that you are meeting all the members of the family so you would not necessarily know who the favorite uncle of the bride is. This is where the family photo coordinator will come in. Since the family photo coordinator is the one who knows everyone in the family, he or she can gather those who are needed in the group shots all in one place. This way, the group photos will be less of a stress, a bit more organized, quick and a lot more fun for the bride and groom.

Bride is always the centre of attraction in every wedding. All eyes are set on the bride alone. Therefore, bride photos should be captured like a timeless memory. You need to pay a lot of attention while clicking down her photos. The bridal photo is just of the bride, no one else, so it is better to click them one week before.

As we all know that the day of wedding is always hectic, so you need to pay a lot of attention towards your makeup and your hair do. The photo shoot of the bride can be at her parent’s home or her own home, to give it a more real and good look.

The bride should be fully dressed up and with her make up as on the final day. Always be sure she has informed her saloon In advance. She needs to look as she’ll look on the final day. This will also be an opportunity for the trial of her dress, make up and hair.

Make sure she is wearing best attire and her best jewelry. Ask her to try some pearl jewelry it suits on everyone. She has to be in her best as it she would be on her wedding. She needs to understand that brides are always the centre of attraction.

She has to feel at the top of the world as it is her wedding and make sure she look fresh and feel relaxed. A bride needs to have a photo session alone because as it is the day of wedding is always hectic so she needs few moments alone. These moments when captured properly in pictures will turn into timeless memories.