Wedding Photography Buzz - Digital Wedding Secrets

Are you the type of wedding photographer who barks out commands, or say them softly but firmly? If you want to be taken seriously in the business, there’s a need to convey your authority to the second shooter who you will be working with.

If you don’t want to come off as someone who’s abrupt, have a good, long talk with the assistant or second shooter who you’ll be working with. Tell him or her that unless you get everything right, you will be wasting everyone’s time – including the bride’s and groom’s – as well as that of their guests and families.

As such, everything needs to be done quickly and efficiently. Just imagine how disastrous it would be if you are unable to shoot the newlywed’s first kiss because your assistant forgot to load your camera’s batteries!

All in all, if you want to have a successful wedding coverage, preparation is the key – and hiring a good assistant or second shooter is also a must.

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!

When I was first starting out in the wedding photography business and I had zero clients, I remember trying to give away my services practically for free – just so that I can gain enough experience covering wedding events. But later on, I realized that I did need to put a tag price on my services if I want to be considered as a professional wedding photographer.

Basically, you need to create that delicate balance between a pricing that will you’re your wedding photography efforts financially worth it – while avoiding driving away clients because your prices are too high.

Here’s a great formula that you can use if you want to come up with a reasonable pricing for the wedding photography packages that you offer:

Price = Rate *(Expenses for Planning + Shooting + Editing + Travel) *(10% Incidentals)

To learn more about how you can properly create a price list for the wedding packages that you offer, visit FotoQuote which provides price quotations for various types of photography.

When creating a price list for the wedding packages that you plan to offer, make sure to include details like what is included with the package – and the rates for any additional services that they may require.

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.

Fortunately for wedding photographers like me, there is no need to scout for photo shoot locations by foot. Thanks to the proliferation of the Internet, you can now do the scouting of beautiful locations right in the comfort of your own home.

And for this task, there is no better tool to use than Google Earth. The way that Google Earth works in showing online users a close up look at locations the world over is a combination of topographical maps and real-time satellite imagery. The good thing about using online tools like Google Earth is that you can visualize in advance what the photo shoot will look like, simply by browsing through their site.

Whether you are looking for creative ideas for the location of an engagement photo shoot or if you are scouting for locations for an unusual wedding photo shoot location as requested by your client, Google Earth will definitely come in handy.

Outdoor wedding creates a natural scene for your special moment. The natural elements like sun, beach, sand and most of all the lovely cute dresses which you can wear on a beach. The natural things always remain natural and there beauty can never be defined. But don’t worry because you can very well frame and capture those moments in your camera.

Unfortunately there is a drawback that these natural elements never remain the same. We have no control on them but still they are very different from the indoors ones. For the best photography outside also on your wedding, you need to help the photographer a lot in order to bring out the best results.

SET A GOOD BACKGROUND:

Like with indoor wedding ceremony and indoor photography, you need to choose the best background and then fulfill all the requirements according to that. Off course you need to discuss it with your photographer. If you are more comfortable with the beach scene, you can go for that, otherwise standing on the edge, you can bring out the pictures from a mountain side also.
It will be better if you set a small and nice background. It looks more glorified in pictures and takes less time to set up. You can easily go for anyone you feel like and discuss it with your photographer. After all, he is a professional and knows better then you.

NATURAL LIGHTING:

The natural sunlight which you will find in an outdoor location, will not at all give a nice look to your pictures. Your pictures will be blurred and the background will not be seen properly. So it is better to keep the timings either before or after sunset because that will add on a nice color and texture to your wedding pictures. The sunlight creates very distinct shadows which doesn’t looks well on pictures.

CONSIDER BLACK AND WHITE:

If you don’t get your wedding as you like, I think you should better go for black and white and eliminate all the colors from the pictures. It gives a nice and ethnic look. It can easily be done by trick photography and you can take advices from your photographer as well.

Whatever the time of your wedding is, just try to make it special by adding more clauses to it. You can very well feel the magic of outdoor wedding when you will see the beautiful pictures. Try organizing for a professional photographer, he will always do as you say and will bring the best results in outdoor wedding also.