Wedding Photography Buzz - Digital Wedding Secrets

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.

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.

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.

I’m quite proud to say that the best aspect of wedding photography where I excel at is setting the expectations of a couple about the results of my work as a photographer.

After the wedding ceremony and reception are over, the only thing that will be left of the couple to remember their big day by are the wedding pictures. This is exactly the reason why wedding photographers are carrying a huge responsibility on their shoulders. The engaged couple are entrusting us to capture on film the events as they unfold during one of the most important days of their lives, so we might as well do a darned good job out of it, right?

And this is where your skills at setting the couple’s expectations should come in. You will not be chosen as the wedding photographer if either the bride or the groom does not like the style of work that you have. Since they already have a preview of the wedding photos that you did before them, the couple might give you feedback on which particular shots it is that they fell in love with.

You may want to recreate a similar shot during their wedding, or take an entirely different shot that the couple previously agreed on. Yet another important aspect of setting the couple’s expectations is asking them to create a list of the must-have weddings shots to be taken on their wedding day.

This way, the couple will get to see the pictures that they expect to see – and more. If you want your reputation as a wedding photographer to improve, word of mouth is still the best way to go. And when you exceed the expectations of a couple about the output of the wedding album that they will receive, word is bound to get around and you will get more clients in the future.

More importantly, make sure that the couple is aware of the terms and conditions of your covering their wedding event. After showing them your style of work, make sure to ask the couple about the number of shots that they want, the moments during the wedding that they want photographed for posterity, the prints that they will receive, the price of the wedding photography charges and the possible additional charges that they may incur, if any.

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.

A profession that allows you to capture the special moments of somebody’s life is the best. If you have chosen to be a photographer then I have jotted down some tips for you, these will definitely help you in proving yourself as a photographer.

MAKE SURE YOU UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE GETTING INTO:

You need to understand this very well and you also need to know that at any point if your photos are not up to the mark you will not get disappointed at any point. You need to learn at first that if the photos which you have taken has not came as per your expectations then it doesn’t means that you will leave your profession or get disheartened. Always behave like sportive man and try to win the race every time. Your trial is your first reward.

WRITE A LETTER OF AGREEMENT:

As you are a starter and not a professional so you need to sign up a document with your customers that you are not a professional and if anything goes wrong you should not be blamed for it. Off course, you need to tell them that it is just a formality and you will definitely bring out the best results but, don’t tell them that, this document is for your safety and your convince. You need to be very careful as you step in this cruel professional industry. You can be sued for any reason. You need to know the process to deal with such customers.

WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY IS AN EXPENSIVE TASK TO PERFORM:

You need to realize tha5t wedding photography is an expensive task to perform. So, you should better know your price and your fees. You have to have a new set of films, negatives and prints as you go for every new wedding. You need to carry all your equipments and need to spend a whale of time in capturing those moments, so, it is better to discuss these things before only with your customers.

YOU MUST PRACTISE ALL YOUR EQUIPMENTS BEFORE GOING:

Before the final day you should practice all your equipments, if anything is not working properly then pay attention towards it. You need to have back up equipments also with you in order to handle the situation on the final day. Carry an extra set of films with you, so that if anything goes wrong you shouldn’t stop your work.

SPEND TIME IN PRACTISING ALSO BEFORE WEDDING:

Buy books that givers you information about the wedding photography. Take tips from that and spend whale of time in practicing.
Wedding is always special everyone, whether the bride or groom or the audience. If you are an amateur you need to pay attention to each and everything and bring out your best. Discuss everything with your customer and allow him to suggest you, how he or she wants his wedding photos to be. Don’t hesitate about anything, pour your creativity into it and everything will be fine.