Hamish Gill
Tech Support (and Marketing)
One of the most popular ways to break into photography as a career is Wedding Photography, this is very evident in my home town of Worcester where since the beginning of the economic down turn there seems to be a whole host of new wedding photographers.
In this series of articles we shall look at how to get started in the wedding photography profession as I see it.
The tips I offer are from my own experiences and are not necessarily the right way, but hopefully they will give you some ideas!
Starting out
Its a bit of a chicken and egg situation, you need wedding related images to promote your self, but you need to do a wedding to take images to to get the photos to use. So how do you get wedding related photos to use before you are set up as a wedding photographer?
There are a few options here.
The first relates to a bit of luck, if you know anyone who is getting married, why not offer to take some extra shots for them?
If you intend to take this course of action, just be aware that they will be paying someone else to do the official wedding photography. With this in mind, speaking from the perspective of a someone who has been doing this for a few years, I can give you a few tips on how to do it without effecting the photography of the official photographer!
As a wedding photographer there is nothing quite as distracting is being interrupted by another photographer asking to take specific shots.
Don't do this! The official photographer is under enough pressure to get things done without you getting under his feet.
Don't hang over the official photographers shoulder getting the same shots as he/she is, its very off putting for the photographer and you will find that the subject of the photo doesn't know which camera to look at!
If you are creative enough to be considering this as a career, you should be able to take nice shots from a different angle! Often shots where the bride and grooms attention is else where turn out quite nicely anyway!
Just make sure the angle you choose is not in the line of sight of the official photog!
If you wish to give your subject any direction make sure it is at a time when the official photographer is not photographing that person, or indeed is likely to want to photograph that person.
The best way to achieve this is to wait until the official photographer has left!
In simple terms, basically don't interact distract or even talk to the official photographer ... They will probably not appreciate hearing that you are there to take extra shots and are thinking of setting up your own business!
Alternatively if that sounds to much to be worrying about, you can offer to do the wedding photography for them for free!
This is a bit of a gamble, and you need to be confident you can produce the goods! Hopefully reading these articles might give you some that confidence that you are working like a pro, but really you have to be sure you can get the photos right!
If taking this course of action I would recommend practicing the sort of photography you intend to do in situations that are less pressurised!
For example, if you intend to do reportage style Photography, Start of taking photos of family in the sort of style you might want to at a wedding.
Beyond that, why not go to an event of some sort, it can really be anything where people might expect to see a photographer!
Taken at a battle re-enactment event
Or maybe just photos of people in the street?
This will all give you a bit of a chance to build up the confidence to take photos of strangers, if you can take photos of strangers under those circumstances then you will be fine at a wedding!
Another confidence builder would be to offer to take the couple to a location of their choice to Take some "pre-wedding" shots, the wedding venue might be a sensible idea! This will give you an idea of how comfortable you will be on the day, but it will also give the couple a good idea of if they are confident with you doing their wedding photos! If you take some good shots and they like them, they will feel it is less of a risk to book you, and it should do something for your confidence!
The third option, and perhaps a wise thing to do additionally to one of the above, is to offer your new found services to a pair of strangers for free!
I did this by approaching a manager of a hotel and suggesting that they offer my services for free to a their next client! Of course you will need to show the hotel manager that you are good enough! If you find that you are repeatedly turned down then maybe you need to put in a bit more practice. I found this to be a good benchmark for me. The hotel manager was willing to put his name on the line based on the quality of my images, that in it's self was a boost to my confidence!
You could also offer this as a service on your website, tell all your friends to tell their friends etc... Just be aware that you will need to prove your worth, don't expect to get a wedding job based on a bunch of photos of your mates at a BBQ!
Look out for Part 2 coming soon!
In this series of articles we shall look at how to get started in the wedding photography profession as I see it.
The tips I offer are from my own experiences and are not necessarily the right way, but hopefully they will give you some ideas!
Starting out
Its a bit of a chicken and egg situation, you need wedding related images to promote your self, but you need to do a wedding to take images to to get the photos to use. So how do you get wedding related photos to use before you are set up as a wedding photographer?
There are a few options here.
The first relates to a bit of luck, if you know anyone who is getting married, why not offer to take some extra shots for them?
If you intend to take this course of action, just be aware that they will be paying someone else to do the official wedding photography. With this in mind, speaking from the perspective of a someone who has been doing this for a few years, I can give you a few tips on how to do it without effecting the photography of the official photographer!
As a wedding photographer there is nothing quite as distracting is being interrupted by another photographer asking to take specific shots.
Don't do this! The official photographer is under enough pressure to get things done without you getting under his feet.
Don't hang over the official photographers shoulder getting the same shots as he/she is, its very off putting for the photographer and you will find that the subject of the photo doesn't know which camera to look at!
If you are creative enough to be considering this as a career, you should be able to take nice shots from a different angle! Often shots where the bride and grooms attention is else where turn out quite nicely anyway!
Just make sure the angle you choose is not in the line of sight of the official photog!
If you wish to give your subject any direction make sure it is at a time when the official photographer is not photographing that person, or indeed is likely to want to photograph that person.
The best way to achieve this is to wait until the official photographer has left!
In simple terms, basically don't interact distract or even talk to the official photographer ... They will probably not appreciate hearing that you are there to take extra shots and are thinking of setting up your own business!
Alternatively if that sounds to much to be worrying about, you can offer to do the wedding photography for them for free!
This is a bit of a gamble, and you need to be confident you can produce the goods! Hopefully reading these articles might give you some that confidence that you are working like a pro, but really you have to be sure you can get the photos right!
If taking this course of action I would recommend practicing the sort of photography you intend to do in situations that are less pressurised!
For example, if you intend to do reportage style Photography, Start of taking photos of family in the sort of style you might want to at a wedding.
Beyond that, why not go to an event of some sort, it can really be anything where people might expect to see a photographer!
Taken at a battle re-enactment event
Or maybe just photos of people in the street?
This will all give you a bit of a chance to build up the confidence to take photos of strangers, if you can take photos of strangers under those circumstances then you will be fine at a wedding!
Another confidence builder would be to offer to take the couple to a location of their choice to Take some "pre-wedding" shots, the wedding venue might be a sensible idea! This will give you an idea of how comfortable you will be on the day, but it will also give the couple a good idea of if they are confident with you doing their wedding photos! If you take some good shots and they like them, they will feel it is less of a risk to book you, and it should do something for your confidence!
The third option, and perhaps a wise thing to do additionally to one of the above, is to offer your new found services to a pair of strangers for free!
I did this by approaching a manager of a hotel and suggesting that they offer my services for free to a their next client! Of course you will need to show the hotel manager that you are good enough! If you find that you are repeatedly turned down then maybe you need to put in a bit more practice. I found this to be a good benchmark for me. The hotel manager was willing to put his name on the line based on the quality of my images, that in it's self was a boost to my confidence!
You could also offer this as a service on your website, tell all your friends to tell their friends etc... Just be aware that you will need to prove your worth, don't expect to get a wedding job based on a bunch of photos of your mates at a BBQ!
Look out for Part 2 coming soon!
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