Digital Wedding Photography E-Book

Glen Johnson

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 693

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2011

Beschreibung

Fully revised and updated! Full-color guide to capturing great wedding images and building a successful photography business This full-color book from acclaimed professional wedding photographer Glen Johnson not only teaches you how to take memorable photos, it also shows you how to start a wedding photography business. Packed with great tips and savvy advice, this new edition helps you set up efficient workflows, choose camera equipment, manipulate images, make impressive presentations, and launch smart, photo-based marketing strategies to build your business. Best of all, it's loaded with new, superb photos that illustrate photography techniques. * Shows you how to set up and capture beautiful photos, posed or candid, in all kinds of settings, for weddings and other special events * Offers practical marketing strategies for building your own photography business, including how to build a fantastic Web site that attracts clients * Covers current camera equipment and accessories, post-shoot digital darkroom techniques, digital editing software, and how to print your images successfully * Gives you invaluable insights and tips from the author, who is one of the country's top wedding and special events photographers Capture better pictures of some of life's most memorable events--and build a sucessful photography business--with this indispensable guide!

Leseprobe

Digital Wedding Photography: Capturing Beautiful Memories, Second Edition

Table of Contents

Part I: Understanding Digital Wedding Photography

Chapter 1: The World of Wedding Photography

Capturing Weddings

A Challenging and Rewarding Profession

Using the Tools of the Trade

What camera should you use?

Personality goes a long way

Training your mind

Getting experience

Recording Life's Milestone with Pictures

Breaking Into the Business

Summary

Chapter 2: Developing Your Own Style

Two Business Models

The Aftermarket Sales business model

The Creative Fee business model

Follow the money

Three Styles of Wedding Photography

Traditional style

Photojournalistic style

Portrait Journalism style

Finding a Style That Works for You

Giving Clients What They Want

Summary

Chapter 3: The Right Equipment for the Job

Choosing a Camera of Your Own

Lightweight

Interchangeable lenses

Fast focus

Fast motor drive

Good color

High ISO range

No perceptible shutter lag

Long battery life

Availability of a powerful TTL flash system

LCD screen

Vertical shutter-release button

Short power-on time

Choosing Your Lenses

Wide-angle zoom lens

Medium zoom lens

Telephoto zoom lens

Using Art Cameras and Lenses

Super-wide aperture lenses: 50mm f/1.4

Lensbaby

Infrared camera conversions

Deciding What Flash to Use

Selecting the Right Bag to Carry Your Gear

The photo backpack

The rolling box

The photo vest

Using a Tripod

The Importance of Backup Gear

Summary

Chapter 4: Camera Settings and Digital Exposure

Camera Settings

Color space

File format

Sharpening

Exposure Modes

Aperture priority mode

Shutter priority mode

Program mode

Manual mode

Metering for Proper Exposures

Methods of Exposure Compensation

Exposure lock button

+/– dial adjustment

Manual mode

Digital Exposures

Underexposure

Overexposure

What is the best exposure?

RAW Versus JPEG

Image differences

Minimizing digital noise

Manual conversion advantages

Cheap insurance

Summary

Part II: Wedding Photography Techniques and Concepts

Chapter 5: Composing Your Art

The Rule of Thirds

Moving Into the Frame

Using Empty Space

Cropping People

Shooting a Bull's-Eye

Leading the Focal Point

Natural Posing

The Creative Portrait Session

Think Creative Thoughts

Summary

Chapter 6: Finding Beauty and Emotion in the Dressing Room

Choosing the Right Equipment

Wide-angle lens

Medium lens

70-200mm telephoto lens

Lensbaby

Lighting the Dressing Room

Window light

Fake window light

Shooting the Guy's Room

Getting the Detail Shots

Dressing Room Etiquette

Knock before entering

Talk about the nudity issue

Know what not to shoot

Summary

Chapter 7: Shooting Outdoors

Choosing the Right Equipment

Shooting in Bright Sunlight

Know your camera's dynamic range

Watch the histogram and blinking highlight warning

Shade your lens

Shooting in Overcast Light

Shooting in the Late Evening

Taking Outdoor Group Photos

Shooting in direct, midday sun

Shooting in direct, late-afternoon sun

Finding shade

Using Fill Flash

Backlight Techniques

Using Light Reflectors

Background Choices

Including the background

Minimizing the background

Letting the background pick your lens

Summary

Chapter 8: Shooting Indoors

Choosing the Right Equipment

Tripods

Slaves

Lighting the Set

Basic lighting setups for groups

Indirect flash techniques

Adjusting White Balance

JPEG shooters

RAW shooters

Minimizing Reflections

Choosing Your Locations

Architectural features

Type of lighting

Time considerations

The altar area

Summary

Chapter 9: Documenting the Ceremony

Must-Have Shots

Ceremony Etiquette

Flash Etiquette

General Ceremony Information

Networking

Strange situations

Emotional moments

Working with Extreme Light

Direct sunlight

Low-light ceremony shots

Catching the Guests

Where to Be and When

Pre-ceremony

Mid-ceremony

End of ceremony

Summary

Chapter 10: Capturing Candid Moments

Seeing Candid Moments

Character studies

Face the faces

Watch and wait

Choosing the Right Equipment

When to use a long lens

When to use a wide lens

Summary

Chapter 11: Creating Romance in the Magic Hour

Choosing the Right Equipment

When to use a long lens

When to use a wide lens

When to use art lenses

Defining the Romantic Image

Deconstructing Romance

Creating the Photo Shoot

Pre (or post) bridal shoot

Pep talk before the photo shoot

Digital Romance: Creating Passion with the Computer

Summary

Chapter 12: Jazzing Up the Reception

Must-Have Reception Shots

The decorations and location

The food and beverages

The cake cutting

The first dance

The bouquet and garter tosses

The dance floor

The grand exit

Other reception shots

Flash Basics for Shooting at Night

Getting the most from high ISO settings

Avoiding flash shadows

Camera mode

TTL flash difficulties

Flash to ambient exposure ratio

Ghosting

Flash Setting Scenarios

Shooting the average reception

Freezing fast action at night

Lighting large areas with little strobes

Cross-lighting the dance floor

Fun Motion Techniques

The twirl

The shimmy

Panning

Using a guest flash

Working with moving Spot, Strobe, and Disco Lights

Spotlights

Videographer lights

Lights in your contract

Shooting with Candle Light

Reception Advice for the Bride

Light the reception carefully

Don't rush the bouquet and garter tosses

Dance to the photographer

Meals for the Photographers

Summary

Part III: The Business of Digital Wedding Photography

Chapter 13: Creating Your Own Workspace

Workspace Options

Studio

Office

Home office

Designing Your Workspace

Wall colors

Seating

Lighting

Conducting Client Interviews

Digital projector versus flat-screen TVs

Music

Viewing area

Interview-free bookings

Setting Up Your Office

Essential computer hardware

Essential software for photographers

Other essential equipment

Summary

Chapter 14: Digital Workflow: Getting Images from Camera to Client

Understanding Workflow

Wedding Workflow Overview

Part 1: Shooting the Images

Preparing for the shoot

Shooting the pictures

Transferring the images from camera to computer

Creating backups

Part 2: Processing the Images

Import and convert to .dng format

Organizing the good and deleting the bad

Color correcting the “keepers”

Renaming the files

Outputting RAW images to JPEGs

Archiving the finished files

Producing the final products

Delivering the final products

Summary

Chapter 15: Manipulating Your Images

Non-Destructive Imaging

Destructive Imaging

Lightroom Tips and Techniques

The user interface

Tool palette tips

Adjusting color balance

Using the Sync control

Making and using presets

Moving the histogram

Using the Adjustment sliders

Using the Adjustment tools

Photoshop Tips and Techniques

Working in layers

Understanding masks

Adjusting levels

Changing brightness and blending with Layer modes

Sharpening images

Working with High Dynamic Range Images

Capture techniques

HDR software choices

Summary

Chapter 16: Creating the Finished Product

Proofs

Paper proofs

Digital proofs

Slide shows on CD

Prints

Purchasing prints from a lab

Making your own prints

Image Files as a Finished Product

Specify Home Use Rights

Other files to include with your finished images

Albums

The album contract

The design stage

Client review and input

Videos

Studio Management Software

Summary

Chapter 17: Cracking the Secret Code: Breaking into the Business

Networking

Networking with the locals

Networking with other photographers

Networking with coordinators

Networking during interviews

Advertising

Magazines

Wedding websites

Wedding shows

Printed materials

Finder's fees

Interviewing Clients

Qualify the client

Interview location

Points to cover

Presenting the contract

Vendor recommendations

Vendor clubs

Summary

Chapter 18: Show Yourself: A Website of Your Own

Fundamental Concepts

Internet service

Domain name

Website host

Search engines

Two Ways to Create Your Site

Build your own site

Hire someone to build a site for you

The Construction Phase

Make it search engine friendly

Links and navigation

What to include

Software for creating your website

Template websites: blessing or curse?

Copying from other photographer's websites

Slide-show options

SEO: How to Get Found

SEO Techniques

Keywords

Title tag

Links

Anchor text

Page text

Make Your Site Search-Engine Friendly

Images

Flash

Frames

JavaScript

Robots.txt and Sitemap.txt

Summary

Chapter 19: Destination Weddings

Reality Check

How to Find the Jobs

Your website

Wedding coordinators

Paid advertising

Travel Arrangements

Airline travel tips

Taxi travel tips

Bus travel tips

Recording your travel expenses for tax purposes

Health Issues

Travelers' diarrhea

Dangerous critters

Dangerous people

First aid kit

International Travel Paperwork

Obtaining foreign work permits

Crossing U.S. borders

Specialized Equipment for Travel

Carry-on camera case

Gear in the suitcase

Carry-on backpack

How to Calculate a Fee

Two Reasons to Do Destination Weddings

Is It a Job or a Vacation?

Summary

Appendix A: How-To Gallery

Digital Wedding Photography: Capturing Beautiful Memories, Second Edition

Glen Johnson

Digital Wedding Photography: Capturing Beautiful Memories, Second Edition

Published byWiley Publishing, Inc.10475 Crosspoint BoulevardIndianapolis, IN 46256www.wiley.com

Copyright © 2011 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Indianapolis, Indiana

Published simultaneously in Canada

ISBN: 978-0-470-65175-9

Manufactured in the United States of America

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About the Author

Glen Johnson, an acclaimed wedding photographer whose client list spans the globe, has shot more than 50 weddings outside the United States. His website, www.aperturephotographics.com, is filled with inspirational images and wedding stories as well as a lot of information for both photographers and brides.

Glen is a founding member of Best of Wedding Photography. This invitation-only group is the premier association for the world's top wedding photographers. Glen regularly provides input in the direction for the group as well as serves on the review board to choose which photographers are invited for membership.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to my mom for being my constant cheerleader in everything I do, and thanks to my father for encouraging me in photography and for sending me to my first photo seminar, and especially for letting me steal every camera he ever owned.

Credits

Acquisitions Editor

Aaron Black

Project Editor

Katharine Dvorak

Technical Editor

Haje Jan Kamps

Copy Editor

Lauren Kennedy

Editorial Director

Robyn Siesky

Business Manager

Amy Knies

Senior Marketing Manager

Sandy Smith

Vice President and Executive Group Publisher

Richard Swadley

Vice President and Executive Publisher

Barry Pruett

Project Coordinator

Patrick Redmond

Graphics and Production Specialists

Andrea HornbergerJennifer Mayberry

Proofreader

Cynthia Fields

Indexing

Estalita Slivoskey

Preface

I was shooting a wedding in the Bahamas where the bride and groom purchased a “package” wedding from a large resort. The package came with a minister, a videographer, and all of the other essentials except the photographer (me), which the couple arranged separately because they wanted more than what the typical hotel photographer provides. On the day of the wedding, I did my usual photojournalistic thing until just before the ceremony when the videographer arrived. This man stepped up with a loud voice and took over the reins of that whole wedding. From then on, he and the minister ran the show completely, telling the bride and groom where to stand, when to move, where to put each hand, how to hold the pen, and even when to smile at the camera — much to my dismay. They were arranging shots for me (which I didn't ask for) and then saying, “There you go, Mr. Photographer! That's how we do it here in the Bahamas!”

When the first dance started, the videographer was occupied at the bar but he quickly came charging back with a drink in his hand and a napkin flying in the air behind him. He was waving his hands and motioning across his throat at the DJ to cut the music. The DJ was ignoring him so he finally just yelled, “Stop!” which of course everyone did. Then he walked out onto the dance floor and carefully placed the groom on one side, and the bride on the other, and then he grabbed his camera and motioned for the DJ to start the music again.

Only a few weeks before this scene, I witnessed another bride in the Bahamas almost subjected to the same treatment. However, she stopped all of that nonsense right in the beginning. She told the minister and videographer how she wanted the events to go, and if they didn't want to do it her way, they could just pack up! At first, the minister didn't want to comply, but when she told her father to ask him to leave, he changed his mind. She then proceeded to have a very quiet ceremony that went exactly her way, with no interruptions.

Those two very different experiences made me think about how those of us in the wedding business go about our business. Sometimes videographers, ministers, and we photographers forget to honor the sacredness of the wedding. We all see so many weddings that we forget this is the first and perhaps only time the bride and groom will ever experience it. Our familiarity makes us good at what we do, but it also wears away our perception of the sacredness of the event. Before long, each wedding is simply another day at work, and we are eventually tempted to herd our clients through the paces.

Thankfully, a change is swirling in the air around the wedding photography industry. The move toward photojournalism brings with it a change toward relinquishing control — a change toward allowing the bride and groom to express their individuality, creating their own ceremony within the bounds of whatever religion they choose without us “professionals” trying to force them into our perception of what a wedding should be.

If you enjoy photography and you want to develop those skills into a marketable business, there are many options in the photography world. This book will help you decide if wedding photography is the right path for you.

Is This Book for You?

This book is not a beginning photography book. You will find very little information here on f-stops, apertures, or how to operate your camera. If you need to learn beginning photography, this book is not the place to start, and I would add that taking on a paid wedding at such a beginning stage could be considered a criminal act. If you already feel fairly comfortable with the basics of photography, and you want to learn how to apply those skills to shooting weddings, then this is the book for you.

If you're looking for a book full of perfectly exposed inspirational images — this is not it. This is a textbook about the basics of wedding photography. Of course I'll try to squeeze in a favorite shot or two when I can, but if you want to see my own best images, check out my website where I have them on display. Many of the images in these pages were chosen from my files because they illustrate what not to do. As such, they are often pulled directly out of the trash, where they belong. I'm a big believer in the idea that your mistakes are your greatest teachers, and this book is full of them.

Anyone interested in learning wedding photography, and particularly how to do it with digital equipment, will find this book useful. Seasoned photographers looking to branch out into shooting weddings will also find it useful, although of course they won't have as much to gain as a complete beginner to the wedding photography business.

After reading through the chapters in this book, you should have enough information to feel comfortable signing on as a second photographer with a more established wedding photographer. If you can't find a mentor like that, the knowledge in this book provides insight about the thoughts, attitude, camera techniques, and business practices to give you a good solid starting point from which you can comfortably take on (preferably free of charge) those first few small weddings on your own.

Being tuned into the things in your environment is key to finding and using the beautiful elements each wedding location has to offer.

What Does This Book Cover?

In this book I take an in-depth look at the challenging and rewarding world of digital wedding photography. Whether you are an aspiring amateur or a professional looking to add weddings into your business, I provide valuable insights and information to assist you on your way to becoming a digital wedding photographer.

Part I: Understanding Digital Wedding Photography

This book is organized into three parts with 19 chapters. Part I is a general overview of styles, equipment, daily workflow, and some specifics about composing good images.

In Chapter 1 I provide a general overview of the business of wedding photography.

We must remember that the bride and groom hire us to create a beautiful record of their wedding — not to create the wedding itself. We must also remember that the purpose of a wedding is to publicly announce the couple's agreement to be bound together as a family for the rest of their lives, and contrary to what some photographers seem to believe, a wedding is not a photo shoot.

In writing this book, my wish is that a new generation of photographers will continue the current trend of working in a more discreet fashion through the ceremony while still enjoying unhindered creativity in the more quiet moments of the wedding day.

In Chapter 2 I provide an overview of the different styles of wedding photography and how the style is determined by your personality type and the sort of images you prefer to shoot. If you're just starting out, this chapter may give you some direction in developing your own style.

Wedding photographers have a set of unique and very specific equipment needs, as you'll discover in Chapter 3. Many equipment choices you make are simply a matter of personal preference, while others are dictated almost completely by the specific requirements of the job at hand. No matter how serious your business aspirations are, this chapter can give you a long list of qualities to look for as you shop for that perfect camera system.

In Chapter 4 I discuss the various ways to set up your camera and how all the settings are used in a wedding photography context.

Creating beautiful images requires an advanced knowledge of how to use your camera and the specific ways to set it up for wedding photography.

Part II: Wedding Photography Techniques and Concepts

In Part II I go into depth about the thought process and techniques used to shoot a wedding. Topics range from camera setup to where to stand at any particular moment during the ceremony.

In Chapter 5 I discuss how the rules of good composition are simply guidelines that help to set you on your way toward creating great art. These guidelines are valuable to all artists, but the beginner stands to gain the most from learning and adhering to them. As you master the basics, you develop a feel for when you can bend or break the rules and still create images that work.

In Chapter 6 I cover information on how to develop a comfortable relationship with people while shooting in the dressing rooms. Anyone getting started in wedding photography needs to know how to approach the dressing rooms so that your clients will trust you to capture great images while still respecting everyone's need for privacy. Other topics range from what sort of equipment is needed, what settings to use, dressing room etiquette, how to arrange the room, and how to create detail shots that capture the feeling of the day.

In Chapter 7 I discuss general concepts and specific techniques that can help you deal with changing outdoor light conditions, from the bright sun of a mid-day ceremony to the complete darkness you may encounter with a late evening event.

Shooting indoor weddings requires some specialized equipment as well as a lot of knowledge about how an indoor ceremony works. In Chapter 8 I cover everything from how to put out the candles, how to set up your lights, how to avoid reflections, and how to select a good background for family groups. Reflections are discussed in detail because they are a constant threat to your indoor images and you need to know why they happen and how to avoid them if you want to shoot indoors. The dark scenes you often encounter shooting indoors present a unique set of challenges, forcing you to make decisions about whether to set your ISO high and go for the natural light look or to use artificial light and lose the natural qualities of the scene. Your personal shooting style dictates which type of images you choose to create.

The ceremony can easily be considered the pinnacle of every wedding day. In Chapter 9 I provide an in-depth look at this important time in the wedding day. Months of preparation lead up to this one moment and yet when it actually happens, it seems to go by so fast that I often find myself standing there thinking, “Is that it? Is that all of it?” Thankfully, most weddings follow a predictable sequence of events that seldom varies within the United States. This predictability enables an experienced wedding photographer to stand in exactly the right spot at exactly the right time to catch the most important events. In this chapter I share some insights and the thought processes that go into every movement that a professional photographer makes during those few fleeting moments of the ceremony.

In Chapter 10 I provide information on equipment to use as well as tips on capturing candids by learning how to see them coming. A good candid image captures a spontaneous natural moment. Candids frequently tell a story, but more important, they simply capture people living their lives. The images are not contrived or posed. Candids catch rare and fleeting moments of reality — often achieving a “snapshot” look by trading perfect photographic technique for speed.

In Chapter 11 I describe a few of the techniques and thought processes that go into creating a type of image that contains such elusive qualities that no words can fully describe what it is or how it should look. For thousands of years, artists have been trying to capture or create images that portray romance. Photographers, painters, and sculptors alike all struggle with the same question, “What does romance look like?” For that matter, what is romance? Like beauty, romance is an elusive trait that only the eyes of the beholder can judge. Every person knows it when he or she sees it, yet no two viewers see it in the same place.

In Chapter 12 I talk about shooting at the reception. During the hours that follow the ceremony, you will have few responsibilities and only a couple of “must have” shots to capture. There are shots of the food, the first dance, the cake cutting, and the garter and bouquet toss. The last portion of this chapter introduces some advanced flash techniques that are so much fun to experiment with that you may find yourself staying at the reception far into the night.

After the ceremony there is often time to walk around the grounds and shoot some creative images with just the couple.

Part III: The Business of Digital Wedding Photography

The last section of the book looks at the most important and least glamorous side of wedding photography — running a business. Topics in Part III include how to create your own workspace, what types of equipment you need, and what sort of products you might offer to your clients.

In Chapter 13 I offer a brief overview of the workplace options and office equipment you need to create a full-featured digital wedding business capable of handling all aspects of image processing and client contacts. The space needed may be as small and unassuming as a spare bedroom or as large as a full-featured studio, without having any effect on the style or the quality of the final product. In this chapter I look at the physical space where a wedding photographer works on a day-to-day basis, as well as the many different types of equipment and software needed to run a successful photography business.

In Chapter 14 I cover the topic of digital workflow. I break down the whole process into the major parts and then analyze the various jobs you must perform in this rewarding yet tedious part of a digital photographer's day. Each photographer must develop an organized system that allows work to flow from one task to the next as each job progresses from beginning to end. Tasks include downloading and editing the previous weekend's images, backing them up on the computer, editing out the bad ones, and finally delivering the images to the client. The workflow information you gain in this chapter can help you to streamline your business so that it functions as efficiently as possible.

In Chapter 15 you'll find an overview of the techniques used to manipulate images in Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom. These two programs dominate the wedding photography business today and mastering their use will be one of your greatest challenges as a wedding photographer.

In Chapter 16 I look at the various ways you can deliver finished products to your clients. Current options include online print sales, albums, DVD data discs, DVD slide shows, and more. The digital age is teeming with products that you can offer to your wedding clients. The choices are so numerous that the job of narrowing down to the best offerings is a difficult and time-consuming task.

Breaking into the wedding photography business may seem like a daunting task to the beginner. In Chapter 17 I discuss the major options for finding jobs and provide tips on who to talk to about finding jobs. In this chapter I also discuss how to conduct client interviews. After all, finding a client is not the same as getting one to sign a contract. Knowing where to meet and what to talk about in client interviews is vital to your ability to get the signature on that contract.

In Chapter 18 I discuss the topic of web sites. Your website is the single most important part of the advertising puzzle. If you don't have one, you don't exist. And if you have one, but you don't know how to set it up for basic search engine optimization (SEO), then for all practical purposes, your website still doesn't exist. Your website has to be attractive, and your clients have to be able to find it.

In Chapter 19 I take a look into the special requirements and rewards of destination weddings. Topics include options for marketing yourself to these clients, pricing the job, choosing the right equipment for travel, and getting there and back in one piece.

Dramatic couple shots are always challenging and fun to create. If you shoot destination weddings, the challenge is multiplied by the fact that every wedding takes place in a completely new location.

Contacting the Author

You can contact Glen Johnson by e-mail at [email protected] or [email protected]. For more information about the author and his upcoming projects, visit his website at www.aperturephotographics.com.

Please note that some special symbols used in this eBook may not display properly on all eReader devices. If you have trouble determining any symbol, please call Wiley Product Technical Support at 800-762-2974. Outside of the United States, please call 317-572-3993. You can also contact Wiley Product Technical Support at www.wiley.com/techsupport.

Part I: Understanding Digital Wedding Photography

Chapter 1

The World of Wedding Photography

Chapter 2

Developing Your Own Style

Chapter 3

The Right Equipment for the Job

Chapter 4

Camera Settings and Digital Exposure

Chapter 1: The World of Wedding Photography

Wedding photography varies from other types of photography in that you must move from place to place throughout the day, constantly searching for tiny important details to record, and constantly trying to catch your clients in the act of doing something interesting. You'll be expected to create beautiful images at times when they may not appear to exist. The pressure to create art on demand (whether you're in the mood or not) can feel quite overwhelming — especially if the people or the settings don't inspire you. And the pressure mounts even higher when you have to set up and compose twenty group shots with a hundred thirsty people who have only you standing between them and the bar. However, all the external pressures are nothing compared to that internal nagging fear that you have to get it right. Unlike other types of photography, with wedding photography you don't get a second chance to do it over.

Capturing Weddings

Telling the story of an entire wedding day with still images is not something that can be distilled into a simple formula that you can repeat over and over. No two weddings are alike, and even if you go back to the same location over and over again, every day has different light and every wedding has different people and different customs. You can't just sit down the night before to plan your workday or make a list of the images you want to create. You have to be ready and able to handle all sorts of conditions quickly and without help from other people (see Figure 1-1). Your equipment must be reliable and self-contained, and you must have backups of the most critical pieces of equipment, such as the camera body and the flash. Further, everything you use must be fairly portable so that you can easily move it from one location to another during the day without causing much fuss.

Figure 1-1: This first dance took place in a very dark indoor location. You can make it look well lit if you know how to mix your flash to get the foreground, while adjusting your ISO and shutter speed to get just enough of the background.

If you are considering diving into the world of wedding photography as a career, or even as a part time job, you will soon learn that this job is not just about creating a few artistic images on the wedding day. Much more important, wedding photography is a performance art. Those who do it well glide through the day with grace and confidence as they anticipate and capture hundreds of tiny moments of the day. Each picture becomes a fleeting glimpse of everyday events preserved in a way that brings out a hidden beauty that was simply not accessible to the average person until it was captured and then revealed through that particular photographer's vision. And each image is far from a random event captured in a haphazard manner. Each image says something important about the day (see Figure 1-2). And each image is crafted very purposefully; sometimes with the goal of including all the essential pieces of the story; sometimes eliminating all but a single detail; sometimes capturing the light in a specific way; sometimes playing with a shadow; sometimes showing motion; sometimes capturing an emotion. Later, when the best images are viewed together as a slide show or in an album, the collection captures and distills the emotion and the story of the day down to the absolute essentials.

The art of wedding photography is in seeing beauty in everyday life.

Figure 1-2: These items are examples of things you might find in the bride's dressing room, but they were not arranged like this. I gathered them up and placed them here. Teaching you to see opportunities like this and then capture them with your camera is the goal of this book.

A Challenging and Rewarding Profession

The world of digital wedding photography can be both challenging and rewarding. You set your own hours during the week and then work on the weekend at what is probably the grandest party a couple will host in their entire lives. You get to be a “fly-on-the-wall” for one of the most important and emotional days of a new couple's life, inconspicuously following every move the bride and groom make from the time they arrive in the morning until they leave at night. If you become good at it, couples won't hesitate to pay you large sums of money and fly you around the globe for your services.

As glamorous as the job may sometimes sound, in reality, the digital wedding photographer spends long hours sitting in front of a computer, editing images, building a website, working on album pages, answering e-mail messages, burning discs, and much more. The actual wedding shoot is only a small fraction of the job.

A common industry adage about photography is, “You can be the greatest photographer in the world and still starve; or you can be a mediocre photographer and make millions if you're good at running a business.”

I've had young people ask me what sort of college classes they should take to prepare them for a career in photography. My advice is to take classes in this priority:

Business management

Advertising

Website development

Computer technology

Art

Photography

Yes, photography appears last on the list. This is because without a strong basis in the other skills, your photographic abilities are useless.

Using the Tools of the Trade

The tools of the trade are few. As businesses go, wedding photography requires a relatively small cash outlay to get the few pieces of high-quality equipment necessary for the job. Learning how to use the equipment is the real challenge, because, fortunately for photographers, having the best camera in the world won't make you a good wedding photographer, and having the fanciest computer won't get your color correction right, nor will it build beautiful albums. Many excellent wedding photographers use old, beat-up cameras with far fewer settings and capabilities than the high-end cameras many wedding guests will have slung around their necks. However, as you probably already know, cameras don't take pictures — photographers do! A good wedding photographer can take better shots with a point-and-shoot camera than the ones most people can take with a top-of-the-line digital camera.

What camera should you use?

The specific tools each photographer uses have nothing to do with whether or not the person can be a good photographer or run a successful wedding photography business, but they will play a major role in the styles of images you create. As shown in Figure 1-3, the important part is how skilled the photographer is at seeing a beautiful moment and capturing it in an artistic manner. For example, when you admire a painting by Picasso or Rembrandt, you don't ask what brand of brush they used. The tools they used are as irrelevant as the choice between a Nikon and a Canon. The artistic vision of the person and the technical expertise necessary to capture that vision are what make the real magic of photography. It doesn't matter if the person used an old beat-up camera body, or a funky lens, or an expensive lens; all that matters is that the equipment produces the image qualities the photographer is trying for.

Figure 1-3: While the tools used to capture an image like this are important — they must be of the highest quality — the vision of the person holding the tools is the most important part of the creation.

With that said, I will add that the difference between a low-priced “consumer” camera compared to the speed and added functionality of the “pro” cameras is huge. In the right hands, the professional-level cameras and lenses will contribute a tremendous amount to the type and quality of images you can capture, as well as the ease with which you can make them.

Personality goes a long way

One of the most valuable tools you can have as a wedding photographer is the right kind of personality. You don't have to be the life of the party, but you should have a friendly, outgoing personality that puts people at ease almost immediately. If you don't like people, or if you are impatient or easily frustrated by people who are always late and generally can't seem to get it together, then this job isn't a good match for you. But if you function well under pressure (a lot of pressure), and if you're flexible enough that you can go with the flow when the bride is late, or it rains all day, then this job might be a good fit.

Training your mind

Last but not least, the most valuable tool you need as a wedding photographer is knowledge. You need to develop your skills and understanding of photography to the point that taking a picture is no more difficult than walking across the room. Eventually, you will be able to create the vision of what each picture should look like before preparing to take the shot. When you see an activity taking place — or better yet, about to take place — you'll envision the image and know which lens to grab, how to set the camera settings, and what angle to shoot from to tell the story. And you'll put it all together in the span of about 10 seconds or less.

With practice, you will become in tune with the types of locations that make good portrait backgrounds, such as the one shown in Figure 1-4. Eventually you'll find yourself noticing places with good light or great angles, even when you're not at a wedding. You'll find yourself thinking things like, “These converging lines look so cool, I could put the bride right there and shoot it from down low with about a 20mm lens.” Or, “That long line of trees would be so nice with the bride looking around the trunk of the fourth tree. I could shoot it with my 200mm at f/2.8 to throw all the other trees into a blur.” Once you get to the point of thinking like that, things will come together quite easily on the wedding day.

Getting experience

A trained eye can only be gained through experience. Practice on your friends and family and anyone else who might be willing. Kids and pets make great subjects because it's so darn hard to control them that you'll soon give up and just start capturing whatever it is that they want to do — hey, that's just how a wedding works! Ask a caterer or florist to help you find couples who don't have the budget to hire a professional photographer, then approach the couple and offer to volunteer your services for free. It's actually much better for you to work for free when you start out because once there are contracts and money involved, you have a legal responsibility to perform and will be held accountable if the couple is not happy with your results.

Figure 1-4: Finding the right light and posing a romantic scene takes a lot of practice. When you've done it well, it looks as if it happened naturally, without any forethought. Soft focus effects like this can be added later in Adobe Photoshop to further complete the effect you envisioned when the scene was happening.

With this book, you can read all about how to make great images, but no amount of reading can substitute for the experience you get working at a real wedding. I highly recommend that you seek out wedding professionals in your area and ask them if you can assist or shoot as a second photographer to gain experience and confidence before you take on your first paid wedding. In the beginning, you should expect little or no pay for the education you get while working with established wedding photographers. Consider it the cheapest college course you ever bought and learn everything you possibly can. In fact, I'd go so far as to tell the photographer you don't want money; you're willing to work for free just so you can pick his or her brain at every possible moment throughout the day.

As your skills progress, you should start getting paid, but don't expect to make much money at first. The point of working as a second photographer is to gain all the experience you possibly can. When you reach the point where your first mentor has little left to offer, take your portfolio and seek another mentor. Eventually you will have to shoot a wedding on your own to understand the full impact of the job, but I don't recommend that you do this until you've shot at least ten weddings (unless you're already an accomplished photographer in some other field).

Other valuable sources of education include seminars at big photography conventions like the annual Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) convention in Las Vegas, or your state branch of Professional Photographers of America (PPA). Of course, there are also many photography schools where you can take classes to develop your photography and your business skills. Some classes may be as close as your nearest community college, while other classes are at schools like the Brooks Institute, which specializes in teaching just photography. Another good educational tool is, of course, the Internet. You can learn all sorts of techniques on YouTube or with a Google search. You can also check out the website, Best of Wedding Photography (www.bestofweddingphotography.com), to peruse the websites of the cream of the crop of current wedding professionals throughout the world.

Recording Life's Milestone with Pictures

In almost every human life, there are at least four major milestones: birth, marriage, birth of the first child, and death. A wedding photographer has the privilege of being a witness and a historian on one of those four big days.

If you've ever looked through old albums of pictures from your childhood, you may realize that the memories you have of your childhood are actually somehow tied to the pictures. For example, you probably have many pictures where you can't remember anything else that happened during that day or even the month it was taken, but because you've looked at that picture many times over the years, the events immediately surrounding it are burned into your memory. While I can't explain how it works, I do believe that photographs help us store memories in a way that makes them last for the rest of our lives. Seeing that photo every few years reinforces that memory and embeds it in a way that causes it to remain present.

The first time a bride looks through her wedding pictures, there is a very high likelihood she will be moved to tears. If you've done a bad job, they will be tears of deep sorrow. If you've done a good job, they will be tears of joy — the same sort of tears she may have cried when the groom said his vows and when her father made a toast to their happiness. These are memories, such as those shown in Figure 1-5, that you've frozen in time for her. Other types of photography are important to our clients too, but nothing will be as emotionally charged and profoundly important as their wedding photographs.

Figure 1-5: Allowing the couple to create their own pose takes very little coaching but it requires a lot of ability on your part to realize when they've got something good and press the shutter before it disappears.

Breaking Into the Business

What is it that attracts so many to the lure of wedding photography? Having been the paid photographer at hundreds of weddings, I still find myself amazed at the number of people who recognize the best angle, and stand up in front of me and my camera to try their hand at getting a good shot of the bride and groom. They are all interested in wedding photography on some level. Few have professional aspirations, but many will come up to me repeatedly throughout the day and ask questions because they are genuinely interested in the wedding photography business. You can see the gleam in their eyes as they think to themselves, “I could do that!” Their eyes sparkle even more when they find out how much it pays. When they hear that I've shot weddings in Mexico, Jamaica, and the Virgin Islands, and that my next few weddings are in Aruba, Greece, and Hong Kong, their eyes become wide and their jaws drop in disbelief. After all, wasn't it only just a few years ago that “real” photographers didn't shoot weddings? It simply wasn't cool.

Even today, remnants of those feelings persist among older photographers, but the younger crowd is embracing the new world of wedding photography like never before. With the likes of photographers Joe Buissink, Mike Colon, and Denis Reggie not only shooting celebrity weddings, but also showing up on TV shows as celebrities themselves, the world of wedding photography has taken a decided turn in popularity. It's becoming downright stylish!

Of course, reading this book won't make you a celebrity wedding photographer, or get you a bunch of calls for destination weddings, but it will give you the information you need to start down the path in that direction. Who knows where that path may take you? Even if you don't want to shoot celebrities or jet off to exotic locales, shooting weddings right in your own neighborhood is a great way to make a comfortable living while doing something that is fun, creative, and extremely enjoyable. And never underestimate the power of determination. After all, every established wedding photographer out there today — no matter how famous — started off at the beginning, right where you are standing today.

Summary

The world of wedding photography is an exciting and challenging place to be. If you are an aspiring professional photographer or simply an amateur who wants to learn more about digital wedding photography, you'll find the business surprisingly easy to enter. After you've built a small portfolio, either by working with an established photographer or shooting a few weddings for free, I'm sure you'll find no shortage of eager clients who are more than willing to try you out. It may take several years to work your way up the ladder into the higher price bracket, but if and when you do, you may find clients willing to pay extraordinary fees to reserve your services.

The job definitely has its challenges. You have to learn to control your equipment in any sort of lighting conditions imaginable, with a lot of hectic activity going on around you, and with a lot of people watching and waiting on you. And, unfortunately, you'll end up spending far more time running the business than shooting pictures.

Not only can you make a comfortable living, but also you get to work at something you can truly enjoy, while performing a service that is extremely important to your clients. Many of them will tell you that your pictures are one of the most important things happening on the wedding day, second only to the act of getting married. This is a day they will remember for the rest of their lives and they want those memories to be formed by an artist. When clients hire you, they are entrusting you to create images that will shape their memories and become part of their family history.

Chapter 2: Developing Your Own Style

Your “style” of photography is a combination of the way you act while shooting the pictures and the type of pictures you create. Wedding photographers generally fall into one of three styles; however, it is possible for one photographer to shoot in more than one style and even to switch styles throughout the wedding day. In this chapter I take an in-depth look at the three main stylistic approaches to wedding photography: Traditional, Photojournalistic, and Portrait Journalism. I discuss the different photographic techniques used in each style, how the images differ, and what the clients want; and I include a few tips to help you decide which style is right for you. But first, I begin the chapter with a discussion about various methods for pricing wedding photography. Although the topic may appear to be misplaced, it is vital to understanding the different styles of wedding photography.

Two Business Models

Key to developing your own wedding photography style is understanding the various methods of pricing wedding photography. The price structure you choose is what motivates you to shoot certain types of images and to work in different styles throughout the day. For example, are you shooting to generate print sales, or are you shooting to provide a personal service for the bride and groom? Your answer may be determined by your personality, or by a conscious effort to adopt a certain business model.

Essentially there are two financial models for a wedding photography business. I call them the “Aftermarket Sales” business model and the “Creative Fee” business model. The one you choose determines your motivation for taking pictures, which in turn determines the type of images you create for your clients.

The Aftermarket Sales business model

A longstanding tradition in the wedding photography business, the Aftermarket Sales business model relies on a low initial fee to attract customers, with a heavy push on aftermarket sales of items such as prints, albums, frames, video slide shows, and digital image files, which serve to bring in the real profit. The typical wedding package includes the service of taking the pictures only. Afterward, clients must purchase any prints, albums, or other items for an additional fee. In general, photographers using this business model keep the negatives or digital files; otherwise, the client could make her own prints. Occasionally, these photographers sell the digital files, but they often charge a hefty price for them to compensate for the loss in print sales.

Clients know they're purchasing the wedding photography service, but many neglect to consider the fact that after the wedding is over, they will have nothing physical to show for the money they've spent, unless they spend a substantial additional amount. These clients are initially happy because they've gotten such a bargain on their photographer, and their thought is that they'll just buy a few prints after the wedding. But when they go to place an order and discover that the few prints they want will cost another $1,000, they start to grumble. With this model, it is not unusual for clients to be surprised at the high cost of the additional prints and then end up spending more on these aftermarket items than what they originally spent on the photography fee.

Photographers who use this model are not out to cheat anyone; they just know that human nature makes us all suckers for a low price; and with all the competition photographers face, any little thing one can do to lower the price or give the appearance of having a low price, helps to draw in more business. This method can be highly effective if there are many other photographers in your area in the same price bracket and you don't have anything in particular that differentiates you from the crowd.

When shooting in a traditional style with the Aftermarket Sales business model in mind, photographers are looking for images that the couple may want to purchase to frame or put into albums (see Figure 2-1). Such traditional-style prints include and are often limited to shots of the bride and groom, their families, and group shots of the wedding party. Of course, the couple may also purchase many loose prints in smaller sizes to give as gifts to family and friends, but with this limited number of purchases in mind, it doesn't take much experience for a photographer to get a feel for the types of images clients want to buy and then shoot only those — thus limiting the types of images a couple receives to the types of images a photographer believes they may actually want to pay for.

In combination with these factors is the fact that you, the photographer, will quickly develop a feel for how much you think each client can afford to spend. If you know the client has an unlimited budget, then the quantity and variety of the images may be unlimited. However, many clients are attracted to the Aftermarket Sales business model because they are working with a limited budget. If you know this, then there is little motivation for you to create anything that you know they can't afford to buy.

Figure 2-1: Traditional-style images are not found; the photographer creates them.

The Creative Fee business model

With the Creative Fee business model, photographers charge the full amount of the entire sale up front. The client pays for the photographer's service, and the photographer typically delivers images on a set of DVDs or a small USB drive that the clients can keep and print in any quantity they like as long as it is for personal, noncommercial use. The “creative fee” pays for the photographer's talent, overhead, business expenses, and everything else that the photographer needs to make in order to stay in business and make the desired profit. Because the finished product is frequently a full-resolution set of images, when the photographer delivers the image set to the client, it may be accompanied by a good-bye handshake or hug. After that day, the photographer and client may never speak again unless the client orders an album or custom prints, and these items may also be purchased from other photographers or graphic designers if the client chooses to do so.

The Creative Fee price structure influences what sort of images each photographer creates. For example, if you are paid a low price up front and the only remaining income is generated from print sales, then there is no motivation to take a shot unless you think it might generate print sales (see Figure 2-2). You may take a few extra shots just to be nice, but you are not required or motivated to put any effort into anything unless you think it will sell.

Figure 2-2: Cute moments like this are of little value to a photographer who is concerned with print sales.

On the other hand, if the photographer is paid up front to provide a photographic service for the day, then he does not think about print sales. Instead, he thinks about shooting anything the bride and groom might find even slightly interesting and want to preserve in their memories of the day. You become the bride and groom's personal photographer — shooting anything they ask for, and anything that you find interesting, in an effort to create a complete story of the day. Instead of wondering what the bride and groom will buy, your driving motivation is to capture what you think the bride and groom will want to remember. This motivation factor is the essence of what separates the Traditional style from the Journalistic and Portrait Journalism styles. I would not have shot the image in Figure 2-2 if I had been concerned with print sales, but it makes an excellent contribution to the story of the wedding day.

Follow the money

The vast majority of photographers who follow the Creative Fee business model operate a one-man-show sort of business, with no studio and no staff. If they have to do everything themselves, it doesn't take them long to realize that they can make much more money taking pictures than they can from printing a bunch of 4×6s for Grandma. The Creative Fee model allows these solo photographers to concentrate on shooting weddings, which is what they do best, and what makes them the most money.

Photographers who follow the Aftermarket Sales business model tend to have a much bigger operation. Having a large studio space and a staff between 1 and 20 people is not unusual, because these types of businesses rarely specialize in weddings. These photographers are usually shooting something every day of the week. They might do weddings on the weekend and then portraits, school photos, and commercial work throughout the week. The staff handles all the non-photographic work, leaving the photographer to concentrate on the photography.

With total sales often reaching a third higher (per wedding), the Aftermarket Sales business model may appear to gross a lot more money than the Creative Fee business model. However, even though the gross income potential is high for the Aftermarket Sales model, many more costs are involved, such as studio rent, staff salaries, an accountant to track staff and tax information, and large invoices from suppliers of prints and frames and other supplies. The studio photographer may be supporting a whole community of staff, so when all costs are averaged, the net income from a single wedding is probably very close, if not equal, between an Aftermarket Sales, studio photographer and a Creative Fee, individual photographer (comparing photographers of similar skill levels and geographic area).

Three Styles of Wedding Photography

There are three main stylistic approaches to wedding photography: Traditional, Photojournalistic, and Portrait Journalism. Each style has benefits and drawbacks that mesh with different personality styles, resulting in an almost automatic attraction for one style or another by each photographer.

Traditional style

As the term implies, the Traditional style of wedding photography is the oldest (and perhaps still the most common) style of wedding photography practiced today, especially if you look at the entire world market. The images created by photographers using this style can be summed up into one word — posed. They are carefully arranged to bring out the absolute best in the client. Often there is little effort made at creating images that capture reality. In fact, it could be said that these photographers don't capture images — they create them.

Like the example shown in Figure 2-3, Traditional-style images usually consist of exquisite portraits of the wedding participants and a few of the major events of the wedding day (which are often staged either before or after the actual event so that they can be captured perfectly without the inconvenience of interference from the actual wedding). In many countries, due to a combination of low budget and tradition, the studio portrait is the only photographic record of the wedding. If there is any storytelling to be done at all, the job is left to the videographer.

Figure 2-3: These two Traditional-style images were shot with a square format Hasselblad film camera, which is far larger and slower than today's digital cameras.

Equipment