Copyright (c) 2008 Tom Jackson
Have your friends have told you how good your photography is? Are the prints you create appreciated by friends and family? Have they have suggested that you start your own wedding photography studio? If so, you may be asking what is your next step? Well, with a little help, you can get started in your very own business.
Wedding photography can provide you with an excellent income, either full or part time. Wedding photography has been the catalyst for many of the top professional photographers. Doing it for yourself of course, means that you get to keep all the money. But, please note that as the photographer, you will often be required to act as the wedding coordinator as well, as these days, most brides cannot afford one. And if there is no wedding coordinator, then it is usually the wedding photographer who will make sure everyone is where they should be most of the time. The downloadable course is designed to help you in all aspects of the days event. As the wedding photographer, you need to make sure that the bride and groom follow your directions. Make them aware that it is in their interest to follow your directions because they want a whole lot of great looking photos for their album.
As you prepare for an event, you need to make sure that all your equipment is ready, and that you have everything you need for the days event. If possible, be sure to have a series of back-ups, a spare camera body, a spare lens and a spare flash in case any of your prime units fails. You should always be prepared so that you never haver to come up to the bride during a wedding and try to explain that you equipment just broke and you cannot take any photos. Again, a death sentence. Your back-up units do not need to be identical to your prime units, but they should be at least close to the same specs. The camera needs to be able to take images at the same resolution as your prime camera, otherwise there will be a noticeable difference in quality of the final prints. The flash unit can be a smaller unit with a slightly lower light output, but if it happens, then this unit will have to do quite a bit of work, so be careful. Make sure that the spare flash is fully charged before taking photos. I have seen a number of photographers get excited about taking some pictures at an event, and they will often just fire away, taking picture after picture, not realizing that the flash is not fully charged for each picture, and so, most of the resulting images will have serious problems, that may not be able to be recovered on the computer. So, make sure that you have good back-up equipment.
Let me ask you, are you ready to take the next step? If you love photography and working with people, the let me ask you if you are ready to start your own wedding photography business? Then you will find that the wedding photography course is designed to get you off to a great start. Everything is in this course, including all the forms you will need. Business forms are provided for you as a computer file that you can edit and personalize to give them your very own identity. This alone will help you and your business look very professional and save you a lot of time and money, so you can get bookings and start making some money with your very own wedding photography business.
Watch the video related to Wedding Photography
A testimonial video we filmed for Bella Rose Photography in Wilmington, NC. Lisa Brown is a phenomenal photographer for weddings, events and portraits, and this video illustrates why she is so sought after. www.bellarosephoto.com Filmed and Produced by Life Stage Videography (www.lifestagevideography.com
Help answer the question about Wedding Photography
What is the best way to advertise a wedding photography business?I am expanding my wedding photography business http://www.andrei-photo.com.
What would be the best way to reach people ? I heard Yellow pages don't work anymore. Some suggested to put Ad on Google. What is your experience?
About Author
Tom is a photographer and consultant to the graphic design, advertising and publishing industries, teaching digital technology. You can get more info on starting your own photography studio and see examples of his work here; For free tips visit Toms blog.
Tags: bella, lisa, nc, photographer, rose, wedding, weddings, wilmington
Interesting video… some helpful tips
Wonderful video and tips, tried to rate it but it says ratings are disabled. I would give it 5 stars
Great tips and great video. Thanks so much.
Yes, but it is not as easy as it used to be. Before the age of digital wedding photography required a medium format camera and the knowledge to use it. There were no auto modes. It required a certain level of expertise to be able to operate the cameras. They were also rather expensive. You didn't have many people going out and buying a new Hasselblad and a few lenses if they didn't have the knowledge and experience to use it.
Digital has made it possible for every Tom, Dick and Harry to buy a DSLR put it on auto and go out and start shooting. They all have auto modes so there is little training needed to get up and going. That is not to say that they have great images but the cameras are much easier to use without training. They also tend to drive down prices. There are many out there who will charge $500. I am not worried about these guys. I can easily explain away them to potential clients. It is the guys that charge $1,500 that are harder.
People today also want different products. Gone are the days of you making most of your money from prints. Most people today want a CD and maybe a flush mount album. This is not really a problem but it does require that you change the way you do business. Preparing proofs and ordering prints took a lot of time and money. Preparing a CD is much quicker and cheaper. If you can put less time into the work after the wedding you can put more time into getting the next job.
I will say that I feel the market is much more competitive these days. There are a lot of people out there with a DSLR now who charge very little and usually do a poor job. You need to be able to explain to a potential client why you charge so much more than Uncle Bubba and his digital Rebel.
My wifes job required that we move 500 miles away almost 4 years ago. So I have had to start over again with my business. This has certainly effected me. I have averaged about 20 weddings a year in the past couple of years. I am starting to get back up to the level before we moved. I am still not making as much as when we moved though. Establishing new contacts, marketing and the like costs money. I didn't need to spend as much on marketing and advertising before.
Well…a wedding photographer makes more money; you have to be technically proficient, organized, and creative. Google Joe Buissink, if you want to see one of the best, if not The best, wedding photographer. check out the background info articles on him, also. As noted, the highest he's been paid to date, is $100,000 for a wedding. (I think he shot the wedding of the sister of Annie Leibovitz ?) Be prepared to deal with pressure, and use your creativity. Joe started somewhere too.
Contact a wedding photographer, and have a portfolio of images to show them. The best avenue, is to start as a 2nd shooter at weddings (you and the wedding photographer pro), and gain experience. It holds down the drama a little bit
With school pictures, you can generate a solid income, although somewhat seasonal.
As in everything, the better you are, the better you'll do
You can shoot stock photography (EX: iStock), and be paid per image use, but the photographs must be very technically correct, and creative.
Sell your images at craft fairs; people tend to buy landscape images the most. Again, they must be well done and printed well; think "Would I be willing to pay for this photograph?"
Why not first think of what type of photography you like to do, Then, look into how to do that profitably? Since succeeding is a combination of creativity, skill, and determination, pick what you love doing.
"making a wedding video takes months"??? WHY?
A feature film can be done in months, a wedding video should be completed in weeks.
My experience (as a guest and best man) of weddings where there is a videographer as well as stills is that they are equal and the videographer is certainly not "looked down" on.
Obviously you are shooting the wrong weddings.
If you want to change to photography then unless you already have the necessary skills you will have to start more or less from scratch and learn a whole set of new skills.
How much? how long is a piece of string.
Some wedding snappers charge a couple of hundred for a wedding and some charge thousands. It depends on your skills, contacts and business skills.
The easiest to get into would be wedding planning. I think it would also make the most money. The highest in demand is a make up artist.
Peace and blessings!
Awesome video, thanks for posting. I have my first wedding next year.
In addition to the regular 1040 you must file a Schedule C – Income from Self-Employment. This can work to your benefit so don't freak out yet. As a self-employed person, you only actually have to post a profit 2 out of 5 years, and the loss is deductible against wages and other income and can lower your tax bill while providing you with extra cash. This is the miracle of accounting.
As to registering the business, it is in your best interest to do so. It will help convince the IRS that you are a legitimate business, not a hobbyist (IRS loves to ream photogs on that). So go to city hall, get the paperwork and register. The costs are a legitimate deduction.
You may want to buy QuickBooks to help you keep track of your expenses, but you can use excel as well. Everything you spend on the business is deductible: Business cards, a portion of your cell phone, internet connection, any scrapbooks you use to show proofs, letterhead, liability insurance (except auto – discussed below), travel (airplanes, hotels, and 50% of meals when out of town), any fees you pay to assistants, advertising and promotion and office supplies. Everything.
Your equipment is also deductible. Any equipment you bring into the business that was purchased last year will have to be depriciated, but current purchases like a new flash, remote switch, tripod, filters ect. can be written off under section 179. Also a portion of your rent or mortgage can be deduction for a home office expense if you meet certain qualifications.
As to your car, get a small notebook and write down the mileage on the odometer. Keep track of every trip you make for business – getting office supplies, seeing the client, going to the wedding, whatever. If it has to do with business, its deductible. On Dec. 31, write down the mileage off of the odometer. (Also if you use the car to commute to work keep track of that. I just write the odometer reading down each and every time I get in the car with the purpose of the trip. Saves headaches filling out the form later.) Mileage this year, from July 1 to Dec 31 was 58.5 cents per mile – it adds up and makes a helpful deduction. All costs of the auto is computed in the IRS's rate-you can choose actual costs, but this way is much less trouble and you're less likely to be auditied on it.
It is in your best interest to meet with a CPA to set up your business. CPA stands for Certified Public Accountant – their job is to help you get organized so your books are correct and auditable. She/he will also advise you as to state and local laws. It will cost a bit of $, but what you will save in the long run more than makes up for it. You should not need more than 1 or 2 hours of their time, so it shouldn't cost more than $250 to $500, which yes sounds like a lot, but in the long run can save you thousands. Its a good investment. Also if you aren't good with numbers or reading tax forms having the CPA (or a tax preparer) do the taxes can be very beneficial. They know things you don't. If you are willing to do some homework and learn a bit about accounting (which I'd highly recommend) you could self-prepare your returns using Turbo Tax or any other of the packaged software.
Please note that only Calif. and Oregon require tax preparers to have any training at all – unless you're dealing with a CPA its buyer beware (avoid H&R Block, Liberty and the like.)
Kudos to the previous answerer for bringing up liability insurance. You really, really, really do need this. Shop around for quotes and get at least 1 million in coverage. A friend of mine did studio work, had a great eye and was pulling in big clients. He neglected to buy insurance. One day the client brought in a guest who put his finger in the socket of the strobe power pack. The pack blew up, the guy lost his finger, and my friend suddenly owed him three million $. My friend did not have three million dollars. He's out of business now.
Before I went full time as a photographer I was an accountant. It was boring, but really prepared me to take full advantage of the laws. I pay much less tax on higher revenues than other photogs I know because of this experience (the only reason I learned it was to pay less tax.). Photo is better. LOL!
Hi there.. like your style.. good use of available light.. cheers from Thina Doukas Photography in Sydney
Thank you a lot… I’m going to get married and it is a really good guide for us.. thanks indeed.
Great stuff … thanks …
Love you softbox for your speedlight. Is there also something like that for the Nikon’s speedlight SB900 that you know?
Thanks in advance.
Cheers, andré from Holland
What do wedding photographers do? – take photographs at weddings
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What type of equipment do they use? – photographic equipment
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What type of money do they make? – they don't – the mint makes money. Photographers sometimes earn money.
Like do you have sites i can use to get LOTS of information on this?
Like – try here http://www.google.co.uk/search?hl=en&q=wedding+photography&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&oq=
Just what I have been looking for. Very helpful. Thanks
Do you think all the top wedding photographers started out as being brilliant… ?
I don't think so… a top wedding photographer has skills – and skills can be learned, but most people learn bad habits from the outset. The key is to make your images, your service, your package, obviously superior to those of your competition, so that even people who are not necessarily trained in the subject or naturally visually literate (such as an artist) can see a difference.
In fact your entire approach, your product (photographs), customer service, organisation, marketing and pricing has to be one self supporting whole… it HAS to tie together.
There are geographical factors in terms of economics but in every area there are those with more money and those with less – even then some of them will buy on price, but equally others with less money will search out more expensive photographers purely because more expensive (to them) will be better!
Have you had any specialist wedding photography training or consultancy? I think a day or two with a top pro would probably make a huge difference to you – you sound a little dispondent and in need of a confidence boost as well.
You can contact me by e-mail off line and I'll help if I can. Meantime have you thought about breaking the rules?? How can you add value to your package to cut it out from what everyone else does? …
The ultimate answer to your question is:
You're in an extremely competitive market, you HAVE to out compete your competition… in every area.
Newspapers rarely pay.
You'd need to get in with syndicates like Reuters and AP and even that may not pay much!
Money would be like in doing head shots for actors, models. Charge $50 or $100 and give them the right to reproduce the pictures.
If you have a good camera, doing commercial photography for products of local business, people who want to do E-bay but can't take pictures or don't want to deal with it.
Super. I adore his remark ‘Always ask permission to touch the bride’ !! Class gent. Great lesson.
Wedding photography is an expensive career. The investment to begin is quite large considering the things youe need to buy. You can expect to spend between 6000-12,000 just to get started with the minimum's necessary.
Here's what was in my bag when I started:
A bag that's deep enought to hold my gear: $300
1 main camera body $2500
1 back-up camera body (you can't go without) $1200
50 mm lens $400
85mm lens $450
70-200 with IS $1700
Wide Angle 17-35mm $800
1 580EX Flash $450
1 430EX Flash $400
1 macro lens 100-300mm (for tiny little details like rings) $500
Extra batteries for cameras $120
Flash batteries $80
Various filters for the lenses $350
CF cards – 30GB $1500
$10,750 was the grand total of what was purchased before I ever shot a wedding. Plus you need to take into consideration all the expensive software you need to develop the photos to professional quality:
Photoshop CS3 – $1200
Lightroom 1.0 $350
Show it Web – $300
And a website / marketing!
Since first starting I have added an extra $10,000 of gear and additonal software beyond the basics just to make sure I have everything. Getting into photography is quite expensive, you should consider it a long term investment!