Everybody wants to have wonderful pictures of their wedding that they can cherish forever. While most people get great photos and enjoy them, there are some people whose pictures just seem to come out poorly. They paid a lot of money, and got substandard pictures in return.
Many soon-to-be-wed couples ask, “What went wrong with their photos, and how can I avoid that happening to me?”
Thankfully, there are a few very simple things that you can do to help ensure that your wedding photos come out as the beautiful keepsakes that they are supposed to be.
One of the first things you want to do is to scope out photo areas. Wherever you are thinking about getting married, see what kinds of picturesque spots you can take advantage of. If they only have one or two, ask yourself if you are going to be happy with those. Many places that specialize in weddings have many places where you can take pictures, so this may not be an issue, but it is something you want to think about ahead of time.
When you are looking at these spots, try to arrive around the time when you are going to be having the pictures taken. Make sure the lighting is going to be flattering to the pictures. If it is too dark, or too bright, the pictures won’t come out properly. This is not something you want to find out during the wedding or after the photos are printed.
Another thing that really cannot be stressed enough is to get a professional photographer to take the pictures. It may be tempting to let a friend or family member who has a nice camera take the pictures, but this really isn’t a good idea no matter how you look at it.
There are many things that can ruin photos if they are not taken into account. Also, if they do not bring the right equipment, a lot of great photo opportunities may be missed. Do you really want to risk ruining your special day by not having good photos? The money you may be saving by going this route is not worth it. If someone wants to photograph your wedding, let them do so along with a professional.
When you are choosing a photographer, look at their portfolio. It should be extensive, and they should be able to provide a wide selection of fine photos for you to look at. Make sure that they specialize in wedding photography, both indoors and out.
Alongside the clarity, lighting, and colors of their photos, you also want to check for creativity. It is easy to take the normal pictures of the bride and groom standing side by side, but a great photographer can think up many poses and themes. Reflections off mirrors, ponds, and many other things can be used to make an unusual effect.
Changing the colors of a photo can make a striking portrait as well. Making an entire picture black and white except some key element such as flowers for a full body show, or the eyes for a close up can make a picture that you will never tire of.
Find a photographer who has an impressive portfolio, experience in the field, and that you are comfortable with. Also, make sure you have some great photo spots available to you. By doing these simple things, you are more likely to have wedding photos that you will cherish for the rest of your life.
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Help answer the question about Wedding Photography
I want to start my own business, Wedding photography and videography. Advice Please!?Ok so what steps do I need to take to start my own business shooting wedding videos and photogrphy.
What classes should I take at my community collage?
What kind of cameras should I buy?
THANKS IN ADVANCE!!
About Author
Mike Parr of Sydney Creative Photography is one of the best Sydney wedding photographers . This wedding portrait photographer in Sydney brings a unique style of a natural, candid, artistic approach to all photographs.
whoa!!it looks like a PICTURE!
ur an amazing painter!:D
*sub*
a good rate is subjective,
i dont know where NH is but I will say what i can if you are getting exactly the same package from the $1600 as you are the $2400, then you will proberly get what you pay for,, eg if they arent that good they dont value their work as much as someone whos good and can charge top dollar,
people who pay top dollar usually (get references or check out portfolio) get top images.
It's not necessarily the newbie or novice wedding photographer asking about shooting a wedding for a friend or family member who can't afford a pro that bothers me. I have a good link that I offer them, as well as my best wishes.
What DOES bother me are the folks who plan to go into business shooting weddings soon, but are asking basic simple newbie-type questions that anyone who has been shooting for a while should know. Obviously they have plans to make a lot of money for a few hours work on Saturday and the cost of a CD. Many are not prepared in any way, equipment-wise or in the photographic skills department, to even think of shooting a special occasion for pay. (Or sometimes even for free.) The wedding photography industry is suffering because of these Johnny-come-latelys. The thing is, they usually are not in "business" for long. But the weddings they manage to book before their business fails take away from the "pool" that working photographers have to dip from. Of course, the higher end pros really don't have to worry about the $400 and a CD beginner, they are targeting different markets after all. The mid-range and budget photographers are feeling some pain, though, at least from what I see and read about.
I imagine that many couples regret going the beginner or cheapie route when it comes to their wedding memories. Unfortunately, once it's done, they have what they have, good, bad, or mediocre, art or snapshots.
Brilliant Willy, Just Brilliant =D
Great talent Der Mann.
When I started out I shot a wedding for a friend, at the elbow of another professional, with the understanding that I would not offer any of the photos to the couple. You can also shoot a wedding for a friend for free and give them copies of the prints. You then make up a sample album, write your price list, get a business license, and hang out your shingle.
After years of carting around all sorts of combinations of cameras, lenses, and lights I finally settled on a 35mm SLR with a 28-80 zoom lens, a sturdy tripod, two automatic flashes with stand mounts, a light stand, a slave unit, and a long PC cord. I also had a matte box with mattes, a fog filter, a star filter, and some other effect filters. Sometimes if the customer requested it I would take a 6×7 foot painted background and another lightstand to hold it, but I didn't advertise this option.
The secret to shooting weddings is to travel LIGHT. You don't want to be lugging heavy equipment, or so much equipment that it takes you forever to set up and tear down. Most of the shots you will be doing will be simple "bang box," with flash on camera. The off-camera flash shots come when you're doing the group shots after the ceremony, or if you're doing some cutesy-poo closeup portrait-y stuff.
With digital, you can take a laptop with you to the reception, display the images from the ceremony, and take orders then and there when the excitement is high. If you have a digital projector you can also set a time right after the honeymoon when you throw a party at the bride's house, provide the soft drinks and snacks, pass out order forms with the pricelist printed on the other side, and show the pictures to all their friends and family at once. That's the way to make some really big orders.
You will need to make friends with a really good lab for your prints, and find some album manufacturers and get samples and pricelists. Ideally, you want enough stuff to make a good window display, so that they will get enthusiastic about buying all the pretty stuff you are showing.
You’re really good man. You’ve got excellent talent.
Your wedding photography question is not as bad as some of the ones I have seen here (for example "I have a Nikon D40 and kit lens, I am booked for my first wedding shoot this weekend, what settings do I use??"…. Believe me, those questions are far too common).
I actually have no doubt that you and your friend are quite competent photographers and you know your way around a camera in various environments and stressful situations. Basically, you know what lenses, equipment and setting to use without being told.
Your pricing is what concerns me.
You are offering to do this shoot for $900? (I am British by the way so I am doing a rough conversion in my head to £ to answer this question). So whatever profit is made is going to be split between you and your assistant, is that going to be 50/50?. So the $900 includes the 201 prints you are going to promise the couple, how much is this going to cost?. Are you talking about cheap drug store prints or quality prints from a reputable printers?. I think you need to work out just how much 201 prints are going to cost you! (and don't scrimp on the prints!, you need quality prints!).
You are shooting film. Nothing wrong with that, I personally love film and prefer it over digital. That is a different story for another time though (I just wanted to show what side I am on), but if I was to shoot a wedding I would use my DSLR, absolutely, positively, 100% definitely my DSLR… Why?… Because of cost and convenience.
Lets take into account the cost of shooting a wedding with film.
If you are paying on average $5-6 for each roll of film, maybe more. You are going to need to shoot at least 10 rolls of 36 (or the 12 shot 120) exposure film to have a good number of images of which you are going to select these '201' images you have promised the couple. How many rolls of film are you intending to shoot?.
You then have to include the developing of those films!.
So the cost of buying the (10-15??) rolls of film + developing = Quite a chunk from your $900.
Then you are likely going to be scanning these images into your computers and editing them (not necessarily true, but I personally think you will be doing this). You then have to figure how many hours you will be doing this editing, all included in this $900 figure.
The time you are actually shooting this wedding is also included in the cost, and you have "unlimited photo coverage"… So that could be anything from 9am to gone midnight.
So both of you, shooting all day using film, then the cost of developing them. Then editing them. Then printing them.
And the profit??. Split between you..
How much do you think you will make each?..
Not a lot, I can tell you that. In fact, it would not be worth your time.
"I have taken a course on wedding photography and know the basics. Does this price seem good?"
This course sounds like it did not teach you a lot.. and no, that price does not sound good (but you should hopefully have already figured that out by now).
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EDIT: I have just returned to this question… It looks like I have completely wasted my time. The Mamiya DL33 is a Medium Format camera, and you obviously have absolutely no idea what that is do you?.
You waste of space.
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Very nice!!
Excellent work. Pleasure to watch. Perfect music
))
The EF 50mm f/1.8 "Nifty- Fifty" and EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM are good lenses for those on a tight budget. The 50mm will be your best bet for low-light indoors at the reception but, you may occasionlly find it frames a little tight on your XT. That's not necessarily a problem but, if you aren't already aware of it, a 50mm lens on your camera will be the 35mm/full-frame equivalent of an 80mm, short-telephoto lens. So if you need to do any wider shots, you'll either need some extra stand-off distance or you'll have to accept the tighter frame.
A wider option, albeit more expensive, is the EF 28mm f/1.8. There's also the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 that many people on tight budgets find very useful for candids. Either of these would get you closer to a "normal" focal length on the XT. Downside is that both lenses get mixed reviews and are much more expensive than the 50mm f/1.8.
For what it's worth, all of Canon's 70-300mm lenses are a bit slow and will require flash under many conditions. If you can, spring for the IS USM version, you'll be able to get away with a few extra stops of hand-held speeds/apertures. This won't compensate for a moving subject but it will make up for a good bit of camera shake on your end. Ultimately, at the pro-level, you'd want something with an f/2.8 or faster aperture and bump up the ISO while being careful about noise. Noise is far less of a problem on full-frame cameras but it sounds like it will be a while before you are ready to make that move.
Incredible! He looks so life like. Just amazing…and what a beautiful subject
Wedding photography tutorials: http://www.net-art.it/photomonitor/html/teoria_tecnica/ripresa-tecniche/matrimonio-cerimonia-e.shtml
I shot my boyfriend's mom's wedding…I definitely felt the pressure and these were people I'm very close with so if I screwed up, I would have been forgiven. I definitely wouldn't call what I got excellent, but the reception was in their garage so the lighting was very poor and all I have is my camera and the 18 -55 mm lens that it came with…so I was more than a little limited. But I made it work to the best of my ability. I only have a few on here, but you can look at them if it helps. Most of them are more of the "details"..I of course took a bunch of family shots and lots of ones during the wedding and reception, but I don't have them uploaded.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/40210644@N03/page3/
Nice work, you did pretty good.
I specifically looked for a photographer who doesn't get paid until we get services simply to cover our investment. I have seen and heard way too many horror stories to pay upfront! We paid $200 to reserve our date. Our photographer gets 1/3 of our money the day of the event, 1/3 when we get our proofs and the final 1/3 when we get our album and digitals. They told us they won't take any money until we are satisfied, which is one reason I love them! (http://www.bluemoonweddingphoto.com)
I would never pay for the entire thing beforehand, you never know what is going to happen between your wedding and when you get your pics. My SiL learned this firsthand: she paid for everything, the photographers did the wedding and she never saw a single picture and now the photographer is in jail with 32 people in a class action lawsuit against him – and he had FANTASTIC references, he actually did another family member's wedding about 5 years ago with fabulous results. His assistant, who did most of the digtal work and retouching, left him high and dry and he had a panic attack abecause he didn;t know how to do the technological stuff. Such a shame. He was a GREAT photographer and a great guy. The detectives recovered a disc of my SiLs proofs and our photographer was gracious enough to retouch them and make her an album. Just be careful. If you want more info, check it out: blogs.phillyburbs.com/news/bct/tag/michael-gould-photography
Good luck!
As a pro Wedding photographer my approach is to quote one price with an album, and another price without an album. If you didn't think to do that you do need to clarify the situation; this will also help you to remember to make it part of your standard presentation…
It needn't be too embarassing; call them and say that you forgot to ask if they required an album and don't want to cause any disappointment on such an important day. Make the point that either option is fine and neither will cause any problem, but you thought it best to make sure you covered all the options.
Even if it does prove embarassing, what's worse – two minutes with a red face on the end of a phone or months of bad tempered wrangling and a lifetime of regret that you didn't do the simple thing.
I hope it works out well for you, and good luck in what can, with the right outlook, be an immensely rewarding vocation.