Wedding Photography

Last year a couple of my friends became engaged and asked me to be their photographer, I was more than happy to say yes to them and knew this would be a brilliant chance to build up a wedding photography portfolio if I ever needed more clients. Wedding photography can be a bit of a grey area to photographers as it can be a nightmare to organise, this is why it is key to prepare and arrange as much as you can before 'the big day!'. During my course I worked with freelance photographer Tony Cobley (www.tonycobley.com), he was generous enough to show me how he conducts and photographers a wedding.

The first thing is to be open minded, you have to remember than that this is your clients wedding, not yours, so if they want a specific image and you say it will look rubbish then you are taking away confidence from your client, you have to compromise with them, explain how the shot would work and how they could improve it, they will understand that you have the knowledge and experience behind you to do the best you can.

Like I said before preparation is key; you want to have done recce's at the place of ceremony, the reception and any other locations you plan to use during the day. To take a great photograph isn't as simple as turning up on the day and hoping for the best, if you have just as much knowledge in to the location of the shoot as the bride and groom to be, then you and your client will be rewarded with interesting and beautiful images.

Another important factor to go over is church rules, you want to be able to take great photographers all day without any hassle, unfortunately different church's, registry offices and registrars have different rules about who and how you can take a photograph in there setting, so before you run up to the table to take photos of the signatures remember to take the time to contact the registrar about what places, what flashes and what photos there will be.

There must always be a 'Plan B'; whether its starts raining and you need a studio set-up indoors, or you simply pack extra batteries, you must always remember that little chance of there going wrong most probably will do, if you have this kind of attitude then you have a stronger chance that the day will go a lot more smoothly.

Once you have you have everything organised with the bride and groom, you have found the best spots for taking photographs and you feel supported with a backup plan its time to get creative. A client will normally hire one photographer over another because of there unique style of photography, remember its good to be different! You want to offer something new and fresh that the client can be proud of, so as long as you have taken the most important images such as the group shots and the ceremony, don't be afraid to get your hands dirty and get creative. You have to remember that these images are not just for your client, they are going to be selling you as a photographer and presented to other clients for future work. As long are you think big you will be fine.

Post production should not consist of days worth of Photoshoping, you should be taking the time to get as much as you can get done straight from camera and only doing light touch ups. Most of wedding post-production can be done quickly and easily through Photoshop Lightroom, this tool has been made for this kind of mass editing process, it will speed up all of your photo editing by almost 10 times as fast. Photoshop Lightroom supports sharping, colour editing, calibration repair, noise reduction and a lot lot more that can be synced to all your selected images, if you have not got your hands on this software yet then I seriously suggest you try it (http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/). Another thing to consider in post-production is the matter of copyright, you have to be clear what your client is buying, whether its specifically digital data that they are only allowed to printed by you, or if digital data with a full licence to print themselves, this can all then be added into the image's metadata which can easily be added with Adobe Photoshop, Lightroom and Bridge.

Finally remember to have fun, at the end of the day if you come out with images that you are not as happy with the clients not going to know, as long as they get a happy smiley photographer whose going to be pleasant, friendly and even entertaining then they are going to like you for just that and you can still get more work through 'word of mouth'.

With all this empowering knowledge I hope to come up myself with some really nice photographers.