How To Become A Wedding Photographer

By Author: Ivan Cuxeva Jr
Total Articles: 782
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Wedding photographers require creative zeal as well as technical knowledge of cameras, lighting and posing. Creative wedding photographers constantly strive to improve their work and endeavor to avoid the pitfall of producing the same poses week after week. Today's brides want something a little bit different, so that their wedding pictures will be truly distinctive.

Unlike most other commercial areas of photography, wedding photographers need not be full-time or professional photographers. Most weddings occur on weekends-when most people are not working at their regular nine-to-five jobs-and anyone who owns the proper equipment and possesses the ability can photograph a wedding. For this reason, many people are or would like to become what professional full-time photographers call weekenders. Weekenders frequently start out very innocently, when a friend or relative who knows that they take nice pictures asks them to take pictures at a wedding.

Temperament is as important to a wedding photographer as fine pictures. A typical wedding day may include encounters with crying mothers, intoxicated or angry guests and ...
... a variety of people who may intentionally or unintentionally become bothersome. Being able to deal with interpersonal relationships is therefore an invaluable asset. Short tempers, ulcers, a heart condition, and the like are not conducive to this type of work. On the other hand, some photographers, because of their charm, are so well liked that the client will be very happy with the pictures if they are slightly flawed in some way.

Once you decide to become a wedding photographer, two important questions arise. The first is how to learn to become a good wedding photographer. The emphasis here is on the word good, since anyone who takes pictures, assuming that the photographs are relative clear and properly exposed, can be considered a wedding photographer. The second question is whether to freelance or work for a studio. Apprenticeship may be a little-used expression in most other fields. It is however, the best way to learn wedding photography.

To really appreciate the strains and complexities encountered, you must go out and see what it's like. The standard procedure calls for the apprentice to first watch what the photographer does. Once he thinks he knows what is happening, he will be able to assist the photographer in setting up equipment, he will be able to assist the photographer in setting up equipment or posing people. Later, using his own equipment, he will be allowed to shoot doubles of what the photographer takes. When the photographer feels confident in the work of his apprentice, he will allow him to shoot parts for the wedding alone. The final stage is when the apprentice-now photographer-does an entire job on his own.

Some wedding photographers work for studios as weekenders, some for themselves as weekenders, and many, to the chagrin of studio owners, do both. Most studios want people who are experienced and who can show samples of work already completed. A studio may train you if it feels that you have potential and show desire. Even if you have experience, a studio may want to retrain you to follow its particular style. Studios expect their photographers to work on a regular basis. They do not want to book your own jobs, nor are they happy if you work for their competitors. The greatest competition for most studios are weekenders,and usually their own! Talented freelancers have the potential to earn high fees. Getting started is the most difficult problem. No one wants you to experiment on their wedding day. One shortcoming of being a freelancer is that some brides insist that some formal pictures be taken in a studio.