It's easy to get a so caught up in the act of taking wedding photos that you can forget other important details about having such a huge responsibility.
A wedding is a huge event, and the last thing you want to do is miss out on doing your job as the wedding photographer to the best of your abilities.
This short guide offers some insider wedding photography tips that will help you stay on track and tick all the boxes on your client's big day.
Spend Time Getting to Know Your Clients
Before you start worrying about what wedding photography gear you'll need on the wedding day, it's necessary to sit down with your clients and get to know them.
And I mean really get to know them.
A lot of photographers will give their clients a questionnaire to fill out that helps them understand who their clients are.
But I prefer to sit down face-to-face and engage them in an actual conversation.
Perhaps a questionnaire can serve as the basis of your chat, but you'll get so much more detail out of your clients if you're face-to-face, asking follow-up questions.
Besides, nothing can replace a genuine conversation in which you learn about these people, why they love each other, and who they are both as individuals and as a couple.
The more details you can get about the people you're photographing, the better job you'll do in capturing meaningful photos.
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Meaningful Photos Need Beautiful Products
It's not enough to take a really beautiful photo of a couple on their wedding day.
Instead, you need to consider how that image will be presented once it's printed.
Perhaps the most common means of presenting wedding photos is in an album, so naturally, the quality of that album is extremely important. The last thing you want to do is spend all this time and energy crafting gorgeous photos, only to have them printed in a cheap, flimsy album.
The same goes for any prints that are part of your wedding package.
This is especially true of the "hero shot," the photo that the couple will have printed in large format to hang in their home.
There are tons of options for photo printers these days, and as someone that's tried a lot of them, I can tell you that nothing compares to CanvasHQ. And I'm not the only one that's been impressed:
I am impressed with the service and speed of delivery. The quality of the canvas is excellent. I will be ordering again soon. - Deborah P., Mabank, TX
There's a lot of reasons to love these guys.
Not only are their products gorgeously crafted, but they're produced in short order.
In fact, on a recent order, I got digital proofs within a couple of hours of placing my order, and my canvases were on my door just a couple of days after that.
It's rare to find such high-quality prints and get them so quickly.
Something else that sets CanvasHQ apart is how they go about making the frames for their canvases.
Other companies that I've used in the past had frames that looked and felt as though they were slapped together. And, unsurprisingly, that negatively impacted how the canvas looked.
But with CanvasHQ, you get a rock-solid, hand-built and machine-finished frame that's straight, true, and sturdy.
Sure, no one will ever see the frame, but it's what makes or breaks a canvas, and these guys certainly know how to build a quality frame.
Love you guys!! I have referred so many people- I love how easy to work with you are, how you make my photos look amazing, the editing you are able to do and how fast your service is! - Rachel F., Winchester, VA
In the end, the quality of your wedding photos (or any other photos for that matter) depends on tons of different factors.
Most of those factors are your responsibility directly.
But if you don't choose a printer that can fulfill your vision and produce a gorgeous print, all your hard work will be for nothing and your images won't look like professional wedding photography!
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Shoot a Fake Wedding
Rather than throwing yourself directly into the wedding day fire, a great way to learn how to photograph a wedding is to shoot a fake wedding.
Grab a couple of friends, head to the local park, and practice posing them for common wedding photography shots.
Work not on just posing the couple, but on your communication skills too. The better you are at directing the people you're photographing, the better your photos will be.
Communication is an especially important skill when you're photographing large groups, as you will no doubt do on the wedding day.
Another benefit of shooting a fake wedding is that you can use the images to build up your portfolio.
I don't know too many people that will take a chance on a completely inexperienced wedding photographer, so having portfolio images to show off your skills will only help you land more jobs.
Learn More:
- These Wedding Photography Tips Will Totally Change Your Photos
- 3 Mistakes Beginner Wedding Photographers Make