Let's start off by saying that wedding photography has become a dream job for many, and fortunately it's not that impossible of a goal to achieve. Since so many people turn to weddings for a living, it's only natural that certain myths have risen about this profession.
We're sharing some of the most popular along with the truth.
Photographers only work on weekends
Now if this were true, than you could call this a dream job without a shadow of doubt. People tend to believe this because they only see photographers working at weddings. What they don't know is the fact that they usually spend days or even weeks working on editing and retouching the photos. Needless to say, wedding photographers have to spend time making phone calls, meeting with clients, printing albums and promoting themselves.
So yeah, it takes a bit more than just weekends to do this job.
It's easy now that it's all digital
I hear this a lot from potential clients, and that just makes me aware that I need to stay away from them. But for the sake of the argument, the origin of this myth comes from the experience of everyone who believes it. Digital has made it easier for common people to take pictures. It has also made it cheaper for everyone but it hasn't made professional gear cheaper. The fact that we shoot digital instead of film means we shoot more, a lot more. It's very common for a wedding photographer to go home with a few thousand shots. Remember that before he delivers the final images and the album to his clients, he has to go through all of them. That really doesn't make it simpler than just shooting ten rolls of film like back in the day.
The gear doesn't matter
This is a really tricky myth because it's very easy to misinterpret it. Gear doesn't matter in the sense that if you're a bad photographer, no matter how much money you spend on gear, you're still going to suck. On the other hand, someone with talent and the right skills is going to be able to get the job done with less than industry standard. You know a good photographer when you see one. He'll always have exactly the gear he needs to complete his work successfully and you'll see him handling cameras and lenses effortlessly, just as if they were extensions of his body. A pro wedding photographer will always optimize his workflow, that's why many use things like the Spider Holster Pro to make their work easier and help than focus on creating beautiful wedding photos.
“Before I got my Holster, I was setting my camera down and losing it and now with my Spider Holster I never have to worry about losing my camera again!” – Sarah Clements, Fine art photographer
Wedding photographers are overpaid
This myth has its roots in the now ancient belief that all a digital photographer has to do is point a camera and push a button. The truth about the apparently large fees of wedding photographers is a lot more complex. First you have the years of training and experience that can hardly be measured in material rewards. Then you have a ton of equipment that unfortunately costs a lot of money. It's not just cameras and lenses, but also lights, computers, software and basically every technical resource required to make the business go. Finally, there are the working hours and let's not forget wedding days can often last more than 12 hours.
Wedding photographers are good photographers
This is a taboo myth that deserves explaining. It's important to understand that every genre of photography has its particular demands and characteristics, much like every musical instrument is played differently.
A good wedding photographer doesn't need to be good at anything else, and a lot of them aren't. You might be very disappointed to challenge a wedding photographer to shoot sports, but his failure would be totally understandable. The opposite is also true, because it doesn't mean that a good fashion photographer will excel at weddings.
It's more a question of being the right man/woman for the job. A true professional will only be specialized in one, maybe two types of photography.
We're certainly not talking about the Jacks of all trades who don't master anything.
These are just some of the popular myths surrounding wedding photography. As the years will pass and the more weddings you will photograph, you're going to hear a bunch of other myths. It's important to educate your clients regarding some of them, while others are just better to be ignored.
Learn more about the Spider Holster Pro here.