How To Become a Good Wedding Photographer

Wedding photography is a unique field, and succumbing to its allure is not that difficult. So, where do you start if you decide to become a wedding photographer in the future?

Start assisting

Can people shoot weddings before assisting a professional? Absolutely. However, with enough persistence, you are sure to get regular work from local professionals. Shooting as an assistant is a great experience. You get to travel with several different photographers and shoot amazing weddings. Learning the work of professional photographers and their methods will be the best thing you can do to understand what it means to shoot weddings.

It will play to your advantage if you are a good assistant or second photographer. Remember that when you work as a second photographer, your job is to supplement the work of the primary photographer. Don't interfere with his work and shoot from complementary (not identical) angles.

When you're just starting, it's not a given that you'll get paid. You may not even be able to use your photos in your portfolio. It depends on the terms of the contract you're working under. Make sure these things are fixed in writing and understand what the primary photographer expects of you. However, even though you won't be making a living as a second photographer for the first few months, the knowledge you gain is a huge investment in your talent.

Finding clients

Okay. Now you have the experience, you have the camera, and you've put together a good scrapbook of photos. You're ready to get started. The next big question is to find people to hire you. The answer is easier than you think. Print some postcards from your photos and distribute them around town, especially in areas you'd like to attract customers from. Hand out your cards to the women in the store because, whatever the case may be, almost all decisions regarding the wedding are made by the bride.

Choose the right equipment

Many photographers make the mistake of sacrificing quality work but buying expensive cameras and lenses. You've probably heard that equipment isn't everything when it comes to professionalism. We are guided by the following rules and suggest you learn them:

• The flip side of the coin is that the best equipment is a significant advantage in any kind of photography. Wedding photography is no exception. There are situations where entry-level equipment will get you in a lot of trouble. Churches, for example, can be very well lit, at times can resemble artificial caves. In these moments, you realize that you will need the right equipment to convey the scene correctly and with quality.

• A camera with high ISO capability can save you when you're in a dark place. Flash is also important, although many temples prohibit the use of flash during the ceremony. Even if it is allowed, you may find that your clients and their guests would rather not see the flash going off every few seconds.

• Remember that photographers should not be a distraction throughout the ceremony. Make sure you bring enough memory cards with you. The last thing you'll want to run into is overflowing cards while still shooting the ceremony when there's nothing left for the evening.

• Also, don't risk shooting weddings without backup equipment. Meaning spare memory cards, batteries, and, more difficult, a backup camera. It's best to use two of the same camera, but this can be financially difficult for many people.

Make a checklist

Many people tend to think that weddings are very universal events. The truth is that they are very different from one another, depending on different religious and cultural contexts, among other things. Moreover, you won't find two weddings that are the same because all couples are different and make different decisions. Consequently, your experience will vary greatly from weekend to weekend.

If there is anything that will help me seriously improve my wedding photography skills, it's planning. That way you could figure out what you should expect during the day, sketch out a schedule of events, and ensure everyone understood each other. Remember that you are in the service business. The happier your customers are, the better the business.

Improve your processing skills

The most difficult thing wedding photographers face is the sheer number of images that need to be processed. It's important to make the processing as efficient as possible so you don't get bogged down in it and leave time to work with clients.

Using Adobe Lightroom to manage large catalogs makes wedding processing much easier. Photoshop is a terrific processing tool, but it's not inherently designed to manage the thousands of images that often go along with shooting weddings.

Remember that most of your time will be spent not shooting the wedding, but processing it. If you're just starting in wedding photography and haven't yet had a chance to learn all of Adobe's software tools, use Luminar Neo's state-of-the-art image editor. It's AI-powered and allows you to perform the most complex tasks in just a couple of clicks.

The Luminar Neo developer's blog has a lot of interesting articles and tutorials that will help you in the future. For example, if you are just learning how to edit images, you can read an article about how to cut a photo in Photoshop.