What you should know about starting your own wedding photography business
New photographers sometimes jump right into the business as wedding photographers, thinking it will be easy, part-time work. Photographing a wedding can be a joyous occasion and it can also be a scary proposition. Work with the wrong client or make a mistake and you could be in for a lot of trouble. Here are the must-dos if you want to start your own wedding photography business: - Know your equipment inside and out.
- Invest in a back-up camera, flash, batteries and flash cards.
- Have insurance in case your equipment fails.
- Find a niche in the heavily competitive industry.
- Always have a consultation with the bride and groom before the wedding.
- Use a contract with each and every wedding - even if they are your friends or relatives.
FINDING YOUR NICHE IN THE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY BUSINESS Low-End Weddings Low-end weddings would include wedding coverage in the range of $500 - $1500. Although this may sound attractive for a day's work, you should think carefully about whether you truly want to fall into this category. Many photographers start out with the low-end weddings because they think that is all they are worth. Would a new dentist or lawyer have this mentality? Would you want to hire the lowest priced professional if you were looking for a wedding photographer? Value perception comes into play here, because if the price is too low, potential clients might think the price is too good to be true or "you'll get what you pay for." Nonetheless, if you want to start out with a low-end wedding and a budget- conscious bride and groom you will still have to provide exceptional customer service (the cardinal rule of running any business). You should not compromise this just because you are charging less than other photographers. Your work should be good quality photography with correct exposures, posing and lighting. Quick decisions have to be made so it is important that you have a system that you are used to. Some ways to cut corners in this range are: 1) to eliminate the services of an assistant 2) to provide only a CD of images only without delivery of any photographs or albums. 3) hourly coverage ranging from two, three or four hours maximum. Keep in mind that this is a very saturated market. If you decide to go into this market, be prepared to have an USP (unique selling proposition). Many photography businesses hire part-time photographers on the weekends so they can cover a lot of weddings. Market yourself as the dedicated photographer who will not pass off documenting someone's treasured event - their wedding - to someone else. Have a tag line and logo and market yourself via your website and wedding shows. Mid-Range Weddings Middle-range weddings start at $1500 to $3000. You can offer a more creative range of products and services at this level and I believe you will be more respected as a professional at this range. Weddings in this range will most likely include a large wedding party and a longer coverage than a low-end wedding.At the upper range, you can offer a menu of services to include: 1) an engagement session and a portrait 2) pre-wedding coverage (the bride preparing for the event at her home) 3) a basic wedding album 4) wedding packages or a la carte portraits. 5) an assistant to help you for the day. 6) retouched images. You can offer several packages between $1500 and $3000 and have the opportunity to sell up with a la carte services.You can still offer a CD with reproduction rights as an add-on or include it with the most expensive package.
Clients in this range are looking for a photographer with artistic expertise in photography and post-production (what you do in Photoshop to their images). They are also looking for a combination of traditional color poses and contemporary black and white images. They know what they want because they have probably seen it in a magazine. This clientele is typically more sophisticated and perceive their wedding photography, not as a commodity like the wedding cake, but as a treasured memories captured by a talented photographer. They are more likely to purchase a wedding package from a photographer with a trusted and well-known reputation.
If you are interested in pursuing a career in the mid range of wedding photography it is advisable to gain lots of testimonials to build your reputation. Sales letters and websites can incorporate the raves that you receive from brides and grooms. Always explain the benefits of your services, not the features to a prospective couple. Put yourself in their shoes; be likeable, show enthusiasm and always, always display a high level of professionalism. High-End Weddings It is not unusual these days for wedding photography to top $8,000. If you photograph one wedding a weekend at that fee, you could gross over $400,000 in one year. On the contrary, do a low-end wedding at $1000 per weekend and you would only gross about $50,000. What would you rather do? I am not saying you should start out with a fee that high, but you could offer a "whopper" packageand offer a range of wedding packages starting at $3000 and going up to $12,000??? Destination weddings fall into this category. If you like to travel (maybe the Bahamas) partner with a other services to promote your off-site wedding photography. In this high-end price level you are most likely going to be dealing with the affluent. Daddy usually has a lot of money and is paying over $50,000 for the wedding. Price is not an object however the client still needs to be aware of the value for the services they are providing. Time limits should not be a consideration in this price range. It's over when it's over. Coverage should be the entire day, starting at the bride's house capturing images of the bride applying her make-up, having her hair done and finally having the mother of the bride help her with her dress. This is a great time to capture the emotions of the bride on her special day. If at all possible it is recommended to photograph the bride and groom prior to the ceremony. However, many brides and grooms do not want to see each other before the ceremony, so respect their wishes. Use gentle persuasion to convince them to go for the pre-ceremony photography. If you can convince them, it will be a big time saver and more relaxing for everyone involved. Assistants are a must in this category. Make sure you have an experienced and trusted assistant, who is also going to dress the part. Both photographer and assistant should be dressed in appropriate suits (pant suits are okay). I prefer to wear a black suit so I do not stand out too much. Never wear white or a light color. Be prepared to have expertise in album design (or hire a good album designer). Albums are standard in this price range and the more creative the better. Album covers and jackets can help dress up an album. Marketing to the affluent is a key element in this price range and takes some education. There are lots of books written on this subject. I would recommend that you choose a mentor who is successful and learn from them, this way you do not have to reinvent the wheel. The
PPA
and
WPPI
are two worthwhile organizations to join and they have seminars throughout the year plus they each have an annual convention. In summary, whatever market niche you decide to serve, remember that people like to feel special. Always remember their names and their parents' names. (even if you have to bring a cheat-cheat to the wedding). Your service is as important as your product. No one wants to deal with someone grumpy or moody. If you are sick or having a bad day, mask it as best as you can. Over-deliver by giving the couple a little something extra that they did not expect or ask for. I always give a wedding gift, usually a frame and offer to fill it with a complimentary photograph from their special day. Styles of Wedding Photography Now that you have chosen your market niche, the next step is to choose a style of photography, just as you would do with any photography business. The two most recognized wedding styles are 1) Traditional 2) Photo-journalistic Traditional wedding photography is a mix of posed and candid photos with the majority of images being posed.Most weddings prior to 1990 were traditional with the poses consisting of the bride and groom, bride and groom with parents, wedding party, bride and mom, bride and dad, etc - you get the picture. A traditional photographer will appear more intrusive than that as a candid photographer. You will need to move them away from their friends and family and line them up for the poses. (that is why I recommend portraits prior to the ceremony). Typically the posing can take up to one hour so you must have an organized list. Work with the parents and family first and let them go so they can go to the reception. Most guests expect that the bride and groom will show up last, but don't keep the parents waiting. This is their big day too!! (and most likely they are paying for it). The photography at the reception is typically a little more candid than the church however the traditional shots of cutting the cake, bouquet and garter toss and dancing should not be omitted. I always photograph the cake, the wedding invitation, a set of filled champagne glasses and the brides shoes. Photo-journalistic photography became popular in the mid 90's and is still a very desirable style. This style of photography does not mean it is less forgiving because posing doesn't matter; it typically means that you will need to shoot a lot more images and with careful editing capture storybook imagery of the day. Some elements of this style include black and white images, tilted images, images showing icons from the day i.e. back of wedding dress, bride's shoes, flowers, rings etc. Although these images may not have merit on their own, they provide beautiful backgrounds for the storybook pages. If you are interested in this type of photography, study under some of the masters. Bambi Cantrell started the trend in California back in the 90's and she is still going strong. Attend a wedding show and see what other photographers are doing. Pay attention to which booths are the most crowded. Also look at magazines including Bridal and Cosmo. Brides who want this style of photography like what they see in magazines. Being a wedding photographer entails more than the 4-8 hours you will spend on the weekend. It takes countless hours of marketing, sales and continuing education. Post production work can take many hours during the week to edit, retouch and create an album design. It can be a very rewarding career working with couples on the happiest day of their lives.
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