Now that weddings are back after a streak that is not exactly good for wedding photography due to the circumstances that we all know, it is time to recover this Guest Author article that was pending publication at the time. This is an article written by the photographer David Redondo, the Artisan of Light , who offers you some excellent advice so that you know everything that is behind a wedding report. Especially the work that is before the wedding. Go ahead David. Although before, if you want more information about wedding photography, in this link you have the most complete mega guide to start as a professional .
Would you like to be a wedding photographer and do not know the work that must be done to achieve it? Stay with me and I'll tell you first-hand the secrets of wedding reporting.
Wedding photography is booming. With today's easy access to professional equipment, almost anyone can strap a camera around their neck and qualify as a professional wedding photographer. However, it is not as simple as it may seem at first. It is not about going with your camera to the event and getting involved in taking photos without rhyme or reason. It is important that you have this clear before deciding to undertake as a photographer. Wedding photography goes much further, and in this article I want to tell you about my particular vision of how to approach a wedding from the very beginning... Let's go!
HOW TO FIND WEDDING COUPLES
This may be the most critical point, especially if you are starting out as a wedding photographer and lack jobs and experience. My clients come to me mainly through these 3 sources:
- Wedding portals:These portals are, without a doubt, the place where you can find the largest number of potential customers. On the other hand, it is also the place where you will find the fiercest competition, from my perspective there is a price war in which I particularly do not like to enter. Also, if you don't pay to advertise on these portals, despite the fact that some have a free registration option, you will receive hardly any requests and it is almost impossible for you to get in touch with any of those brides looking for a photographer. However, in my beginnings as a wedding photographer, these portals gave me my first clients. I have to admit that I managed it by cheating a bit so that I could be the one to contact the brides and not the other way around as usual. It takes longer and you run the risk of getting your account closed,
- Social Networks: The RRSS bring me a handful of weddings every season. Here you can also find a large number of potential customers and although the competition is also great, it is not necessary to enter into a price war to get customers. The RRSS that I use are Facebook and mainly Instagram, which in recent years has been working very well. I recently also started with Pinterest, which seems to have a large community of brides who come looking for ideas... maybe in a few months I can tell you how the experience was.
- Word of mouth recommendations:And finally my biggest and best source of clients, with word of mouth I get most of the weddings of the season. Here you play with an advantage, if you receive a client recommended by your old couples, it is almost certain that you will not have to compete with another photographer for that wedding. Just think about what you do when you travel somewhere and a friend or family member has recommended that you go to eat at a particular place. I tell you: do not look at anything else and reserve at the restaurant that has been recommended to you. Well, exactly the same thing happens with the wedding photographer. The bad part is that when you are starting out you will not be able to get your first clients this way.
In addition to the ones I just mentioned, you can also find other very effective sources from which you can get more clients:
- Google: They say that if you are not in Google you do not exist. Many couples search through Google for their wedding photographer, if you manage to appear in the first results for those searches you will have an extra number of budget requests. For this you have to work on the SEO of your website , I am not going to go into detail with this topic because it would be for a separate article (you can access Mario's Marterclass on SEO for photographers ). It is a job that requires time, since the results take time to arrive, but with patience you can end up in the first results of Google. In my case, it's something I've been working on for a little less than a year and now I'm starting to see the results, but there's still a lot to do.
- Networking: Having a network of contacts within the world of weddings can ensure you close many contracts each season, in fact, many photographers get all their reports through their network of contacts. Mainly the providers that work best in this sense are the estates and wedding planners, since as a general rule couples seek these services beforehand for their wedding. The normal thing is that you reach an agreement with them to pay them a percentage or a fixed amount for each wedding that you manage to close thanks to them.
CONTACT AND BUDGET IN WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
After telling you how I get the requests from my potential clients, it's time for me to show you how I deal with them in order to close the wedding.
When I receive an application, the first thing I do is congratulate them on their commitment and thank them for contacting me and noticing my work. I don't think I need to tell you this, but... it is very important to be polite and be aware of the enthusiasm that this couple has for the wedding. Later I present a dossier in the email itself made in HTML, with its photos and buttons with links to my website, all thinking so that it enters through the eyes. It is much better visually than a conventional text-only email, and for me it also has an advantage over attaching a PDF, since in this way they do not have to download an attachment as they have everything in the email itself.
If you wonder how I make that email in HTML, I leave you a link with the online tool that I use, you can use it for free without design limitations (although it has a paid version). The problem with the free version is that you will lose the work when you close the page and that it only lets you export it in HTML, although this is not a problem for the use that we are going to give it. This is the tool.
In this dossier I give you some information as well as the prices of the different wedding packages and their possible extras. They can choose the services they want to hire based on their budget, which is why it is important to give them different options but without going overboard. The ideal is 3 packs, although 2 can work as well. I admit that I am currently offering 4 packs, and although it may not be ideal you can always try to see what works for you.
After sending them the dossier, I always send them a message via WhatsApp to confirm that I have received their request and I have answered them, so I make sure they check the SPAM tray just in case.
Once the dossier is received and after studying it, if it matches what they are looking for and their budget, they will ask me for an interview to get to know each other and tell me more specific questions.
INTERVIEW WITH THE COUPLE
In my case, I don't have a studio or premises, since I dedicate myself almost exclusively to wedding photography, I don't need it and I save a lot of money from the premises. If this is also your case, you will need to find a suitable place... and believe me when I tell you that the first bar that comes to mind will not do. It should be a quiet place, where you can chat without much disturbance, without the typical shouting from those who may be watching football (if it's a place without a TV, much better) and without children who are shouting and running from one side to another. It may seem difficult to find, but surely if you search well you will find something with these characteristics near your home. It is very important, since the comfort that the couple have will significantly influence the development of the interview.
Another option is to go to the house of the couple, it will be more comfortable for them, but I would advise against it, since it is better to have everything under control and be in an environment that you already know where you know that you will know how to handle the interview well. Also, if you have many interviews this will cost more time and money.
Finally, you have the option of the online interview, very fashionable in recent times. For me it is less personal, I prefer by far a face-to-face meeting, although sometimes it is the only option when it comes to couples who live abroad or who, due to schedule issues, do not coincide very much.
I meet them in a cafeteria that meets all the requirements that I explained to you previously. The interview usually lasts an hour. It is important to let them talk, especially at the beginning, I always like to ask them how they met, how long they have been together or what they expect from their wedding, so that they can relax and gain confidence with me.
Then I go on to ask them any questions they may have regarding the information I gave them in the dossier. It is very important to make everything as clear as possible so that there are no misunderstandings. Do you like “surprises”? Well, neither do the boyfriends.
Finally, I show you a sample of an album with a royal wedding, to give you an idea of the final product you will receive. Once we have finished the interview, I thank you for coming to the place and we agree that you will give me an answer as soon as possible.
The truth is that once I have met with the couple, it is almost certain that I will close that wedding. This is why you have to give everything in the interview, if the bride and groom have bothered to go see you it is because they are very interested in you doing the wedding for them, you just have to give them that "little push" that makes them finally decide... don't let them let them escape or another photographer will do the wedding for them.
THE IMPORTANCE OF THE CONTRACT IN WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
After a few days, and if everything has gone well, the couple will contact you again to confirm that they want you to be their photographer. At this time is when all the services they want to contract are usually specified, and as a result of this, you can prepare the contract for them.
In the contract, everything must be well explained and clear, there can be no room for doubts and any unforeseen event must be reckoned with. In most cases, the contract is no more than a procedure, but it can save you in other more specific cases. Apart from the personal data of the clients as well as the data of the wedding and the services that hire you, it is important to specify what would happen if you do not show up at the wedding, if you lose all the work, if you take longer to deliver the photos than usual agreed or any other unforeseen event that may arise.
It goes without saying that if you want to dedicate yourself professionally to wedding photography, you will need civil liability insurance that can get you out of a specific situation. The agreement will be closed with the signing of the contract by both parties and the deposit of the signal with which the couple will reserve their date. !! Congratulations!! You already have one more wedding.
MY PHOTOGRAPHIC EQUIPMENT FOR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY
Before finishing this article about the work that there is before a wedding, I want to tell you what team I work with, since it is one of the questions that I am most often asked, although I really think that the team is not important, it can mark the difference between being able to take a photo and not taking it if the conditions are complicated.
- Personally, I usually work without flash whenever possible, over the years I have been reducing the number of photos I take with flash more and more, natural light makes me fall in love. Therefore, for me one of the most important points that the camera has to have is good noise control at high ISOs.
- It is also important that the focusing system is precise and fast , here there has to be a symbiosis between camera and lens, but without a doubt a camera with a good focus will make things much easier for you when there is a lot of movement and you cannot afford to lose a very important moment. special.
- Then there is the issue of dynamic range , a point that brands have improved a lot in recent years and that for me is essential. A good dynamic range will allow you to save situations of low light or high contrast in post-processing.
- Finally, the fourth essential point is that it has a double memory card holder. You never know when a card might go bad, so if you have a camera with a dual card holder, you can configure it so that each photo you take is saved individually on each card, so you always have a backup copy that can save your furniture in case of “catastrophe”.
Until recently, all of these points were met by the Canon 1DX mark II . However, he had a very important handicap, and that is that wedding after wedding ended with his back in shambles, the weight of the team was too much for so many continuous hours of reporting. When Sony finally released the A7III I saw heaven open, since they had finally been encouraged to put double card holders in their professional cameras, with which they already covered all my needs. Also, I noticed a significant improvement in focus accuracy.
Currently my cameras for wedding photography are the Sony A9 as the main one and the A7III and A7RIII as secondary ones. I work with fixed focal lengths, ranging from the Sigma 14mm 1.8 ART to the Sigma 135mm 1.8 ART, passing through the Sigma 35mm 1.4 ART (my favourite), the Sigma 50mm 1.4 ART and the Sony 90mm 2.8 macro for detail photos . As a flash I have the Godox V1 for when I need it.
This is an article by David Redondo, the Artisan of Light. You can follow his work as a wedding photographer on Instagramor on their website, where you can also see their post-wedding photos, one of their specialties.
If you liked it, do not hesitate to share it among your contacts, it will be a nice way to thank David for his dedication when it comes to telling us about his experience.
