Wedding photography

The 2018 wedding season is quickly approaching for many of us. Long days, bridezillas, constantly on the move, all for that amazing shot the couple will look back on decades later to reminisce about their special day.

A Canadian newlywed has been ordered to fork out $115,000 in damages after it was ruled she slandered her wedding photographer online.

Are you looking for inspiration for your wedding photography? Here are the winning photos from this year’s International Wedding Photography of the Year image competition.

We’ve seen some adventurous wedding and engagement photos, including couples who have hiked up a mountain or flown out to the Grand Canyon. But one couple has incredibly unique wedding photos, after getting married with the Mount Mayon volcano erupting in the background.

Would you take the liberty to Photoshop an image so drastically that it offends your clients? That’s exactly what one wedding photographer did when they gave their client a “chin tuck.”

Intentional or not, there’s a substantial amount of messaging that occurs when you create a “Top 100” of anything. The International Society of Professional Wedding Photographers released their list of the Top 100 Wedding Photographers in the World, and when you scroll down the list you’ll notice there’s a group that’s incredibly under-represented: women.

We’ve all encountered those clients whose tedious demands have left us feeling exhausted. So imagine how this photographer felt after submitting his images, only to receive a 30-page document of feedback, including analytical shot breakdowns.

"Getting ready" is one of the most important sessions in a wedding because it kickstarts the celebrating mood of the ceremony. This post takes a dig into a few tips that would help you get better getting ready shots on the spot.

Like any other genre of photography, there are everyday frustrations that one must overcome. For wedding photographers, this is no different. Between Uncle Bobs with their constant ability to somehow always be in the frame or bride or mom-zillas who get amped up over the most minuscule of details, it can make for a long stressful day. Toronto-based Wedding Photographer Barb Simkova, working for Tara McMullen Photography, recently gave herself an additional wedding day challenge: photograph the wedding with nothing more than an iPhone 8 Plus, and the pictures speak for themselves.

Shooting your very first wedding can be a daunting experience. Even for established photographers used to working with people, nothing can prepare you for the pressure of capturing spontaneous moments such as the first kiss. Here’s a few tips to get started.

Yes, drones are the new stars in town and they are taking every industry by storm. Wedding photography has been getting a taste of this rising trend, and everyone is going crazy over it already. This post is about the important know-how that might be helpful when you decide to include drone photography in your next wedding shoot.

What we do in our free time is often connected to our innate passion. Such one random act of passion led us to launch a social documentary filmmaking brand. A lot of us, especially wedding photographers, have this bandwidth of free time where we are not shooting any weddings. In this off-season, do the things we do sum up to make a difference? This post is about how we chose to make short social documentary films and how transforming the experience was on the whole.

Using new creative techniques for your wedding clients is the best way to stand out from the crowd. While this technique is not considered new by any means, it might be the kicker that sets you apart from the others on your prospective brides' list of photographers.

Finding ways to earn passive income as a photographer is invaluable. In this field of work, our businesses often require a large amount of direct hands-on time. Selling stock photography, especially when you have the ability to simply upload images you have already taken in a minimal out of time, can add a great deal of value. The online tools that are available today allow you to turn photos that would otherwise have been worthless, or stored hidden on your hard drive, into pieces of art that have real monetary value.

With a multitude of template-based services offered, website building has never been easier. But wedding photography websites demand specific functionality that need to be considered in the design process. Here is a guide on setting up your first, or rebranded, website for a modern wedding photography business.

Most of the times, wedding photography is looked at as this big ball of happiness, glam, and glitz where two hearts come together to exchange eternal vows and so many people come together to celebrate it in a grand way. Now that’s the fun part. From a wedding photographer’s eyes, there’s a lot more to it. From client communication to shooting to editing to delivery, there are so many things that a wedding photographer juggles around before signing a project off happily. One of the most important parts of it is the legal contract.

Every wedding photographer has their own style of lighting, editing, posing, etc. However, a Dutch wedding photographer just blew the doors off convention with what's probably the most risqué wedding photo I've seen.

Seven years since inception, I have shot over 250 weddings across the world and it all began from that first itch to capturing someone’s special memory and putting a smile on their face. Looking back is always fun; a lot of mistakes made and lessons learned. As a wedding photographer, I sat by and thought over what I’d say to myself if I were to begin fresh now. Now, this post is not just to those who are raring to get started in photography, but also to the beginner in each one of us who loves to get started every now and then with a fresh perspective.

One of the challenges wedding photographers encounter is how to structure pricing for their services. One common mistake is to include a free engagement session in all wedding packages. There are a few reasons why you should offer engagement sessions only as an add-on to wedding packages.

I find it interesting how often I see new photographers make the exact same editing mistakes I made when I started out. Every photographer who has at least a few years of experience can look back at some of their first sessions and find a number of things that they continually did wrong. I recently took a look at some sessions from my first year of photography, as well as asking a few other photographers to do the same, and continually found the same common issues.

Depending who your friends are, you either love or hate Lightroom preset systems like VSCO Film, Mastin Labs, or the ever-so aged RAD Labs. The argument on one side of the fence is that everything becomes cookie cutter and lacks unique emotion. The other group of people say that it brings consistency and speed to an otherwise long-winded project. I’m primarily a wedding photographer so I understand both sides of this very reasonable argument. I’ve always hated trying to understand preset systems. I mean, since when is a preset supposed to be harder to get right than doing it all yourself?

Wedding photography is not what it used to be. I don't mean this in a good way or a bad way, it just seems like with any advancement in technology comes a new challenge. Many couples today want both still photos and video of their wedding. This makes sense since it is often the biggest day of their life. Does that mean we now have videographers to deal with in our shots? No, it's a two-way street. We, as professionals, both have to work together to deliver the best possible product to the lucky couple. Saying someone got in the way means you didn't try hard enough.

Many of us have been there. You upload your work to a social media platform only to find out months later that your photos have gained the attention of the masses. Immediately you start getting bombarded with emails, phone calls, and publications start reaching out. You quickly realize the moment you have always been waiting for is happening right now, but a new reality also sinks in: you have no clue what in the world you are supposed to do with all of this attention. In this video I sit down with Mike Kelley to discuss some of the steps you should take to capitalize on your viral photo series.

There are several ways to create more interesting photos, one way is to use off-camera lighting to help separate your subject from the environment or even making them the main focus of the shot. Carsten Schertzer shares 10 flash techniques he uses in his wedding and engagement photos to make them more interesting. These technique do not have to stop there, some of them can be used in other portrait sessions or even shooting products.

As a wedding photographer, we are always looking for new and interesting ways to add to our income. This usually comes in the form of photoshoots, prints, albums, and various types of upgrades, but most wedding photographers seem to be missing out on one of the easiest ways to make more money.

Whether or not you have an interest in wedding photography, as a photographer it’s inevitable that at some point in time, you will be presented with an opportunity to photograph a wedding. It could be a request from a friend who is well aware of your abilities. It could be from a recently engaged bride who came across your online portfolio, and after not seeing any wedding photos, contacted you to ask if you shot weddings. One of the most difficult aspects of venturing into the dark side that is wedding photography is deciding on your fee. There are several popular schools of thought on how much to charge for your first wedding.

Makeup artists are an invaluable part of the creative team for many photographers. In fact, there are certain genres of photography that rely so heavily on makeup artists that we simply couldn't work without them. Unfortunately, there seems to be a few serious problems cropping up between makeup artists and photographers.

A spectacular shot of a bride in her gown can be one of the most enduring images in the spectrum of bridal photos. I’ll state up front that I am not a wedding photographer, but as a fashion photographer specializing in bridal fashion, I’ll wager that I’ve shot more bridal gowns than the average wedding photographer. Along the way I have picked up a few tricks that wedding photographers might find useful when taking a bride’s formal portrait in her gown.

Wedding photographers make the worst wedding guests. I know that when I’m at a friend’s wedding, I have a hard time turning it off. And no one should make me - least of all the hired guns photographing the bride and groom for the day. If that sounds blasphemous, let me explain.

If you've ever thought about shooting a wedding, you have probably wondered: "How much should I charge to shoot a wedding?" In this free excerpt from the wedding photography tutorial, "How to Become a Professional Commercial Wedding Photographer," we are going to talk about pricing your wedding photography. In addition to this free lesson, we are offering a limited time discount if you'd like to purchase the full tutorial. Simply use code WED75 at checkout before April 30th, 2017.