The wedding photography business is competitive. This article is intended to give relatively new photographers some ideas on what to do to succeed in this industry.
1. If you plan on doing destination weddings, setup an efficient and effective online ordering system. Obviously out-of-towners are not going to be able to visit your studio. Plan on doing online orders. Consider allowing another vendor take care of the sales and orders.
2. Build relationships with other wedding vendors to provide your studio with referrals. This includes, hotels, resorts, bridal services, caterers etc.Give free portrait sessions, prints, and consulting advice to these vendors. For example for a resort, be willing to shoot (for free), a suite or portrait shot. Make sure you are on the top of their vendor referral list. Keep an eye out for new businesses or establishments that are opening up in your community and approach them about being on their list of preferred vendors.
3. Provide Quality (this should be a given). This means produce properly exposed images which are color correct the images and edited. Spend time on the creation of beautiful books.
4. Be willing to do whatever it takes to make the weddings go smoothly. Sure you are there to photograph the wedding, but be willing to run to the store before the wedding to pick up something the bride needs. Don’t just limit your activities to photography. By taking on more responsibility you will gain a fantastic reputation which should translate into a number of referrals.
5. Strive to connect with your clients. There are a lot of great photographers out there. By connecting at a human level you add an extra element of comfort and service.
6.
Each photographer has a different work style. However, as you choose your method of shooting, consider that that you are going to need to catch things fast. You can’t miss important events. Catching the moment is more important than having the perfect setting (although you should try and do both).
7. When shooting with an assistant, time sync you cameras. In this way, you will be able to sort your images be time (event) even when the images come from two separate cameras.
By following the above tips, a photographer can increase is performance in the competitive wedding photography industry.
Vanessa has an extensive photographers knowledge of many Orange County Wedding locations such as locations in Newport Beach, Huntington Beach, Temecula, Irvine, Laguna Beach, Tustin and San Diego. She instructs Newport Beach Photographers in techniques and shoots many Laguna Beach Weddings.
