If you’re interested in wedding photography as a business, you have good reason to be excited.  This type of work typically pays pretty well, is fun and exciting, and a great expression of your creativity and artistic abilities.  But before you can actually start advertising your wedding photography as a business, you first need to become a business!  There are legal requirements for businesses and of course your customers will expect to deal with a professional and will put more trust in a professional as well.  So how do you actually become a business?

Starting a wedding photography business is probably not any different than starting any other business.  Usually you need to register a business name with your county clerk’s office; this procedure may be different in some areas and countries other than the U.S. but getting your name registered is typically the first step.  Once you have a name for your wedding photography business and have been able to register it – they’ll reject it if someone else is using this name, so be sure to wait until you get your paperwork back – you can take that paperwork to a bank and open a business checking account.  You can also then move on to marketing material that’s needed to get customers for your wedding photography business.  Business cards of course will be indispensible, and you may want to make up some brochures as well.

If you’re very skilled with graphic arts and have a program such as Microsoft Publisher you may be able to make up these materials on your own but remember that your marketing material is going to be a good representation of your wedding photography business, as will your website.  You want everything to look professional and polished.  It’s well worth the investment to have someone professional take care of these things even if that means hiring someone from a website like elance.com or guru.com.  Once you get your wedding photography marketing materials made up you can then distribute them at bridal salons or at bridal expos.  You can also check local flea markets to see if they are having any bridal themed weekends and you can rent a booth there or purchase advertising space in their materials as well.

It’s imperative that you treat your wedding photography business as a business.  When dealing with customers make sure you’re professional and reliable.  Set aside a spot of your home where you can organize your paperwork, and don’t let your children answer your business phone!  Have satisfied customers for your wedding photography business may mean being referred to their friends and family for their own weddings or being called when they have other events such as family reunions, birthday parties, and so on.  But none of this will happen if you aren’t professional when approaching your wedding photography business.  So keep yourself organized, be reliable, and make sure your customers have a great experience overall and this will definitely help grow that business!

Do you know the real key to unique and memorable wedding portraits?  Usually it’s in the wedding photo poses.  There’s a lot that photographers can do with lighting and other effects but everything usually starts with the pose and the angle of the photo itself; if these are not unique and original and expressive then there’s not much else a photographer can do to improve the pictures.  So how can you dress up those wedding photo poses to make them unique and personal?

For one thing give up on those boring poses that have the subject just looking directly at the camera.  Some brides still want that lineup of everyone in the wedding party and their immediate family but once you have these pictures you want to dress up your wedding photo poses.  The bride should be pictured alone for some photos; romantic shots can be of her sitting for a quiet moment before the ceremony perhaps looking out a window or off into the distance.  This can express how she’s preparing herself for her new life and enjoying one last moment of solitude.  She may also want some shots of herself with her mother or her bridesmaids as they prepare for the ceremony.

These types of wedding photo poses can be happy and silly or just very sweet and familiar.  Whatever the theme or tone you definitely want to make sure that the poses are unique; don’t just have everyone stand there and smile out at the picture.  Use a mirror to convey that they’re getting ready before the ceremony, or have the mother helping the bride with her veil or dress.  The bridesmaids can do the same or can be helping the flower girls get ready as well.  These candid but planned wedding photo poses are an especially sweet touch to the wedding package.

Use outdoor settings for your wedding photo poses.  If there is a building nearby that has an interesting outdoor characteristic such as a large wooden door or cobblestone walkway, use this in the photos.  For using a walkway, have the bride and groom walking away from the camera so that you can convey that they’re walking into their new life together.  If you’re using that large wooden door, your wedding photo poses can include the groom opening the door for the bride or carrying her over that threshold.

When putting the bride and groom together for wedding photo poses this too is where creativity comes into play.  They can be silly by holding a hand to the camera as they kiss, as if they’re sneaking one in behind their hands.  The groom can be putting his top hat on the bride, or be pulling her long veil in front of them.  Study the wedding photo poses you see in other photographs and what the photographer did to dress them up and use that as inspiration for your own photos.  By doing so you’ll come up with some pictures that are unique and original.

« Older Posts — Newer Posts »