Quiz: do you have what it takes to be a wedding photographer?
The Skill Sets Most Needed
In my experience of over 8 years of doing wedding photography,
wedding photography is not about perfection,
it’s about wrangling a lot of people with a smile, being a shoulder to cry on, creating a amazing experience for the bride and groom with fun stories and just being an extra member of the family for the day.
Yes, having the skill level gear like the following:
📸shooting manual,
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📸knowing how to use off-camera flash,
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📸how to conquer weird lighting situations,
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📸 Having fast lenses like a 50mm 1.8, a 35mm 1.8, 70-2002.8, 24-70 2.8 or similar would be helpful.
. 📸 having two full frame cameras would be nice, but I’ve shot weddings with crop sensor cameras that have good ISO ranges and been fine.
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📸being flexible for last minute changes into the schedule due to weather are always some technical things that you can gain.
But you can be the best most technical photographer, but have a really bad personality and that makes a huge difference on the wedding day.
So you really need an awesome fun personality that’s really good at handling crazy situations on the fly.
The Marketing
If you are someone who doesn’t like editing and organizing over 1,000 photos, plus create marketing materials, social media posts and blogging and tagging all the vendors involved, then being a wedding photog might not be your thing (or you might want to outsource these things to other people)
80% of what I do in my business is marketing and connecting myself with other vendors through personal relationships to get the gigs I get.
The Work
Just know that for me personally I spend about 40 hours before and after a single wedding:
consulting with the bride, answering questions, shooting the engagement (and editing it), getting all my gear ready, editing, making social media posts, blogging, creating products, doing research about the event and doing a walkthrough of it, and more ...
So if you aren’t willing to put in the work then it’s probably not a good career for you.
The Quiz
Do you have complete control of your camera and know your gear inside-out?
Are you comfortable in ANY situation- dark, light, flash, ceremony, reception or rain?
Do you keep your self calm, cool and collected in really stressful, high pressure situations with a smile?
Are you good at working with people and striking up conversations?
What about being good at organizing large groups of people and giving fast and quick directions?
Can you handle organizing and editing a large amount of photos and deliver a gorgeous product or products back to the bride in a reasonable amount of time?
Do you have a way to market yourself and use social media to your advantage as a business owner?
How is your camera equipment? Do you have low- light capable cameras, back up fast lenses, back up flashes, back up lighting systems?
The Results
If you answered YES to ALL of these questions, then congratulations, then you are READY to be a wedding photographer.
If you answered "NO" to any of these questions, then taking classes with creativelive.com or shadowing a pro might be for you.
Practice with random couples posing with dresses from the thrift store, get a friend's beautiful house to use, trade services with friends to get a cake or food, get rings from amazon and hold your own "Wedding" to get portfolio.
Can't find a mentor? Guess what, I never had a mentor and we are doing just fine. Make your own way by thinking out of the box!
Christal Marshall is the owner of
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Virginia Photos and Films, www.virginiaphotosandfilms.com.
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Virginia Marketing and Media www.virginiamarketingandmedia.com
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and Virginia Beach Photobooth Company www.virginiabeachphotoboothcompany.com
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and Be a marketing genius www.beamarketinggenius.com .
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She lives, breathes and does media and marketing pretty much 24-7 for over 14 local business through social media management, website design, photo, video or media coverage or graphic design.
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She is a homeschool mom of three, cat lover, sushi eater and poke fan! She started her business in 2011 with nothing but a $400 camera from Amazon, now she is has been published in over 60 different blogs and websites for her media work and rank top Wedding Photographers in Virginia
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