Making Money in Hard Times, Wedding Photography



Posted: Tuesday, October 06, 2009

by Tom Jackson
Tom Jackson

We are living in difficult times, but the digital revolution has created some amazing technologies which you can utilize to make extra money or start a new career. Cameras now have the ability to be able to recognize when a person enters the frame, and will take a photo when it senses that everyone is smiling. The camera will even warn you if someone blinked when the photo was taken, allowing you to take another and so be sure of getting a good image. Wow! Awesome.

New cameras and technologies are arriving almost every month from the major camera makers, such as Canon, Nikon, Pentax, Fuji, Hitachi, Sigma, Sony and many others. The computer inside the camera is doing a whole bunch of amazing things when you take a photo. With the typical DSLR system, the computer will analyze the scene you are about to capture and compare the lighting and contrast with a database of one hundred thousand images or more, and then make a decision as to the aperture and shutter speed required to get a good photo based on this data. And if the camera senses that there is insufficient light to take a good photo, then the computer will instruct the camera to fire the flash at the same time to get that perfect image. All in the blink of an eye.

So, what does all this technology mean? It means that it is very difficult to take a bad photo, at least technically. But, if you enjoy taking pictures, and you have a decent camera, then you can learn to be more creative and start taking pictures that people will pay you to take. If you enjoy photography, and like using the computer to edit the photos, then you can start your own business. Like everything in life, you can always learn the techniques required to take good photos as long as you enjoy the process. And wedding photography is a great way to start making money with your love of photography. A great many of todays photographers began their careers by taking wedding photos of friends and family.

But how do you get started? The first thing you need to do is buy and read all the wedding magazines at the bookstore. Don't be embarrassed about buying womens magazines. These will show you the latest styles in wedding photography, and will show you how to take really good images. These magazines usually will be displaying the latest in photo styles, as well as the latest in wedding attire. Part of your job as the wedding photographer, will be to make suggestions when requested.

The magazines will help with one of the biggest problem areas I see in wedding photos, and that is in posing the entire wedding group. Most times, you will not have a lot of time to arrange the group into a pleasing portrait. Looking at as many different photos of groups will help you when it come time to photograph the group, be it a small or large group.

This also goes for the photos of the bridal couple and their families. I have met a number of newly weds who have complained about their photographer not having taken the pictures they expected, including a decent selection of the immediate families of the couple. In this regard, you will often face other challenges also, such as parents who are divorced, parents who have new partners, either married or just friends. You need to be aware that you cannot place these people next to each other, and usually not even on the same side as each other. You do need to be very sensitive to these situations.

If the couple being married have children, then you also need to take special care in making sure that these children figure prominently in your photos for the day. If they are also part of the bridal party, then be sure they are in all the group photos, as well as photos with just the bride and groom. You will want to be sure that you also take as many photos as possible of these kids by themselves. You will have very happy clients if you follow these rules. You will also have the opportunity to sell more reprints if you follow these rules. The kids will want one of the photos, as well as the bridal couple, and also the grandparents.

Which brings me to another point you must follow. Always be sure to capture some good portraits of the grandparents by themselves, with just the bridal couple, with just the kids, and also with the bridal couple and the kids as a group. These generational portraits will have great sentimental value for the bridal couple and the families. Remember, often, these photos of the grandparents will be the last photos they will ever have taken with friends and family, before passing on. So it is critical that you capture all the images that the bride and groom are paying you for, even if you are doing it as a favor to a friend, you need to be aware of these critical images.

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