Professional Wedding Photography

By: Eric Hartwell

The steady, ongoing work produced from wedding photography generates the majority of new clients for most photography studios and freelance photographers. A wedding photographer will need to comfortable with the following activities & skills:

Candid shots (photojournalistic) and posed shots

Making slides, prints, and slideshows (digital or otherwise)

Traditional albums

Taking shots in the outdoors at a party, beach, or rustic locale

Snapping shots indoors at a temple or church

In the late 1860's in America, couples started hiring photographers and posing at the wedding. The art form of photography for the wedding was created by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce in 1826. However, the idea of live action shots and of capturing the event itself came up after the Second World War. Often, the photographers would just show up inconspicuously at a wedding, snap the photos, and venture to sell them later on to the family. This forced studios to start covering the events, lest they be booted out by freelance photographers.

After the wedding is over, a small time lapse is incurred, and, thereafter the photographer shows "proofs" to the couple. The proofs can be in the form of prints, thumbnail galleries, or all of the images on CD-ROM. They may also make separate galleries or slideshows, and they're sometimes themed.

Photographers may sell additional prints to the couple through a web site with thumbnail galleries and an e-commerce back-end, often in conjunction with a vendor or broker website that charges a commission for each print purchase.

The common types of wedding photography include the photojournalistic realism and spontaneous photographer behavior of some, the classic or traditional posed method, and a hybrid of the two called fashion-based wedding photography.

In big cities, there are often studios devoted to wedding photography because photography for the wedding is such a mammoth market in metropolitan areas. People are always moving in and out and getting married. Take a look at a portfolio of the photographer's former work for assurance.

The Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI), the Professional Photographers of America (PPA), and, especially, the Wedding Photojournalists Association (WPA) offer training, professional support, and tips to member photographers.