Cash with your Canon
Get started with wedding photography
Wedding photography has long been a great way to make money as a photographer, but it can also be stressful, time-consuming and expensive to get
started. So, it’s a good idea to start off slowly, shooting weddings for family members or friends. In this section we’ll look at the things you can start doing right now to gain some valuable experience, while also making a bit of extra income on the side. Only when you’ve shot a few weddings will you know if it really is for you. Along with the necessary photographic talent – because the photos you take will be a couple’s greatest reminder of their day – you will need to be authoritative, to take charge of proceedings when it’s time to get your images, but also be friendly, approachable and great with people. You will also need to be good at promoting your business and yourself, as it’s a competitive market out there, and business skills are almost as important as taking great images.
Get some experience
No-one is going to hire you without any experience, so it’s worth shooting as many weddings as possible before you take the leap into the world of professional wedding photography. You can start by shooting candids and other less-formal images as a guest for friends and family. When doing this it’s important that you do not try to ‘compete’ with the main photographer, so don’t try to take over the formal shots – but pay close attention to how they work and how you might approach similar shots.
Another way to hone your skills before you go all-out as a wedding photographer is to get some training. There are many specialist wedding photography workshops and courses run by reputable companies such as Aspire (www.aspire photographytraining.co.uk). These courses will give you an insight into how to shoot important occasions like weddings without the pressure of shooting at a real event.
Second shooter
Once you have shot some weddings for friends and family, you could also consider assisting a wedding photographer to get experience of professional wedding photography. To begin with, contacting some local photographers to see if they need an assistant is a good idea. Wedding photographers tend to be extremely busy during the spring and summer, though, so it’s better to approach them
Start by shooting candids and other less-formal images as a guest for friends and family, but it’s important that you do not try to ‘compete’ with the main photographer
during the quieter months of late autumn or spring. Don’t expect to get rich from this, as it’s rare for an assistant to get paid any more than basic expenses for the day, but it’s a great way to get some experience of the business.
If you already have some experience shooting weddings but don’t have the confidence to start out on your own, you could also try contacting local wedding photographers offering to work as a second shooter. This involves working alongside the main photographer, capturing images that complement their shots. Even though you won’t be the main photographer, you still need to be able to prove that you are able to take good images before any photographer will employ you, as your shots will be part of the package supplied to the couple. This type of opportunity doesn’t come along very often, so along with contacting them, it’s also worth following plenty of local wedding photographers on social media to keep an eye out for any opportunities to get work as a second shooter.
At this stage it’s tempting to shoot weddings as the main photographer for free, but if you are serious about making money from your wedding photography this isn’t the best approach, as it’s often hard to make the transition to charging a market rate for your photography after shooting for free. It’s better to get as much experience as possible by shooting as a second shooter or guest, then take the leap to charging for your time and work when you are ready to take the responsibility as the main photographer, even if it’s for friends or family members.
Get some help
Once you’re sure that wedding photography really is the career for you, it’s worth considering joining a professional body such as the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (www.swpp.co.uk). These can help you with many aspects of starting out, from recommending courses and tuition, to enabling you to build contacts and even get suitable insurance. Don’t overlook that last point: when you are shooting weddings you will need insurance cover for both your gear and public liability. Normal household insurance won’t cover you when shooting professionally, and won’t offer public liability or professional indemnity if the worst happens. This type of cover costs around £200 per year in the UK, although the amount will vary according to the value of your kit, the amount of liability/ indemnity cover, and where you are working.
Know your gear
Even working as a second shooter or assistant, shooting a couple’s big day can be stressful enough without having to find your way around a new camera or flash. So, make sure that you are completely familiar with how all your gear works, and be very wary of using a new piece of kit for the first time on a shoot. This is another area where shooting some weddings without the pressure of getting paid can help, as it will give you time to experiment with different settings and gear.
While you need to know your equipment inside-out, buying everything before you start can be expensive, so it’s worth considering hiring some items for individual weddings, such as a 70-200mm f/2.8, or an 85mm f/1.4 lens to shoot portraits in low light. When hiring kit, make sure you give yourself enough time to familiarise yourself with how it works, so try to have it delivered at least a few days before the wedding.
After the shoot
Your work as a wedding photographer isn’t finished at the end of the wedding day. When you start shooting professionally you’ll also need to set aside time to go through your images, process the best ones and then present them to the couple. Even if you have only shot a wedding as a guest, try to approach processing your images as though you had shot the wedding for the couple.
This means that you will have to sort through your images to pick out the best ones, and then process them. Even at this stage of your wedding photography it’s worth trying to find a processing style that suits your images, as it will give them a more consistent appearance and also allow you to batchprocess many images, making only minor adjustments to individual shots.
How much time will it take?
Even if you are an experienced photographer, gaining the expertise to shoot weddings professionally won’t happen overnight. It could take six months, or even a year, before you have built up the skills and experience that you will need to shoot a wedding as the main photographer.
Once you feel confident that you have the basic skills it will take time to progress to earning a regular income from shooting weddings. Working as a second shooter for a few months will help you gain experience (and potentially some income).
Will I make much money?
If you are starting from scratch it’s likely that you won’t make much money for the first six months to a year. Working for another wedding photographer as a paid second shooter, you will be able to make around £100 to £200 per day. But this first year or so is only the beginning for anyone serious
It could take six months, or even a year, before you have built up the skills and experience that you will need to shoot a wedding as the main photographer
about shooting weddings fulltime. The bigger rewards will come when you have the experience to shoot weddings as the main photographer. Treat these first steps like an apprenticeship, and look to be able to make enough money to cover your basic expenses before you start flying solo.