Questions about Portrait and Wedding Photography...

For my first report on my commercial photography degree I have to choose 2 areas of photography and as you can probably guess Portraiture and Weddings are the two i've chosen.
Beyond the usual research on how it's all done and logistics of it all I have to also get the opinion of a few professionals.
So I thought this would be the perfect place to start

All I need from a few of you (for each area) is like how you think your specific area has changed over the time you have been doing it? and how like the clients needs have developed?

Then two specific questions i've come up with are:
Specific to Portraits: "Who are the people that generally want portrait photography doing?'

Specific to Weddings: "What are you asked to do more of Photojournalistic or the 'typical' posed shots?"

Thank you in advance for your time to respond to this. It'll be greatly appreciated

Then at the end of the post could you please put:
- Your Name:
- Specific Field of Photography:
- Location:

Just so I can attribute you within my report, thanks

Racerman wrote in post #9023379
Specific to Portraits: "Who are the people that generally want portrait photography doing?'

? Not sure I understand the question.

Specific to Weddings: "Why does the formal wedding shot seem so outdated?"

I don't think the Formal Wedding shot is outdated. A number of my clients will hire me because of the "photojournalistic approach" but when I get there, they are all about the formals LOL. I think they like the idea of the nice shots of rings and shoes and jumping in the field etc, but the ones they typically pay for are the formals. Others opinion may vary as I have only been doing this for 2 years, but thats my initial observation to date.

I hope that helped...

Yeah that's fine thanks, could I just ask you like
- Your Name:
- Specific Field of Photography:
- Location:
So I can attribute you within the report.
First question is like who are the majority of the clients, say for example families wanting to get a shoot of them or whatever

Sure, NP

The majority of my clients are families with small children looking for portraits, most of them are word of mouth, most of my portrait business happens at this time of year (for Christmas cards and such)

second question is very leading. Personally i absolutely despise wedding reportage photography in all its forms and I desire nothing more from my own wedding photos (ie. at MY wedding, not one i'm photographing) than a few good formals that show everyone. I know many people that share this sentiment and there's clearly still a market for people who know how to pose.

I accept that some reportage photographers are talented, and I admire their skill. Many "reportage" photographers however are hacks, and would have absolutely no idea how to pose a large group shot properly.

Change your question to make it more neutral and less leading.

thanks and changed the question, the original one was thought up with my course leader but I can see where your coming from now

dreamcatcher23 wrote in post #9024489
second question is very leading. Personally i absolutely despise wedding reportage photography in all its forms and I desire nothing more from my own wedding photos (ie. at MY wedding, not one i'm photographing) than a few good formals that show everyone. I know many people that share this sentiment and there's clearly still a market for people who know how to pose.

I accept that some reportage photographers are talented, and I admire their skill. Many "reportage" photographers however are hacks, and would have absolutely no idea how to pose a large group shot properly.

For sure, wedding coverage that ignores the formals fails to provide a service that every mother expects, even if the bride is too dumb to realize it. And for sure, there will be more reprint orders for the group formals than anything else (This should not be a surprise to anyone. The pictures with more different people in expensive formal clothing will be ordered more often than anything else. Duh!)

The smart wedding journalists actually hire second shooters to do all the "mundane" work while they do the artsy-fartsy stuff. Good wedding journalism is along the line of "Life Goes to a Wedding"--it can produce a very, very nice slideshow or album. But the posed work should not be ignored.