How Do You Know If You're Cut Out For Weddings?

My mind is all over the place right now, I'm pretty young and not sure what direction to go in with my photography.

I'd love to do wedding photography if I could, but then again.. it's hard to tell if it's worth me investing time/money into it?

I've shot 1 wedding (somehow!) and I enjoyed it, however looking back I don't think the photos are much good... maybe there's potential? I don't know.

(you can have a look at www.photoboxgallery.co​m/shmulevitch if you want to see)

Anyway... for people who didn't second shoot for a while, how did you realise you were good enough to invest in kit and start charging people for weddings?

Cheers

Hi, Ben. Yes, wedding photography is something to really consider before spending $5-10k on gear and then all the other business stuff. I've been shooting semi-pro and now pro for about 5 years and I'm still not sure I love it. I don't get paid, though. I only do it for friends and family of friends. If I was getting paid, it would be a royal pain in the neck for me. I'd always feel like I need to get more business.

The shooting part is about 50% of it. The rest is getting business and then staying in business. Think about that carefully as well as wanting to do this as a real job.

Your images are okay. You will need a lot of gear, including a second camera body. I've been shooting with one 5D series and 1 xxD series camera for the whole time. It's hard to keep up with the technology. Also, you need faster, better lenses. Over time, you can collect that. But the best thing is to be a second shooter and work with a pro. Give yourself 6 weddings and see if it's for you. If not, just have fun with it. I probably would not like shooting events if I had to do it all the time and with customers that don't like what I do. But it still is fun, I still get hired often, and I meet very nice people while I do it.

Thanks susie. I totally agree that I need to have fun to do it, and despite the pressure/limitations I did have fun on the shoot I did... as always with the events I've done, to be honest I'm happiest when there's a camera in my hands

Remember, the business if half of it. Work on your business, accounting, advertising, etc. skills and you can decide then.

Best advice, though, see who does great work here in the forum and see what gear they own and how they shoot.

SuzyView wrote in post #9795556
Remember, the business if half of it. Work on your business, accounting, advertising, etc. skills and you can decide then.

Best advice, though, see who does great work here in the forum and see what gear they own and how they shoot.

Thankfully a lot of people I know are established photographers, hopefully I can pick up advice from them too.

I think I know what gear I'd like (to start with anyway), probably a 24-70L and a 50 or 85/1.4, then once i've got some more money some L primes. I like quite a raw style with shallow dof.

I'd say the photography is about 20% of it, in terms of time, maybe less. Think about the preparation, the post processing, album design, marketing, sales, website design, doing prints, etc, that dwarfs the time I spend at a wedding.

I agree, Tim. For full-time shooters, this is really true.

The answer depends on what you mean by wedding photography. Do you mean as a full-time profession? As something you do professionally but on the side? As just a guy with a camera to earn a few bucks when the opportunity comes along? And with respect to the investment, is this gear that you would want to have anyway for other purposes but couldn't otherwise afford?

Why not dabble for a while? Invest in a few pieces to get you going and either second shoot or be that GWAC to pay for it. You can always rent gear (though I'm really not a proponent of renting). See how it goes. If you like it, invest a little more, take on bigger assignments, and assess your feelings along the way.

You definitely have to like this work to do it well. As I go out to other tog's sites looking at their work, it's pretty easy to pick out those who are uninspired and just doing it only for the $'s. You never want to be that guy.

The only real way to find out is to try it. That's what I did and my current feelings for it are reflected in my signature....

You can get close without even trying it. What type of photography do you enjoy? Do you like working with people, doing portraits and family shoots, or do you prefer things like sports, where you have little/no control on the lighting/action. Narrowing down what you like can help decide if you want to try it. Since you said you would like to, next time a friend or family member is getting married, ask them if you can bring your camera along and practice. From there you can start to get a better feeling.

You know if you're cut out for weddings if you can still enjoy shooting and do a great job when you are sick, tired, have nausea, diarrhea, a headache, twisted your ankle, dropped and broke your primary gear setup, dealing with 30 uncle bobs, and STILL deliver top notch photos, and then you still cannot wait for the next one.

Otherwise, you're just going through the motions like so many photographers that do weddings are. They're not doing themselves nor their clients any favours.

If you enjoy photographing a wedding with all the things Lloyd listed you're a masochist. If you enjoy it and do a good job, and look forward to the next, all while reasonably healthy, then it's for you.

LOL, I never said "enjoy it". I said if you can still deliver the goods despite all that, and not be scared off them forever, then you're cut out for it.

I've had a day very close to the one I described. Food poisoning sucks when you travel for a destination wedding and can't have your "familiar foods". hahaha.

Well the one wedding I did shoot I enjoyed very much, despite quite difficult circumstances. I was shooting a 60+ guest shoot and the B&G wanted me to get a good photo of EVERY guest individually. On top of that I was shooting very dark churches/receptions to blinding sunlight and nothing in-between with a 400D and a F3.5 lens.

The thing is, I'd only want to do pictures If mine were special, and people hired me because they saw that. The wedding I did all I was concentrating on was getting the exposure right and the shots they wanted, no room for the kind of creativity I'd rather do.

It's just hard to tell whether I could fulfil that desire.

Really look at the other pros in the wedding share forum. Some of those threads show beautiful work. Just get yourself to work at it.