How to Become a Professional Wedding Photographer in Nigeria

How to Become a Professional Wedding Photographer

The most talented photographers are those who can accurately capture the genuine feelings and events of a wedding. The art of wedding photography is difficult, though! These pointers will enable you to capture better pictures and ensure that your guests depart with lasting recollections.

KEEP YOURSELF AVAILABLE

Before the big day, every wedding photographer’s task begins. Consider this your first bonus advice if you don’t already know it.

Making ensuring people can contact you is the very first thing you must do.

Receiving queries by email is now, at its most formal, pretty much the norm in the wedding photography business. However, you can also provide contact information for your photography business on your social media pages, by phone, and by email.

The more opportunities you allow individuals to get in touch, the more likely it will be for you to obtain fresh leads.

USE A QUALITY ENQUIRY FORM

The inquiry form will usually make or break the relationship for most people contacting you.

Inquiring too much up front may cause someone to become disinterested and choose to go with someone else. Let’s put that down to ADD among millennials or whatever.

Additionally, if you ask for too little information, you’ll run out of things to write about in your response.

PROPERLY RESPOND

Experiences has shown before now that many people lack the training to respond to customers enquiry politely. Sadly, it’s not always simple to come up with the perfect phrase or phrase combination to pique someone’s interest and encourage them to patronize your wedding photography business. Sometime, for no apparent reason, someone will ghost you.

It’s true that not all of the people that ask you questions will mean it. You might receive a lot of enquiries from folks who are plainly just trying to score a deal or sending the same message to 20 different photographers at once. Take these concerns lightly!

Instead, concentrate on crafting strong answers to the questions that appear the most important.

Organize a meeting.

You will certainly forget to do anything during your shoot if you don’t have a checklist for wedding photography. This might ruin a promising wedding photography profession at its infancy. If you don’t remember to take pictures of the bride and groom cutting the cake or the mother of the bride wearing her extravagant hat, the couple won’t be happy!

So pay attention.

Spend some time getting to know the happy couple who has selected you to document their big day. A few weeks prior to the wedding, pay them a visit and learn everything you can about the event and their expectations of you.

ADD THE FOLLOWING INQUIRIES TO YOUR CHECKLIST

·        Do they desire numerous staged, formal wedding photos?

·        Or do they like a straightforward and natural approach?

·        What time periods are they asking you to cover? preparations for the wedding, a ceremony, a meal, speeches, a cake cutting, a party or a disco, etc.

·        What time do these segments begin? Expect delays because no wedding ever starts on schedule (you’ll see that for yourself!)

·        Are there any scheduled special events or surprises that visitors aren’t aware of?

·        How many visitors are expected?

·        Is there anybody here who doesn’t want their picture taken? (This may sound absurd, but you’d be amazed at how frequently an unpleasant aunt or distant cousin is pushed to the back of the line.)

·        Do they desire a large group photo of everyone and When will the marriage ceremony end?

These are crucial inquiries to make as you create your checklist for wedding photography because they will help you establish the foundation of your strategy.

You are 95% of the way to booking a potential client once you can schedule a meeting with them!

You might have meetings…

personally (this is ideal!)
Over the Phone with Skype, WhatsApp or Zoom

All of these methods of meeting individuals are available.

It occasionally just comes down to how far away you are. Since some of the appointments involve people across the country, it may not be possible to meet in person; nevertheless, technology like Skype and mobile phones have made communication easier than before.

One crucial question to remember to ask the pair is:

“Do you have any original ideas?”

Involving the bride and groom (to-be) in the creative process is the most professional thing to do because, in the end, it’s their big day.

Brilliant websites like Pinterest, Behance, Flickr, and 500px are great places to look for ideas for various wedding photography styles. Therefore, request that your happy couple take a look and provide you some of their preferred wedding photo ideas.

We still prefer to meet over a cup of coffee whenever possible, even though it may seem outdated. Making a significant effect, reading the room, and connecting are all made simpler.

THE BIGGEST ROOKIE ERROR WE OBSERVE AMONG PHOTOGRAPHERS IS THAT THEY NEGLECT TO SIGN A CONTRACT

The Following are some justifications for using contracts:

Clearly stating what you’ll be doing (as a professional) and what the clients will get

If something were to go wrong, protect yourself legally.

Give you a money-making assurance

This demonstrates your commitment to the project and that of the clients.

There are different ways to draw together a contract. Some people prefer to construct their own contracts on their own, while others work from a free online template, and still others decide to hire an attorney to do it for them.

Whatever path you take, using Honeybook will make the contract signing process incredibly simple. This complete booking solution takes care of all the requirements you’ll have to issue contracts, obtain digital signatures for them, collect payments, and more.

PART PAYMENT UPFRONT

Along with having a strong contract, photographers also need to be getting paid a retainer.

For additional background on what this includes, see the post that is linked above, but to summarize:

A retainer helps to guarantee your payment and shows that the clients you will work for are serious about hiring you. Asking for money up front can be intimidating, especially when you’re first starting out, but it’s the only way to succeed. Typically, we need 50% of the whole cost up front.

DISCUSS WHAT IS INCLUDED

You must explicitly state what will be included in the wedding photography package that your client will select. 

This could need to be done more than once, and it should definitely be done at least once in writing.

Most reservations are given at least three direct opportunities to learn what is included in their wedding package

What is included in our regular wedding photography packages is explained on the Pricing page.
After speaking with the customer, you will reiterate what they will be buying by email. Since over 80% of customers only select one of the standard packages, this typically essentially duplicates information from the pricing page. Make sure you are clear on this as well because clients occasionally make changes (such adding or eliminating an engagement shoot).
Last but not least, the most crucial place to make sure you specify what is included is in your contract. This establishes legal precedent for what the client will owe you, be accountable for, and need you to provide.

SET EARLY AND REGULAR EXPECTATIONS

Every time you discuss how to succeed in the wedding industry, you need to remind yourself and other photographers of this short remark.

Setting expectations correctly will assist you ensure that your customers are satisfied with all you give them. Problems between clients and photographers are frequently the consequence of misunderstandings.

There are undoubtedly some bizarre clients out there. And, without a doubt, some dubious photographers. However, we’d like to think that most individuals genuinely want to help one another.

When you suggest that picture time be around Golden Hour, this is one area where you will frequently have to set expectations (and it’s really simple!!). The answer from the soon-to-be bride and groom is sometimes apparent, but other times it’s more along the lines of, “Can we just do those shots early, so we have more time during our reception to just relax?”

Your response, as a skilled photographer, is easy to understand: Because of the beautiful, glowing lighting during the golden hour, portraits often turn out to be the best. You can shoot pictures early in the day, but bear in mind that the light will likely be harsher. Although it can be done, I always recommend Golden Hour for this reason.

SET UP YOUR EMAIL BOX

Before we continue to the next section, one final item.

This is a very basic advice for wedding photographers, but if you’re not well-organized, you might skip it.

Clutter results from having a lot of emails.

Initially, if you only have one or two clients, it won’t be that bad. However, as you advance, you’ll need to take more effective steps to arrange your clients’ messages.

CONCLUSION

Being a talented photographer is not enough, you also need to step up your game if you really want to be priced expensive by your client. Turning your skill and talent improvement into a brand is very necessary because that is what carries the greatness in your photography skill.

Hope this topic “How to Become a Professional Wedding Photographer” was helpful, for more info or consultancy Contact Us

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