Photographer Pain Points — Taking a shot at event photography?
Communication with your client is key.
Another week another blog! This time we thought we’d get into the pain points of a Photographer, and if you’re hoping to be a Videographer, some of these tips might help you as well!
Everyone has a photographer at their wedding — sometimes it’s a family friend, other times it can be a professional or a freelancer. Either way, as the photographer for the day you’ll be prioritising taking shots of the wedding rather than enjoying the festivities. That’s not to say you can’t partake in some nibbles from the buffet, just that if you are having a nibble, the newly wed couple always comes first. Remember that they are the ones paying you, not the guests. If a guest is distracting you from a priority shot, take the shot and apologise later. If the hosts have ordered a separate photo-booth for their event, this works well with you as it’ll leave you free to take more shots of the event while guests have the fun of novelty photographs. If you’re the one bringing the photo-booth, even better! Make sure to bring props for the guests to use, themed for the event. Consult your host beforehand to make sure you bring suitable things — you don’t want to turn up to a beach theme with autumn leaves and scarves!
Remember to consult your client before the event arrives. Do they want specific photographs? Maybe photos of friends and family, or action shots of them walking down the aisle. Are there people that don’t want to be photographed? You don’t want to aggravate anyone at the event, and there are those who feel very uncomfortable when a lens is pointed their way. There may also be parts of the event which should not be photographed, e.g. religious reasons. Communication with your client is key. You should also ask if you can take some early test photos at the venue, see how the lighting works with your camera. This will make it easier when the event starts, so you can take those perfect mementoes.
When you’ve got those great shots, you can arrange them into the quintessential portfolio. You own the rights to the photographs you take, but it would be polite to ask if you can use the photographs in your portfolio. Try to keep albums of events, but if you’ve only done one event then try to arrange the photographs in a pattern — busy, calm, calm, busy. A busy photo, as I’m sure you already know, is a photo that has a lot going on in it, like a photo of a group of people celebrating. By contrast, a calm photograph could be something like a serene sunset behind a newly wed couple by an empty field. Try out different compilations and try them out on friends and family. It always helps to have an outside view of things when advertising to potential clients. It can also help to look at other professional photographer’s portfolios and get some ideas on how to arrange your own. Getting a website of your own is easy nowadays. What you want early on is a service that is free to use — if they take a commission off your bookings, this is usually only a small fee (much like our own system!) and the pros of using the service to get your bookings certainly outweigh the cons. Make sure you use keywords in your bios and ‘About Me’s like WEDDING, EVENT, PHOTOGRAPHY and more. Give it a search online and see what you can find.
Now this one’s a top tip for new photographers who are just starting out; one of the troubles of starting your own photography business is that you’ll have to touch up some photos to make sure that your client is getting their money’s worth. The odd red-eye here and there, maybe someone in a photo that didn’t want to be photographed. One popular software is photoshop, but that can be expensive in the long run. You can save money and using a program like GIMP to edit your photos or the online tool Canva. Be sure not to overwrite any files from your camera — they’re the only ones you’ll have! Make copies before you start editing anything, even if it’s just for fancy filters. You may find out too late that black and white filter doesn’t really go with that shot and having nothing to fall back on, so be prepared! Don’t worry about learning a new software too much, most of them are easy to use and there are plenty of tutorials available. Have a look on YouTube and you’ll find step by step tutorials on GIMP and (when you can afford it) Photoshop tools. But always remember to communicate with your client on what they’d like with the photos — maybe they want filters, or maybe they just want you to crop out that weird family member who got a little too drunk at the reception. Get it perfect and they’re more likely to leave you a stellar review and recommend you to their family and friends.
Understandably, you may have inconsistent bookings to cover your costs. It would help to plan ahead of the seasons so you can boost yourself in website traffic etc at the right times. For example, the most popular times for people to have weddings is between late May and early September, so naturally, you’d want to promote your Wedding portfolio on your page/website over your festival portfolio. Keep an eye on the seasonal changes and change your content wherever necessary to give yourself the best chance of being booked. However, if your problem is time management, then you should learn to avoid multitasking when you’re working. Remember to prioritise — work out what is most important, i.e. upcoming bookings and finishing touch-ups from the last booking. If you’re getting busier, don’t be afraid to turn someone down for a job. Taking too much on at once can affect your health, and your wellbeing comes first.
If you’re worried about the reliability of a client, it can come in handy to set up payment plans and deposits to cover your costs. You must remember to have insurance for your equipment since you never know when disaster will strike and your camera breaks. You also have to consider the cost of your equipment and the time you’ll put into your work — how much is it worth? These are the factors that will play into your calculations when you create your payment plans. In the event that your client cancels, your deposit should be able to cover some of your work, even if you offer refunds. On that thought, you should remember to always state whether or not you offer refunds when advertising your services — good communication is key with your customers!
That’s all we have for this week, check in again for another session of Pain Points — maybe we’ll talk about your profession next!
Good luck to all you photographers, take your best shot!
See you next week.
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Photo credit: @getuliomoraes, @jeshoots, @ramche
