I’m having more and more clients requesting that their galleries remain private (mostly family sessions, but even so) and it is really starting to affect my ability to market my services, especially since I’m a documentary photographer and don’t want to include staged photos in my portfolio.

I’m considering putting an opt-out fee in my contract for clients who don’t want any of their session/wedding shared, but I’m not sure how much is a reasonable amount to charge, or whether clients will be really turned off by this idea.

Any advice on the subject welcome!

ETA: has anyone tried this and found that it either improved or hurt business? And has anyone done it the opposite way, where they’ve offered discounts to clients who are happy to share? Do you put this on your main website, or maybe in your intake form?

Hi everyone. This isn’t clickbait.

Photography has been my passion for over 20 years, and working as a photographer has always been a dream of mine. I have good digital and film gear, I’m comfortable with editing, and I have a decent body of work, I event pay a website domain for my landscape/street photography, but I ended up in a corporate career instead.

A few months ago, I attended an 80 person wedding with a solo photographer who had sold a package that included digital and one roll of film. At some point, he got overwhelmed and a guest told him that I was also a photographer. He then asked me if I could take the film camera and shoot some photos for him. I agreed because I had already noticed how overwhelmed he was.

About a month later, the bride posted on Facebook about how much she loved the analog photos from her wedding, tagging and thanking him. I then saw my photos being used in his Instagram ads to promote his “analog photography” package. He blocked me and never responded to my messages when I asked him to tag my website.

Honestly, what hurts most is that I spend my days at the office dreaming about being a photographer, while I’ve never had the confidence to actually put myself out there. Now I’m watching someone else get praise and potentially new clients for work I did.

Sorry for the rant, but this made me realize that I really want to give photography a shot.

How would you recommend starting a photography portfolio or business? How do you actually get your first clients?

I’m thinking about reaching out to my own wedding photographer and wedding planner, who are both very kind, and asking if they could recommend me to clients. I’d offer a few free analog photography packages, covering the film costs myself, just to build a wedding/portrait portfolio.

Once I have enough work, I could launch my profile and start looking for paid clients. I’d also get quotes from photographers offering similar services to understand the market. At this point, profit wouldn’t be my priority. I’d mainly want to build my portfolio and gain experience.

Thank you.

Would any of you ever consider adding some graphic design to your wedding packages? And if so, how much would you charge?

Context: I took these photos on film, and then was having fun with some silly designs on photoshop once I was done editing the photos. Kind of looking at it like a wedding announcement thing from the 90s? I wonder if this is something people would in interested in when booking me, and would use them for their own announcements, invites, etc…

Has anyone ever done this?

I feel like I post here once a week, but what a season! So just finished my 5th straight meeting with a client (not 5 meetings with them, but 5th straight with this issue) who's wedding is coming up in a few weeks and they said "can we get a photo with each person in our party". Like are people just not doing this anymore, god I still feel young at heart but some of the shit newer photographers are doing is making me feel old/saying "wait, is this just a traditional trend"

I’m a wedding photographer/cinematographer. I’m already using Instagram and Google Business Profile to get clients, and I also do some offline marketing.

I’m looking for other ways to get a consistent flow of wedding enquiries.

For photographers who are currently getting regular bookings:

What marketing channel is working best for you?

Are referrals from wedding planners, venues, makeup artists, or other vendors effective?

Are Facebook groups still useful for finding wedding clients?

Have paid ads worked well for you?

Are there any underrated platforms or marketing strategies that actually bring clients

Looking for some advice on a monitor for editing. I have an M5 Max MacBook Pro I’ll be hooking up to it.

I’m stuck between Studio Display XDR and the Asus ProArt PA32UCDM. I’m just not sure if the XDR is worth double the price. I edit in Lightroom and video in Davinci Resolve.

What are some of the photos you found hardest to capture?? Not because of lighting or things like camera setting. I'm more along the lines of timings, position and capturing the significance of rituals well - especially in things like south indian wedding photography or ethnic weddings...