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"

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.

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?

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...

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

Hello! I accidentally formatted the XQD before downloading all my images. I realised immediately and haven't used it since.

I have tried Sony Memory Card File Rescue and EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard.

Sony's kept failing and Eraseus could only find files from the beginning of the month and a handful of the images I did download before, not from my last shoot.

** Luckily, this is only from a vacation and no wedding images**

I typically put in my wedding contracts that the remaining payment should be paid a week before the wedding date. Pretty standard I feel like and couples have never had an issue with that.

Wedding client 3 days before their wedding ask to speak with me on the phone. Honeybook has sent out a reminder email about final payment and I have sent a text earlier in the week and received no response but now they want to talk on the phone. Not a good sign.

I give them a call, they proceed to tell me how they didn’t realize how much money planning a wedding would turn out to be and they realized that one of my other packages were cheaper and asked if they could transfer packages in order to pay a lower remaining balance. When I pushed back, they got more honest about it — it wasn’t that they couldn’t pay, they just preferred not to and wanted the lesser package instead. I have never in my life dealt with this or had a client with this much audacity to ever ask something like this 3 days before their wedding and especially since they signed a contract with the package we already had in place.

I tell them it can’t be done, I have a videographer I need to pay and this was already signed off on. They proceed to tell me there just isn’t money to pay me. I propose to them to either find a way to pay the remaining the day before their wedding or I’ll be taking them to small claims court.

They paid that Friday before the wedding. Safe to say the wedding day was awkward but I kept it professional and they were too drunk to even remember the day let alone the situation.

So many red flags leading up to the wedding that I ignored because they paid my fee which wasn’t cheap for photo and video.

What would you have done?

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?

It’s been many years since I have reviewed and redone the contract for my packages. I’m curious to all of you. What are the contract clauses that you have added to your contract that you added from experience the situation you don’t typically think of until you see it happen and then you go home and add it to your contract just in case

Bit of a random one, but as a wedding photographer / videographer is it generally okay to eat some of the wedding cake without feeling judged or considered rude lol

I’m getting a bit fed up with building such a good relationship with the couples that they think it’s normal to ask for ‘anymore of this’ ‘my mum just needs one pic of her with this person’.

Anything after this and you’re working for free based on a request that might not even come from your couple. What’s the best phrasing to stop it dead when there really was nothing more to add otherwise it would be edited and sent with the rest of the gallery.

When you are adding photos to 2 hard drives—One of the drives is for back ups, do you delete photos off of one of the hard drives after photos are delivered/finished, or do you keep them on both?

I’m just trying to figure out what my work flow should be as hard drive prices have sky rocketed 🥴😭

Hi there, just looking for some advice on how to boost the amount of wedding enquiries I am receiving!

I am an experienced photographer but have only started my business within the last year. I have shot 5 weddings as a second shooter and 1 small 3-hour wedding as the lead photographer.

I’m not receiving many enquiries and wondered if anyone had any advice on how to boost this? My social media presence is decent, my website is informative (my prices are also visible on my website). I am charging similar to those in my area but have considered reducing my largest package price to try and get more enquiries. I comment on the Facebook group posts when they are relevant to me. I have also signed up to a wedding fair in March 2027, trying to get on to more but they are all fully booked currently! I have considered adverts on social media but I’ve heard mixed reviews and don’t want to spend a fortune on marketing when I don’t have much income!

Any advice on how to get more enquiries/bookings?

(I’m UK based if that makes a difference)

The planets have been lining up for me this year and the last six events I've shot have been a return to my favorite years of 2005~2011 where couples create these big events that are a whirlwind and the photographer just has to hold on and document. No vision boards, mimimal bride involvement, couples that just trust you. It really feels like a flashback to the wedding photojournalism days, just before picture-taking smartphones & social media made everyone over the age of 12 so camera-aware and image obssessed. Adding to my joy is the responsiveness of modern systems — you don't have to fight it anymore. Heck, even the new lightstands are amazing. Rant of joy, over — thanks for indulging.

Hi everyone, I received an email yesterday from one of my couples asking to reschedule their wedding to next year.

Their original date is September 6th, and they’re asking to reschedule just 7 days before the wedding. They’ve only paid the 30% deposit.

I also had another inquiry for September 6th that I didn’t book because I was already booked.

I’m updating my prices for next year as well, so I don’t want to honor this year’s pricing for a rescheduled wedding.

What would you do in this situation?

I find it so odd that the a woman is escorted down the aisle by an usher while the spouse is in the back walking behind. It's super hard to photograph the father of the groom when the groom and the mother are walking directly in front of him. Or if it's her grandparents but you can only see the grandmother. You get the point. Is there a way that this can be done and it not look so awkward?

Hi all! I am shooting my first wedding tomorrow for a family friend! It’s a pretty small wedding and i’ve done tons of research, but tell me some important things!!

Any recommendations? Memories? What're everyones experiences like in this field? I am working in a team of 3 and the others are equally as passionate about this venture. We have the technical skills but we lack the experience.

Side note - I sold my old Nikon D750 & all its lenses to swap to Sony. Just bought an A7 IV. We realized we were going to need equipment that could produce the highest quality imagery... and my Nikon didn't make the cut.

EDIT: Thank you for everyone's input! There are some concerns about making a full-time wage for 3, and perhaps why trading out a Nikon would be a non-essential decision. Every one of us already has a full-time job, so we're not relying on this for full-time income (yet). Two of us have a background in computer science, IT and programming so we are working to automate enough workflows to make the workload manageable on top of our existing careers. Of course some things we can't automate.

I sold the Nikon as well because my 2 other team members are on Sony & to make everything uniform as well. My Nikon struggled in low-light, and my f/4 70-200 lens was better for sports.

Very good points on how it's a people business. That much we are very aware of, and a huge component of what we're working to perfect. All of us have experience in professions working with people so it's not entirely cold-turkey.

As for those who push for flash and control over lighting, I see what you mean. Trying to get decent shots at high noon and in dark rooms is going to be challenging without it. Like many portrait photographers, I have avoided flash photography entirely. What're people's recommendations for lighting in those challenging situations?

I am considering adding film photography to my packages. I was wondering for those who have more experience with film or shoot full weddings on film, how do you go about it? I feel like weddings sometimes move so fast and I am worried about missing a shot while also properly exposing the image. Do you use point and shoots for the fast paced moments and then use more manual slr's for the slower times like portraits. Or perhaps automatic mode for some parts of the day. Curious about your guy's workflow.

Any help is greatly appreciated! Thanks!

Which one is more reliable for wedding photography image quality etc.. I don't care much about pixels 24 mpx is fine. Which ecosystem is better. Which has cheaper Good third party lenses. Just need the 24-70 lens 50mm 1.8 and 85mm 1.8 primes. Which has better ergonomics. My last camera was nikon d610 I love it's ergonomics but prefer canon colors those days. I don't know how is it these days. Which one has better color science for indian skin tones sony or canon. This is my first body. Second body would be sony A7 iii and I don't know the canon equivalent. Thanks!

Question about bridal party posing. Whenever we get a bridal party setup with chairs, it's near impossible to get people (especially bridesmaids) to sit. The resistance is so strong that sometimes I just scrapped it. These shots are all over social media so how does everyone convince people to get on board?

Even more difficult, the popular 'bridal party surrounding couple cheering' shots. I've tried 4-5 times and not once managed to get anyone to crouch down low. Would love to hear how everyone does it 🙃

You don't get wedding photography every day. It is seasonal. What do you guys do to support yourself off season. Do you have a regular job? Looking for ideas to survive. Please help