Learn to take beautiful wedding photos
- as a commercial enterprise, or a passionate amateur photographer.
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Self paced, 100 hour course with qualified and experienced expert tutors
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Start a business, seek a job or expand your skill and increase your employability
The photography needs to maintain this strong focus on the bride and groom and convey the image that they are first and best in every way on that occasion. The whole concept of a wedding is always romantic, frequently fashionable and preferably overflowing with optimism and life.
Lesson Structure
There are 9 lessons in this course:
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Introduction
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Nature and Scope of Wedding Photography
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Creating Romance
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Managing People
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Planning
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Developing a Checklist for Wedding Shots
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Brides Home, Grooms Home, General Shots, At the Ceremony, At the Reception, etc
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Digital Wedding Photography
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Equipment
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Lighting at Weddings; Rain, Sun, Overcast Weather
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Logistical Planning
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Key People to Liaise With
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Guidelines
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What Shots
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Listing Shots
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Preparation
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Understanding different Types of Ceremonies -Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Jewish, etc
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Equipment
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Advantages and Disadvantages of Larger Format Cameras
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Digital Cameras
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Back Up Equipment
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Lenses
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Flashes and other Accessories
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Bags
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Battery Packs
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Tripods and Monopods
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Style Options
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Photojournalism versus Classical
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The Traditional Poses
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Other Shots
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Photographic Composition and Posing
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Taking Flattering Photos
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Principles of Photo Composition; Unity, Balance, Proportion, Harmony, Contrast, Rhythm
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Qualities of the Subject; line, form, mass, space, texture, colour, patterns, tone, lines and paths.
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Camera Techniques to Assist with Composition; movement, depth of field or focus
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Basic Principles of Light
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Basic Camera Terms
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Equipment and Materials
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Filters, Lighting
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Composition
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Rule of Thirds
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Developing a Portrait Style
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Posing for Photos
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A Photo Essay
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Blurring Movement
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Panning
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Shooting the Wedding Ceremony
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Pre Wedding Shots
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Order of the Wedding
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Precession, Greeting, Statements of Intention, Exchange of Vows, Exchange of Rings etc
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Important Shots at a Ceremony
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Posed Photographs before a Reception
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Indoor Weddings
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Controlling Light
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Restrictions on Photography
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Outdoor Weddings
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Dealing with Strong Backlight
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Larger Wedding Parties
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Smaller Wedding Parties
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Video
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Shooting the Wedding Reception
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Scope and Nature of the Reception
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What and when to shoot at a Reception
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Guests
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Post Production
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Processing
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Batch Processing
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Fault Finding
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Digital Colour into Black and White
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Digital Duotone and Sepia Tones
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Filters and Image Processing
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Special Effects
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Compositing
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Presentation of photos, etc
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Business & Marketing
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Selling yourself Establishing a Wedding Photo Business
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Devising a Business Plan
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Marketing
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Scheduling your Work
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Financial Management
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Insurance
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What to Charge
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Written Contracts
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Customer Satisfaction
Each lesson culminates in an assignment which is submitted to the school, marked by the school's tutors and returned to you with any relevant suggestions, comments, and if necessary, extra reading.
Aims
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Determine factors relevant to any particular wedding, that can impact upon the way in which a photographer will plan and conduct the shooting of photos for that wedding.
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Learn how to plan what to do, where and when on the wedding day.
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Select photographic equipment appropriate for use when photographing a wedding.
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Determine an appropriate style for wedding photographs, according to the needs of the client.
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Improving your photographic composition.
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Shoot a Wedding Ceremony
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Shoot a Wedding Reception
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Process and present wedding photos to the clients, in a variety of formats
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Successfully establish, market and manage a wedding photography business.
Tips for Better Wedding Photography
Don’t be afraid to move your subject.
If the couple look at all uncomfortable or awkward, or have a fat bit sticking out, or have something funny in the background, don’t be afraid to step in and physically move them (just do this politely and sensitively being aware of cultural sensitivities before touching anyone).
Remember this is why they are paying you.
They are paying you to make them look good and if that means telling them to stand up taller, lift their chins (to remove a double chin) and tucking the brides shawl around her arm to cover up her arms, they will be grateful when they see your beautiful shots – just don’t tell them that’s what you are doing at the time! Happy couples definitely do not need to hear about double chins or large arms – they need to think they look great and are off to a perfect future.
- There is an art to posing people and shooting at certain angles in order to make people look good. Most people have very unhealthy ideas of beauty and will be picking out small details to complain about. You need to think ahead and remove any potential issues as you are shooting.
- Does the bride care that a hair has fallen across her forehead? Just ask and move it if it is a problem. Most people wouldn’t care but you would be surprised about what people complain about and if you can minimise these complaints with open communication you will be doing yourself and the couple a favour.
- Props can also be a handy addition to a photograph. A musical instrument if they are musicians or some other prop which reflects their personalities.
Digital Wedding Equipment
Wedding photographers will need a camera capable of working at high speed and may be willing to sacrifice file size to achieve their aims. Portraitists and classical wedding photographers can afford to ignore the fastest cameras and go for file size, and perhaps lower cost equipment. The more sophisticated the camera and lens, generally, the more expensive it is going to be.
- If you’re planning on taking digital photography seriously it is also important to have some digital image manipulation software.
- When choosing software there are plenty of choices, Adobe Photoshop is considered the industry standard and has all the features you will need to create professional looking effects. If Photoshop is a bit out of your price range, consider other programs such as Microsoft’s Digital Image Suite. You can also download a free Photoshop-like imitation called Gimp. It does very similar things to Photoshop and is quite good. Make sure your virus definitions are up to date when downloading software.
- When using your digital camera begin by setting the camera's clock or in the case of multiple cameras, synchronising the clocks, set the frame counter to continuous and make double sure you didn't set it to reset. The benefits of this will become increasingly apparent as you bring your work home for processing.
- Make sure you haven’t set it so that the date will be printed on your photograph! There is nothing worse than a stunning shot being ruined by the date.
- Storage for your media is important. You will need lots of storage especially for wedding work.
People Spend Money on Weddings - If you want to earn a living in photography, this is a valuable thing to study
Wedding photography can be the most critical and stressful type of photography because:
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The event is so very important to the bride and groom
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The bride and groom are usually quite stressed out
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The wedding only happens once
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More than at most other types of events, photographs are an integral part of what happens during the wedding.
When it comes to a wedding; for many people; cost is their last consideration.
Provides you polish your skills; the opportunities are exceptional compared with some other areas of photography.
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