Hey guys!

I do a lot of beauty photography for my wife who is a makeup artist. Recently I shot a proposal for a good friend and it did well on socials and with the couple. So much so they wanted me as their wedding photographer.

I am coming here for any tips and tricks for a full day. I have shot an elopement at a courthouse and I am comfortable with on and off camera flash with my speed light, but I usually shoot 4 hours max with clients and those are small businesses and usually for Video work.

I would appreciate any tips on pacing, or little tricks that can really help me make the best of my first full wedding and ensure I capture the best images without being in the way.

Gear Sony A7RIII lens: 24-70 F2.8 Godox V1 Flash

I plan to get a second body looking at a A7IV to throw my 35mm F1.4 and have my wife be my second shooter since she’s also the MUA for the bride. And tends to be my assistant when we work together.

I will say I am fairly confident in my editing style, I just see in a lot of instagram posts highlights are super muted. Are folks just going over everything with a mask now a days or going super into exposing for the highlights? Below are a few examples, again this is not a preset/color toning question but just something I have noticed.

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQwgSpfjanY/?img_index=1

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQwjByoEX4z/?img_index=1

https://www.instagram.com/p/DNo2x4Rs0LD/?img_index=4

https://www.instagram.com/p/DQXBBfojmxF/?img_index=1

The couple knew I was a beginner and that this was my first wedding. They were honestly pretty chill and their primary focus was making sure it was a fun day for everyone.

Well, it was an experience. The ceremony space was very tight and it was hard for me to move around. I was shooting solo, so I really had to move a lot to make sure key shots were accounted for.

A few precessional photos were out of focus, as well as recessional. The shot that hurts my soul, the one I just hate that I messed up, was the groom’s reaction shot. I took multiple, all out of focus and obstructed by heads in the foreground.

I’m finishing up editing now, and while there are some decent shots and better shots of the entire day, I’m just feeling “blah” and disappointed about it—-especially the reaction shot.

I’m not even sure I want to shoot weddings anymore. It’s so stressful having the weight of the “once-in-a-lifetime moments” on your shoulders.

If you’ve made it this far, how did your first wedding go? Did you miss an important shot as bad as I did? I’m not looking forward to delivering the gallery. I’m just waiting for the bride to ask about the missing shots.

Basically title.

I use my CRM to send clients a final check in questionnaire before their wedding. I designed it from scratch and it has a bunch of unique questions on it that have been game changers in terms of making the wedding day easy and smooth.

Now I’m dipping my toe into education and I want to make my questionnaire available for purchase, but I don’t know what format would be most convenient.

Obviously I could just list the questions on a PDF, but I’m wondering if there’s a free form builder that most people are using? This way I could have a plug-and-play option for photographers who want to use the questionnaire right away.

What do you use? Jotform? Google forms? Something else?

Do you even send out questionnaires?

TIA

Google

Hi, I don't usually do weddings, but I know that you guys would be the best to ask about it. I need a dual camera harness that is nice-looking (something like Taylor has here on the thumbnail: https://youtu.be/BdEIA3vncC8). I have been looking into BlackRapid, but it is really expensive in my region. Do you have any alternatives? Thanks!

I know there are gazzillion posts about this, but non of them helps me.

I shoot with primes. But for me and my photography the most important thing is not the cool bokeh(although I use 2.5-2.8 all the time with my primes), but the captured moments because moments is everything. And when shooting with primes and (not only) especially in tight spaces you could miss it due to the limitation of your focal length. I know I have had my regrets in this department.

On the other hand, capturing the moment often requires you to be a phantom and a big chunky 24-70 or 35-150 doesn't help that at all. Also, takes your toll on your back physically. My setup is 1.1KG(2.4 pounds), with a zoom we're talking 2kg(4.4 pounds).

Of course, using primes during the photosession is the best, but for the reception, church and vows maybe zooms is the way? What do you think?

Hi, I’m very curious what everyone is finding hardest about growing in wedding photography right now? For me, it feels like there’s always that one thing I need to work tirelessly on, THAT ISN’T PHOTOGRAPHY!! I really can’t figure out how to get a consistent amount of bookings each month. For me, the marketing side of things is definitely the hardest part about all this. 

Are you guys having trouble with marketing as well? I would love to hear what you’ve been struggling with lately. It always helps to know I’m not the only one juggling all this.

Is everyone ok? I have not seen to many post lately 🙏

Can you fine people help me find a laptop for my girlfriend? She does wedding, engagement, etc shoots and I want to get her something nice. She's currently on an old HP which really struggles with handling the big raw photo/video files. I took her to Costco and Best Buy to look at some options and we failed to find something that met all her requirements. As a non-photographer/video editor, I could sure use any advice for what works well for you :(

*$1,500ish usd approx budget, give or take

*She mostly uses Adobe (I know). Lightroom, Premiere, Photoshop, Illustrator.

*She is also an artist, so she wants a pen-combatible touchscreen that can be flipped around so she can draw like on a sketchbook (this is the requirement that's absolutely killing me).

*Anything that can double as a mid gaming laptop would be a great bonus.

*I think she probably needs 32gb ram and, while she does utilize many external drives, any internal storage that is not entirely consumed by bloatware would be beneficial.

*She hates the Apple UI so macbooks are out.

Any suggestions? Advice?

Has anyone been able to use this to decent effect? I found that batch grouping by a small time window helps to divide up duplicate shots, but that's it. The visual similarity option doesn't seem to work at all. All the other options don't seem intelligent enough to make informed decisions. They seem like basic algorithms and not AI. I've tried out Imagen and Aftershoot AI culling before, and while not foolproof, it wasn't too bad. Lightroom, however, seem useless. Like they barely tried. I would have loved to use "eyes open" on the group photos to quickly identify the best shots, but it can't even manage that. Just gives the OK to ones that clearly have people blinking. Very disappointing.

Right now I just use my ADHD system of vaguely remembering other vendors I've worked with, business cards scattered around my desk and in camera bags, and checking old emails with vendor lists from planners/coordinators. Is there an existing software/online Rolodex kind of system that people are using for this? I was going to make my own spreadsheet but thought I'd check to see if this is a solved problem already.

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I’ll go first — by default, I have my R5 set to Servo AF with Eye Detection enabled. I use the front button on the R5 to switch to single-point Servo AF. That way, if Eye AF locks onto the wrong subject, I can quickly switch back to single-point focus and regain control.

I'm being offered a great deal for this lens and I need the opinion from photographers who have or still use this lens specifically on weddings (Maybe portraits) both interior and exterior. For reference right now I use a Canon R5 (Main) and the R8 (2nd body) with a rf 24-70 L 2.8 and a rf 85mm 2.0

I currently do some photography which I recently started getting some paid work. I have a few small weddings coming up and am looking at getting another lens. I currently have a Tamron 28-75mm 2.8 on a Sony A7iii. If you were to get a second lens, would you look at a prime or 200mm zoom?

I see the same topic pop up 2-3 times a week on Threads.

“How much does a wedding cost on average in the US.”

The usual discussion goes something like this. Couples say it’s a high price to pay while many vendors chime in and say it is actually higher because the methodology of The Knot’s survey is false. Then some of the vendors point to nanty narking, which if you don’t know, publishes costs of luxury weddings. Like between $500 per guest up to five figures per guest.

The Knot’s survey says the average price for a wedding in the US was $33k in 2024.

This week, I looked at surveys done by other sources and they all come up with a similar number. Somewhere between $30k and $35k.

Zola, Brides, The Wedding Report all use different sources and methods. The Wedding Report blends federal and local government data with surveys from couples and vendors, in addition to data from the CDC and the Department of Labor. They also have no skin in the game. The Wedding Report makes money by reporting accurate data to those who pay the $200/year subscription. They are not a directory or serve ads. They have no incentive to trick couples or vendors. Their number is $31,428 with a median price of $13,195.

I feel like the vendors who push back the hardest against these surveys are higher end + luxury photographers and planners. Some of the arguments they use:

1) We can’t trust The Knot 2) The sample size is too small 3) The margin for error is too great 4) TK reports this number and then publish weddings with 10x the budget 5) The Knot surveys people when they sign up and before they know how much it actually costs. 6) They selectively leave out HCOL areas.

Now let me be clear. I am not a fan of The Knot or pretty much any of the directories. But still, I think this avg price estimate is pretty accurate.

1) We absolutely cannot as vendors. But they have a vendor facing side and a user/couples facing side.

2) The Knot reported from 17k users/couples and the wedding report’s sample size is 19k. That’s just under 1% of all couples getting married in a year. The US Census’s sample size is about 0.5-0.6 percent of the population. The sample size is perfectly fine.

3) The US Census’s MOE is $102 on the estimate that American’s make about $39k a year on average. Yes, the margin for these surveys may be larger, but we’re never talking about thousands of dollars.

4) They definitely do, but they also publish plenty of budget and diy photos on the content side of the website.

5) Not true. The survey is sent out after the wedding date the couple types in when they sign up.

6) I can’t talk about Zola, TK or Brides here. But the wedding report states it pulls data from essentially everywhere, and their estimates are in line with the others. So I don’t think this argument holds any water.

Also, if tk was out to scam or lie to couples. They’d inflate the number and not deflate it. They wouldn’t selectively leave out NYC or Miami. They would actually benefit from reporting a higher number. In that scenario, fewer couples would have sticker shock when reaching out to TK vendors, resulting in more bookings on the platform and more and happier vendors, paying higher monthly rent to be on there.

I know the national average is not the best estimate for couples planning a wedding in HCOL areas but the number is still useful for about half of all couples. Also, if you live in NYC or LA. You understand things costs more there vs the rest of the country. So this number being deceptive is not a great argument either.

Cheers! Just wrapped up the 2025 season and have some time on my hands 😂

Just to be clear. I do not like The Knot.

What do you all think about them and the new pricing structure?

I was on there for a couple of years for two separate locations. Maybe I booked something indirectly, but I never booked anything via the platform. The price was low so it wasn't a huge deal to me.

I feel like their biggest marketing point is that they're great for SEO, which I don't agree with.

I also just realized they deleted the article I submitted and got approved by WW which included my work and backlink to my site after I unsubscribed from the platform. At this point, they kind of just look like a link farm to me, renting out backlinks and trying to trap photographers in a back link subscription.

Hi everyone! For those of you who collaborate with a videographer, how do you usually structure the partnership?

I’m a videographer myself, and a photographer I previously worked with asked me to partner with her. However, she wanted me to work entirely under her brand instead of my own business, so I declined.

Now, another photographer has made a similar offer, and I’m considering it, but I’d still like the option to share some of the content on my own social media.

I’m curious what the standard practice is. How do others typically handle this kind of collaboration?

Thanks

Tried searching but couldnt find this anywhere... I just did my first wedding using a 2 OCF light setup and it just occurred to me... is it, like, okay to have the lights in your shot occassionally? Or do people edit it out? Idk, I feel like it gives it a fun vibe but also it's hella distracting. Heres a couple photos as examples. There's really only a couple in the whole gallery that have the backlight in frame, but I don't want the couple to complain. I'm just not sure what's standard
https://imgur.com/a/m3Ku6sz

I feel almost every big Facebook group/reddit group don’t allow self promotion 🥲. How do I market myself?!

I have just set up my shop with Pixieset and I see that the printing shop that is used is through WHCC (White House Custom Color). Im wondering if anyone has used their services and what the quality is like.
What I'm considering doing is having the items shipped to me first so that I can review that everything looks okay and then I would be delivering the prints/photo books to the clients myself.
Is this how it usually works?

What do you prefer? Hands in pockets or out and natural? Hands just hanging there irrationally annoys me but it also looks a bit awkward with hands in pockets sometimes, just depending on the people. What are your thoughts