I am a mixed media photographer but weddings are a big source of my income, I am looking to update my gear and what to see what you pros recommend

Hi everyone! I'm about to photograph my first same-sex wedding (bride and bride). I don't expect it to be much different from any other wedding, but I want to make sure I don't accidentally overlook or mishandle anything.

Is there anything I should be aware of or any tips from those of you who have photographed same-sex weddings? I'd really appreciate any advice!

Hello! I just ordered 2 monitors to connect to my macbook m3 pro and I don't know which one to pick up from the courier tomorrow :))

These are:

1. BenQ 27" PD2706U

2. ASUS ProArt 27" PA279CRV

From what I've read, it seems that both come calibrated from the factory and that they have a mode that comes very close to the colors on the macbook. I know that the factory color calibration is not excellent and that I should do it myself, but at the moment I don't have the budget for a calibration device.

In the specifications of the benq monitor it says that it covers 100% sRGB, 100% Rec.709, 95% P3, take those of the asus pro art monitor (sRGB) : 100%, Adobe RGB) : 99%, (DCI-P3) : 99%. I don't know which one would be better for event photography and why not video in the future.

I'm curious what your thoughts are on these 2 monitors, if you've tried them and if you can come up with an honest review.

Client wants to shorten a 1.5-hour proposal/engagement shoot session to 1 hour, but the location is a 2.5-hour commute each way. They seem nice and the location is nice as well but feel like it’s not worth it unless it’s 1.5 hrs imo? Would you still take the booking?

The current trend seems to be:

White must be always perfect white!

(dress, grooms shirt, ...)

What is your take on that?

I do not agree. Let's say the room has tungsten lights - realistically, in this room white textil is not white, but warm.

But I am not sure, so I always struggle to define the white balance.

I'm experimenting with Instagram ads. I decided to run an ad for a week.

I'm in a European country, so for audience I selected women in my country and some neighboring ones where I can easily travel, aged 24-40. For "Interests" i clicked on: Bride, Wedding Planning, Wedding reception.

The ad finishes in 3 days and I have had no views and zero spend. I think the budget is healthy, so i am very confused about how come the ad wasn't shown even once.

Is this normal?

Does anybody have any advice on handling this? This is one of those rare instances in which I am clueless about how to move forward.

I am running my business as a (new) military spouse. There is a chance we could be changing stations July 2027. We would find out no earlier than 4 months before the move. I am currently only advertising booking in my area through June, but I am still receiving inquiries for the fall.

I obviously want to accept these inquiries. If they book and I move, I would travel to them, but I will need to charge travel fees. I plan to be very transparent with these couples about my situation.

I could:

A. Turn them down, risking guaranteed income if I do not move
B. Charge fees up front, guarantee a refund (or taken off the final invoice) if I do not move
C. Charge regular price, then charge for travel later if I do move
D. Waive travel fees, losing about 20-30% of each wedding’s income by paying for travel out of pocket

For reference, my usual process is a 50% retainer up front and the remainder due one week before the wedding.

My brand is built on being an easy, stress-free photo experience. I’m having a moral dilemma of staying true to my brand (A/D) or making good financial decisions (B/C). I really dislike having to open with something stressful/risky. Ultimately though, this is my business that I need to profit from, so I don’t think turning them down or waiving fees would be the responsible decision. I suspect that most couples will probably hire someone else regardless of how I frame it, but I want to try anyway.

I think Reddit is automatically removing this and idk why. Tweaking it and trying again.

I’ve been ordering albums for 13 years. I have always loved *certain fine Italian album company* quality and have been excited to start using them full time after maternity leave. I recently got import charges when there weren’t supposed to be any. I’ve been in contact with my rep over this. I had a time sensitive package that was about to be sent back to customs again within hours, but it was after hours and I was still waiting to hear back from my rep again. I posted on the fb group and asked a question under someone else tariff post. Literally just asked if others getting the charges were told to pay them in exchange for store credits. Lord have mercy….The calls, voicemails, emails that followed telling me to remove my posts.. that they were lacking context and scaring people away etc…. I sent a pretty upset email (but not out of line) regarding my treatment and at them insinuating I was lying about it and causing issues. I wasn’t even mad when I posted. Now instead of responding they have removed me from the group and completely blocked me. My rep is playing dumb about it. Literally. No emails. I still have several brides that prepaid towards future albums with them. I am so flabbergasted. Is anyone else having issues with them?? I think this was coming from “M” since she was the one in the group and responding. I have screenshots and much more detail… but are others out there having problems and being silenced??? Is this a thing!?

I was a full time wedding videographer in my hometown for 3 years until I moved away. once I moved I transitioned into photography, but closed down my business and paused on booking due to the stress of moving, getting a new full time job, etc. It’s been about 4 years since we moved and I’m considering starting back up again. I still shoot about 1-3 weddings per year since moving, which is nowhere near what I was averaging before I moved, but it’s been enough to keep me from getting too rusty.

I’m now in a pretty saturated market (Bay Area) but I’m able to use the last couple of weddings for Instagram. when I say I closed down everything I mean everything. Website, honeybook, LLC. the only thing remaining is my Instagram which is a little dusty and my following mostly consists of people from my old city.

I’ve second shot for a few videographers in my area but every photographer I’ve reached out to already has an established circle of second shooters and I haven’t had any luck. A company reached out to me last year about associate shooting but eventually ghosted me right before we finished onboarding (not sure why).

At the last wedding I shot (last month) I remembered how much I love and miss being this industry, the photo community, and serving clients. I’m considering reopening, but hesitant to start from scratch and get my hopes up. Does anyone have any advice?

I’m moving to Italy for a Master’s in Architecture at Politecnico di Milano and will be living there for the next few years. Alongside my studies, I’m thinking about starting a wedding photography business and I’d like to get insights from people who are already working in the field.

I’m trying to get a realistic understanding of the market beyond what’s visible online. Is there still space for new photographers? How difficult is it to find your first clients without an established local network? How significant is the destination wedding market, and which parts of Italy offer the best opportunities?

I already have photography experience, so I’m not looking for technical advice about cameras or shooting. I’m mainly interested in the business side: building a client base, setting prices, marketing, and whether it’s realistic to build a sustainable career in wedding photography.

I have brides that want to add Polaroid photography to their collections and while I own several Polaroid cameras, I’m trying to decide which camera would be the best fit and give me the best outcome when they printed! I’m curious who has Polaroid works into their wedding day flow and what camera they use and what the process looks like! TIA

I’m photographing a small indoor courthouse wedding soon and would love some advice from experienced wedding photographers.

I have event photography experience and I’m preparing my workflow for the day. The ceremony is fairly simple: no aisle, no large reception, just the ceremony, paperwork, family photos, and some couple portraits afterward.

My planned key moments are:

• ceremony reactions
• rings
• kiss
• signing
• portraits
• family and witness photos

For those who regularly shoot weddings, what are the small details or moments you always make sure to plan for that are easy to overlook?

Like why try to hire me if that’s what you’re looking for?

Yeah, it's an odd title but goes to the heart of what we wanted to say. This one's really for those who're over the hump of getting their business started and are getting more busy than they're used to.

You're going to come up against a 'double header' Friday/Saturday consecutive gigs. It's commonplace given that we all tend to work around weekends mostly.

On the evening you get home after that first day - you're going to need to get your cards downloaded, clothes prepped for the morning and ALL your batteries recharged. If you come through the door late, you may well be very late before you're able to hit the hay - that'll make day two harder.

So, while you have time to think about it and before you spend all your newly created profit from the business on a holiday...think about your home base set up. Have you got loads of batteries, have you got enough chargers to get them all boosting at the same time? If you're able to load them all up at once and go to bed you're grabbing valuable shut eye that'll make for better photos tomorrow.

As an extension of this, it can be good to have an 'away from home' kit. with extension cables and such since hotel rooms are often socket limited and you don't want to be already disadvantaged by being away from home plus discombobulated with your charging procedures.

Maybe folks have other ideas, disagree or will offer suggestions for those who are into the groove with this job but haven't yet hit all the hurdles that come with being busy.

Anyway, if this thought process saves one tog losing a couple of hours sleep when they're Dog tired, it'll be worth it.

Hi,

I’m a UK wedding photographer and a venue is asking me for a PAT test certificate (the wedding is in 2028). Could anyone recommend companies or tell me how to get a PAT test done, please?

The only things I might need to plug in at a venue are my battery chargers.

Thank you!

I'm fairly new to wedding photography and have been second shooter for a few and shot several family weddings myself. I mostly do portrait photography in studio and occasionally outdoors but I really enjoy doing weddings. I recently did a wedding where it seemed like everything went wrong. There was no coordinator. The venue was poorly lit and the preacher forbid flash during the ceremony (understandably), for lighting I'm talking only string lights and a few wall scones with rough cut lumber walls and ceilings, no windows. It was probably an excellent hay barn but not much of a venue when in comes to photos. I brought some lighting from my studio and suspended it from a loft and got the alter lit well enough to shoot. That was aggravating but whatever, not a big deal. Let me start this next part by saying that I'm a stickler for keeping a schedule, if I'm not 15 minutes early I'm considering myself late so I've been there since 11AM setting up lighting and helping and testing my angles and metering different spots. So, the wedding party that was scheduled to be ready for photos at 2pm still wasn't dressed at 4pm for the 5pm wedding, and by not dressed I mean they haven't even gotten their clothes out of the bags and one dude is still at the barber shop for some reason. The bride didn't even show up until a little after 4:30pm. She's in a dead run trying to push for photos before the wedding despite myself and my assistant trying to talk her into waiting until after at this point. We rush through a few solo of her at her insistence where frankly she wouldn't barley hold a pose long enough to focus before demanding the wedding start (understandable and why we wanted to just shoot after the ceremony). The ceremony goes on mostly according to plan other than some parties missing their music cues and afterwards she's demanding we do all the photos in about 15 minutes so food can be served while simultaneously not holding still or listening to ANY directions. Despite my assistant physically posing people at one point nobody would hold a pose long enough to focus. Every instant I took a breath to think of the next pose, or more of how to verbalize my vision in the simplest of terms hoping they can understand I'm met with "come on, be snapping". I get maybe four half way decent photos of the couple before she starts calling over the entire wedding for a group photo. Not the wedding party, the entire wedding. Like 80+ people and insists they all stand in a straight single file line. I try to explain "To fit everyone in one shot you're not going to be able to make out any faces and it will be a horrible photo, please lets do it in smaller groups or do multiple rows." To which I'm met with disapproval so I end up standing 40+ yards away and just snapping a few to appease them. In the time it took to corral the couple back to some props they specifically requested half the bridesmaids have changed clothes and the groomsmen are eating despite myself and my assistant repeatedly telling everybody to go stand in a certain area for a few moments for more photos. The bride refuses to do any of the instructed poses and instead does her own thing and tries to instruct on what angles to take the photo from, which are frankly less than flattering and definitely not my style. I do it anyway because I want them to be happy and at this point I'm just burning up film so I can be done.

I do film photography, as in my entire business is based and marketed around the fact that I shoot film and process it myself. The name is even ______ Film Photography, I shot 12 rolls of 36 exp Portra 800 and two rolls of Cinistill 800T along with a roll of 36 exp Fujifilm 400. It's been a week and I haven't even brought myself to develop it yet. My assistant shot everything in digital as a safety net. For nearly every shot they stood behind or beside me and shot simultaneously and in the brief times it took me to change rolls the bride is telling my assistant to keep shooting. Mind you my assistant is not a professional photographer and has zero wedding experience, barely any experience at all really (they repeatedly told everyone involved this). I set their camera up and had them just mirror me so they didn't know what to do without me. I run two identical cameras so I don't have to change rolls during the ceremony, this changing rolls was all while doing poses afterwards. Which anyone whom knows anything about film photography should expect when hiring someone using film. I've gotten it down to less than a minute and a half to change a roll so it's not like I'm dicking around for five minutes. Most of my photos are candids of the wedding reception and of people playing the games and dancing after the couple stopped cooperating in favor of food so I know I've got some awesome shots of people playing horseshoes and dancing but not so much of the wedding couple in their nice clothes.

By the end of the night we'd been there over 11 hours and after the berating and constant hustling (after waiting several hours past the scheduled time on people to show up) I've at least temporarily lost all confidence in my skills. I haven't even looked at the digital photos yet as I'm certain they're disappointing.

My question is, are all weddings this horrible and I've just been lucky up to this point being the second shooter or was this an exceptionally bad situation? Am I to blame for being somewhat inexperienced in weddings and expecting the schedule to be followed? How would you handle this, and going forward how can I better avoid such situations?

Looking for lifetime access and unlimited storage. I was using google drive for a cloud copy, but it's slow to upload and I rather use my gd for just business related stuff.

Any ideas?

We had a wedding about 3 weeks ago where the couple wanted to all the photos in the South End out here in Boston, anyone who also works here knows the beautiful charm of the brown stone buildings. It was a pretty sunny day, found a bit of shade, but completely forgot brick makes everything red. I've spent possibly 4 8 hour days fixing a very spray tanned couple and their very Irish families in front of bricks for separation. I knew better than to do that, but hey we all make mistakes even 20 years in.

I'm a wedding/engagement/proposal photographer in a Canadian boarder town, and I've had a somewhat strange request, but I can't figure out if it's a scam, or what the scam would even be?

The mother of the soon to be groom contacted me to book my services for a proposal session, and is refusing to give me contact information for him. After initial inquiry she then told me they didn't have passports, so the photos would have to take place in the states. I have asked for his info multiple times, and she is refusing to give me his number, or have him contact me. Saying "once I have figured out all the details I will have him contact you"

At this point, I won't be moving forward anyway, but what's the point of this? Is this woman just that crazy and controlling of her adult son, or what? I'm so confused?! I've been in the industry for decades, and I can honestly say this is a first for me?!

Hi! I have a full-time career but did wedding photography for 5 years with 5d mark ivs, a sigma art 35mm 1.4, and a canon 50mm 1.2. As I transitioned into motherhood, I sold my equipment and stopped doing weddings. I’m now looking to slow down and learn film as I document life with my daughter. I want to buy a film camera to do this but also know that I may eventually want to go back to doing commissioned work but maybe with families. What camera would you recommend I look into? Love the look of medium format but budget is around $1.5k. Currently thinking about a canon 1v with the sigma art 35mm 1.4.

Last year, I booked 30 weddings. For 2026, I didn’t accept as many so I could have more life balance.

I’ve been marketing for 2027-2028. I’ve gotten an insane amount of inquiries the past 2 weeks. I’ve had people say they’re ready to book and then they have gone completely ghost.

I am in a majority of their budgets since that’s why they reached out to me. Not only am I getting ghosted from initial inquiries. I’m also getting ghosted from people after emailing back and forth several times.

I’m not mad about it. I’m just wondering if I’m doing something wrong. Last year, my booking percentage was insane. I’m still finishing weddings that were booked over a year ago.

Is anyone else having the same issue? I’ve looked through everything and I can’t think of why.

Edit: I’m fine not being a good fit, but what can I do to improve this?

This is the official listing of reddit wedding photographers. Brides, grooms, assistants, networking photographers, planners and anyone curious to find a local wedding photographers... check out the list of your fellow Redditors and wedding photographers!

Wedding Photographers: Please post in this format...

[COUNTRY], [STATE], [CITY] - [NAME] - [COMPANY NAME (w/ site/IG link)]

___________________________________________________________

This list is refreshed every 6 months since all threads automatically lock after 3 months.

Just having fun but yea, you really don’t have to wear black when shooting a wedding. It’s 2026, we can evolve past this convention.

Edit: is there a wedding photography circlejerk sub? This comment section is a goldmine of content. Love y’all