This valuable resource focuses on what professional wedding photographers need to do to stay competitive and continue winning new assignments, despite an array of challenges. Though wedding budgets are often subject to cuts, photographers will learn how to finesse their operations, improve their marketing, and convert client contacts into reliable job streams. By running a lean business with few excess costs, this step-by-step guide lays out how wedding photographers can draw attention to their studio, generate demand, and create a brand that complements and promotes their unique vision. Included are tips for improving search-engine optimization, marketing, pricing, packaging, and contracts to enable aspiring and experienced professionals alike to follow their passions to success.

Go behind the scenes with twenty-five leading professionals and explore what makes their work unique. Whether you’re looking for tips on location selection, better time management, posing cues, lighting insights, or some new ideas for shooting the reception, you’ll find the answers at your fingertips. Music-photographer turned wedding shooter Angela Hubbard (Rolling Stone, Spin, Vanity Fair) shows you how to design iconic images of your couple. Jim Garner, named one of the world’s top-ten wedding photographers by American PHOTO Magazine, reveals how a change in his products and design strategy revolutionized his approach to shooting weddings. Anne Almasy (Huffington Post: Wedding blogger) and Catherine Hall (named Best Wedding Photographer by The Knot) explore the role of emotional and personal connections on your images. Also featured are images and fascinating insights from acclaimed artists: Dave & Quin Cheung, Salvatore Cincotta, Bob & Dawn Davis, Tracy Dorr, Brett Florens, Jim Garner, Jerry Ghionis, Michael Mowbray, Christie Mumm, Josh Newton, Huy Nguyen, Kristi Odon, Dennis Orchard, Srinu & Amy Regeti, Ken Sklute, Damon Tucci, Neal Urban, Riccis Valladares, Paul Van Hoy, Neil Van Niekerk, Ethan Watts, and Stephanie Zettl.

The core goal of photography is representing subjects that have depth and texture in a medium that inherently lacks both those qualities, and this book shows the best way to rise to that challenge: through the careful application and capture of lighting. It demonstrates how to accentuate or minimize textures, add or subtract highlights, and create or combat shadows to showcase the subjects in the best way and create the illusion of a third dimension in the images. Exploring techniques for lighting portraits, still-life subjects, nature images, and architectural shots, both studio and location lighting are covered in detail. The book teaches photographers how to study their subjectsÑwith all of the textures, colors, shapes, and surfaces they haveÑthen visualize the image as a finished photograph before the photography actually begins. With chapters that thoroughly cover the science of lighting and visualization, photographers can apply that knowledge and successfully create artful images.

Bob and Dawn Davis have mastered all genres of photography, from weddings to children to photographing celebrities at special get-away weekends. Bob’s knowledge of posing, lighting, composition and his ability to superbly photograph with the environment in which he is immersed is evident in The Art of Engagement Photography. Bob’s beautiful photographs in this book and his explanations as to how he achieved each one will be beneficial to photographers of all levels of expertise. Do not let the title fool you, his descriptions of how he photographs engagement couples translates to executives, families and children portraits as well. He utilizes cityscapes and non-urban locations not just as backdrops, but also as a compliment to his subjects. By using diagrams and descriptions along with their powerful images, Bob and Dawn explain in simple language how they are able to pose, light and properly compose their subjects, no matter where the location. They state which lens, exposure setting, and main and fill lights settings and positioning work best for each scenario.

After months of joyful wedding dreams, brides and grooms trust their photographer to transform the day’s fleeting moments into lasting mementos. In this book, Neal Urban helps you go beyond merely documenting events to design works of art that capture the spirit of the couple’s relationship. Quick, easy-to-follow lessons walk you through every phase of the process, from engagement portraits, to wedding-day coverage, to post-wedding bridal portraits. At each step, you’ll learn how Neal infuses his images with personality—and rises to the challenges all wedding photographers face from time to time! With vivid colors, dramatic poses, and gorgeous lighting, this book flawlessly guides you through the creation of images that transcend the couple’s dreams for their special day.

In portrait photography, posing must make the client look amazing, and this book takes photographers through that process from start to finish. With short, one- or two-page lessons that are amply illustrated with before and after images, the book guides the reader through each phase, from the positioning of arms and hands to the degree of the head tilt and shifting the weight. Image sequences showing variations and posing alternatives are also presented to customize a pose for an individual subject, accentuating the assets and minimizing the flaws. Readers are encouraged to take this book with them on shoots and work on replicating or refining the provided examples, creating a self-study course in the art of posing for portrait photography. This thorough guide shows how to get the pose to work within the photo’s composition—sure to give portraits a finished, professional look.

This lighting manual shows that successful studio photography does not require a warehouse-sized space brimming with expensive lights, Hollywood-style facades, and a half-dozen assistants making the client lattes. Rather, this guide shows photographers how to create studio lighting effects that range from clean and classic to highly complex and use a garage, spare bedroom, or even a backyard as their “studio.” The simple setups show that one to three small, inexpensive electronic flash units—along with budget-friendly stands, communication systems, and some do-it-yourself light modifiers—can be combined to create brilliant studio-quality images without the studio. Numerous sample shoots and plans provide clear instructions for taking control of any environment to create spectacular images.