Happy Mother's Day! Happy Father's Day! Happy Graduation! Photo.net has great photography gift ideas for the Mom, Dad, or Grad in your life. Shop for camera bags, lenses, DSLRs, and more...
Clubs, bars, and small venues are the places where most concert and live music photographers get their start, the reason being that there are fewer restrictions since the performers are less likely to...
The Business of Wedding Photography is an extensive subject, best
answered by a team of professional wedding photographers, who also
happen to be star photo.net members. In this article, these
professional photographers have contributed advice and personal
experience gained from running wedding businesses. Not only have they
provided wedding photography tips, but they also included example
wedding photos of dresses, rings, ceremonies, and more. Whether you
are just entering the field of wedding photography, or are a seasoned
professional, the tips and insights shared here should be helpful with
your own wedding photography business.
We asked our panel of experts the following questions:
What are the most important elements for an effective wedding
photography web site?
Jeff
Ascough: Simple interface, good clear images, and a sense of style
and individuality. Template sites are not such a good idea as they
promote mediocrity and make photographers look the same.
Josh
Root: Images, images, images, and information. People don't seem
to care if they are fancy flash pages or simple HTML ones, just as
long as the images and information are there. Other features that
clients seem to like: a page that introduces you,
your photographic history, and a calendar that shows your booked and
open dates.
David Wegwart - Denver/CO.
Conrad
Erb: It should show your work. That sounds elementary, but far too
many beginning photographers have a home page with a huge paragraph of
text that reads like this, "John Smith is very passionate about
photography. Since he was a little boy, he has been using cameras to
capture every precious moment..." Talk is cheap, and when I see a
photographer who has too much text on the front page of their site, I
get suspicious that they aren't very good. Too many photographers
have cheesy bios with the words "precious," "capture," or
"passionate". It gets old, very quickly.
Writers write. Photographers show. If you are passionate,
show me your passion. If you capture moments,
show me those moments, don't just tell me about it.
Michael
Mowery: Simplicity, lots of great photography, no pricing on the
site.
Marc
Williams: The photography itself. Often the more words, the lesser
the work. Contact info and something about price to target the right
clients is also important.
Nadine
Ohara: Since I don't have a web site yet, that would be the most
important to have now. I also believe the most important elements are
the photographs themselves, then contact and pricing info.
David
Wegwart: An eye-catching initial photograph and menu
layout. Pictures, and more pictures. When I look at stats from my own
site, the area that is hit over and over is the gallery.
Josh Root
Designing a photography web site
Did you design your own web site or hire a designer?
Josh
Root: I did it myself. If I were doing it again, I would pay
someone. Mine is functional, but not the greatest.
Conrad
Erb: I have always designed my own site. It took me a while to get
there, and probably would have been a better investment from the start
to hire a designer or use a basic flash template, but I enjoy learning
new things like HTML and CSS and prefer having total
control over my site.
Marc
Williams: I do the initial design because I'm an art director, but
differ to the experts on structure and flow. My site is badly in need
of updating, like the Cobbler's children going without shoes.
Nadine Ohara - SF Bay Area/CA
Nadine
Ohara: I will be buying a template. I don't have the time to
learn how to make my own, plus the current templates seem to be able
to do the job.
David
Wegwart: I used a template that I liked. It's a few years old now
and I need to update it.
Photo proofing and print sales
Do you offer proofing and/or print sales from your web
site?
Conrad
Erb: Yes. I used to use Pictage, but after a variety of negative
experiences with them, I switched to Smugmug. Smugmug is much easier to
use for my clients and myself and is much more affordable without all
of the heavy handed marketing that Pictage did. Yes, there are many
good choices out there, but I never researched them because I was so
pleased with Smugmug.
Michael
Mowery: I currently offer web proofing and will offer print sales
from my web site in the near future.
Nadine
Ohara: I will probably offer online hosting and sales from the
site, but will use my current pro lab's service and provide a
link.
David
Wegwart: No. However, I have a link that takes clients to the
gallery
area for their wedding images. From that site they can order up to
8x10 prints, but have to contact me for larger ones if they want me to
print them.
I booked a year's worth of weddings (2007) based on *one* strong image on the starting page of my simple but clean HTML website. The website had a grand total of 4 images on it. No music, no slideshow, no pricing, no about-me and little explanatory text. It still amazes me...
Because I always chime in when I see other folks put up mostly pathetic looking websites and ask for opinions I'll do it again. I'm a new photographer, but I'm not new to marketing or business. That is the one part of my company I'm excelling at in my opinion. Can you put together a site on your own and succeed....yes you can. Can your competition buy a site for $200 that blows away your homemade site....almost every time. That is the issue. While you are struggling with web design they are out shooting. On top of that they end up with a MUCH better looking site. Templates are not static anymore...anyone that says that is just plain ignorant to what is available. Bludomain, Bigfolio, and Livebooks are probably the 3 best in our industry. You can succeed with a lesser site, but you can make more money with a template. The more brides rely on the internet to find us the more sexy your storefront better be. It IS NOT AN OPTION if you are wanting to make good money doing this. I constantly have brides walk in the door, rarely on referral, and they are telling me how they cried as they watched a slideshow or viewed a girls gallery of pics. Trust me...it isn't just my images. They are sucked in by the movement and music. Almost every time I listen to them talk about their selection process they kind of laugh as they say they immediately ditched the folks with no music or a corny site. At some point you folks with lesser sites are going to have to pick up your game. The time is coming when companies like Bella Pictures are going to eat you alive. I'm already dealing with brides that have them as an option when they come to me...which means that you folks with the html sites have pretty much already been kicked out of the running. I ask every bride who I'm competing against...and EVERY client thus far has listed photogs. that have great flash sites. You can put your head in the sand and keep your homemade HTML site, or you can get your head in the game and be a player. It is no secret what happened when large studios started getting into studio photography. Many small dogs were pushed aside. At least that is what I'm told by alot of my old school buddies. The ability to pick up a camera and learn without school is creating a movement of "Bella" photographers that you are going to have to compete against. I would just encourage many of you to market and brand yourself now in a way that you are distinguished from Bella and the rest of the newcomers that are picking up a digital and learning. I'm a prime example. I have no formal training and picked up my first SLR 1.5 year ago. I TOOK 45 weddings from the market last year and have 31 for next year so far...and I'm not the cheap dog on the block. There are more people out there just like me....heck I'm training some of them. My point...don't take shortcuts on your website....it is vital to your success. Ignorance is only a valid excuse if you don't know or haven't been told...if you read this you have no excuse. Research what is out there and see it for yourself. There are forums like Open Source Photo with amazing wedding photogs. You can even go on bludomain and look at the number of clients they launch every month and then view their new sites. Your eyes should open wide with fear....and then you should buy a site, take names, and kick butt.
I have found .photoreflect to be a valuable website host. They offer free basic websites and also those that you can pay for and make more advance. You also can use their services in letting clients purchase their photos through your website. In my opinion, it looks professional and makes life easier. Since I am just starting out, this is a resource that works for me. When I get established and can afford to make my own and host it, I will do that. I would suggest this site for any photographer. I am still working on it and have more updated photos to put on it, but it can give you an idea. Also it gives you the option to secure each of your clients photos with a password that they can chose. .
When I search for "wedding photographer san francisco" I get over 8 million hits. The people who show up first are the people who pay to show up first- quite a bit of money I expect. I have a Google adwords account and get no hits from it.
With so much competition on the web it is unlikely that your website will bring you much business by itself.
Yes, you need a site so people can see a sample of your work. But spending a lot of money on someone's notion of a cool design will just make you look like a lot of other "cool" sites.
Beyond that, you will need to find your first clients the hard way- by establishing personal contact. Once you've found them and done a good job you will probably get referrals that will appear to come through your web site.
I also don't think that buying lists of brides is worth much because those the brides are getting many phone calls and they aren't going to respond to more than a few.
I talked to one of the big wedding sites awhile back and they could not provide statistics on hits, so I dropped them.
I talked to some wedding fair people and they didn't have any numbers about attendees, so I dropped them too.
The average marriage age for females in the US is 27. You can buy information from sources like infousa.com to target this demographic.
, January 07, 2008; 05:32 P.M. 