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In Wedding Photography: Creative Techniques for Lighting, Posing, and Marketing, Rick Ferro discusses his strategies for wedding photography, from before the consultation through the proofing process. Although it’s important to develop your own strategy, learning from others and finding ways to improve your business never hurts. The analysis of a consultation appointment was helpful for me – I came away with the desire to implement a few of the techniques into my business. Throughout the book, Rick emphasizes that you’re not only selling your images, you need to sell yourself (the photographer).
I enjoyed the many example images, and also the lighting diagrams that accompanied some of the images. Scattered throughout the sections (appropriate to each topic) are tips about posing – they are relevant to the topic at hand, though, so I found the diversions helpful. Usually accompanying one or more images, it really was helpful to see how a tilt of the head or repositioning the couple could result in a completely different composition. Rick discusses maximizing the number of poses and groupings in order to increase sales (e.g. family members), and dedicates a full section of the book to “Group Portraits” – coordination and planning are discussed, as well as keeping things fun.
One of the reasons I found this text interesting was the Marketing & Selling section. Although a quick overview of the topic (literally, marketing is a job in and of itself!), I think it is something that photographers often overlook. Rick shares a few of his marketing tactics and sample advertisements/promotions. The last section of the book is on Studio Design – this would be helpful for those tentatively interested in remodeling their studio (or designing one). Several studios are shown, and lighting layout is briefly discussed. Overall, I thought this book was a good read (if quick), and I plan on keeping it as a reference – particularly because of the well-composed images and lighting diagrams.
