With busy season on its way, are you feeling creative and inspired? Oftentimes, it can be challenging to maintain inspiration during the slower months, especially with fewer opportunities to flex your creative muscles. How can you jumpstart your creativity and capture memorable images from each wedding you shoot this year?
In our Online Training: Simple Creativity Sparks for Your Wedding Photography Busy Season, Montana Dennis shared his personal insights into what you can do to spark your creativity and prepare for the busy summer months. Even if you’ve been shooting for years, or are just getting started, these are tips you can use to jumpstart your creativity. Here are the top 5 tips from the Training to help you get started.
1. Be Intentional
As a wedding photographer, you have the unique ability to be with your clients on one of the most important days of their lives. Because of that, be intentional in the images you create for them. Every photo you take should tell a story about your couple and represent your unique wedding photography style.
Image Compliments of Montana Dennis
From the beginning of the relationship, take steps to learn more about your couple so you know what to highlight in their images. The more involved you are with your clients, the easier it becomes to create with intention.
2. Get to Know Your Couple
Before you start shooting with your couple, take the time to find out who they are and what their story is. When you take the time to get to know your couple, you can incorporate their story into your images.
When you meet with your clients, Montana suggests asking questions that tell you about them as a couple. Find out what they mean to one another and what their relationship looks like. Make sure you find questions you feel comfortable asking to encourage your couple to share about themselves. The more you get to know them as a couple and how they see their relationship, the easier it becomes to capture that during their wedding day.
3. Create with Intention
“With creating, we are literally bringing something into existence that didn’t exist before.” – Montana Dennis
When you think about creating images from the wedding day, create images that not only your couple will love, but ones that will go on their wall and be a statement. This goes back to being intentional with every image you create. Keep in mind that creating takes time. It requires you to go outside the box and think differently during the shoot. Make sure you are creating something for your clients through your eyes.
As you shoot on location, use what you know about your clients. If they share that they love the outdoors, and you know they are adventurous, incorporate that into the image. The photos you create will showcase who they are and will provide them with memories for years to come. Those are the images they will want to purchase prints of and share with their loved ones.
Tip: Don’t forget to send your images to a wedding photo editing company, like ShootDotEdit, to ensure you share your unique wedding photography style with every client.
4. Coach Your Clients
As you first meet with your clients, this is the perfect time to coach them about their role during the shoot. Let them know you would love to include them in the process to create memorable images. Work together as you can to create a stronger connection in the photos. Share your vision with them and let them know your intentions. When you are clear with your couples upfront, it can give you more opportunities to capture moments that matter.
During the planning session, Montana asks his couple for a word to use during the shoot. While they are shooting, he lets them know that they can have a conversation, but only use that one word to communicate. This allows them to have a moment together, laugh, and he can capture genuine emotion from them.
Another suggestion is to ask the couple what they mean to each other as you shoot with them. As they share their feelings, you can capture the impactful moment in an image. These are simple ways to coach your clients so you provide them with memorable wedding photography.
Related: What can you do to incorporate print sales during the client planning meeting?
5. Take Your Time
When you coach your clients to take their time, it allows them to see there isn’t a need to rush through the moments. It also gives you a chance to capture who they are. Instead of moving on to the next thing, take your time and capture the moment as it happens. When you have the time, it can be easier to be your most creative.
On the wedding day, time is often limited. After you coach your clients through the process, find time to manage the hectic timeline and to slow down and balance everything you need to capture. When you are shooting through a wedding time-crunch, try to pull your couples to the side as necessary to capture their portraits. If you realize that most of your wedding shoots do not allow you to capture those special moments, ask your couples if they want to shoot before the wedding day. The more time you have, the more relaxed your couple will feel.
As the busy season approaches, find out what makes you feel the most creative. When you know what you need to create the most memorable images, you can more easily shoot through every moment. One way to encourage creativity for the wedding photography busy season is to strengthen your skills. Download our Pro Photographer Lighting and Posing Guide today to discover advanced tips and tricks you can use in your upcoming shoots!
