Wedding Photography Qualifications

Many amateur portrait photographers receive requests to photograph the weddings of friends and relatives. Those who agree soon discover that wedding photography is a specialized field of work requiring training and experience. The ability to relate to people, organise the photography and adopt the mood of the occasion are clearly important. However, it is the need to capture good images as the ceremony progresses, and without the opportunity to repeat any shots that fail, that subjects wedding photographers to significant pressure. Finally, it must be learnt that the job is not over when the reception has finished. Indeed, most of the work may lie beyond this point.

A good start in the highly-competitive wedding photography market can be made by attending one of the many specialized training courses available. These are run by various companies in numerous different ways, and typically provide between two and seven days' tuition. They are all designed to prepare a photographer as quickly as possible to begin earning an income from wedding work. They incorporate training to improve interpersonal and wedding photography technique to a point where images acquire a high commercial value, and may also include an introduction to the organisational and management skills necessary to create a successful and profitable business.

Qualifications relevant to wedding photography are available from particular companies at several levels, but can also be obtained from British Institute of Professional Photographers (BIPP), the Master Photographers Association (MPA), the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers (SWPP) and other similar organisations. Those obtainable from companies such as Barrett and Coe can lead to a photographer being accepted as a franchisee working locally in conjunction with the company. This arrangement has several advantages including the provision of legal protection and the facility to pass all the post-wedding processing and printing work on to the company.