In today’s society in the age of social media, blogs and websites with high mega pixel cameras on the end of every smart phone and tablet, guest photographs are common place. These images usually hit the pages of the bride and groom long before the professional shots have even been processed. Is this a bad thing? In these posts I discuss the effects of guests taking photographs at weddings, from the perspective of the 3 corners. I will put my personal and professional opinion across on this subject from the point of view of The Bride and Groom, The Photographer and The Guest.

In this post we will look at the point of view from the Photographer. To read my opinions on the view from The Bride and Groom or The Guest, please click the links above.

Professional Photographer

Let’s take this topic from the perspective of the paid booked photographer.

You have met the couple before the wedding, you have gained their trust and have created a bespoke package with only them in mind. You have thought extensively what kind of style photography you will be shooting and the level of service required to create the set of images that the Bride and Groom will cherish. You turn up on the day and before you can shake your light meter, lots of guests are taking pictures with anything from an iPhone to high quality digital SLR’s. What do you do? How are you going to take it? How does it make you feel?

The following post has been classed as unsuitable for anyone with a heart condition, or if you suffer a nervous disposition.

My opinion on this and remember it is only my opinion, what are you doing as a professional photographer if a few guests with cameras worries you?

You should be good enough to be able to blow any image they take out of the water! If you can’t, you have no business in the photography industry taking hard earned money from people, for services that are evidently substandard.

I come from music and press photography. It’s a photographic industry that is cut throat and if you fail to deliver, right there, right then, to get the shot, you are out. You are not wanted back. The newspaper or magazine will find someone else for the next assignment. Plus to add to the stress, you’re not in amongst a few amateur photographers with iPhones, you are standing next to a large group of professional photographers all working for newspapers who also want that shot! Some of them utterly ruthless! You don’t get time to have a cry about the snapper who has pushed slightly in front of you, or the shot that is over-exposed due to the amount of flash being thrown out. You simply need to deliver and be better than anyone else. It’s as simple as that!

“Either make sure you get the image captured another way, or move on and get great images elsewhere.”

Before we go any further, I need you to realise I’m not being unnecessarily obtuse with this. I understand guests can ruin images, not by just taking the image, but by standing in the way during a special moment. We all know the example – during a creative moment, you see the ideal shot, you are just about to click the shutter and suddenly great uncle Jim turns up, stands the other side of the couple and takes a happy snappy shot. Your image is destroyed. Yes this is frustrating, but this is where you earn your bucks. Either make sure you get the image captured another way, or move on and get great images elsewhere.

Photography for me has never been about the setup moments. It’s about when I capture that perfect image, off the cuff, through all adversary. Its that image you look at 10 seconds later and think, “yes, that’s the shot.”

So, the wedding is over, you’ve shot the day’s events and are getting prepared to start the editorial for the couple, when you notice pictures of the wedding on their Facebook and other social media sites. You also notice some of the guests who are semi professional or even professional have placed their own shots on their own website. What then? Let’s cover this in 2 parts.

Part 1
If guests are sharing pictures of the wedding in social media, it shouldn’t phase you and I refer to the point at the start. If your pictures are not as good, a profession in photography may not be for you. In today’s day and age, social media posts are going to happen and are here to stay. There is nothing you can do about it. Guests do this now and it’s time to just embrace it.

Concentrate on your own Wedding imagery that you deliver to the Bride and Groom. Make it great, make it something they will cherish forever and show them why YOU are the professional and why they hired you!

Part 2
Photographer’s know copyright. The image the semi professional or professional has taken, is their image and they can use it as and when they like. Even if they place the image on their own websites. I don’t have a problem with this and again know that it is my job to shoot better. My only problem with this is when the photographer has copied my image by standing behind me or simply copied the concept. But apart from that, if they are standing somewhere and shoot a good image, good for them. If they wish to showcase their own work on their own sites, again no problem. As long as it doesn’t interfere with the product I am supplying to the couple.

“Be better than them and have a good marketing campaign.”

Some photographer’s say, “but I’m worried I’ll lose work. I want the guests to know who the paid photographer was.” My advice, you need to have a good pre and post marketing campaign that shows people your work and let it be clear who the professional was. It’s a cut throat business!

Lets be honest, if a photographer attends the wedding as a guest and they shoot some images, its not just going to sit in their camera. It certainly will be placed somewhere.. Just get used to it, prepare for it, beat it and move on.

In conclusion, people will take pictures, be it on a substandard phone or professional camera. My advice is accept it, be better than them and have a good marketing campaign before, during and after the Wedding that shows your work to its fullest.