Develop Your People Skills

To be a successful wedding photographer you have to be a “people person,” someone who is capable of inspiring trust in the bride and groom. Interaction with the participants at crucial and often very stressful moments during the wedding day is inevitable, and that is when the photographer with people skills really shines.

Elite wedding photographer Joe Buissink, for example, has been labeleda “salt of the earth” personality who makes his clients instantly like and trust him. That trust leads to complete freedom to capture the event as he sees it. It also helps that Buissink sees each wedding ceremony as significant and treats the day with great respect. Buissink advises, “You must hone your communication skills to create a personal rapport with clients, so they will invite you to participate in their special moments.” And he stresses the importance of being objective and unencumbered. “Leave your personal baggage at home,” he says, “this will allow you to balance the three principle roles of observer, director, and psychologist.”

Kevin Kubota, a successful wedding and portrait photographer from the Pacific Northwest, always encourages his couples to be themselves and to wear their emotions on their sleeves—an instruction that resonates throughout the entire day. He also tries to get to know them as much as possible before the wedding and encourages his brides and grooms to share their own ideas. This establishes a feeling of mutual trust between client and photographer.

Master wedding photographer Tom Muñoz notes that a little flattery goes a long way. “When we’re photographing the bride, we treat her like she’s a princess,” Muñoz says. “Besides knowing how to pose a woman, one of the biggest things that changes her posture and expression is what you tell her. We’re not dealing with models—and as stupid as it sounds, telling a bride how beautiful she looks changes how she photographs and how she perceives being photographed. It becomes a positive experience rather than a time-consuming, annoying one. The same thing goes for the groom,” Tom states. “His chest pumps up, he arches his back; they fall right into it. It’s very cute.”