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Target Brides and Tools of the Trade

Lesson 3 from: Think Like a 10K Wedding Photographer

Scott Robert Lim

Target Brides and Tools of the Trade

Lesson 3 from: Think Like a 10K Wedding Photographer

Scott Robert Lim

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Lesson Info

3. Target Brides and Tools of the Trade

Lesson Info

Target Brides and Tools of the Trade

Okay, so I'm going to teach about targeting the fanatic and that's where you want to go there's basically three types of brides right? There's the budget bessie what I call which is around the fifteen hundred dollar area right there's the average annie which is around that twenty five to thirty five and then there is fiona the fanatic their response to spend five that's what we're talking about these three days is how to get to that person there what makes fiona the fanatic tick what's in her psyche and how to you mark it to yourself to that person and that's what we're going to go over okay, so, um let's see here creating a luxury band that's what we're doing urge you five ten, twenty thousand dollars and beyond like you know I say ten k but there's plenty of photographer susan who make fifty thousand dollars in wedding it's there it's possible. Okay um the more profitable your business the more perfect it must be ok, the more profitable it is, the more perfect that you must be what i...

n your skills and your posing in your lighting in your product right in your business and marketing in your time management in your life skills so the bigger the gold that's why I love that's why I love people wanting to take on the challenge of being an entrepreneur because it's one of the hardest things to do it, and if we can do it in the process of going and doing that, we become a better person and that's what I love about it, those who want to develop themselves into people who are better, better at everything better at their job, better with the her family, better with earning a living and giving my whole thing is make as much freaking money as you can do it. If you don't need a lot of it, why don't you just give it away, it's better us giving it away, then somebody else given it away, right? Okay, creating a great business is taking on a journey of perfection is what you're doing, it's I the higher the goal, the more we're going to have to refine ourselves, to be better and that's what it isthe I want a very quickly go, and we'll talk about this tools of the trade. What is my wedding year about what I have in my what do I use? What camera should I buy? Full frame or crop sensor? Definitely full frame goto full frame as as fast as you can, and even if you have to buy used full frame, do it look it, you can get a cannon five d for under a thousand dollars. Guess what? I'm going to pose this. This is the reason why you can't get involved with these chat room things. Because guess what? Go in there. Those chat rooms. And you got old five d that's. Amazing laying around your house. Sell it to somebody for five hundred bucks. I'm gonna challenge somebody to do that in the chat room, right? Get in there and start selling your older stuff that you have and allow people to buy this stuff. It's amazing prices. Go in there and have fun with that stuff, right. Okay, look att under five thousand five d, right? But the issue is that s o quality is maybe around eight hundred at most, before you start entering into a lot of grain. Not a big issue, but it is there. The reason why I say full frame is bent. They make different types of lenses for crops, sensor and full friends. So if you start off with an entry level crop sensor and you buy a bunch of lenses for guess what, you're screwed because now you got to dump all those lenses and you gotta buy new lance's s o that's. Why? I said it's it's a trap when they get you into crop sensor start off at full and so the lenses that you buy you can keep forever and using the entire course instead of redoing that every year okay, the next level is look att under fifteen hundred I'm sure somebody in that chat room right now has an amazing cannon five d that they will sail for under a thousand dollars I'm challenging somebody in that chat room to give somebody a break and sell their five d for under a thousand I've seen him for nine hundred dollars out there full frame it's a great camera you know, at one time I was shooting kan and I had this camera I could probably use the rest of my career it's a decent camera that s o level is about sixteen hundred or so I love it okay um now you're going to get up with the bad boys in two thousand plus and you're gonna have all these full frame cameras out now they're getting lower around two thousand dollars for a sixty or the neck and d six ten I usedto this sony a ninety nine which is about twenty seven hundred dollars but they're given these amazing I'm not sure if they're doing now but they had these amazing packages so actually the camera's coming out to be about two thousand bucks if you get bits bundled with all this other stuff than that I love that camera a ninety nine and so the performance on this stuff is ridiculous I mean like you even care about s o thirty two hundred above I mean you can shoot in the air dark with these cameras and they'll still show something it's amazing this new but it's going to cost you a little bit more so that's what I recommend okay so overall you need five types of lenses okay and this is what this is my suggested collection here you need a wide angle lands you need a medium range you need a long lands you need a portrait lens and low light lands and you need a macro lens to do wedding photography you don't have to have them all but eventually you should have all these ranges covered and so sometimes if you don't have let's say in the wide category I'm suggesting having a sixteen to thirty five those costs about two thousand dollars I'm sorry uh you might not have two thousand dollars well there's other options for you okay you can get a prime lens there seventeen or twenty four millimeter that has in there well twenty four millions are very high but there's options for you there same thing with the medium there's all these different options that you khun did in general you should have all those five different types of lenses. Okay um then I can show pictures of thes this's wide this is sixteen millimeters so you want to cap a you're a gym flight you get a wedding and why you want to show that beautiful landscape. You've gotta have something wide. You want something medium? Eso you could be a versatile lens. Uh, twenty four to seventy. These of the types of photos that you khun yet from that range you also won along to go in there. Let's say, you're doing a first dance and you're standing at the edge of the the floor and you can zoom in and you get that nice blurred background zooming in uh, you should have that too. Portrait lands and little light. So fifty millimeter there is no excuse why you should have a fifty millimeter one point eight lands. Why it's like one hundred dollars. Okay, it's cheap. Just how I'm going to show you some award winning images that I took with a hundred dollar lenses. Okay, well, in fact, actually, that one there on the right of the girl we were in where were the bahamas there somewhere like that? That's a two hundred dollar lands. So whatever, uh, little light lands, we need to have that at a portrait macro lens. Now, what's amazing about my new cameras and the sony has. I don't know if the other brands have this, but they have a mackerel feature, so my camera turns a mackerel lands out of any lands that I put on it also what I love about this camera is that image stabilization is built into the body so I don't know if you know that but sony bought out minolta guess what I congar online and nobody cares about minolta autofocus lenses I'm buying him on ebay hoops now everybody is fine but and putting it on my camera and it's got image stabilization built into it already okay and so that's awesome um so anyways but you gotta have mackerel lance and do these types of photos my camera it's just built in whatever lens I put on it which is a nice feature okay what's my temp typical wedding equipment list okay this is going toe get lengthy here you know personally nowadays I just like going to a wedding with a twenty four millimeter prime in eighty five millimeter prime and shooting the whole darn thing especially if the ceremony if I don't if it's a smaller size venue I could get away just shooting that or what I do is like tell my assistant you put you put the seventy two two hundred on you khun you know like hurt your back not me I'm going to put the eighty five in a twenty for odd make your assistant put the seventy two two hundred on alright that's a good plan there younger than you anyway so just they're all hungry and what go ahead put the seventy two hundred you'll love it uh on so this is basically what I bring to a wedding okay if you were to add up all the prices I bring two of these by the way because I have back up okay? You want to add up okay? You want to get into this game it can be very pride and this is with using my equipment which is a lot less than other people I'm already a fourteen k right off the bat with my stuff okay, but you don't have to start off there you know if you're just doing two hundred dollars weddings or three hundred dollars weddings there freeways to start off you could start off with a lot less and this is my recommended best value wedding set up bear in mind that I'm chinese so I'm very conscientious about cost ok, so all asian people like to save money this is what I'm going to recommend you doing I recommend you get a full frame cannon mark too cannon or maybe a d seven hundred because somebody on that chat room right now is offering when a very good one for nine hundred dollars is that true? Okay on so maybe at most you're gonna get one for fifteen hundred dollars that's a good camera start off with right you get uh wedding okay, I have some of these kids I don't have a lot of them but I have three lenses I've done research for about a month on the best lenses in the world for two hundred around two hundred bucks I know what they are I'm not telling you what they are because once I tell you and there may be only five hundred maybe only b a a thousand of these lenses out there left if I opened it up to thirty thousand people right now, they won't be two hundred will be five hundred dollars but you could go onto my creative live discussion group and my facebook I we can talk about it there and I have them but anyways wide angle a medium zoom to tell you and along zoom and a macro lens right anyways you could get those seven hundred dollars for all that there that you could I would feel confident myself shooting a wedding with that I could do it. Okay, so it's out there if you look around, do some research on lenses go back the old days, the film lenses that orbit those are the best lenses actually those once in the film because when you buy a lens that was bill done and with the film days it's for full size sensor and they were made out of metal and they were good stuff back then okay, so you can't look in that area I'm offering a special wedding kit a discount discounted just to get you going s so I had a discounted price of nine hundred dollars plus a few if you register for the class you could get the discount ten percent off of that so you could save yourself about three hundred dollars. So you go to scott robert photography dot com and they're so if all totaled for thirty one hundred dollars, you can get into the game to feel like confident that you could you could go in for less, but in general, for about three thousand dollars, you could get into this game and that's not a bad investment at all. Okay, um and optional maybe getting a fifty millimeter one point eight, but you can get those brand who for one hundred bucks, you know, buying used I get a game much advantage, maybe ten dollars. So I just say just bite new right and a t t l fat flash that's that's one option for you and those tl fashions around three hundred bucks to six hundred bucks that's an option you really get like me. I don't even use detail flashes anymore. Just you straight manual flashes. Uh, so anyways, that's kind of the equipment kind of needed to really get going um let's, go back there, let's, stop at this and let's see if anybody have any questions about equipment right now one one one question I thought was interesting from curtis photo was do you need to have a storefront or a studio to become a ten k wedding photographer is a part of you needed as part of your overhead? I didn't we're going to totally get into that in the next days and unpack all that, but just a quick answer. I didn't do it, bailey, because I was being hired around the world, so somebody from new york is hiring me. They're not gonna come to my studio, right? So I did have one in beverly hills, but actually, I shared didn't know you guys familiar with job using, okay, so he was actually sharing his studio, so I was one of the lucky ones who was able to share the same space of as his in beverly hills. I did that for a year, I never went into it one times like I think I'm wasting money here, so I got rid of it, but there is ways if you do a lot of local business, it could be advantageous to have a studio, but we'll get into that a little bit later, I traveled around the world from my wedding some I never even sometimes when I met my wedding client, it was on their wedding day. And that was the first time I saw them so um it was different for me but we'll get into that a little bit too everything questions in our studio audience ariel really starting out I got a d eight hundred and lenses for I was camera body broke and I had no lenses and nobody told me that you could get cheaper body with better lights and better lenses so what do you recommend for people who are starting into bagel for lighting first to the upgrade their body did they requested my feeling is this the one thing that you need to be concerned with first is I s o not lenses okay because with higher so you could use local because really that's what you're paying for when you buy these fancy you know two thousand dollars lands is your pain because you want to you go on a shooting little light a lot of times or you want to like use a shallow depth of field but in my mind if you really want a shallow depth of field but the fifty millimeter one point it's only a hundred dollars there right so I my main concerns when I recommend people is go for the what you can afford which gets you the best s o performance and that is the sensor size there's physics involved okay the larger the censor the lower the noise is in your camera there's a trade off that's why people don't use pointed shoots for their weddings. Well, maybe some do because that sensor on that point and shoot cameras like that big when you get a full size sensor it's, this big it's huge. So the large size does matter. Size does matter. Okay, so the largest intensive, better that's. Why you got to goto full frame, full frame? Is it because it's get one? Then you can. You don't have to worry about lenses buying and selling later. And two, you're usually typically going to get the higher performance lens. And so my okay, so, lissa, you bought a cannon? Five d mark one. Ok. The noise performance in that is going to be basically the same as a crop sensor anyways. So you might as well just go up to the full frame. So, it's, that's, that's! So that's, my recommendation. Does that help with that great question. Any other questions? We have so many questions way have five minutes to do it too. That's alright, way! Have we have time? We've got three days, three days, so I just wanted teo kind of continue to lay the groundwork of who this class is for what we're talking about here, so question from raj so want is when you say five k ten k wedding does that price include the cost of the products that people are getting the photo albums the frames or is that above and beyond that? Five care ten cate what are we talking about? Okay, wedding photography is great business when I okay, I was an entrepreneur for twelve years before becoming a wedding photographer and I said to myself if I'm going to get into another business because my other business was in textile printing so we were doing way were screen printing and creating imprinting on apparel for people all over the country ok? Our margin was this big on every shirt you know? We hardly made it so you had to do everything invite volume to make money and if there's one little hiccup, you're not making any money at all so it's very difficult so I said to myself, I'm getting into an industry that has some the high profit margin then whatever business like it into it's gotta have some freaking high profit margin and so that's why I chose wedding photography because in general your cost in general for a ten thousand dollar wedding not counting travel is what most going to be a thousand dollars so that's a lot of profit charge ten cost you thousands nine thousand dollars a winning still ain't bad I'll take it so you know an album what cost three hundred dollars so at most the cost of something if you provide something, prints are what nothing right sense now. So the only main causes in an album, maybe if a large print like that, cost you a hundred bucks or something like that. So generally your cost for a wedding, five hundred dollars, or lest now, if you pay an assistant, maybe a couple hundred bucks or whatever. So I'm thinking at most and even if you job about some of your editing on top of that thousand dollars, but still there's a lot of profit leftover into it. Okay, so that's, generally speaking, those those costs.

Class Materials

bonus material with purchase

Master Flash Guide.pdf
Day 1 Segment 1 Best Job in the World.pdf
Day 1 Segment 2 Headshot & Posing the Groom.pdf
Day 1 Segment 3 Posing the Bride.pdf
Day 1 Segment 4 Posing the Bride & Groom.pdf
Day 2 Segment 1 Crazy Stupid Wedding Light.pdf
Day 2 Segment 2 Lighting Review Group & Dancefloor.pdf
Day 2 Segment 3 Wedding Workflow & Money Shots.pdf
Day 2 Segment 4 Starting from Scratch.pdf
Day 3 Segment 1 From 0 to 5K.pdf
Day 3 Segment 2 5K and Beyond.pdf
Day 3 Segment 3 Creating a Luxury Brand.pdf
Day 3 Segment 4 Seventeen Ideas to Change Your life.pdf

bonus material with enrollment

10 Percent Discount.pdf

Ratings and Reviews

mc
 

There are a few courses in CL that just keep giving - they exceed expectations - on numerous levels. This is one of those courses. For context: I am not a wedding photographer; i do not aspire to be a wedding photographer, but i saw a re-broadcast of this course and thought i have got to put the pennies together to order this as someone aspiring to be a better photographer. Here's why: The title: think like... In a lot of business and coaching approaches, the way to get better we're told is to be around people who are further ahead than we are - who are as close to where we aspire to be as we can get. Think Like a 10k wedding photographer is an invitation to get insight into how i'm already thinking in this headspace or where i'm not. is this course for you: If you're not already a 10k/wedding (or gig) photographer, there is likely something of value here for you. THE COURSE the course is v.grounded - from the ttitle again - that this is a course about photography as a business - and how to get to a place where one is thriving in that business. It's clear there are steps to getting up the ladder towards 10k, and Scott Robert puts all the milestones in to understand when to up prices, how to pace gigs, how to schedule weddings, how to start. But this course also excels at covering off what's included in creating an excellent wedding photography experience for a particular type of shoot: luxury, glamour, style. This is not documentary wedding photography - though the skills learned here can be applied in that space. Here - just take a look at the photos - people who want what Scott Robert Delivers want to be glamourous, exciting. And Scott makes the point - that looks "natural" but it's constructed, and so we have to know how to engage with people in order to construct these results. Thus the course offers Posing and Shooting techniques for photography - using natural and flash light using flash and video light posing men; posint women; posing groups how to get the checklist of wedding shots from dress to cake. And how to get the business. This course is worth the money just to get the tips for posing - you'll use them right away whether you're doing corporate shoots or what in the us is "seniors" portraits. THE KIT A particularly inspiring element of Scott's work is how minimalist the kit seems to be. No strobes; just speedlights. Lightstands and umbrellas. And small video light(s). Considering the shots he gets that seem so constructed, it's fantastic to see that they are constructed fundamentally with a set of modelling principles about the human form that work work and work. The BUSINESS As said the progressions for the business side to move from a starting photographer to a 10k photographer are clear. The detail is good. The motivation, unflagging. Participants who want to get there need to do the hours of practice. There are a couple people who have used Scott's methods to get from starter to 10k shooter so it's possible to see their path. - One who was a videographer mayn't be as inspiring because already pro etc, but it is cool to see a pro in video testify to the value even for him of scott's approach. LESSON the best advertisement is word of mouth you have to have the work to get that endorsement. Scott is the one person on CL where you'll hear him say he's not working on his social network particularly, but on the quality of his portfolio and referals within jobs to get the jobs - it's plainly working for him. For him, it's clear he wants to be regarded as the best photographer - not the best customer service that trumps adequate photography. THE INSTRUCTOR As other reviewers have commented, scott's attitude is amazing. He has a burning entrepreneurial spirit and a drive to be successful to support his family - which means getting to a point where he's shooting fewer weddings for more money in order to have more time with his people. Nice. No matter what area of photography you're in, there are insights to be gained from this course. Related Courses There are a lot of wedding photography courses on CL. The others i've seen are Wedding Cinematography, Doug Gordon Wedding Project, Master the Business of Photography (which turns out to be based in a wedding business) and Start and Grow your Photography Business (also based around weddings). These all have good things to teach. The biggest contrast to Scott's is Sal Cincotta's Business of Photography - in that course while there is a goal for his teams / shooters to be professional and get all their shots at the wedding and deal with the unexpected well - and there are great tips for how to cover your butt if there's conflict about being able to take a shot or who wants what shot - the focus seems to be way way WAY more on the sale in the studio and selling all kinds of prints. This is v.much the flip side of Scott's work where the focus is on getting the wedding (and why he actually likes 5k weddings more than 10k weddings - fascinating). For scott, it seems the 10k is about figuring out what the package is in terms of what's the difference between 10k vs 5k - and what you promise to deliver in that experience vs SC's focus on what are the materials produced that are worth that charge. And how the wedding can be used to hook people in for life - for portraits, baby photos, seniors etc. Kevin Kebota's class similarly has some nice stuff around bonuses vs discounts. I can see a very interesting panel discussion on pricing btwn sal, scott and kevin... For scott, it's not about shooting the lifecycle and getting money off prints: he does weddings - some engagement and boud. around that, but it's the Wedding that is the star - the quality and amazingness of the images - not the number and size of prints. Perhaps this is a weakness in the course not to go into that part of the deal - but i didn't find it so. What's great is that he has a dropdead line in the sand too: if you're doing X and you're not getting to Y by Z, do something else! fantastic. he even has a part time shooter plan. COol. He also knows how and what to outsource: so will you. He's also cool about how long it will to take to start making a real income. (and what's the difference between a 3k and 5k wedding?? you'll learn). Why would you buy this course? If you're a WEDDING photographer, shooting under 10k /wedding then this will be interesting - lots to learn about what's possible in a wedding context, and seeing examples about how "natural" can be constructed. If you're just considering weddings and want to understand what it would take to make a living or part time living as a photographer here IF YOU WANT TO LEARN ABOUT POSING -- there are lots of CL classes involving posing and philosophies of posing so why this one? 1: Robert is v.good. that simple: the way he's translated everything he's learned about posing into heuristics - in other words rather than memorising poses, you learn heuristics about what to set up for any shot to get more from it. Fantastic. 2. Posing in the context of a live wedding under pressure is a litle different than in studio 3. We see posing for different lighting conditions/contexts for an event - in this case a wedding. Powerful stuff. What's also cool in the demos is that you don't have him doing tethered shooting, but focusing on teaching posing and having the class learn it. That's cool too. IF YOU WANT TO LEARN LIGHTING - and not spend much on lighting kit and get great results this course is inspiring. INSTRUCTOR - v.engaging - doesn't suffer fools, i'm betting; expects committment to do the work to get to aspirations. EXCELLENT. heck i watched most of this with a friend who just found Scott so compelling, in particular how the posing section worked, it was just that engaging. hope that helps. good luck on your mission.

Kerry Sleeman
 

This is the best Creative Live Course I have purchased, well worth the Money! Scott is fantastic and has a lot of great advice! Even though I am not a wedding photographer I am a Boudoir Photographer and has given me a lot of ideas to help my business. ! Thanks Creative Live Amazing!

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