How to Successfully Interview a Couple
Lesson 23 from: Wedding Photography: Capturing the StoryRocco Ancora, Ryan Schembri
How to Successfully Interview a Couple
Lesson 23 from: Wedding Photography: Capturing the StoryRocco Ancora, Ryan Schembri
Lesson Info
23. How to Successfully Interview a Couple
Lessons
Class Introduction
04:18 2Define the Goals of Wedding Photographers
15:04 3The Importance of Wedding Photographers
11:42 4Shooting Philosophy
09:22 5How to Build a Shot List - Bride, Groom & Formals
22:42 6Tye the Wedding Story Together
07:19 7Capture Stories in Wedding Pictures
05:53 8Get the Right Exposure
16:20The Theory Behind Lighting
10:19 10The Power of Short Lighting & Backlight
30:08 11Shoot with Low Ambient Light Indoors
05:25 12Seven Fundamentals of Pose
13:56 13Continuous Light Sources for Indoor Photography
25:36 14Use Available Light for Indoor Photography
35:06 15Flash for Indoor Photography
18:59 16Outdoor Photographing with Available Light
20:27 17Group Posing & Lighting Techniques
12:22 18Groom and Groomsmen Posing & Lighting Techniques
11:43 19Couple Together Posing & Lighting Techniques
16:21 20Creating a Memorable Client Experience
12:40 21The Power of a Same Day Slideshow
12:07 22What do Couples Look For in Wedding Photographers?
05:51 23How to Successfully Interview a Couple
05:11 24The Importance of Wedding Photography
09:07 25Example Couple Interview
22:49 26A Workflow That Works in Lightroom
09:34 27Workflow Overview in Lightroom
19:28 28Manage Wedding Images in Lightroom
21:30 29Export Pictures to Animoto
04:28 30Color Correcting Images in Lightroom
14:09 31Optimize Images Through Lightroom
13:35 32Color Management in Photoshop
03:04 33Rocco's Skin Retouching Technique
33:27 34Image Toning to Create Distinct Looks in Photoshop
24:27 35The Value of a Wedding Album
05:27 36Traditional Design Elements in a Wedding Album
19:05 37Magazine Design Elements in a Wedding Album
20:04 38What Makes a Good Wedding Album?
07:47 39How to Sell the Wedding Album to Your Clients
10:37 40Wedding Album Workflow
08:13Lesson Info
How to Successfully Interview a Couple
Then, from the hospitality side of things we're going to the most important part, which is listening to your clients. We break the interview up into two parts. Now a little bit later in this session, we're gonna have the couple that we photographed at the earlier sessions, and they're gonna be sitting here on the couch, and we're gonna run through the interview process, and the actual words that we speak. Okay? So the first part of the interview is really all about them. It's about their day. It's about their dreams. It's about their expectations. They don't wanna hear how good you are and how many awards you've won and how you're this famous speaker on CreativeLive. That is irrelevant to a bride and groom getting married. It's all about them. The trick here is getting them to speak as much as possible. So questions will be things like, you know, talk about the venue, talk about the church, or the ceremony. Talk about their bridal party. Talk about their family. Talk about the dress. T...
alk about flowers. Talk about suits. There are so many questions that we can just create conversation with that makes the process really seamless, and before you know it, you've got rapport with these people. These people are starting to connect with you. Because, why? You are interested in them. You're not trying to sell yourself as this bigshot photographer saying, you wanna see my work, it's really good. They don't care about that. It's really really about them. Plus, you sound a bit odd as well, like introducing yourself. If I was to introduce myself as, "Hey, I'm Ryan Schembri, "the 2012 AIPP Australian wedding photographer of the year." It's sounds a bit wrong, doesn't it? Yeah. So, it's getting information from them that you can talk about, use in conversation. If it's more of a conversation, as you'll see a little bit later. It's more of a conversation than it is any type of sales pitch. Yeah, absolutely. We do (mumbling) awards, and we've done exceptionally well. We've been fortunate to have done exceptionally well over the years. The awards are displayed in the studio. We don't really refer to them, ever. They're there in the background to support who we are as photographic artists, and that is it. Unless a client asks and opens the door, and they look at the awards, then you can sort of start having a conversation, I won this year, and you know, etcetera, etcetera. Really we make a point of saying that awards are a byproduct of our passion. Yeah. Okay. We don't go out and shoot for awards. They are a byproduct of what we wanna achieve at every wedding. Hopefully, this one thing I always tell my couples, hopefully, I wanna achieve an award-winning image from your wedding. 'Cause that's how far I wanna push myself to create the best possible coverage that you have ever seen. Absolutely. The second part of the interview is actually to educate. To educate our clients when it comes to all of these things, about our albums, products, and options, because, let's face it, not many of our wedding couples have actually done this process before. Hopefully. Sometimes, they have. Trust me, wedding two and three is great. Great repeat business there. (laughing) It's fantastic, but we do need to educate them, because most of them don't know, don't know what is involved in wedding photography. What it takes to build an album, what it takes to have a beautiful fine-art picture printed, and framed, and matted, and put behind museum-quality glass. They don't know this. In their minds, pictures get printed down the road, at Walmart, for all they know. For, ya know, four cents, or whatever it is. (laughing) Yeah. So it's really about the education process and how we can educate to what we're putting in front of them, why they need to have this product. The other thing to really note here is that you gotta picture what the process is all about. These people have walked into your space, or you've met them, because they have a problem. They've contacted you because they have a problem. Their problem is, they need a wedding photographer. You are there to offer that solution. So we are there to problem solve. We are there to help them. We're not there just to take their money. We're not there to come across as though, please buy the biggest albums you could possibly get. This is all byproducts of what we do, by providing that need, and that solution to the problem that they have, which is not having a wedding photographer on the day. And I think mentally, if you think of it that way, your entire energy changes at the time of the interview, because you're genuinely there to help them. You wanna be able to create amazing images on their wedding day, and give them one less thing to stress about. Absolutely. Which is finding a wedding photographer. As we said earlier, it is very stressful for a couple to choose a wedding photographer. There's just so much out there.
Class Materials
Bonus Materials with Purchase
Ratings and Reviews
Jerry Willis
Ryan & Rocco, in my very humble opinion, are THE best wedding photography instructors in the entire industry! I've been watching their work for years now, which just so happens to win a most grand-scaled competitions, and they somehow continue to keep getting better! I first drilled Ryan at WPPI inquiring about what made his workshop different from all the others. His response, me paraphrasing, "If you're looking for tools to learn, come to my workshop. If you're looking for inspiration and smoke blowing, don't come." That's exactly what I needed to hear. Straight tools, no fluff. THE BEST photography workshop I've EVER taken, by far. You want the best photography education, learn from the best. This CreativeLive workshop is the PERFECT complimentary refresher and companion to what I learned! Thank you so much for having them! It's not the same as the workshop, which it shouldn't be, but they ARE reinforcing many things that have slipped my memory! I'm for sure buying this! :-)
Neeraj Arora
WOW!!! I have started a few CL courses but not finished as I got distracted by "life" and it took me a while to get back and finish them. But these guys!! They were simply superb. I finished this course really fast. Amazing artists, they explain things so well, Ryan is such a charmer and engaging teacher, Rocco is a fountain of knowledge. I am an enthusiastic photographer with aspirations to start my own business soon. I learn't so much from this class that will help improve my photography even if I don't become a professional wedding photographer. Great job guys, keep it up. I will need to come back to the lessons and I very much appreciate the key note pdf. All CL courses should include the slides like they did here. Thanks CL.
user-3a41db
I am a newborn photographer by trade, but I really want to venture out and photograph more weddings so I decided to purchase a wedding class on creative live. Of course when I typed in wedding, quite a few classes came up. But when I saw the image and title "capture the story" I was definitely intrigued. I've always been touched by the photographs that have emotion and that's what I'm passionate to photograph! Always a little nervous when you purchase a class because you don't want to feel like it was a waste of money, but this knocked it out of the park for me! Thank you to Ryan and Rocco for explaining so much, showing the pull backs, and moving your subject and explaining why! This has opened my eyes so much to how beautiful photographing a wedding can be and not so terrifying as I've been making it out to be. I'm really so thankful to hopefully being a great wedding photographer and making more income for my family, while having fun creating something beautiful
Student Work
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