Iam a wedding photographer i want to open my own business in wedding planning & photography.?

Iam planning to quit my present job and open my own studio. How can I improve more about my wedding shots, lighting effects , portraits etc. related to wedding and birthday parties.

Its too hard, give up

practice makes perfect

Go to photography classes

start small, don't give up your job until you get enough photography jobs. Also most events are on weekends so you can keep both up. Start with people you know, and then if you do a good job they will reccomend your services. You don't need a studio, just a good camera, flash, computer. Then when you get proficient get the lights and an assistant.

Why don't you ring round and ask could you work shadow a photographer free of charge to get some ideas of how they set things up. My dad did this when he started and he was able to build his portfolio up. He also went onto other wedding photographers web sites for ideas. He also offered to do friends and families photo's free of charge. Try to offer something different, not always posed. My dad does what he calls 'photo journalistic' he always look to take a photo that is not planned or posed. Have you trIEd to see if any one in your area gives help to people set their own businesses up, ie Princes Trust etc

As said before "Don't give up your job!!" until you have enough business coming in to make it worthwhile. The fact you are even asking how to improve your photography means you have no experience. Start reading up on the above photography styles and take photos. Post the photos on the numerous photo critic website and see what feedback you get. Try to take photos at weddings, parties and see what feedback you get. If you can get a pro to help you out even better, though nearly all won't want to, in case you take business away from them. I constantly look at other photographers work to see work and styles are out there. The best way to learn though is through your own trial and error as I found out. Another skill often overlooked is how the photos are presented i.e albums, frame mounts etc.

If you are a wedding photographer, you are doing the job now but for some one else. it is not down to photography it is just down to marketing your self, contact all wedding related suppliers in your area cake makers dress hire ect and set up reciprocating advertising promotion. you recommend them they recommend you get flayers and cards printed. it will be hard work but if you do the marketing work and are a good photographer you will do it

Check out http://ppa.com they have programs which will help you get started. Keep your day job till you have your business established. It can take years and cost a lot of money.

Which will it be? Planning or photography? They both require specialized knowledge of rather different areas.

Every photographer should be interested in learning and improving during their entire career, and that includes even the top wedding photographers. One way is to take seminars, some are just for a day or two, and some are for a week or longer. Join the professional wedding photographers organizations, network with the other pros in your area, etc etc. The best way is to begin shooting weddings under an established mentor as an assistant or second shooter. The tone of your question, and the fact that you are asking it here on YA, suggests that you are either very new at this, or have shot a couple as a guest and want to move to the next level. My advice is not to quit your day job just yet. The wedding photography business is being over run by people who just bought their first dSLR and believe that makes them a pro. They often undercut the established professionals to get bookings. Most of those folks last a few weddings and quit when they have a few angry couples, or even their first lawsuit over crappy wedding photos and failure to deliver the goods. If you are talented and know your stuff (photography wise as well as business) then you should be able to build your business. More than likely that won't happen overnight. So if you need to keep paying the bills, you might want to take small steps at first and see how it goes. Good luck!

If you don't know the answer to this already, don't even consider doing anything that involves sharp objects.

Whether you want to go into wedding planning or wedding photography, consult SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives). They have great advice for starting businesses.

For wedding photography, as a minimum you need a web site, a good portfolio, and REFERENCES (not testimonials). Testimonials are not bad, especially if they come with full names and cities, but even those are far less impressive than references. You should be doing a good enough job building your portfolio that you have enough happy customers that will talk to prospective customers and tell them how wonderful you are. This is a LOT more effective than putting up nice testimonials that your web site visitors may or may not believe.

You should accomplish these four tasks before quitting your job. That should be fairly straightforward since wedding photography is mostly a weekend job. (Of course, "straightforward" is not the same as "easy".)

I do not know about wedding planning.

If you need to ask these kinds of questions, then I highly doubt that you are a wedding photographer, or a good one. These kinds of things you should have figured out before you even think about calling yourself a pro.

Having an SLR/DSLR does not make one a professional.

If you don't know that your shots are good enough and they need improving, then you need to take more classes, apprentice under a real pro, and work harder.

Here are the greats:

http://www.montezucker.com/

http://www.denisreggie.com/

Here's another guy who knows his stuff:

http://www.xanga.com/garyfong1?nextdate=...

HTH
V2K1

If you already are a wedding photographer, then you need to concentrate on developing your business sense and a business plan. The process for doing that is pretty much the same for all businesses and many community colleges offer courses in starting and running your own business. Without a plan, I can only wish you a lot of luck. Those with a plan need far less luck and a few with a very good plan are extremely successful with little luck at all!

If you want to have a business in both wedding photography and wedding planning, find someone to partner with who knows wedding planning. There is very little overlap between the skill sets or the work required to succeed in either, so you can't freely mix them. You would probably fail in both. You can do more than one type of photography because there is such a high degree of overlap in marketing, skills and investment that it makes sense.

You can batch process shoots from a wedding and turn around and do the same for a portrait session. You can advertise both types of photography at the same time and in many of the same places. Yada, yada, yada. Wedding planning takes as much, or more personal time to do and with either activity, when you're not doing the work, you will be working on something to get you more work, or doing other business related tasks - like paying bills and making sure you have the receivables in order.

In short, not being complementary as businesses operationally, they will interfere with each other. Short form, you lose.