Wedding Photography: The Complete Guide

I must have five or six wedding photography books, but this is the one I always review right before a wedding. Its not necessarily designed and written to show off the author's photography, but to truly prepare the reader to shoot a wedding. Great tips and examples that pertain to each facet of the wedding with an exhaustive 'must have' list and helpful post-processing information are included. You can tell the author wants you to produce the right images of the wedding you're going to shoot. Highly recommended.

I Love this book, its great if your starting out, it describes what you have to do or need to get but also gives you images. He gives you 48 of the must have wedding images checklist which is in written but next to the checklist are pictures of every point in the checklist, which i consider is great for all of those who have a difficulty trying to image what he is talking about! The book includes a small review over lenses, cameras body types, flash, off camera flash, then its what he does before a wedding. you can find questions you should ask at the first wedding interview and questions that you may be asked, also what to do the day before the wedding. picture examples of the bride getting ready, details, bridesmaids, parents, the groom, the church, arriving to the church, guest, the ceremony, leaving, the party, and much more! i have this book for about a year now and i am constantly going back to the book and reading over a certain chapter just to refresh my memory!

This book grows on you. It's a hardback with a nice book cover. At first glance it seems out of date in it's presentation. It leans towards the Top Hat and Tails wedding scenario. It isn't glitzy with full page fairy tale example shots though. There's not a lot of technical advice on setup of individual shots. If you need that don't do weddings. But I found myself reading it 3 times from cover to cover. The book flows through the typical wedding scenario in a precise timeline approach. Much like a military mission briefing! It just makes a lot sense with practical advice for every situation in the wedding work flow. Included is Cleghorn's list of 48 must have shots. He emphasizes planning and preparations as key values to success. Since I shoot mostly less formal outdoor weddings it was a good review for me (preparations and planning) weeks before (and night before) the big day. There are no second chances at weddings! A missed shot is gone forever. He correctly points out that no matter how modern/contemporary the clients may be there are some very traditional expectations to every wedding. After all mom and dad must be happy too. He provides some helpful checklists for dealing with client interviews to determine the expectations and deliverables to fulfill the clients desires. This is a good book for the photographer who may have a few weddings under his belt and can understand from experience how fast paced a 6-8 hour wedding shoot is and how quickly it can get out of control(ie:lost shot opportunities). Preparation and planning are definitely the key to success. A large portion of the book (~30%)is dedicated to post-production workflow using photoshop and associated programs to create the albums, slide shows, dvd's in a finished product. If you are a photoshop "pro" you may think to glance over this section quickly but there is a lot of practical business info embedded here. Figuring out how to deliver the finished product and get paid for your work is not an easy step for most photographers. Many just like to take the pictures. But getting paid determines whether you will be in viable business or not. I like this book a lot. I'd definitely like to work with Mr. Cleghorn.

I will be doing wedding gig this march. This book will save me headache. More than going to seminar or school, because I can keep on re-reading it as a refresher course. Highly recommend..Thanks a lot mark cleghorn. This will be my 1st wedding gig. My gear are Nikon D200 with 17-70 kit lens, SB 800 with Diffuser, Nikon D70 as back up with 70-300mm lens. I'm confident I can do a pretty good job because of this book.