High-end wedding planners are pushing film, even though I am an expert.
This question is from a luxury wedding photographer:
I have been wanting to ask you a question that may be appropriate for many:
There is a push right now by some high-end wedding planners and other photographers to use film.
I understand why some may like this. I started with film and used 35 mm and medium format for over 20 years – I learned on film. But now, I choose to stick with digital – I am a better photographer with this medium and have much more control over what I can do with it.
My question is should we allow others (planners, clients) to request or require that film be used?
My feeling has always been it should be the artist's choice, but I would love to hear what you think.
Answer from Liene:
The Short Answer
Nope.
You Are Not For Everyone
You are correct that choosing the medium of photography should be the artist’s choice. This also means that not everyone is going to choose you as their artist.
Not being for everyone comes with running a business – and always comes with being an artist – and you have to be okay with that. If you specialize in everything, you specialize in nothing.
If you choose to shoot digital, and someone truly loves film, you are probably not the photographer for them.
If it’s a dealbreaker for them that you won’t change your process, then it’s a dealbreaker. You have the right to outline how you will and won’t work.
Never Allow Anyone To Tell You How To Do Your Job
One cardinal rule I have for running a business is that you should never allow anyone to demand you run your business a certain way. The client does not get to dictate your process nor tell you how to do your job.
You need to do what you need to do in order to deliver the product you're known for.
For example, if you need two extra photographers and an assistant based on the scope of the wedding (including guest count, venue specifics, publishing requirements, etc), you need them. Additional staff should never be presented as an “optional” add on. A client doesn't get to save money in that area because they think you can handle it all yourself or be in three places at once. You know what type of help you need in order to perform and deliver images that are consistent with the quality of your brand.
In that same vein, if you know you have more control over the final product with digital than film, and that it allows you to be more creative, you have every right to let the potential client know that requiring film is a dealbreaker for you. You can adjust your sales pitch to explain why you work the way you do and if they are then still firm on film, you can refer them to a film photographer you love.
It’s also important to remember that after the wedding, no one cares that at the beginning you said the end result wouldn't be as good if you shot on film. They only care about how the final product turned out. So even though you warned them and went against your gut to say yes, your reputation is still on the line and your word of mouth will not be saved by your contract’s fine print.
This isn’t to say you never compromise, but you need to decide where and what you are going to be comfortable compromising on.
There are times it is reasonable to negotiate the terms of an NDA to be favorable to both you and the client.
There are times it is reasonable for a planner to request that you and your team wear more formal attire for a black-tie wedding and have your hair done rather than your standard all-black outfit with the cute-but-too-casual apron and messy topknot. (At the luxury level, a refusal to compromise on dress code/meet the style context of each event is a common reason otherwise talented photographers don’t get referred — your brand is every touchpoint, not just the product.)
If you don’t want to dress in a certain way, then it’s your right to refer the client to someone else. Turning down a wedding because you don't want to wear a suit seems like a weird hill to die on in my opinion since it doesn’t really impact your process, but to each their own.
The only people who get to tell you how to do your job or run your business is a government regulatory body like the Department of Justice, the FDA, the IRS, a state's cosmetology board, etc.
When the Planner Is (Essentially) Your Client
Some photographers primarily get their referrals from wedding planners, and while this can make for an easier marketing process in some respects, it is not without its own stressors.
A couple hiring you directly is thinking about their own needs and desires for photography and maybe those of their parents or other family members.
A wedding planner hiring you on behalf of the couple is thinking of the client’s needs, their own marketing needs as a business owner, the needs of the other wedding pros who will be working the wedding, and sometimes the needs of publicists and editors. (Publicity for most celebrity and high-profile weddings is negotiated and decided at the beginning of the planning and hiring process, NOT at the end after the photos have been taken.)
There are two main camps of thought among wedding planners when it comes to what’s most important with photography:
that the photo style be exactly what the clients want and thus will change client to client
that the photography aesthetic match the planner’s signature aesthetic since the assumption is that their aesthetic is why they were hired by the client
(There is also a third camp that prioritizes the client’s taste and hires a photographer for them, while hiring their own photographer for detail and other key shots. This is another conversation altogether and typically includes work for hire contracts where you sign over copyright to the planner.)
None of these views are right or wrong, but knowing an individual planner’s approach to this issue is key to identifying where you want to focus your marketing and networking energy.
If a planner truly loves film and operates on an ethos that it best illustrates their aesthetic, it is going to be difficult to get them to change their mind. They, and subsequently their clients, may not be the best match for you.
On the other hand, some planners only think they prefer film because there has been a movement over the past 15 years by film photographers to convince them that film is somehow morally superior to digital photography.
This, of course, is ridiculous. Film and digital are both amoral tools – each with their own respective limitations – used to accomplish an artistic outcome. These tools do not have a conscience, they do not have a soul.
While there are technical differences between each that result in different aesthetic outcomes, I will say that If someone can’t tell by looking at your work whether it was shot on film or digital, they are likely not as educated on the topic as they may believe themselves to be. I don’t suggest you tell them this as, “You don’t know what you’re talking about,” is not exactly the way to win over a potential client.
Also, and this is a bit controversial: if a planner is so easily swayed by marketing and can't tell what photography work is actually good and isn't or what it was or wasn’t shot with, but insists on one thing anyway, then maybe that's not a planner who has the same creative values you do. Maybe it's not someone you want to work with, even if they are popular.
You don’t have to sacrifice being creatively satisfied in order to make money in the wedding industry – even in a recession economy. It’s not necessarily easy, but it is doable.
Marketing Your Wedding Photography
If you are being asked to shoot with film often, it may be an indicator that your work isn’t resonating or being marketed in the way you think it is or that you aren’t reaching the types of clients who share your artistic point of view.
Most people want art that moves them and couldn’t care less about the tools used to create the final product.
If your photographs aren’t moving people emotionally and your inquiries are focusing on tools over outcomes, it may be a sign that you need to:
Improve the quality of your photography itself.
Sometimes when people tell me they want to charge what they’re worth, I look at their work and think, “Time to lower your rates.”
While we all know of subpar photographers who are (confoundingly!) booked all the time with luxury weddings, if you’re consistently not getting booked, it may be time for some honest self-reflection on your skills and capabilities as well as the true quality of your work.
Get Splendid:Go through your past 15 events, get brutally honest with yourself and level up where you need to.
Consider asking (or hiring) someone you trust to give you honest feedback and not tell you only what you want to hear.
Change the photos you’re showing in your marketing.
As a rule of thumb: detail shots get you published, people shots get you hired.
Both types of photos matter in marketing your wedding business because they work in tandem.
Details matter when a couple is planning their wedding: they’re looking for reception decor or stationery design ideas – so a tablescape or invitation flat lay is going to answer the questions they’re asking at the time of that particular search, especially if you’ve named the photos in an SEO-friendly way.
For example, a couple finds you through Over the Moon while searching for tented wedding ideas and your photos of an outdoor reception come up. They click on your photography credit link and see the photos on your site that show a tearful father-daughter dance or bridesmaids having the time of their lives on the dance floor.
These photos show them that you know how to capture emotion. That you don’t miss the moments that matter. The candids of guests having a great time get them excited to see all of their family and friends in the same place and remind them of what the day is really about.
If you are mainly showing invitation suite flat lays, you are only showcasing one small part of the event, and aren’t showing that you can (and do) also capture how the day feels.
You want people to FEEL something when they look at your photos. The detail shots matter, but knowing where and when to showcase them is a key part of an effective wedding marketing strategy.
Get Splendid:
Go through your marketing for the past three years and look at the types of photos you’ve posted to your website, Instagram, and submitted for publication:
Do you have a good mix of details and people?
Are they each posted on the appropriate platforms? (Pinterest should be mainly detail shots, your homepage should be emotion.)
Do they communicate your point of view as an artist or are you only showing images that look the same as everyone else’s because you think those are the secret to why they’re booking and you’re not?
Do the photos clearly evoke the feelings captured or did you choose them because the vibe behind the scenes in that moment was memorable? Those particular photos will matter to your clients and should be in their albums, but if someone “had to be there” to know the feeling in the room, then that “people” photo does not work well for marketing purposes. Just because a photo is good does not mean it will convert couples to inquiries or clients.
Evaluate how and where you’re marketing.
In 2021, about 75,000 of the 2.5 million weddings in the United States had Luxury wedding budgets of $96k-$500k or Ultra Luxury wedding budgets of $500,000+. That’s about 1,442 weddings per Saturday spending six-figures. In 2022, those numbers were even higher.
And that’s just in the United States alone. In China, the total wedding market is worth $400 billion (not a typo) annually and 60% of couples there have destination weddings outside the country – with the top three places being Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Pacific Northwest.
In other words, when it comes to the luxury wedding market, there are plenty of client fish in the sea.
If your priority is marketing yourself as an artist moreso than just as a great wedding photographer, you may want to consider whether you are hanging out in the same sea as your ideal clients or the planners who serve those ideal clients.
If a wedding conference tends to attract luxury planners who can’t tell the difference between film or digital photography but place a higher value on film, you may want to focus on attending things like Art Basel, auctions, gallery shows, or other events where affluent people who appreciate art gather.
If you’re going to spend money and time networking, choose things that tend to attract people who are more likely to “get” your point of view beyond your methods.
One-third of luxury wedding pros aren’t on Instagram or the conference circuit anyway, so while those things can definitely be valuable, they are not the magic wand to success in the luxury wedding market.
Fish where your ideal fish are.
I will also say that marketing solely on medium is often a race to the bottom because it commoditizes your business by focusing on the tools rather than focusing on the art. It’s a short-term solution that depends on technical ignorance on the part of the client or planner and it damages your brand in the long-run.
The more you market your art rather than your tools, the more you will attract people who appreciate your art and who aren’t interested in micromanaging your process.
Pricing Film vs Digital
You didn't ask this, but I will say it anyway since it is a related question I get asked frequently:
Your wedding photography pricing should not cost less just because you choose to shoot digital over film.
It is not your problem that a film photographer has higher overhead in that area than you do.
This line of thinking is similar to the early 2000's when brick and mortar stationery shops complained that it wasn't fair that the new online-only invitation designers who didn’t have the overhead of a commercial space were charging the same prices they were.
Too bad, so sad. Welcome to competing in a free market.
Do not discount the value of your art because of someone else's lack of profit margin. Their business is literally not your business.
The Bottom Line
The wedding pros’ prayer is, “May my clients with taste wake up with money and my clients with money wake up with taste.”
Your ultimate goal is to get your work in front of people who can both afford you and who love your art.
If a wedding planner or engaged couple truly loves film photography and/or refuses to value your perspective as an artist, it’s best to wish them well with a referral to someone else you admire.
If it’s a matter of not understanding the difference but loving you and your work, they may be open to a conversation about your process and why you approach things the way you do.
Pick your battles. You may find it more fruitful (and a lot less frustrating) to adjust areas of your business so that you run into these types of inquiries less and less.
Questions from Wedding Pros
Have a question on a sticky client issue, running a wedding company, or an aspect of business you feel you should know by now yet don’t?
Liene is happy to weigh in with her trademark compassionate yet no-nonsense advice.
To submit a question to our Wedding Pro Q+A column, send us an email. We’ll keep you anonymous.
Written by
LIENE STEVENS
Liene Stevens, the founder and CEO of Think Splendid, is an author, speaker, award-winning luxury business strategist and behavioral psychologist.
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Founded in 2005 and trusted by clients in 97 countries, Think Splendid is the global leader in wedding business consulting.
We provide strategic guidance to industry leaders, luxury brands, hotels, and tourism destinations that serve high net worth and ultra-high net worth brides, grooms, and wedding guests.
