Wedding photography is the dream job of many aspiring photographers. Who can resist being part of such a joyful celebration, capturing treasured memories of the bride and groom as they start their new lives together.

This article will provide you with a list of Essential Wedding Photography Classes you can take to sharpen your skills, so you’re prepared to handle every wedding flawlessly!

Create a Successful Wedding Photography Business

Before even stepping into a wedding, it’s crucial to develop a strong relationship with your clients. Learning to foster a good relationship with all of your clients is the key to a successful wedding photography business. You are capturing one of the most important days of their lives, so it goes without saying that you need to be personable, professional, and passionate as a wedding photographer.

The first course is a complete guide on how to start a wedding photography business from getting your first client, making your own wedding photography website, building a brand, choosing equipment, editing, and posing tips. This course is excellent if you’re a beginner looking to become a wedding photographer.

The second course will go into more detail about developing relationships with your clients, interacting with families and large groups, and being fully prepared from pre to post wedding. It will also provide some tips on editing and retouching techniques.

Course #1: Complete Guide to Wedding Photography

This course will give you a complete guide on how to start your own wedding photography business and is suitable for anyone who has prior knowledge of photography. You will learn about the basic equipment, create a strong brand for your business, editing, and even gain experience with a walk-through of two entire weddings.

Course #2: Creating a Successful Wedding Photography Business

This step-by-step guide will show you how to start a successful wedding photography business from capture to print. From building client relationships to post-production, you will receive a comprehensive understanding in this course with an international award-winning photographer.

Sharpen Your Technical Skills

Wedding photographers often face several technical challenges and must be prepared to handle them efficiently. Weddings can be held day or night, indoors or outdoors, at many varying locations. In each and every wedding, you will have to contend with various types of lighting (or the lack thereof), space limitations, and special requests from the bride and groom.

You can learn how to find smart solutions for common wedding problems by taking the following course. It will not only teach you tons of different wedding posing techniques but also provides you with very useful advice on how to find the best light and read a room correctly.

Course #3: Wedding Photography Problems and Solutions

In this course, you will learn how to problem solve and find creative solutions when photographing weddings. This course will teach you the different posing points, finding the best light, and helpful tips on how to read the room before taking any photos.

Course #4: Unique Posing for Weddings

Professional photographer Doug Gordon will guide you through a unique flow posing system which will help you to create a string of 30-50 different poses during a shoot. You will gain greater insight into the art of posing, lighting, and understanding your clients’ needs and wants.

Despite all the joy and happiness of a wedding, you might be surprised to hear wedding photography can be quite challenging and exhausting work. Emotions can run high depending on the age of the bride and groom, plus the size of the families. It’s not uncommon to find yourself in the middle of riffs between divorced parents, estranged relatives, and drunk guests.

As a professional wedding photographer, you must always remain calm under pressure. If you’d like a hands-on introduction on how to effectively capture big groups, we recommend checking out the following course.

Course #5: Posing 101: Couples, Weddings and Families

Join fashion photographer and instructor Lindsay Adler for a unique hands-on introduction to posing. You will learn how to quickly pose for large groups as this can be a challenge due to uneven height, maternity, etc.

Learn to Capture a Powerful Story

In addition to the technical skills required to shoot a wedding, perhaps it’s even more important to tell a meaningful story. Weddings are innately celebratory and filled with emotions, making it the perfect opportunity to capture a powerful story. You and your camera must be ready at all times to shoot the candid and raw moments throughout the celebration.

Moments like the first kiss, first dance, cutting the cake, and the heartfelt speeches – these little moments are essential to capturing a powerful story. If you would like to hone your storytelling skills, we highly recommend checking out the following course.

Course #6: Wedding Photography: Capturing the Story

Join photographers Rocco Ancora and Ryan Schembri for a detailed class on wedding photography and powerful storytelling. You will learn the important fundamentals of shooting a wedding, maximizing natural and artificial light, and the post production process after the shoot.

Get Creative!

What makes an excellent photographer is the ability to quest for inspiration at all times. They are endlessly curious and are constantly pushing their own artistic boundaries. Creativity is an integral part of this profession, and we encourage you to get creative at weddings!

Some of the best photos are ones that are unplanned and happen organically. This requires lots of practice and experience to sharpen your artistic eye, but don’t worry! You can get a head start by joining this 3-day intensive course that will teach you everything you need to succeed at shooting weddings creatively.

These courses will guide you through lighting, posing, capturing detail, and visual techniques to help you capture the most unique and compelling wedding photos.

Course #7: Creative Wedding Photography

Award-winning wedding photographer Susan Stripling will take you on 3-day journey on how to take creative wedding photos as well as running a successful wedding photography business. You will explore lighting, posing, and on-the-fly troubleshooting strategies during unexpected moments.

Course #8: Wedding Photography: Tips, Tricks & Ideas for Amazing Photos

Learn how to capture compelling wedding photos through natural and staged poses, and gain confidence as a wedding photographer through these extremely useful tips and tricks. This course will teach you how to capture moments creatively and understand the structure of a wedding event.

Course #9: Complete Wedding Photography Training System

Pye Jirsa teaches you EVERYTHING he’s learned from his 10 years of real-world wedding photography success. In fact, this is the exact same training system for all of his associate photographers from Lin & Jirsa Photography. The system includes 8 full workshops, detailing every major part of the day, from Bride and Groom Preparation all the way to the Reception. It covers essential tips on posing, lighting, and photographing weddings with added real-world experience. 

Now that you have a few resources and guidelines, we hope these courses will help you to sharpen your wedding photography skills and grow your business. Get ready to dive right into the world of wedding photography and unleash your creativity!

Wedding Photography Gear Recommendations:

Cameras for Wedding Photography
Lenses for Wedding Photography