Weekly Q&A’s — March 2016 Members

This page is for members of The Wedding School who enrolled during March 2016. You have questions, Susan has answers. Each week Susan will be recording a special Q&A sessions to answer questions from the Facebook group or posted as comments in the individual course segments. This is where those Q&A videos live for this group.

To kick off with an example of a typical Q&A session, we’ve included a collection of answers from questions in the private Facebook group that came in last week during WPPI.

Week 1 — March 14

• Q: What if my getting ready room has light coming in from many different directions and no curtains that can be drawn to control that light?
• Q: How do you handle an outdoor ceremony where the bridal party is in severe dappled light and the weather is at extremes?
• Q: How do you handle the album design process?
• Q: What is involved with getting that perfect print to submit to competition?
• Q: When discussing timeline with clients. How do you determine how much coverage they might need?

Week 2 — March 21

• Q: A venue contacted me about using my pictures for marketing and advertising purposes on their website and other marketing materials. Should I let them use them for free?
• Q: I started creating specific vendor galleries on my Smugmug site, I’m just curious what you think of this idea?
• Q: In the bridal portraits deep dive, what you were doing with the reflector with the square cut out of the middle?
• Q: Where I live, it’s not uncommon to have 20 people in the wedding party and large families. Is it better to invest in a strobe or use multiple diffused flashes?

Week 3 — March 28

• Q: How do we get a perfectly exposed subject and then the remaining image darker?
• Q: How do you handle dappled light? Two trees cover a venue but one tree shades the boys and the other tree leaves the girls in hot light?
• Q: Honestly one thing I would love is to see an entire wedding of Susan Stripling Mautner.

Week 4 — April 4

• Q: About the Upcoming Live Summit!
• Q: Rachel Brenke’s Top Legal Traps.
• Q: Ice Light vs Video Light?
• Q: Would I be mad to consider adding a D4 to my line up?
• Q: I’d love to see Susan and Sandra all outfitted for a wedding?
• Q: What deep dives do YOU want next for the learning library?

Week 5 — April 11

• Q: How do you handle wedding guests (often Mothers) who want to give their input on photos?
• Q: Do you advise brides or bridesmaids on hairstyle based on weather, or is that overstepping?
• Q: Do you have a clause in your contract specifically allowing releasing sneak peek photos on Facebook, Instagram, or Blogs?
• Q: Should I use a giveaway during a bridal show?
• Q: Is it standard to get grip-and-grins?
• Q: Any tips on things to look for when hiring second shooters?

Week 6 — May 2

• Q: Back Button Focus?
• Q: On problem solving crappy locations: Which Rogue is that on the flash?
• Q: Instagram Ads with Animoto: Do you use hashtags?
• Q: Pricing + Profitability: When you say you’re including digital files in a package In what form you give them the file?
• Q: Post-Production Editing: Do you include the blog/vendor images in the client’s images as well?

Week 7 — May 9

• Tip: Susan’s Battery Charging Strategy
• Q: What to do when the venue does not allow photos during the ceremony?
• Q: Bride hired me for wedding day only coverage, but used another photographer for her bridal portraits?
• Q: Anyone else have a full-time job outside of their photography career?
• Comment: Love looking are all your photos!
• Q: After placing bride by window and turning off lights, makeup artists says she needs the lights on to work.
• Q: I see you have a blue wall behind your editing station, don’t you have a concern over color balance?
• Q: You had mentioned the Pixel function from Facebook for ads?