Top 11 Associate Wedding Photographer Tips

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It’s an honor to be hired as an associate photographer. You’re representing someone else’s brand and business when they aren’t around. That’s huge! The lead wedding photographer trusts you to capture a wedding day just like they would. The lead photographer’s clients trust them to choose a rockstar associate to fill their large shoes and they picked you, you should be super proud of yourself!

These are the top tips for how to do a stellar job when you’ve been hired as an associate photographer. Keep in mind, these are what make me want to give out 100 gold stars and continue working with the same associate photographers over and over again. Other photographers may have different expectations, which is what brings us to the first tip.

 
 

How to nail it every time as an Associate Shooter

  1. Communicate expectations. Ask them what they are looking for, what they are expecting of you, what would it look like to do an excellent job in this role? Who is handling the couple’s timeline? How much are you expected to communicate with the couple? How are you guys handling file delivery? If file delivery requires you to pay for a Dropbox account, is that paid for by the associate or the lead photographer/business owner?

  2. Have a contract in place. This protects both of you.

  3. Ask to see a final wedding gallery the lead photographer has recently delivered. That will give you a great idea of their expectation. I would even screenshot some images that stand out to you and reference them throughout the day to stay on track with the lead photographer’s vision.

  4. Keep in touch with the lead photographer throughout the process. Send an email when you’ve created a wedding timeline if that’s in your scope of work, text them the day before the wedding letting them know you’re prepped and ready to go, and reach out again the day of the wedding. Even just shooting a quick text to the lead photographer saying you arrived at the wedding venue will be received well. The last thing you want is the lead photographer worrying you didn’t show up! After you’ve left the venue, send another text stating how well the day went. I’ve even had associate photographers text me some special or sentimental highlights/moments from the day that I then used in the caption when posting sneak peeks on IG.

  5. Communicate with the couple. We want the couple to feel comfortable around you, so this may mean setting up a zoom call to introduce yourself and get to know each other.

  6. Use a 50mm for portraits. Refrain from using a wide angle lens like a 24mm or 35mm. A 50mm will give high-quality portraits and look cohesive with the other portraits the lead shooter typically delivers. Make sure to get full body portraits. Back up enough so you aren’t cutting off any feet and are centering the subjects.

  7. Take BTS video and post to IG stories tagging the lead photographer you’re hired to associate shoot for.

  8. Keep your backup files. Even once files have been delivered to lead shooter, don’t delete them off your memory card. You’re the keeper of someone’s wedding day photos. If something happens while files are transferring/downloading, it’s your responsibility. Keep files safe until final gallery has been delivered, or around 8 weeks post wedding date to be on the safe side. For reference, I always deliver final galleries within 4 weeks.

  9. If your services include culling, try as hard as possible to stick to the range. So if your lead photographer asks for 800-900, don’t cull to 1200 and call it good. You’re then creating more work for them, and they paid you to do a certain job, so get it done!

  10. In addition to the above, if you’re culling for them, cull the entire gallery the day after the wedding in order to get everything all at once. If for some reason you can’t do it the next day, communicate that well ahead of time and aim for 30-50 sneak peeks sent within 24 hours of the wedding. Then the final files within 3 days after the wedding.

  11. If you have permission to use/share photos from the wedding day on your IG or website, wait until the final gallery has been delivered from the lead photographer.