Wedding Photography, 2nd Edition: Art, Business & Style (A Lark Photography Book) [Paperback]

Steve Sint (Author)

Book Description

Series: A Lark Photography Book | Publication Date: September 1, 2005

Professional photographers trying to refine their skills, serious amateurs hoping to break into this lucrative field, and everyday shooters who just want to take better pictures will find this second edition of Steve Sint's information-packed guide invaluable. Sint, who has photographed more than 3,500 weddings, has updated his classic work to include discussions of photojournalistic and formal shooting styles, the advantages and disadvantages of digital, and shooting special family occasions. And he still includes all the basics and time-tested secrets, from a complete wedding day shooting repertoire to tips on posing the wedding party, from establishing prices and presenting proofs to creating packages for customers. Above all, there are hundreds of outstanding and imaginative wedding photos to look through, with Sint's illuminating comments on what makes them distinctive.

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Lark Books; 2 edition (September 1, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1579905463
• ISBN-13: 978-1579905460
• Product Dimensions: 10.8 x 8.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,083 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #45 in Books > Arts & Photography > Photography > Professional

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Wedding Photography, April 13, 2006

By 

Robert J. Wasiczko - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Wedding Photography, 2nd Edition: Art, Business & Style (A Lark Photography Book) (Paperback)

I picked this book up in the book store
And started to thumb through it
The more I read, the more convinced
I was, that I needed this book
Steve Sint presents a no nonsense approach to the subject
Many authors tell you what you should do
but not how to do it
An example, is the chapter on Flash photography
He explains why he uses the flash in the manual mode
and the exact settings he uses
Most authors leave out all the details
This is a great book
at a reasonable price

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Uninspiring, old-fashioned, outdated, April 11, 2009

By 

R. van Bakel (Maine, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Wedding Photography, 2nd Edition: Art, Business & Style (A Lark Photography Book) (Paperback)

Steve Sint's book is old-school, but not in a good way, and I just cannot get over his choice of images.

The 200-page tome is loaded with wedding photos, but they are mostly of the cheesy variety, right down to the double-exposure technique that lets you superimpose a close-up of a smiling bride over the interior of a chapel. To me, that photo epitomizes all that is corny and dated about wedding photography, and it drives home the reason why we desperately needed (and got!) a new school of wedding shooters -- Joe Buissink, Yervant, Bambi Cantrell, Jeff Ascough, Anna Kuperberg, Sean Watson -- to rescue the genre from death by embarrassment.

The business advice Sint offers is often pretty questionable too. Case in point: He presents another double-exposure shot where you see the exterior and the interior of a church at the same time, superimposed, and writes "If you're the only photographer in your area who shoots pictures like this, you'll get a lot of referrals because of its [sic] uniqueness." Yeah, in 1986, maybe. Most Gen X and Gen Y brides go wouldn't be caught dead with photos like that in their albums. Has Sint looked at a recent issue of, say, the Knot?

A large photo on page 17 shows a couple posing at Rockefeller Center in New York, and despite that location offering a wealth of cool angles, it's not much of a shot compositionally, with the bride and groom placed dead center, and lots of distracting elements all around them (exacerbated by an f-stop of perhaps f/8 or f/11, which doesn't appreciably blur the background). But worse is the unflattering gleam on their faces, a greasy-looking sheen probably caused by the photographer's fill flash. How you can NOT retouch an image like that, especially if you're going to include it in a book like this, is beyond me.

There are nice photos too, and a few excellent ones, but they are few and far between.

The book is almost all artifice and posing, with just a couple of throwaway lip-service sentences about photojournalism-style wedding photography.

Some of the shots that Sint reminds you to get (at Bar Mitzvahs):

"Bar Mitzvah Boy Sitting in Driver's Seat of Family Car."
"Dad Giving Boy a Cigar."

Again, it's corniness exemplified. Most modern shooters worth their salt are guided by the uniqueness of the people in front of them and so end up with something different every time; they neither need nor want a greatest-hits repertoire of synthetic poses. Cookie cutters are for baking, not for photography.

Beyond that, it doesn't help that Sint, between the lines, kinda pooh-poohs digital camera systems, and appears stuck in a peculiar time-warp (OK, it *is* a 2005 book) that has him singing the praises of *roll film* (not even 35mm film!). Well, no wonder he's not into photojournalism, then: I have to assume that at weddings he's being slightly stingy with the number of exposures on his expensive film, which in addition must be swapped out after every 20, 24, or 30 exposures (depending on the format). That hardly promotes spontaneity or spur-of-the-moment shooting. To each his own, but I'd rather be taking photos than tending to yet another cartridge/film replacement.

I'm sure Sint is a nice guy, and I mean no offense -- but the bottom line is this: If your creative sensibilities skew towards modern and light and fun and 'not stiff,' this book can't help but be be a disappointment.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For Business and Pleasure, July 17, 2006

By 

J. Giles "Photo Geek" (Canada) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Wedding Photography, 2nd Edition: Art, Business & Style (A Lark Photography Book) (Paperback)

For those of you looking to enter into the world of wedding photography, I definately recommend reading this book. Steve Sint takes a no-nonsense approach to the business of wedding photography and reveals a darker side to what many look down upon as a cushy way to make some easy money. The book is easy to read and offers some light humour in a package that provides several tips on how to overcome the many challenges faced by wedding photographers including lighting, group shots, posing, selling yourself and your work, and much more. This book assumes you already have some photography experience so if you are new to the craft it may not offer the photography basics that you should be starting with. Wedding Photography: Art, Business and Style would be a great resource for those of you with some photography experience who are considering stepping into the shoes of a wedding photographer OR photographers who have shot a few weddings and are looking for suggestions for overcoming the challenges associated with the profession.