My Experience At My First Ticketed Styled Shoot

This month I attended my first ever styled shoot, this was set up with the intention of getting images for your portfolio and honestly I was petrified that I would hate it, not get any usable images, be socially awkward or just straight up waste my money. There are a few photographers now offering tickets to this sort of event now, some of the ticket prices range from £300- £3000 depending on who you look at.

What is a styled shoot?

I'm not going to claim to be an expert here, I'd only heard of a styled shoot 12 moths ago (and I've been a full time photographer for 2.5 years!) It's a photography session that is set up for the sole purpose of taking photos so think 'a mock wedding' or a historical reenactment. It's not real, the models are often professionals and often suppliers will work TFP- this means Trade For Print (they get the photos in return for supply of products/services)

These days you can buy tickets to attend these shoots that are essentially events organised, mostly by photographers but companies are popping up that do this.

How much do tickets to styled shoots cost?

I'm coming to this from the point of view of planning my own styled shoots vs attending someone else's and there's plus and minus points to both. I think the amount of work and collaboration that goes into this kind of even makes a £300-£500 ticket price worthwhile but hobby photographers need to bare in mind that you are essentially paying for practice and portfolio. That means- you can't try to claim this was a wedding you shoot and it is in no way like shooting a real wedding so you don't get any real world experience.

It's not something that's going to be in the price range of most amateurs but if like me this is your full time job then actually it was worth it to have a day of pressure free experimentation.

The shoot I attended was set up by Photography Farm and I paid £349

Should I plan my own styled shoot or attend someone else's?

Cost

To give you an idea it actually cost me more to put on a styled shoot of my own than attend someone else's and do bare in mind that I didn't pay for anything expect the models and travel for that event so if the factor is cost then tickets to someone else's wins hands down.

Creative freedom

It should not be taken lightly and the number of suppliers that are on board will determine how thinly you are spread in terms of making images for yourself and for others- there's a lot of people to please when you are asking people to work for images. At a ticketed styled shoot there is no one to please except yourself.

Vision

If you have a specific idea for an unconventional wedding shoot then planning your own allows you to take the creative reins. For example I like working outdoors and styled shoots tend to be indoors but you might love bright explosions of colour and styled shoots tend to cater to a wide 'Greyige' market.

Exclusivity

Ticketed styled shoots could include 30 photographers, that's 30 photographers with the same (or nearly the same at least) images in their portfolio and in a market where we are constantly told it's saturated and we need to stand out, attending a ticketed shoot could land you with some very same-same portfolios to others.

Is everyone going to watch me work?

I was a bit worried about this, (imposter syndrome -hello!) the workshop I attended had us working in groups of 5, we each had 10 minutes to pose the models how we wanted and because we were all doing it - it was less daunting! But there's no denying it- you're going to have to get your big girl or boy pants on here.

There was a couple of beginners and amateurs in my group, and some who were shooting weddings already too so I think there's probably going to be a mixture of different experience levels at these shoots but everyone was very supportive and friendly.

What will I get out of it?

The portfolio day I attended didn't come with any sort of formal training so exposure and experience was my main goal with the added bonus of working with other photographers and networking (photography can be quite lonely right!?)

You can expect to be able to use your images in your portfolio and your website but organisers tend to want to be tagged in your social posts.

My favourite images from the day!

Got more questions? I'd love to help and add to this blog post- let me know below!