Market research: Would you buy a book on local wedding photography?

[igpenguin]

Researching the market possibilities of such a book.

Would you buy a local wedding photography book containing
- Gallery of pictures from established pros
- Interviews about their techniques, business tips and philosophy
- General tips section regarding equipment, business practices and the like
- (more brainstorming)

The book would be thus a showcase of local wedding photography, with an educative element. The focus on actual day wedding photography, the area a fresh freelance wedding photog is most likely to enter first.

I have bought and borrowed books about wedding photography and wedding photography business, though have not come across one that has a local Singapore context.

Seeing that questions about wedding photography is always perennial on Clubsnap, I think there could be a demand. But I haven't asked other photographers!

So..



Would you buy such a book?
What (else) would you like to see in a such a book?



This is posted in Kopitiam, so just say whatever you think of such a project.

Thanks,
Mike

 

[Bernard Ong]

Yes, i would definately buy.

I would like to know the settings the photographers use in situations like tea ceremony, church ceremony, dinner feast, outdoor etc.

It would be good to show picture tutorials showing the position to stand in order to capture tea ceremonies and so on.

 

[Harry Potter]

It depends who is the author

 

[soma]

I think the price also play a part.

 

[igpenguin]

hi... happy to hear some responses. feel free to shoot your comments!

the value of the book is that there's no singular voice as in a single author who says "my way is the right one", since there are many ways to approach wedding photography in practice and in business.

with the idea of interviewing working pros - say 10 to 15. the reader is getting and absorbing the real-world insights from 10 to 15 pros who have walked the path.

 

[noizgod]

good idea :thumbsup: hope a pro wedding photog from clubsnap would be doing this book or e-book.

 

[kelccm]

Why not? It is good to read about some tips on wedding photography with local context and the diiferent ways of handling it. All the books available are all written for the western customs.

 

[Xing]

Yes!!! A resounding yes, as mentioned by kelccm, a local book that features the multi-ethnic wedding customs is definitely marketable, havent seen such books in the market, or something close to it.

I would think that a good publisher will support such a move and it probably has international marketability ;p

 

[clicknick]

There are lots of pros in SG shooting wedding. I am interested if it feature works and tips from the more established wedding pros of SG.

 

[igpenguin]

whom would be the photogs you would like to see featured?

i can already think of iamasaint, joho for instance - guys whose works are followed and appreciated in clubsnap should help make some book sales

 

[igpenguin]

more random thoughts...

tips for pricing your packages?
defining your style and successfully marketing it?
portfolio - actual and online - what to look out for?
financial issues - collections, cashflow, accounting

etc etc.

 

[Winsonapm]

Interesting idea.
What's the format? size, no of pages and quality?
When can I get to buy one? How much a book?
Rgds

 

[wainism]

couple of questions that popped into my mind

1. what if there are some very good pros who are not popular in CS or are not familiar with CSers or their styles are very different from that of kelvin or joho? will they be featured?

2. what if there are "freelancers" who are also good? will they be featured?

3. author himself must know quite a lot about what makes a good wedding photo. only then he can choose suitable pictures

4. techniques. because in spore the rates for AD photogs are quite low, so most just go ttl all the way. but there are a few who do wireless cls of remote flashing, will these be covered?

5. singapore being multi racial and cultured. how do we accurately document the correct traditional practises?

6. will royalties be paid to the photogs? probably should so as to get good photos, however this would push the cost of book up (easily above $50)

7. i also think that because of singapore's unique situation. loads of other things must be covered too. like rom, chinese wedding, beach, etc....

8. will pre wedding be covered?

9. post processing?

10. picture presentation

haha, ok, thats all from me now. will definitely buy a book if there is one

 

[adamadam]

Depending on price,and yes, I would buy it - even though I'm not in Singapore

 

[eikin]

i'm only interested in good pictures, other stuff such as techniques and business models are not really of my interest, the latter only make the book turn into a pseudo guidebook

 

[igpenguin]

hi wainism, good questions.


1. what if there are some very good pros who are not popular in CS or are not familiar with CSers or their styles are very different from that of kelvin or joho? will they be featured?

definitely, have in mind some pros who are not active in CS (though they could be lurking on CS, who knows).

if the book has featured 12 different photogs who all are too similar to each other, there's not much value in it i think.


2. what if there are "freelancers" who are also good? will they be featured?
why not? there could be say an engineer who's a fantastic weekend wedding photog but choose not to do it full time. is that what you mean by "freelancers"?


3. author himself must know quite a lot about what makes a good wedding photo. only then he can choose suitable pictures

the current plan is to let the featured pros to do their own selection - say 4-5 pics. i agree that the picture editor will have to know something about wedding photography.

a thought just occurred to me - i have seen the book Magnum Stories, where a photo story from each photog is featured.

so the wedding book could feature a wedding essay from each photog, along with the insights.


4. techniques. because in spore the rates for AD photogs are quite low, so most just go ttl all the way. but there are a few who do wireless cls of remote flashing, will these be covered?

could be considered in the scope.




5. singapore being multi racial and cultured. how do we accurately document the correct traditional practises?

sorry, i don't really understand this part in the sense that two different photogs will probably document the same practice in different ways! for example the "typical" TTL photog will set up a tea-ceremony shot nicely, staggering the chairs and what not, while a pure photoj wanders around catching something totally different.



6. will royalties be paid to the photogs? probably should so as to get good photos, however this would push the cost of book up (easily above $50)

yes, this is planned, though haven't worked out the details.



7. i also think that because of singapore's unique situation. loads of other things must be covered too. like rom, chinese wedding, beach, etc....

yeah... interesting thought. ultimately i think we can't put everything in the book.


8. will pre wedding be covered?
probably no; if included AD wedding will still take precedence. some AD photogs also do prewedding; some prewedding photogs don't do AD (or charge a really high price to do it)


9. post processing?
10. picture presentation

probably not sections in itself, but part of the conversation with the featured pros.

gotta give more thought to conceptualising the book.



haha, ok, thats all from me now. will definitely buy a book if there is one

thanks for the questions. it's very helpful.

 

[cosycatus]

First, the economics.
Market is small la.
Printing books on a small scale with lots of photos is not cheap. And if price is high, there is no point as no one will buy. Your market is basically singapore and perhaps malaysia with a market of perhaps 500 will be freelancer wedding photographers.
Say u can sell at $50 per book. That is $25000 IF everyone buy. For $25000, u have to

1) pay pple for their photos
2) pay pple for their tips and contribution
3) pay pple to design and arrange the book content
4) print the book( most exp part..trust me)
5) distribute the book

6) and make a profit. ( will a profit of $5K even be worth the effort and time? It's not easy to produce good material)

Kinda hard outright isn't it?
( think how u can actually teach pple photography NOT from a book instead....catch me?)


Besides that, i really dun see how u can really teach wedding photography from a book. I've read my fair share of overseas wedding books, and after the first few, i only end up lookin at the pictures for the rest. And somehow all the pics look the same after that.

The second best way to learn is thru looking at other pictures and learning how they take.The best way is to actually take the photo after remembering how other take.
For photos, we have a lot in clubsnap.

Pricing and business strategy? If you are good and value for the $ you charge, pple will come to you naturally. That's the law of business, ANYWHERE, anytime. IF you are no good, u can advertise in tens of magazine and no one will come once word of your lousy skills get around.

Photoshop? Aiyoh, u can pick up many of the photohops book around from our national lib. There are also good resources from the internet.

There are many way to make $$. Publishing a book on wedding photography in SINGAPORE is not the way

I'm blunt here. But i'm also considering the harsh fact.

 

[igpenguin]

i'm only interested in good pictures, other stuff such as techniques and business models are not really of my interest, the latter only make the book turn into a pseudo guidebook

thanks for the comment.

the possibility about diluting the book through too many focus is sobering.

 

[igpenguin]

Interesting idea.
What's the format? size, no of pages and quality?
When can I get to buy one? How much a book?
Rgds

hey, no content yet!! again too many questions to consider

 

[igpenguin]

There are many way to make $$. Publishing a book on wedding photography in SINGAPORE is not the way

I'm blunt here. But i'm also considering the harsh fact.

i think you are right here. when i explored the idea i was thinking too there might not be a market at all.

most recently i saw a book of wedding photos published by the National Geographic. that was interesting.

i'm just randomly thinking, would a book of great wedding photographs be of say historical, sociological, archival, heritage value etc?

i know that the history museum has collected some wedding works in recent years from today's Singapore wedding photogs - Ming, Rueyloon and Darren Soh IIRC.