Photography needs vision
Skill for any art must be intuitive. But intuition is not instinct. An instinct is something we are born with; intuition is the result of accumulates knowledge with some sort of order. We have learnt from experience, we tend to know what works without having to think about it. Amateur photographers learn that you can’t just point and shoot to get good results; the object gets in the image but not in the right way. Strangely, professional claim they just point and capture the image; they don’t realize how much processing goes on unconsciously. Once something is grasped intuitively it is like speaking; we don’t usually consult the rules of grammar when we speak, we have learnt to simply say what we mean. Good photography is like this.
PRE-VISIT VENUES
If you want those Blue Mountains wedding Photography you will need to be well versed in these kinds of images; you need to know what works and you will need to know the location(s). Knowing what is at the locations will help on the day when you need to grasp images in a hurry. It will also help if you know some good backgrounds for the staged shots. After a while this will become second nature.
ADAPTABILITY
This applies more and more to every job today. The specific couple will have some specific ideas in mind. At least a few ideas will be poor ones. It is an art to be able to accommodate all these different styles, requests and individuals couples. It is an art to be able to turn down an idea when you know it is a poor choice.
Get a list of images the bride and groom want. They will be impressed if you manages to get images that outdo their requests.
THE BACKGROUND FORMULA
Do any research into classic paintings and you will see rough drafts and diagrams that divide the images up into boxes. Our brains see certain proportions as appealing, and value things like symmertry. If we see these proportions in images we tend to like what we see (though factors like lighting and colour are also important here); we are not consciously looking for it, we simply like the result. On the other hand this might be consciously put there by the photographer. Some modern cameras can overlay nine equally spaced boxes on the camera screen; they divide the screen into thirds both horizontally and vertically. Images that fit in with these boxes are off to a good start. Practice putting the desired image into this type of grid; you can use any part of the main subject, foreground or background to achieve this patterns. Then again, if an image looks great for no discernable reason, keep it anyway; it probably obeys some rule even if you haven’t figured it out yet.