I’ve been running a wedding photography business for the better part of two decades, but as any good business person will tell you, there’s never a bad time to review your own business and look for ways to improve efficiency and profitability. That’s exactly what led me to the Brett Florens Wedding Masterclass. This is a course that dives back into the fundamentals we often overlook. Usually, it is the basics that we gloss over as we go looking for more exciting, complex strategies for business improvement, and yet the fundamentals are the most critical aspects of any business to get right and well worth reviewing every few years.

PhotoWhoa Review: Brett Florens Wedding Masterclass

This isn’t a technical “how to take wedding photographs” course, but rather a well structured look at how a wedding photography business can be set up and how to best allocate investment to ensure you can develop a successful, profitable and sustainable business. 

It covers initial startup considerations, such as business structure, legal issues and contracts, and business necessities including insurances. The course then moves onto where to focus your initial investment, with a real focus on how to deliver customers via brand building and marketing. 

There’s quite a lengthy section covering many aspects of the marketing mix that are important, including websites, social channels, and how to best weave consistent brand messages throughout. Then a final section on the key equipment required for the photography itself, as well as strategies on what to buy or rent, and at what stage of your business’ growth. The whole course takes roughly an hour to complete across three sections of pre-recorded video instruction.

The Instructor

The instructor, Brett Florens, is a very successful photographer with a wealth of experience in wedding photography in particular. He offers clear, concise info and articulately explains his key concepts, backed with excellent examples and pro tips along the way. The inclusion of shoot videos are useful, with a video of a vendor collab mock shoot particularly useful not only for the marketing insights, but for ideas on how to use both natural and supplied lighting to stage his shots. He delivers the course naturally in an easy to understand way, whilst still offering excellent pro insights that have helped him build out his own business.

Course Delivery & Professionalism

The masterclass is delivered across three pre-recorded video sessions. They are high quality recordings that include text inclusions on key concepts and video examples of some of the instructors’ shoots. Each section was clear and well produced and made for an easy watch.

Courses Content & Quality

The quality of the content is excellent and definitely gave me some great ideas for my own business. While most photography courses focus solely on the art itself, this one stands out for taking a completely different approach. Instead of diving into photography techniques, it provides a clear and concise checklist on how to run a business, perfect for beginner photographers.

You’ll find critical information on the pros and cons of Sole Trader vs Company structures, plus guidance on setting up the right legal protections through contracts and insurance. From there, it shifts to marketing, explaining why customer acquisition should be prioritised over fancy new gear. There’s plenty of insight into making smart marketing investments, including how to approach social media advertising.

Rather than pushing you to buy loads of gear, the course outlines the benefits of hiring equipment and explains the tax implications of both options. Finally, it wraps up with a practical guide to essential gear, including camera body types, a solid three-lens setup to cover your bases, lighting solutions, and other helpful accessories.

The Final Say

I found this course really refreshing, in so much it offered a genuinely useful roadmap for setting up a wedding photography business. Photographers spend so much time honing their craft that they often do so at the expense of general business skills, and I really liked the way this course not only detailed how to set a business up, but spoke in detail about how to structure and time investment in different areas of business operations in a way that enables first timers to minimise their initial cost to setup. 

There were some really interesting points in there even for my established business, and I will certainly  investigate some of those points further. For example the information on branding, and its criticality to how much you can charge for your services, is an area I’ll spend more focus on going further. Brett Florens clearly knows his subject and even just his section pro-tips are useful alone – his trick on copying perfume branding techniques was particularly intriguing!

Overall I think this course would be a great investment for photographers who have established skills but haven’t yet taken that giant leap into working for themselves. The key requirements needed to start a business are discussed clearly and it gives great guidance on which areas to focus on further.

Feature image by Brett Florens. If you’d like to learn more about Brett Florens and explore his work, you can visit his website at here or follow him on Instagram for more behind-the-scenes content and photography tips.

For more details on Brett’s Wedding Masterclass course, visit Photowhoa right here. 

And if you’re after a Brisbane wedding photographer with a relaxed and candid style (that’s me!), feel free to browse my portfolio here or connect with me on Instagram.