THE WPJA STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES FOR MEMBERSHIP
The standards photographers have to meet for membership inclusion in the WPJA are the same standards all members must uphold throughout their membership term. WPJA members
are expected to reflect exceptional skill, originality and creativity, by which they will perpetually maintain the integrity and strong reputation of the WPJA. Membership inclusion is
based on adherance to the following:
1. Web Site:
Members must maintain an up-to-date and professional web site that continually meets WPJA standards. The domain must be owned by the photographer (i.e. photographername.com),
not a subdomain owned by another company (i.e. photographername.theirname.com). In addition, the site needs to have a clean design with easy navigation. Member web sites must load with
all images and links functioning. They must also be compatible with most browsers. A member’s web site is an extension of his/her creativity and reflects on the WPJA as a whole.
The WPJA does not favor HTML over Flash-design sites (or vice versa).
2. Image Content:
Photographers are granted membership into the WPJA when their web-image content and picture editing meet WPJA standards. Members must have more than 25 sample wedding images on
their web site (25 images, not 25 weddings).
Photographers oftentimes display their wedding images within separate galleries on their site. This practice is encouraged as long as the images are contained within their appropriately
labeled galleries. For example, we feel that a gallery labeled ‘Getting Ready’ should contain images of people preparing for the wedding day, and not be full of portraits and details.
We recommend that applicants/members consider creating separate galleries labeled ‘Portraits’ and ‘Details’ if there is an excessive amount (according to WPJA membership guidelines) of
these types of images on their site. However, a ‘Featured Wedding’ gallery should have a variety of different types of images from the same wedding, most of them being moments.
WPJA members should not have more than 20-30% of the wedding images on their web sites from the following combined categories*:
• Portrait (photographer has control of the posed situation)
• Set-Up (subjects faking a moment or actions prompted by the photographer)
• Camera Aware (subjects staring into the camera)
• Details (flowers, cakes, rings, tables, gowns, shoes)
• Manipulated Images (pictures heavily altered with software: sepia or other toning, selective tinting, soft-focus effects, vignetted edges, desaturation, texture overlays)
NOTE: Our WedPix article on Using Warm Tones (Sepia) Sparingly adds clarity and
insight to the excessive use of toned images.
*The above-mentioned percentage serves as a general guideline.
3. Image Quality:
Members must strive for good image quality on their web site. Image files should be properly saved for the Web and sized large enough for easy viewing. Membership will not be granted
when portfolios are replete with flat images (devoid of black), pixelated images, and other creative and technical post-production issues.
4. Technical/Creative Qualities:
Membership denial is often the result of one or more of the following:
• Indoor images with poor on-camera lighting and direct flash shadows.
• A majority of portfolio images that appear to be shot at F8 with a 50mm lens.
TIP: A good use of a variety of lenses will score higher during the review process.
• Many hand-tinted and/or digitally-manipulated/vignetted images.
• Redundant images or sequence shots with minimal change in content.
• Images where subjects are poorly cropped.
5. Factual Information:
Members must make factual and knowledgeable statements where quoted. The following puts membership inclusion at risk:
• Bold statements on web sites, i.e, "digital is better than film".
• Misleading or confusing information on wedding photojournalism, using the word 'photojournalism' alone to describe 'wedding photography' or identification as a photojournalist,
but failing to post work history or images to prove it.
• Description of style or approach that doesn’t match the work displayed on their web site.
6. Business Ethics and Communication:
The WPJA insists upon good business ethics and integrity. Members must not:
• Fail to uphold wedding contract obligations with clients.
• Ignore communication from clients.
• Fail to respond to specific communications from WPJA personnel concerning issues important to the integrity and reputation of the organization (this excludes responses to mass
emails to all members).
• Communicate publicly through words (written or spoken) in a negative manner against other members or the organization as a whole.
• Establish a web-based wedding photography business that directly competes with the WPJA; a person or entity “directly competes” with the WPJA if they are engaged in the
promotion of wedding photographers.
The WPJA reserves the right to terminate or revoke membership at any time if it deems that a member contravened the terms set forth by the WPJA membership requirements, standards,
codes and/or guidelines.
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