Qualifications Explained

On your search for someone to photograph your wedding you no doubt have seen photographers advertising there membership of photographic organisations; some may also be sporting letters after their name like LRPS, ASWPP LMPA and FBIPP. So what do they all mean.

Well it important to differentiate between membership of an organisation and qualifications from an organisation. Some photography organisations will allow anyone to be a member upon paying a subscription, some even allow the use of their logo on a photographers site simply for being a paid member. So be careful of photographers claiming to be “members” of an organisation. Look for a wedding photographer with the qualifications.

Back to the letters after name; basically the first letter is the important one, this is the letter that denotes the qualification, (L ,A or F). The rest are just to denote the society’s name. The criteria for achieving these qualifications varies for organisation to organisation but they will be generally similar. The descriptions below are taken from the Society of Wedding and Portrait photographers (SWPP) website.

L = Licentiate. “”We are looking for images that show the applicant is in full control of the medium. The images should show correct camera technique, full control of the lighting and the final production of the finished image. Many images fail at the last hurdle because the final digital file or print quality is poor, showing banding from ink jet prints, blemishes that should have been retouched or poor presentation. Very often colour balance is wrong. We expect to see that the photographer is in control of the subjects portrayed and in the case of people, that they are posed in an attractive manner and good expressions obtained.

The images should be presented in such a way that if the judges were members of the public they could not reasonably be rejected. In other words they are “of marketable quality”.”"
A = Associate “”The notes for Licentiate submissions also apply to Associate images, but with the added requirement that we wish to see far more creative interpretation, better choice of location, more thought and faultless technique”"

F = Fellow “”Fellowship of the Society is the highest distinction and recognizes you as a master of your craft, able to create work of the highest standard both technically and artistically. It is essential that applicants take serious advice from a recognised Mentor at the level of Fellow to ensure that the application is at the highest level of content and presentation.