My name is Lukas Piatek and I am a wedding photographer from Germany. I am 34 years old and live in a small town with my wife and our lovely animals (2 dogs, 3 bunnies & 1 duck)
I am also the founder of the LOOKSLIKEFILM community and some of you might met me already at workshops or meet ups in other places.
I was a graphic designer when I was younger and also started an engineering study before I head into the world of photography. It was always my dream to become a photographer and some years ago a friend asked me to shoot her wedding and that is how it started.
I think my first destination wedding in Iceland shifted my business into a new gear and put a spotlight on my name for other couples and their destination weddings.
My days back home are usually similar most of the time. I wake up, have breakfast with my wife before she goes to work. Then I walk the dogs and right after that I sit down and start to work. Nowadays it is more LOOKSLIKEFILM stuff that I do as weddings are all postponed for now. Once my wife gets home, I stop working to enjoy time together.
I would just give me all the knowledge that I have right now about SEO that I did not had before. Other than that I would do everything the same. Starting out to learn the craft here in Germany and then start with destination weddings and more special events.
I think my first destination wedding in Iceland shifted my business into a new gear and put a spotlight on my name for other couples and their destination weddings.
I think I will transition into being more of an educator and give my knowledge to other people. There will always be a point in time for anyone of us where we have to step down a bit as the age might take its toll on us. I might even open a small cafe with my wife. That is a plan for sure.
Never ask your friends for group photos I guess ;)
Yeah I do LOOKSLIKEFILM a photography community and Meridian Presets. Both have been running together with my photography for the past years and I enjoy the different approach to workdays for all the different projects.
My only dream left is to shoot a wedding somewhere in the middle of Africa in traditional tribes. That is surely a dream and I would love to make it happen so I can finish my bucket list.
"I really show the weddings and couples that I want to book and work with. In the end everyone has to know their own business and what to do in order to make it sustainable."
I discovered that over time and I think it's a natural process for many of us. Back then I didn't even think about my audience, whereas now I know exactly whom I want to reach.
I am not the biggest fan of always uploading content even though I should and I make it all on the fly whenever I feel like I wan to upload something.
I guess that might be the case for some people. Where I am right now, I really show the weddings and couples that I want to book and work with. In the end everyone has to know their own business and what to do in order to make it sustainable.
I come home and back the images up on 3 devices, 2 hard drives and 1 cloud storage. After that I pre select them in Photo Mechanic and edit them in LR & Capture 1. After I am done exporting I use JPG Mini and Pic-Time for my galleries.
It's been certainly a hard one as I shoot all over the world with many different lighting settings so I needed to adjust a lot. What I have right now works in all light settings for the way I shoot so I can keep a consistent editing workflow.
I really love music and cinema for my inspiration and a lot of movies and their style can be seen in my work.
There are so many amazing people out there that it would be unfair to only name a few. The entire industry became so good and I enjoy viewing many many people on my Insta daily.
Peter Lindbergh was an amazing photographer and I learned a lot from the way he worked with his models that I use in my photography today.
"A perfect wedding would most likely be a non religious outdoor wedding with 0 guests in an epic location on a cloudy day."
I usually plan everything with the couple from the timeline to the locations and once I am there I check everything the day before the wedding but there is also a small percentage that I do on the fly. Whenever I see something awesome during the wedding day, I use the time to take some shots with the couple. That can be anything from architecture, lines, or lights & shadows.
Everything happens naturally and there are some techniques that I do to make them feel comfortable. In the end, it is always them who do the work and I just softly guide them around the shoot.
A perfect wedding would most likely be a non religious outdoor wedding with 0 guests in an epic location on a cloudy day.
I think Iceland and New Zealand are probably the most amazing countries that I have shot in yet.
I keep it simple and light. 2 Mark 4 and the 35 and 85 mm lenses and that is all I use
In the end, it is always the couple who do the work and I just softly guide them around the shoot.
LOST
Blade Runner 2049
Metalcore
My grandpa always said: "Stay organized as that is half the work of everything"
The diary of a young girl (Anne Frank)
