Comments on: Wedding Photography Basics

By: biteme13

biteme13 — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 05:26:10 +0000

As a pro Wedding photographer my approach is to quote one price with an album, and another price without an album. If you didn't think to do that you do need to clarify the situation; this will also help you to remember to make it part of your standard presentation…
It needn't be too embarassing; call them and say that you forgot to ask if they required an album and don't want to cause any disappointment on such an important day. Make the point that either option is fine and neither will cause any problem, but you thought it best to make sure you covered all the options.
Even if it does prove embarassing, what's worse – two minutes with a red face on the end of a phone or months of bad tempered wrangling and a lifetime of regret that you didn't do the simple thing.
I hope it works out well for you, and good luck in what can, with the right outlook, be an immensely rewarding vocation.

By: ~10.10.2009~

~10.10.2009~ — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 03:21:00 +0000

I specifically looked for a photographer who doesn't get paid until we get services simply to cover our investment. I have seen and heard way too many horror stories to pay upfront! We paid $200 to reserve our date. Our photographer gets 1/3 of our money the day of the event, 1/3 when we get our proofs and the final 1/3 when we get our album and digitals. They told us they won't take any money until we are satisfied, which is one reason I love them! (http://www.bluemoonweddingphoto.com)

I would never pay for the entire thing beforehand, you never know what is going to happen between your wedding and when you get your pics. My SiL learned this firsthand: she paid for everything, the photographers did the wedding and she never saw a single picture and now the photographer is in jail with 32 people in a class action lawsuit against him – and he had FANTASTIC references, he actually did another family member's wedding about 5 years ago with fabulous results. His assistant, who did most of the digtal work and retouching, left him high and dry and he had a panic attack abecause he didn;t know how to do the technological stuff. Such a shame. He was a GREAT photographer and a great guy. The detectives recovered a disc of my SiLs proofs and our photographer was gracious enough to retouch them and make her an album. Just be careful. If you want more info, check it out: blogs.phillyburbs.com/news/bct/tag/michael-gould-photography

Good luck!

By: monkeymanbob

monkeymanbob — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:50:28 +0000

Nice work, you did pretty good.

By: spawn_14_1999_99

spawn_14_1999_99 — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 23:00:31 +0000

I shot my boyfriend's mom's wedding…I definitely felt the pressure and these were people I'm very close with so if I screwed up, I would have been forgiven. I definitely wouldn't call what I got excellent, but the reception was in their garage so the lighting was very poor and all I have is my camera and the 18 -55 mm lens that it came with…so I was more than a little limited. But I made it work to the best of my ability. I only have a few on here, but you can look at them if it helps. Most of them are more of the "details"..I of course took a bunch of family shots and lots of ones during the wedding and reception, but I don't have them uploaded.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/40210644@N03/page3/

By: k_hamblen

k_hamblen — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 05:14:01 +0000

Wedding photography tutorials: http://www.net-art.it/photomonitor/html/teoria_tecnica/ripresa-tecniche/matrimonio-cerimonia-e.shtml

By: imtrudil80

imtrudil80 — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:19:29 +0000

Incredible! He looks so life like. Just amazing…and what a beautiful subject

By: Awesome-sauce

Awesome-sauce — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 21:18:54 +0000

The EF 50mm f/1.8 "Nifty- Fifty" and EF 70-300mm f/4-5.6 IS USM are good lenses for those on a tight budget. The 50mm will be your best bet for low-light indoors at the reception but, you may occasionlly find it frames a little tight on your XT. That's not necessarily a problem but, if you aren't already aware of it, a 50mm lens on your camera will be the 35mm/full-frame equivalent of an 80mm, short-telephoto lens. So if you need to do any wider shots, you'll either need some extra stand-off distance or you'll have to accept the tighter frame.

A wider option, albeit more expensive, is the EF 28mm f/1.8. There's also the Sigma 30mm f/1.4 that many people on tight budgets find very useful for candids. Either of these would get you closer to a "normal" focal length on the XT. Downside is that both lenses get mixed reviews and are much more expensive than the 50mm f/1.8.

For what it's worth, all of Canon's 70-300mm lenses are a bit slow and will require flash under many conditions. If you can, spring for the IS USM version, you'll be able to get away with a few extra stops of hand-held speeds/apertures. This won't compensate for a moving subject but it will make up for a good bit of camera shake on your end. Ultimately, at the pro-level, you'd want something with an f/2.8 or faster aperture and bump up the ISO while being careful about noise. Noise is far less of a problem on full-frame cameras but it sounds like it will be a while before you are ready to make that move.

By: HappyNotGrumpy

HappyNotGrumpy — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 14:35:15 +0000

Excellent work. Pleasure to watch. Perfect music ))

By: lidiabarbarita

lidiabarbarita — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 10:22:54 +0000

Very nice!!

By: Danielle

Danielle — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:40:28 +0000

Your wedding photography question is not as bad as some of the ones I have seen here (for example "I have a Nikon D40 and kit lens, I am booked for my first wedding shoot this weekend, what settings do I use??"…. Believe me, those questions are far too common).

I actually have no doubt that you and your friend are quite competent photographers and you know your way around a camera in various environments and stressful situations. Basically, you know what lenses, equipment and setting to use without being told.

Your pricing is what concerns me.

You are offering to do this shoot for $900? (I am British by the way so I am doing a rough conversion in my head to £ to answer this question). So whatever profit is made is going to be split between you and your assistant, is that going to be 50/50?. So the $900 includes the 201 prints you are going to promise the couple, how much is this going to cost?. Are you talking about cheap drug store prints or quality prints from a reputable printers?. I think you need to work out just how much 201 prints are going to cost you! (and don't scrimp on the prints!, you need quality prints!).

You are shooting film. Nothing wrong with that, I personally love film and prefer it over digital. That is a different story for another time though (I just wanted to show what side I am on), but if I was to shoot a wedding I would use my DSLR, absolutely, positively, 100% definitely my DSLR… Why?… Because of cost and convenience.

Lets take into account the cost of shooting a wedding with film.

If you are paying on average $5-6 for each roll of film, maybe more. You are going to need to shoot at least 10 rolls of 36 (or the 12 shot 120) exposure film to have a good number of images of which you are going to select these '201' images you have promised the couple. How many rolls of film are you intending to shoot?.

You then have to include the developing of those films!.

So the cost of buying the (10-15??) rolls of film + developing = Quite a chunk from your $900.

Then you are likely going to be scanning these images into your computers and editing them (not necessarily true, but I personally think you will be doing this). You then have to figure how many hours you will be doing this editing, all included in this $900 figure.

The time you are actually shooting this wedding is also included in the cost, and you have "unlimited photo coverage"… So that could be anything from 9am to gone midnight.

So both of you, shooting all day using film, then the cost of developing them. Then editing them. Then printing them.

And the profit??. Split between you..

How much do you think you will make each?..

Not a lot, I can tell you that. In fact, it would not be worth your time.

"I have taken a course on wedding photography and know the basics. Does this price seem good?"

This course sounds like it did not teach you a lot.. and no, that price does not sound good (but you should hopefully have already figured that out by now).

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EDIT: I have just returned to this question… It looks like I have completely wasted my time. The Mamiya DL33 is a Medium Format camera, and you obviously have absolutely no idea what that is do you?.

You waste of space.

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