katrin_d.

<p>Like everybody else (Netflix, WWE, Adobe Cloud, Showit), Kobotka figured there's a consistent revenue stream when you sell subscriptions vs. a time-time purchase. It's about money. You don't really *make* money as a wedding photographer, you make money by selling actions to other wedding photographers, posing guides, lights and workshops.<br> <br />Like gold mining towns - the miners were there to do the actual hard work with no guarantee of ROI whereas the venues selling to the miners (smith, brothel etc.) were the ones making the guaranteed money. </p>

<p>Do you have any local photographers you admire & whose work you love?</p>

<p>I would forget about getting the prints. The only thing that's enforceable is what's written in the contract that you read, agreed with and then signed. Most likely, your contract will also include a clause that states that that no statements made outside this written agreement are valid and/or binding - I know mine does.</p> <p> </p>

<p>I just looked at your gallery and would recommend that you 2nd shoot for an established photographer. Your post-processing is a bit heavy handed and the vignettes date your photos (looks a bit 90ish). You have some exposure issues going on but you caught some nice moments.</p> <p>So my suggestion: practice. Get more experience. </p>

<p>Check to see her contract with the wedding photographer. She might now have the right to hand the photos to somebody else to assemble an album for pay.</p> <p>I know it's stated in my contract that they are more than welcome to create their own DIY album but permission is never granted for another professional to produce a wedding album with my images. </p>

<p>No offense but I try to keep jobs here in the US where I'm based. I know it would probably be cheaper to have it done in an emerging country but that's what got this country into the mess we're in to begin with - outsourcing. I'm all for creating jobs in the country I live in and that's where my money and my business goes.</p>

<p>Apart from it being illegal and ridiculously stupid, it's also overused and stale.<br> <br />Why risk your clients' life and your own for an overused backdrop?</p>

<p>The posing is awkward, his face is facing her but his lower body is facing the camera with one hand in his pocket. Have him do something with it - it's not enough to have a couple stand on a picturesque rock. His pose says "eh".</p>

<p>Graphi has a great design flow (that you do yourself, yes ;-) but it takes me about 2 hours to design an album as it's really intuitive.<br> If you really hate it (which I totally understand, I feel the same way about editing), Couture Books offers a design service when you order their books. I haven't tried it as the pricing was steep.<br> <br />Don't have any other recommendations but you might find some browsing around PPA's website. </p>

<p>I use Lavalu based on a recommendation by Jerry Ghionis' wife - it's the company they use and I've been nothing but excited. You simply upload your files, give them your editing preferences, and with each order, you can have sample edits delivered so you know exactly what the final wedding is going to look like.<br> <br />Even during peak season, their turnaround is around 7 days. I get jpgs back because I use Aperture, not Lightroom but if you're a LR user, you have the option to specify which version you use and they'll send you back the xmp files for faster transfer and show you how to apply them. Super work and worth every penny.<br> <br />Back in the days of film, everybody who didn't develop their own films outsourced by having a lab develop. Nothing new, only now it's digital. </p>

<p>Any updates on this?</p>

<p>I've seen your previous post (nighttime portrait of darker skinned males) and this ... my question is (and I'm not trying to be rude): do you understand manual exposure, i.e. the relation between shutter speed, aperture and ISO? If this is indeed city lights at night, the 200 ISO makes no sense. There's a great book for beginners out there, Understanding Aperture which will get you off to a start there.</p>

<p>My phone is off during weddings. My husband is at home and knows not to even leave me a message because there's nothing I can or will do. I'll photograph the wedding, go home and whatever happened in the meantime ... well, will have happened in the meantime. </p> <p>I've photographed a wedding after a dog bite, drove myself to the hospital afterwards and got treatment. Photographed a wedding with broken ribs, after sitting through a night watching over one of our dogs after cancer surgery ... the list is endless. In short: I made a commitment to photograph my couples' weddings and unless I'm dead or gravely injured, I'm going to be doing just that. </p> <p> </p>

<p>If the photographer DELETED her FB page after seeing your negative review, you know that she has no interest in resolving this. She's also in all likelihood not a professional wedding photographer as there is no such thing as a "lightening specialist". You'd either send them to a post production house if you outsourced your editing or a recovery service if there was an issue with the memory cards.<br> <br />In short - you're probably not going to see a single frame/file. You have two options - get your contract and pay an attorney for an hour of their time to send her a demand letter. Or skip that step and file a small claims case in civil court. </p>

<p>Assuming that you have absolutely NO overhead costs and don't pay taxes, you'd have to photograph 69.3 weddings a year to make 52K. Realistically, half of whatever you're making will be gone for overhead and taxes so you'll be shooting about 140 weddings a year to make a that 52K.<br> Your pricing strategy has a bundle of flaws - people who are looking for a wedding photographer for under 1000 Dollars generally aren't looking for a gallery wrap so be prepared for the "how much is the package without the wrap" discussion.<br> <br />Unless it's an elopement, a 3 hour wedding day coverage is unrealistic. As is 5 hour coverage unless it's a small wedding with everything from getting ready to the reception is taking place at the same location - you'll find yourself running out of time, rushed and, having to ask the couple to speed things up and either a) ask for overtime (which should be covered in your contract) or b) staying unpaid (secretly wanting to kick yourself for what is essentially unpaid work at that point). <br> Clients not being able to pay what you ask is none of your concern just as it isn't Ferrari's concern that I am not able to afford what they're offering.<br> Lastly - do you want to do this full time or just a an added part-time income - this will also greatly affecting your pricing strategy.</p>