How many photos for a 4 hour event

I am drafting up my contracts, and have a business question. What is

the "normal" number of photos promised to the B&G in your contract

for a 4 hour wedding/reception. Do you use a set # minimum always or

do you use a #/hour rate, or do you avoid promising a minimum #?

 

Thanks in advance for any help.

 

d

I never promise a ste number of shots. I show my work and tell them they can expect similar work. When they ask for a # I tell them I do not do this.

 

I did one job that was dressing, ceremony and formals and shot a LOT of film (great couple to work with). I have done entire weddings/events and shot less than at the 4 hour job.

 

I try to charge enough so I don't have to worry about the "shot count" thing.

I think that the concept of "digital pictures are free", from the photographer's standpoint, has had way to much influence on wedding photography. That and inexpensive motor drives! Back in the heyday of Life and Look magazines real PJ's would shoot less film on a week long assignment than some wedding shooters blow in a day! They schlepped less equipment too!

One of the photographers I work for has a 4 hour "Value" package. It calls for shooting 5 rolls of film and a minimum of, I think, 130 proofs. If you do very traditional coverage this is enough. I usually wind up shooting 7 rolls on these things, and it would be easy to shoot more.

 

Make sure that you have a provision about overtime in your contract. What is common on a 4 hr job is ceremony through cake cut. If things run late, and they usually do, things will go past 4 hrs. It it looks like it will speak to the B&G and ask what they want to do re, speeding things up or paying you extra. In general, when you contract for a fixed period of coverage ask the B&G if they want you to stay longer if the reception is still going strong. It is a small incremental cost to them and a nice bonus to you.

I also do not promine any certain # of photos. The number of photos depends greatly from day to day, depending on what "Goes on" during the event. I usually advise them that I usually get betwen X and X number of proofs, but it could be slightly more or less.

Life and Look have nothing to do with wedding photography. People want to pick what they like, and they don't want Rip van Winkle's measly 36 shots to choose from. One thing I've found shooting events is that people always pick the shots I would never pick. I would expect newlyweds to be especially picky and want choice.

 

To answer this question, I agree with Brandon about what "goes on," but would add that it probably depends on the size of the wedding too. A lot of wedding photographers I know make an effort to get every person in at least one photo. At a 200 person wedding, this is a lot.

I never promise quantity.<br>

I didn't have to assist anyobody to adopt that philosophy.<br>

It's a common sense.<br>

I just say "I usually shoot about 4-6 rolls for 4 hours"<br>

But I know exactly how many rolls I'm going to shoot in 4 hours.<br>

6 rolls.<br>

I don't think the number of frames is a threatening question. Prospective clients want an idea of what they are paying for. I mention a very wide range in my materials (i.e., 200 to 600 images). When asked to narrow it down, I say that I can't. The number is dependent on what is happening throughout the day. I've been at four hour weddings that were very eventful, and I captured twice the number of images than at the next day's eight hour wedding, during which most people sat at the reception doing nothing.

It depends if you turn over all files/negatives or just the finished, edited files and

keep the negatives.

 

Jen and I turn over everything, and our thinking is similar to Jeff Spirer's. The B&G

often choose different images than we would choose. They also seem to LOVE having

lots of photos to choose from. Then again, we only get the clients who want a ton of

photos because the folks who are looking for album-only service have plenty of other

photographers to choose from, so your market might be different from ours.

 

In our 6 hour package, we promise 600+ images. We color-correct and crop 200

prints and then hand over the other 400+ digital files. This works out to each of us

averaging at least 50 decent pictures an hour, with at least 20 of those good enough

to crop and color correct and turn over as proofs.

 

I think an easily achievable minimum print number helps the B&G to be confident in

what they're going to get. They also know that we'll take photos of a lot more than

just the cake cutting, garter toss, first kiss, etc. And the folks we book want photos

of everything. This doesn't work for everyone, but it works for us just fine.

 

-Adam

Thanks everyone. I was thinking 200 - 400 as a range - 50 to 100 an hour, we shoot both film and digital, my wife and I will work together so their will be 2 photographers at each event. I don't want to set limits, but I also don't want to overpromise. but this is a question I feel will pop up from the customer and I want to be able to relate to them that they are getting a reasonable quantity for thier money. It's been ten years since I "shot" a wedding as the primary photog, and the wife never has. We are looking to do this as a weekend venture, of course there will be midweek marketing, and editing as well. Who knows, maybe one of us will be able to quit the day job and make this a primary thing.

 

Thanks again.

 

d

Hi David,

 

Good luck with your contracts- I'm working on mine at the moment as well. Perhaps we

could email each other and help each other out? I try not to promise anything at far as

quantity in writing. If they ask, I will tell them informally that I average a picture a minute.

 

Best wishes,

Anne

Shooting digitally (which I assume almost everyone is doing now for events) we have come to a number of around 30-40 shots per hour that we request our shooters to shoot when they are shooting events for us. Obviously this can change significantly depending on the size of audience, venue, etc.

 

Overall though, specifying a number up front is something we don't do for our clients as we don't always know exactly what the setup of the event will be and how much action and things going on will be happening.