Just how many Wedding Photos do you show client?

I am amazed at some of the post I read where Photographers are snowballing the

Bride with 500 to 700 + images. I remember when I use to work for a major

newspaper in Orlando and ran the E-6 processor. The photographers would come in

with their assignment of a head shot of a new political candidate and have 36

images of pretty much the same shot. Saftey in numbers??

I have never shown a bride more than 180 + shots in the 28 years I have done

Weddings. Taken an average of 13 rolls (120-15 film format) Too many shots I

found confuse the bride and in truth, I got to wonder what exactly you are

taking photos of?

I do remember when my sister-in-law took photos of MY wedding. Now this was

small event, Bride, Groom, Best man, Maid of Honor and about 25 guest. She

called me to tell me there were done and she had 160 photos. WHAT!!!!!! People

carrying tables, people getting out of cars. It was ridiculous. I thanked her

and culled it down to 60 shots mixed with some of mine. Not being dis-repectful.

Just wondering how you can present so many shots? So after this long winded

speech, just how many shots on average do you show a client? Me, about 128.

after a wedding i dont show "any" shots! Hows that! The first thing they see (in about 4-5 days) is a completed 10x10 album of about 20-30 pages. Showing a client a bunch of random shots is overkill and yes will confuse the bride/groom,,its like showing a fender or just tires,,,Show them the car and they can appreciate the entire "car". So I have a great response in designing an album and then showcasing it. Only then do I show individual images. They dont know layout, we do, or should. I do give them an oppourtunity to fine tune the album but this process really speeds up their decisions. I take approximately 500 pictures. They will typically see 400, but only after they see their day in layout form! Hope this helps...email if you'd like to know more details! I can guarantee you your bride will thank you for doing the album first. If you know your couple!! A major factor...I dont do fast food weddings, I try my best to build realtionships and usually know exactly what to put into the album.

Ok Barry, I'll bite. I am a little more interested in your process. It is the same thing Gary Fong said in his last tour.

 

So, give me an idea of workflow. Do you put together a digital album? Do you give the customer a chance to "swap out" some of the images if she wants? Do you give her a chance to add or take away pages? Has she prepaid for the album? When you put together the album, do you do all your photoshop corections of the images, or do you leav it in PSD format and go back and retouch later? How do you present the album? Internet, printed, or slideshow?

I do the same thing. Always have. The next time the B&G see me after the wedding day, it's to

pick up their completed album.

Ok, by the way David, I didn't mean to sidestep your question. I must be one of those photographers who "snowballs" their brides with images. I typically shoot over 1000 images at a wedding. I try to narrow it down to around 400, but sometimes I have a hard time even doing that. I know there are many images that won't make the final cut for the album, but there are so many things that are important to the bride. She spent hours picking out the flowers, her shoes, her dress, her neclace. She sometimes has some crazy fun expressions that are caught at a moments notice, or a tearful glance. These might not all go in the album, but they should be recorded to decide that later. I definately have my favorite images, but a lot of times the bride picks out different ones than I do for her album. I like to give her a choice, and it is usually a little different than mine.

 

Just because I have my style of doing things, I don't critisize how someone else feels they should run their business. I'm glad your way works for you, and I am glad I do things my way.

Kari, yes, I learned the idea from Gary Fong, tweeked it a bot for my liking and it seems to work well. The stunned look of a couple is fabulous when they see their album on my big screen for the first time! Tears are usually present. You dont get that with individual proofs. I do allow a few edits, but they are usually very minor. Yes, i have a psd file and a jpeg file. PSD for future edits and JPG for the slideshow.

Interesting concept, but most of my brides know what they want and can make a choice without too much help from me. Seems kinda presumptous to make the selections for them, although if you allow some changes, that would be fine. As stated interesting idea. I do not do this full time, only part time, through out my career. Semi-retired now, so will probably stay with my way of doing it. Still, I question again, why are you taking so many images? Especailly you digital folks that do post-processing yourself. Seems like you would be spending an awful lot of time in front of the computer. I've got other things to do, still shooting for the local rag and such.

David, i'll try not to be rude, but I find people that who have done this for a long time are usually stuck in a rut and dont deviate or change with the times. I have a good friend that all his album is 30 8x10's in an album! He takes 120 or so pictures. To me, the couple could have driven by Sears and got standard posed pictures for probably less dollars. They wouldn't have the church, but most of his pictures are just static poses anyways. Brides today are more demanding and want a bit of the tradition (mom & dad want it too) but they want a bit of fashion, candid, capturing the moment...there are way more "moments" than just 120 images in a Wedding day. Being able to shoot more (digitally) isn't a license to shoot bad images, but actually the art (especially people like Marc and Kari) is to have captured the entire day that portrays a lovely story.

We shoot an average of about 5000 images for a 10 hour wedding, and the b/g see about 700 or so...

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I am down to shooting about 800 in a day. Most are candid. I drop the duplicates and choose the ones with the best expressions and the strongest images as photography goes. The last two weddings were about 450 images in the end.

 

I did an experiement earlier this year. I let the b/g see all but the absolute rejected images. They made me add another 100 that were not the best quality, but they wanted to have the images just because of the people in them. They had 200 proofs in their package but they had to have the final 450!

 

I would like to keep the images presented below 400. I agree it is overkill and it makes a customer dizzy with choices.

 

It's a different shooting style, obviously, compared to yours. I know I'm not the best photographer, but my clients really like my style. I keep winning business over more expensive photographers because they simply like my style and personality better. I'm raising my rates very soon!

 

My two pennies.

 

Aaron Lee

Brooks says:

 

"We shoot an average of about 5000 images for a 10 hour wedding, and the b/g see about

700 or so...

 

FIVE THOUSAND IMAGES???? Now I disagree that 500 is too many, but 5,000 pictures in 10 hours??? I'm not big on math, but I can figure out pretty easily that means you're taking at least one photo every seven seconds NON-STOP for 10 hours!

 

I'm pretty snap happy and take a lot, but after it's narrowed down to the VERY best one or

two of each subject (like the cake, the bouquet toss, etc) it's not too overwhelming. The

B&G don't need to see ten shots of every thing.

You do have gorgeous photography, though, Brooks!

Brooks,

 

5000 shots? How many photographers? How many cards do you go through? Do you shoot RAW? How many hours of editing? What do you charge for an average wedding? Please email me if you don't want to post this. I am really interested and I am not making any comments nor will I. I am really very interested in your style of photography. Thanks!

I don't feel I am stuck in a rut, but have a hard time deciphering 500 shots let alone 5000. What do you show. I like to interact with the B & G, also the guest. With a camera stuck to my face as much as some of you do, I can't see that happening. Just remember, probably around 3 to 5 years from now, if they are still married, most of those shots will probably be in a drawer somewhere, no matter how good we are.

We only show images that are worth showing. Some weddings are less "eventful", and

there's no reason to photograph "people carrying tables" unless there was something truly

unique going on! We guarantee 50 images per hour (there are two of us shooting each

event), meaning we'll provde a minimum of 400 terrific images after an 8-hour shoot;

more if the wedding was full of great "stuff" to shoot.

 

When I got married two years ago, I wanted to see EVERYTHING. After 13 hours of

shooting, if my photographer had shown me fewer than the 1500 images I saw I would

have been begging for more!

 

I'm just wondering what exactly makes you think that couples are "overwhelmed" by a lot

of images? Sure, it may take them a while to pick their favorites, but who cares? All of our

clients want as many images as possible to remember their day by. We've never had

anyone say, "Gee, I wish you'd gotten rid of a few of these!"

 

Of course, once again, I feel that it's all relative to how many GOOD images you show. If

you're showing stuff that's boring/bad/unnecessary then that's just poor editing.

"I don't feel I am stuck in a rut, but have a hard time deciphering 500 shots let alone 5000."

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Well, then I guess it is a good thing you are not my client, eh?

 

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"I like to interact with the B & G, also the guest.With a camera stuck to my face as much as some of you do, I can't see that happening."

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You have your style, I have mine...The more I "Interact" with my clients, the more they know I am there, and thus the less "Real" moments I get...

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"Just remember, probably around 3 to 5 years from now, if they are still married, most of those shots will probably be in a drawer somewhere, no matter how good we are."

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Sure sounds like you are stuck in a rut...

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Bob, to answer your questions...

 

<<<How many photographers?>>>

 

There are two of us shooting for 10 hours (average)...

 

<<<How many cards do you go through? Do you shoot RAW?>>>

 

We do shoot RAW for everything, and we shoot about 45GB per wedding...We carry 75 GB with us...Mostly 4GB cards (Sandisk Ultra II and III)...

 

<<<How many hours of editing?>>>

 

It takes me about 2 hours to edit 5000 images down to about 700 or so...Using a MacBook Pro and IView 3...

 

<<<What do you charge for an average wedding? >>>

 

Our Min package amount is $4500, with the average client spending about $6000 or so...We shoot about 45 a year...

 

<<<You do have gorgeous photography, though, Brooks!>>>

 

Thanks!

In my packages i usually give 120 6x4 pictures in an album as well as the main 'designed by me' album. What i'm doing nowadays is after the wedding i choose a few nice shots and put it up on my website for the couple to see. This happens within a week. It really depends how many shots i want to show. 60-70 the max. Usually less.

 

The next time i see the couple will be when i show them a digital version of their wedding album design. This is the time we discuss changes and all. At first i just designed the album and had it printed straight. But i encountered a bride who didn't want ANY pictures of her father in the album. So i decided to have the discussion session after that.

 

Anyway, after the discussion, i'll change whatever needs to be changed and the next time i see them is when i bring the 120x4R and the main album. Plus whatever bits and pieces i told her that i was going to give.

Oh i forgot to say. I do give them a DVD of all the useable shots in JPEG. These are uncropped and in high resolution JPEG. Of course the shut eyes and the ugly expressions are not included. So in the end they get something like 400-600 shots in the DVD. Since they've seen the album and the prints they know what it can look like. So i don't care what they see on the DVD that much. If they even look at it in the first place.

 

I also put all the JPEGS in my smugmug in a private gallery. So whoever wants to download it can do so.

It'll typically vary somewhere between 500-1000, some more and some less. Depends on wedding size, portraits wanted/requested, etc...

Thank you Brooks for your info! Sounds like you are well worth the $4500 you charge.

Would anyone here drop off $22,000 at the local auto dealership and return in a week or so to pick up their new automobile or truck?

 

 

 

 

Why would you want to select what the bride wants in her 'finished' wedding album? Heck, it is her wedding and she (and the groom) should be able to choose what is to go or not go into the album.

I agree ... I know we are the professionals and we know design better than them, but they

really should be able to pick the album photos, IMO. I have lots of favorite photos that aren't

technically the best photos I've ever taken. When I make myself albums, I make my favorites

the biggest whether they're technically the best or not. While we may leave out a picture

'cause it's a little blurry, the B&G may love it and want it in there. They're paying us to be the

experts, yes, but only they should make the final decisions about an album they're going to

pass down to their children one day.

120 pictures. I am film shooter. Film is a discipline. Flaw does not exceed 5%. Machine-gun style is for those who does 95% flaw.

I shoot an average of 600. With the advent of digital, that is the way the current wind is blowing, and brides are expecting it. They want candids. Lots and lots of them. About 100 of these go into the wedding album. However ,out of 30 or so weddings I do per year, I only get a handful of album orders. Most of my brides just want some prints, and a DVD. I would love nothing more than to shoot a few rolls of 120 or 220 and be done. Most of my brides want digital. I have medium format 8x10s mixed in with digital 8x10s and my clients cannot tell the difference. If they want film, I have to charge more, and they don't want to pay it, especially if they cannot tell the difference, anyway.

 

 

Patrick