Weddings - What you need to know...
Your Wedding, one of the most important days of your lives. When the caterer's food is gone, the DJ and the band are silent, the honeymoon ends...you and your spouse begin building your life together. What is left from this special day? Your photographs! People ask "What do you charge for weddings?" We pretty much "cafeteria style". We like meeting with the couple, explaining what our capabilities are, what we can offer them, then we let them choose what they would like our services to consist of on their wedding day. Then we can arrive at a package custom tailored to them, that is a perfect fit to their needs, wants, and budget. Lets get together and chat. We offer photo spots, so your guest can have a special gift from the couple, kiosk service, so your guests can leave you their memories of the day, video services, with our 24 megapixel, 1080P high definition camera. We also have pre-wedding services such as bridal portraits, engagement portraits, video memory DVD's (snapshots of the couple from childhood to engagement), and many more. Bring us in when you begin planning your wedding and we will help you make it a memorable event for all.
Some things to check when pricing wedding photography:
• Are all pictures and video’s copyright released?
• Approximately how many pictures? Don’t be swept in by “thousands”! Realistically, about 100-120 pictures per hour are reasonable. Anyone can take 60 pictures of you cutting your cake, but is it really needed? Do you and your family really want to look through 3000 – 4000 pictures? Even though digital images are plentiful, you do not want to replace quality with quantity! Actually, my video camera will do high quality stills from each frame of video. So at 30 frames per second, I could give you 108,000 images per hour if you are into quantity!! ☺
• Small thing, but does the videographer use a wireless microphone? If the microphone is with him or on his camera, unless he is standing right next to you, some of the important audio, like your vows, might be lost!!
• Are there any prints included? If not, how much. What kind of prints? Some photographers will do 8x10 at home on an inkjet printer. Same one they did your invoice on. I use Kodak dye sublimation with the XtraLife 4 coat to make the photo resistant to spills and dust. Anything above 8x10 is done on Epson Stylus Pro 4000 or 7880 printers with Kodak Luster paper and Epson UltraChrome inks which have a 100 year accelerated room light test! To get great quality prints, a photographer would send your prints to a lab, and that is $$$$$$.
• Craigslist – “Photo student will shoot your wedding for $400.00 and give you everything on CD….” Really? With the “prosumer” DSLR on the market, lots of folks figure if the lens comes off their camera, they are a pro. How many weddings have they done? Do they know the “traditional” shots and how to set them up quickly?
• “Megapixel Madness” “My camera is NNN megapixels!!” “I have XXX megapixels on my cell phone.” Unless you are making billboards out of your wedding pictures, not a huge issue. There are cellphones that have twice the megapixels as the camera I would shoot your wedding with……not sure that pinky nail size sensor or plastic lens has the same optical quality of the lenses I use that individually cost more than the cell phone!!
• Do they back the pictures up at all during the day? Or are they on a couple cards in the camera bag until they get home? My photos are in 3 locations before I leave your reception!!
• Just think about the fact that at the end of the day that you have planned for a long time, the food will have been eaten, the music with have been listened to, the decorations taken down, and your video’s and pictures are what you will have to remember it by…why take chances? Even doing a “wedding on a budget”, you can still get quality pictures.
Read MoreSome things to check when pricing wedding photography:
• Are all pictures and video’s copyright released?
• Approximately how many pictures? Don’t be swept in by “thousands”! Realistically, about 100-120 pictures per hour are reasonable. Anyone can take 60 pictures of you cutting your cake, but is it really needed? Do you and your family really want to look through 3000 – 4000 pictures? Even though digital images are plentiful, you do not want to replace quality with quantity! Actually, my video camera will do high quality stills from each frame of video. So at 30 frames per second, I could give you 108,000 images per hour if you are into quantity!! ☺
• Small thing, but does the videographer use a wireless microphone? If the microphone is with him or on his camera, unless he is standing right next to you, some of the important audio, like your vows, might be lost!!
• Are there any prints included? If not, how much. What kind of prints? Some photographers will do 8x10 at home on an inkjet printer. Same one they did your invoice on. I use Kodak dye sublimation with the XtraLife 4 coat to make the photo resistant to spills and dust. Anything above 8x10 is done on Epson Stylus Pro 4000 or 7880 printers with Kodak Luster paper and Epson UltraChrome inks which have a 100 year accelerated room light test! To get great quality prints, a photographer would send your prints to a lab, and that is $$$$$$.
• Craigslist – “Photo student will shoot your wedding for $400.00 and give you everything on CD….” Really? With the “prosumer” DSLR on the market, lots of folks figure if the lens comes off their camera, they are a pro. How many weddings have they done? Do they know the “traditional” shots and how to set them up quickly?
• “Megapixel Madness” “My camera is NNN megapixels!!” “I have XXX megapixels on my cell phone.” Unless you are making billboards out of your wedding pictures, not a huge issue. There are cellphones that have twice the megapixels as the camera I would shoot your wedding with……not sure that pinky nail size sensor or plastic lens has the same optical quality of the lenses I use that individually cost more than the cell phone!!
• Do they back the pictures up at all during the day? Or are they on a couple cards in the camera bag until they get home? My photos are in 3 locations before I leave your reception!!
• Just think about the fact that at the end of the day that you have planned for a long time, the food will have been eaten, the music with have been listened to, the decorations taken down, and your video’s and pictures are what you will have to remember it by…why take chances? Even doing a “wedding on a budget”, you can still get quality pictures.
