Finding and hiring a photographer for your wedding is a big step. This is the person (or people) that will be with you for the entire day of your wedding.
A lot of people ask why (wedding) photography is expensive:
Whitney and I are both professionals, and we both shoot with professional photography gear. We have a great amount invested in equipment and we are continually investing in new, innovative equipment to assure our clients top quality. This ensures that Whitney and myself can capture almost any image.
We both have a backup camera. So if one of our cameras break during a shoot or wedding, we both have a second camera in our bags to capture those moments that will not be repeated. We also have many lenses such as: wide angle lenses to capture the environment and also telephoto lenses to get close to the action when it’s further away. We also have a variety of flashes/strobes that lets us help light the natural environment if needed.
Before we even get to the wedding, there are a number of things we have to go over such as: preparing batteries, checking/cleaning cameras and lenses, memory cards, pack our gear, check and double check our preparation lists and camera bags, make sure the directions are ready, and so on.
Arriving at the wedding ceremony, our goal is to use the place/church to make the best possible images. Where is the light coming from? How dark is it inside the building? These are things that we cannot control, but that we have to account for.
Throughout the day, we are constantly visualizing the end result or how the image will look even before it reaches our computers.
When the wedding day is over, our work is just beginning.
We have to back up all the photos, we do this in two ways. Our computers have a RAID array, which automatically backs up one hard drive onto the other. In addition to that, we also back up the photos on external hard drives and DVD roms. (Though, after we deliver the photos to you on a DVD, we can not be held responsible to have the pictures to give to you again. We generally keep them backed up for around 6 months.)
We go through and look at every single image. We check for color/white balance, facial expressions (eyes closed, etc), lighting, background and any distractions. We also select 10-20 images to edit and display on our blog usually within 2 days.
We correct and enhance every single photo, to make sure that every photo is as good as it can be. This could take 20 seconds or this could take 20 minutes on a single photo.
Then your photos are resized and uploaded to the online proofing gallery, for you and your family/friends to view (Prints can also be ordered from the gallery).
If you order your prints from us, we then go back, retouch the image(s) and optimize it’s color for printing. We use a professional lab with calibrated monitors and printing equipment – so that the pictures we see on my screen are exactly what you will see on your prints. Have you ever noticed how you get different color prints from different places?
If you’ve ordered an album with your wedding package, then the album is designed, proofed, ordered, and then delivered. The design process alone can take hours to complete.
If you order canvas prints, they need to be proofed, ordered, stretched/framed, and delivered to you.
If the package includes the data disk, this needs to be made, lightscribed, and mailed to you (two DVD’s can be made for you if requested to keep one as back up).
A one-day wedding can easily turn into a full week of work. A two-hour portrait session can turn into a full day of work.
All this is done to ensure that you have the best possible record of your wedding day!
– Whitney & Dylan
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