What Brides Should Know: Photography

I started a rather interesting thread on the Wedding Dish group page on Facebook last week. I asked wedding professionals what they thought brides should know about what they do. Well…they sure did let me know. So in the interest of all my brides getting the best wedding ever I want to share with you the things you don’t know in the hopes we will all better understand each other.

First up in this series are the photographers. It seems that the top issue they keep running into over and over is time. Time to capture your beautiful day, time to process and edit your images, time to design a fabulous album for you. Today’s professional photographers do more than just capture a moment in time. They create art.

As wedding photographers, something that is always on their mind is that unlike other types of photography, there are no do-overs. This is one day, one time that their work must be perfect. As professionals, they know that. That is why they want the time needed on your wedding day to make doubly sure it is a perfect as they can make it. This unique understanding of what you have entrusted them with is but one of the many reason why you owe it to your memories to hire the best professional photographer you can.

Here are just a few of the comments from the thread. You can read all of it be joining the group; Wedding Dish on Facebook.

As a photographer, I wish that the bride understood that photography is not simply ‘click/download/print’. Capturing images and portraits is a creative process, and it takes time. Also, after a wedding is over, at least 40hrs of post processing is required until final delivery. So, a bride should understand that amazing images can be taken when they allot the time for them. The 2nd thing I want brides to understand is that when they wonder why we charge what we do, it is because on a wdg day, we serve as a portrait/fashion/architectural/food/floral/product photog, as well as a photojournalist, and, on top of it, because it’s a wedding, we don’t have the luxury of a repeat (unlike a fashion photog or other), as well as post process/album design, corrections for enlargements etc. Time is money 🙂
–Aali Qureshi

I wish brides could see exactly what goes into their photos.
I also wish that they would allow time for their photos, for groups and for themselves alone away from everyone else. If they do not understand they need time away from everyone for their photos they will not get the photos that they see when they look at photographers work.
I wish they could see the whole process they will then see we don’t just point click take to the supermarket and print. I spend a lot of time processing the photos, and even longer on album layouts, and understand they they will not have their pictures the next day!.
I want brides to understand, that if they turn up over an hour late for the wedding and we loose over 2 hours time for photographs and she would rather spend all her time talking to her friends rather than having the photos done, she is not going to get as many pictures as she wants. And if she asks me to so her photos at 10pm as I am packing up and leaving I will not be a happy person. (speaking from experience!)
¬¬–Theresa  Mount

Me it is simple, as a bride, better customer service and communication. I am having a hard time getting calls back and questions answered!
As a professional photographer, pretty much ditto what was said above. I would like brides to realize that wedding photography, now, is not just one day of work on the day of the wedding. It is at least two weeks worth of full time hours!
When I shot film, it was one day of shooting and then about two hours of work after that. Shoot, drop of film, fill an album. Order came in it was mark negatives, drop off film, fill an album. Nothing more because the lab did all the colour correcting and brides didn’t want to be thinned down, pimples and wrinkles removed, exit sign taken out, change my brothers face, open my husbands eyes etc…
–Jolene Mills

This is also something you may want to think about when you are deciding on whether you need to hire a coordinator.

As a photographer, I want to be able to focus on taking pictures. Therefore it’s nice when brides realize that getting someone to help to round up people for the group photos is going to mean I can take more photos, instead of trying to find Auntie Clara, who I wouldn’t even recognize if I saw her! My request for help isn’t because I think that herding people is beneath me; it’s because it’s not the best use of my time.
—Steve Roberts

Next up is what the wedding planners had to say. I think you will find that interesting.