many thanks to Chandra for asking me to guest post again.  always a pleasure to stop by and say hello.  instead of my usual music posts, i decided to share a post i had written on my own blog a few months back.  i am constantly emphasizing the importance of wedding photography by focusing on just the images from the big day on my own blog.  however, i think the majority of newly-engaged are often surprised by the price tag that comes with wedding photography.  so with my original post, i wanted to share a few things that many may not realize: what a wedding photographer does for the big day and their brides and grooms.

1.  most important is that a photographer does not just show up for those 8-10 hours to take your wedding photos and that’s it.  please remember that.

2.  during an engagement session, a photographer takes approximately 100 to 500 images during a wedding, a photographer takes approximately 1,000 to 3,500 images that doesn’t include what the second shooter captures too.

3.  immediately after the engagement session and/or wedding, the photographer has to “dump” and back up the images so there will never be a situation where these images are lost.  this can take up to an hour depending on how many images were taken.

4.  next is one of the most tedious parts where the photographer culls through those thousands of images and gets rid of any “bad ones” which typically means closed eyes, multiple duplicates of the same shots, weird and awkward positions, some not-on-purpose blurred images etc..  some photographers go further and organize them into collections (family, ceremony, reception, etc.). after this culling process, comes the intensive editing. this is where the photographer will edit photos for color and exposure correction as well as making sure that the images fit their photography style (which is why you picked them in the first place, or at least should be the reason why you picked them in the first place).  so from the thousands of images that they took, most photographers slim it down anywhere from 300 to 1000, which they then send to the clients to approve.  all this takes more than just a few hours especially if you want your images to be awesome sauce.

5.  most photographers provide album design for their clients.  these can take anywhere from 7 hours to 2 weeks to design.  but this only happens AFTER the clients have given them the images they like best and want. the photographer can’t proceed with anything til that happens.  the photographer has to then take the selected images and customize them to the layout of the album design.

6.  all in all, each client can take about two to four weeks of a photographer’s time.  you have to remember that they work with multiple clients at the same time.  so their day to day could consist of answering inquiries, taking care of their email inbox, meeting with potential clients, meeting with clients, backing up their images, culling their images, editing their images, emailing clients images, waiting to hear back from clients, editing images again to fit clients’ needs, album designing, sending to clients to approve of album design, editing album design to fit clients’ needs, waiting to hear back from clients, sending album layout off to album design company, making sure the album is just perfect when it comes back, packaging it up for the client and sending it off.  and that is just client care.  the photographer also has to spend time to market and promote themselves.  some are more than fortunate and can depend on word of mouth.  but for those just starting out, they really need to find the time to put themselves out there.

7.  please also remember that involved with the pricing of a wedding photographer includes things like web hosting, graphic design, postage, shipping, fuel and airfare, hotel fees, advertising, office supplies, and taxes too.  it’s no joke running a small business on your own.

8.  wedding photographers are human too.  like you, they also need to have a life outside of their work.  they need to spend time with family and friends too.  so there is also a constant juggle of a work/life balance like any other person.  they can only take a certain amount of clients per year in order to keep themselves sane.  if you think about it, most weddings are on the weekend and there are only about 52 weekends per year.  so keep their sanity and pricing in mind when it comes to that point.

i hope that this helps some!

{photo credits} EP Love / The Mullers / Feng Images / Glint Studios / Ash Imagery