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WHY SHOULD YOU BOOK A WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER?

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You're just pushing a button? How can you charge so much? I hear that question all the time. And I get it, I really do. I totally looks like all I do is to push a button and then send over some photos. Anyone with a phone can do that.

 

 

When a wedding couple contacts me, it can vary from a two line e-mail to a full page of the proposal and a thousand questions (honestly, I prefer option number two). Often it takes a few e-mails before they decide that they want to meet with me.

 

Either we'll meet up at one of their favourite coffee shops or we'll go to Starbucks which is the only place were I can get that signature hot chocolate the way I love it. Usually we sit there for about an hour talking about them, me, the wedding and photography. Afterwards I get one or two e-mails with questions that slipped their minds, as things do when you have a nice time.

 

When they book me, and after I've jumped around, high on happiness for a few minutes, I start the paperwork. About a month, maybe two, before the wedding I contact the couple to schedule a meeting to get all the details about the wedding day. We go through the checklist and their requests and our backup plans. Usually we have the engagement shoot right after this. And this is the first time I'll press that button we talked about.

 

As said, anyone can press a button. What we can decide over is what's captured in the photo. Unlike with a phone you can control a lot with DSLR camera just by changing lenses and settings. This requires some knowledge about the gear, which I've learned from other photographers and by practicing a lot (just ask my sister, she had the picture of me with a camera, etched on the inside of her eyelid for at least a year). We can also alter the end result by changing the composition. Some people know how to make a photo interesting, just like that, but there are also a lot of courses that give you an understanding about why certain compositions, colors and shapes make the photo more or less interesting. Did you know that the rule of thirds shows you were a person first looks at a photo? Or that contrasting colors both can lift and sink a photo, depending on the result you want?

 

Another thing to keep in mind is how to interact with the couple. I can't just press the button without first making sure that they feel safe in the situation and have them laughing their eyes out. If I'm all quiet, hiding behind my camera, that is not going to happen.

 

After the photo session, I'll go home and backup all the photos. An hour or two later, I've gone through them all and picked out the best ones to edit. First, editing and retouching is two totally different things. Retouching is when you take away pimples, soften the skin, change the body shape, switch the eyes and put in a horse, and so on. When you edit a photo, you put your touch on it. Perhaps you've seen that some photographers have dark photos, rich in contrast and mystic, and some have bright photos with a lot of pastel colors (and everything in between). That doesn't happen in-camera, that happens in post production. One photo can take from two minutes to an hour to edit. Then they are delivered digitally through an online gallery.

 

Now comes the wedding day. The big one. I pick up my assistant about two hours before we're supposed to meet up with the couple. That means that we'll be about an hour early to the location so that we can have a look around. Right about now that rush of happiness starts bubbling and it keeps going throughout the entire wedding day. When we leave it's with memory cards full of memories and high on that happy rush. Often you go straight to bed, after loading the photos in to the computer and the backup drives. The next day I wake up with a wedding hangover (when you spend a whole day in total focus your body and mind shuts down a bit the day after, and you barely have any energy to do something besides lying on the sofa).

 

After editing all the photos, it's time to send the album design for proofing. It takes about one to three hours to make an album design, and after the proofing by the wedding couple, I usually have to do some changes to meet their requests. When they've approved the design and I've sent it to the printers, there's some more paperwork to be done.

 

The photos, albums and prints will be delivered with one last thank you to the couple for letting me be a part of their day and my job is done. I did press a button, but that's not all there is to it. If you do a quick count, I put about six to seven hour in to the wedding, before I even meet the couple on the wedding day. Then the editing time is at least as much as the hours I spend on the wedding day. Add to that time for the album design, the paperwork and all the traveling.

 

Every time I get to shoot a wedding, I get that happy rush. I love what I do. A wedding is so much more than just the wedding day for us wedding photographers. It's my job. The best job in the world, I might add.

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Read more: HOW DO YOU CHOOSE YOUR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER?

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