How Would You Feel If You Never Saw Your Wedding Photos?

A particular enquiry has left me thinking tonight a lot about how we see and photograph a wedding day.

When we photograph a wedding we capture the emotion from the day.  The first time dad sees his daughter in her wedding dress for example many photographers concentrate on the bride’s descent of the stairs but not many notice the tears welling in Dad’s eyes.  We do.  We notice both – it’s one of the advantages of having two photographers.  We see and photograph different things.  We see the excitement in the bridesmaids as they see the bride in her dress too and mum – we notice the pride as she looks in awe at how beautiful her daughter looks today.

But the bride – what does the bride see as she looks in the mirror and checks her appearance for one last time?  We capture that too.  That last look, checking everything is just perfect and she looks the very best she could do for this most amazing of days ahead of her.  The nerves perhaps beginning to kick in as the anticipation of seeing her groom begins to build.  The reassurance she is seeking as she asks the question: “Do I look alright?”

To the skilled photographer and photo journalist all this is vitally important to capture – to thrill the couple and family when they see their photographs for the first time with the little moments, tears, joy, laughter we have captured on camera.  So what if the bride is unable to see what she looks like?  What her parents and bridesmaids look like, what her groom looks like – waiting for her at the end of the aisle?  How do we “see” and capture on camera what the bride “sees”?

What if the groom can’t see what his approaching bride looks like, what the ceremony room looks like, the look of pride and love on his parents and families’ faces as they watch him make the greatest commitment of his life?  How do we capture and portray on camera what the groom “sees”?  How do we bring to life the emotion and feelings of the day which are always so present in the eyes?

I thought about the way I would see my family and friends if I was visually impaired.  My feel, hearing, smell and touch would become my eyes.  I would be so familiar with the features and beauty of that person I was about to marry that I would need no first glance to reassure me.  If I were the groom, I would know her perfume wafting as she approached, the swish of her dress, those familiar steps and instinctively know that she was near.  I would be able to sense that feeling of anticipation and excitement as the moment approached that we stood side by side taking our vows.  If I were the bride, my fingers would intertwine with his as we stood together and we would perhaps squeeze each others hands – something only the two of us would know – to tell each other that we loved them.  I would almost certainly feel my husbands face and features, wondering if perhaps those unseeing eyes were shedding a tear.  Mine would be a very special marriage full of private moments between two people.

So how as photographers do we translate this into the photographs?  We have an inherent need to “wow” all our clients with their wedding photography.  It drives us on at each wedding to try to surpass all their expectations and more.  But how do we “wow” someone who can’t see the photos?  The answer to this has got to be by the reaction of their family and friends when they see the photographs for the first time.

So if we can capture a touch, a glance in what is known to be the right direction, perhaps a tear, the laughter but most of all the connection between these two people who are so clearly so much in love and if at some stage during the day we have the opportunity to describe to the bride and groom how each other looks to us, in the colours and particular way we see the world then maybe, just maybe we will be able to make a huge difference to that wedding day and help to make it as special to the two people getting married as they are to each other.

If we can translate into our photography that special connection that is present not only between the bride and groom but also their respective families and friends, then and only then will we have done our job well and our photography will prove to be not expensive but priceless.

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Our Guide To Wedding Photography Prices.

Q: We all know digital photography is free, so why is wedding photography expensive?

A: If you own a digital camera, yes, once you’ve bought your equipment for a few hundred pounds (camera, memory card and computer), your photography is ‘free’, unless you want to print something.

There are a few extras for you to factor in that a Professional Wedding Photographer has to cover. Items such as hard-drives, RAID enclosures and DVDs for storage and multiple back-up copies, significantly more expensive cameras and multiples of them for back-ups, professional quality lenses, professional indemnity insurance, business insurance, liability insurance, equipment insurance, top spec computers, colour calibration systems, professional bodies and their subscriptions, website design, maintenance and hosting fees, a new suit every three or four months, brochures, sample albums, advertising, accountancy fees, utility bills, business rates and income tax. All these are just the expenses pertaining to running the business, before they start to pay for things like food and the mortgage.

I haven’t even mentioned number of hours worked yet! Not just on the Wedding Day itself, but hours and hours of editing, processing images, retouching, printing, creating DVDs and designing albums. What about contributing to the years of expertise, experience and professional development/training courses?

Digital photography is much more time-consuming than in the old days of film. Brides didn’t expect to have pictures of table favours, the speeches, in fact anything other than group pictures outside the church and maybe a smiley portrait of the happy couple. So the photographer shot his thirty-six pictures, took the film to the lab, where for a few pounds, someone else cropped, adjusted exposure,  most importantly colour corrected, and printed all thirty-six images. The key phrase in this paragraph is “SOMEONE ELSE”! The digital photographer is now expected to produce sometimes ten times as many images and do all the editing, cropping, colour correction, dodging, burning, exposure adjustment and retouching themselves.

Then there is the law of supply and demand. The better the photographer, the more he will value his time and don’t forget, ‘profit’ is not a dirty word, it just keeps businesses running from one year to the next!

Q: Ok, so a photographer has got to make a living, and I now understand that I’m not just paying for a few hours of standing around taking snaps. How come wedding albums cost so much?

A: As with all things in life, if you get something custom-made, a one-off, personally designed for you and manufactured from the finest materials, often in another country, it’s not something you can compare with the £2.99 paid in your local newsagent for a plastic paged book to stick prints in. Some of the album manufacturers we use put up to 50 man hours into producing one album. Even at minimum wage, that’s a £400 bill just for labour, before adding materials, printing, expenses, taxes, shipping…to name but a few.

Q: Right, I really want to book you, but I don’t think my budget will stretch. Is there anything you could do to lower your prices?

A: Well, I might answer by saying ‘is there anything you can do to increase your budget?’ it amounts to the same thing. Everything has a budget; it’s just a case of priority. You can always find a bit extra for your photography by saving little bits elsewhere. Look at the list of things to pay out for before your wedding, think a little about how long they will last, what the overall effect on the rest of your life together would be if you didn’t have it, and who is going to notice, apart from you if it’s not there.

Compare that to the only permanent, life-long reminder of your wedding day and see what’s left!

That said we’re pretty reasonable!

When we say “print ready” we mean exactly that.  Unlike many photographers who offer a high-resolution or printable CD of pictures ours are all hand edited to the highest standard, any cropping, colour correction etc. will have been done for you.  No matter how good we are at getting it right “in camera” there will be times when things beyond our control (for example a variety of different lights – halogen, energy-saving, tungsten etc. all in one room) will adversely affect the technical quality of the images we produce and may make images have a different “colour cast” to other images shot around the same time.  We take the time to correct this for you before we give you the disc.  So if you want to print your own album for example you will be able to do this and every single picture will match the next.

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“We Only Want Reportage Photographs….” Ok – But Are You Sure?

It was the “buzz” word in wedding photography a couple of years ago – “reportage”.   It was deemed to be the new “skill” and style of photography that was set to change the world of wedding photography in general and how couples would choose to have their wedding day recorded.

At one stage viritually every couple we met were telling us that they “just want reportage” photography.  Or candid photography or photo journalism.  Call it what you will – they wanted minimum intervention from us but a record of their day.  We can do that and we can do it very well (even if we do say so ourselves!) but not everyone can.

So – be very careful when you are looking for “candid” photography otherwise you may well be disappointed with the results.  What do I mean by this?  Let me explain…

Often I will be talking with a guest at a wedding whilst watching what is going on around me.  I’m a people watcher – I’ve done it for years.   I love reading into expressions and situations what “might” be going on or being said.  I also love watching the interaction between two people.  Body language and what it “secretly” tells you someone is thinking is one of my pet subjects.  So whilst talking to the guest, watching what is going on around me often I will raise the camera and take a long shot of something over the other side of the room or wherever.  The guest will look to see what it is I’ve seen and ask “How did you know that was going to happen?” as I’ve captured some little moment or expression.

Now that in itself is a skill gained from years of people watching but that isn’t anything unique to me or which sets me apart from other people practising similar photography.  What does set it apart however is where I move myself before I take that picture.  I will look for a “natural framing” opportunity for the picture I am taking.

So what do I mean by “natural framing”?  By this I mean I will look at the subject I am taking the photograph of and I will try to take the photograph in such a way that there is some separation of them from the background/surroundings they are in or that they are “framed” – either between two other people or perhaps by the architecture behind them.  Sometimes it will be because I have “shot through” something when taking the photo in order to create the frame.

With the advent of “reportage” or “candid” photography there was a influx of budding photographers onto the market who usually had a day job but had a slight interest in photography, were ok at it, had a decent camera and thought “I can do this” and so set themselves up as part time photographers, photographing weddings on weekends.  They were very cheap.  There are still alot of these types of photographers around.  But if you look closely at their websites at the pictures they claim are reportage they are often nothing more than a collection of snapshots any other guest at the wedding could have taken.  In desperation they have taken photographs of anyone who appears to be laughing, eating or moving in order to make up the numbers as the realisation creeps in that there is more to wedding photography than simply popping off a camera in the right direction at the right time.  Most of the pictures they take will be considered to be unflattering by those in the photos.  Occasionally though they get a good one!

Now that is a world apart from the photographers who make a living, week in, week out of photographing weddings in a photo journalistic style who do take the care over seeking out and choosing their moment to press the shutter release.  Photo journalism requires the tact to observe the days events as they unfold, the tact to know when to record silently what is going on and the skill to know when to “ask” for a photo.  It is not something which can happen overnight – it also takes a certain kind of personality to understand the people they are photographing.

Being an effective photo journalist in my opinion demands great sensitivity from the photographer.  It requires them to find something from deep within themselves which connects to their main subject.  So for the day they are the nervous bride, the reluctant father, the proud mother, protective grooms mother, envious friend or the bashful groom – sometimes more than one of these at the same time!  They almost feel what they (the subjects) are feeling and so from that they are able to draw upon their inner resources to know where and when the not just good but great photo opportunities are going to be.

To create a wedding album “just” from reportage style of photography in my mind requires a photographer as I have described above and there are actually very few of those around in the UK today – with that level of photo journalistic skill who can take all the little moments from the day and put them all together to create something fluent which depicts that day precisely and sympathetically from start to finish.  Most photographers will punctuate the day with a section of posed group photographs (in fact most couples demand that we do) of family groups and then some photographers – such as ourselves – will also suggest that we undertake some “bridal” and “couple” portraits later in the day to create some really “wow” images for you.  Certainly I don’t know of any Yorkshire Wedding Photographers who are especially accomplished at this style of photography – enough to produce an album of “just” reportage photographs from the day.

So to sum up if looking for a reportage photographer do look very carefully at complete weddings they have photographed.  Do they effectively tell the story of the wedding day including all the little moments that happened?  Can you read into the photos what those moments were?  Do you feel emotional when you look at the pictures even though it wasn’t your wedding and you don’t know the people in the photos?  i.e. can you feel what the photographer felt they were feeling?  Are the pictures speaking to you?  Or are they simply a collection of snapshots that anyone attending your wedding could have taken “for free”?  Here’s a little clip to show you some of what I am talking about.

“Keep Me, Protect Me, Share Me….And I Will Live Forever!”

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