Why you should value wedding photographs

For a long time I’ve been working as a professional wedding photographer, I have encountered clients that are in awe about how expensive wedding photographs can be when they are inquiring. Will, that’s what they think. For me, it’s not that very expensive, it’s really reasonable.

Why wedding photographs can be pricy?

Preparation

A wedding event will take a long period of time. Preparation will take 6-8 hours, and within those spans of time involve taking photos of wedding details, candid portraits, make up, bride preparation for dress, groom preparation for suits, portrait session for both sides, eat and travel.

During the preparation, the team need to be very observant with funny conversations and taking photos of those moments-of-laughter isn’t just simple, because we need to take time to compose so it can tell a very good story.

The portrait session of the bride and groom should also look stunning during the preparation. Every creative photographer, always look for a better place as where to take great photos.

Wedding details aren’t to be ignored too. It is also important when taking better photographs of rings, gowns, suits, flowers, and other things that are involve in the wedding must look stunning.

Ceremony

After the preparation, the ceremony will commence and it will take 2 hours, especially for Catholic religion. The photographers will be taking photos of every details in the ceremony such as walk in the isle, vows, wearing of wedding rings, kiss, portraits of couple, group photos and not to forget; candid portraits of your guest during the ceremony.

Within those span of time, there are lots of things that are happening. When documenting a wedding; it’s not easy to capture moments without the best equipment. Professional photographers, like me, we always keep an eye of every guest and moments happening in the ceremony, such as laughter, whispering, crying, yawning, and not to forget are the epic-failures that isn’t easy to notice. With the right equipment, that would be a great opportunity to capture those moments if notice. After the ceremony, there will be a 30 minutes of taking group photos. So that would sum up a 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Group Portrait Session

This session happen after the ceremony and the couple will be photographs within 15 minutes and 30 minutes the longest. Portrait session is not also that easy because the time is short and to get the best photographs are not that easy.  We always need to check every one if they are properly facing the camera and if everyone are properly arrange.

Couple Portraits

Taken photos of the couples are not also very easy. We have that obsessive compulsive inside that we need to make the photos look good. We always look for the best angle if both are together and find the best smiles. As I have mention about smile, all of the portrait that is done, we always look for the best smile in every angle or which type of smile that both express. We also think of something funny to make the couple laughing-out-loud and capture it candidly.

Reception

During the reception, there are lots of things that really going to happen, hiring a very good photographer with expensive gears can snap those great moments that you can’t even notice that it already happened. Reception usually takes more than 3 hours because of intro, first dance, speech, eat, games and dancing. As the reception start in the evening, the place will be dark so there’s not enough light indoor. Taking photos in a dark situation is not easy so a good photographer with expensive gears can make the situation manageable.

Editing

This usually take a long period of time, it’s not really that easy. Editing photos would take 3-4 hours and there’s also a re-edit on the next day for color quality, exposure corrections and quality assurance.

Hard copy

This also take time, printed photos are reviewed if there are duplicates, it need to tell a story, travel time to printing company and printing fees. And not to forget, printed photographs are place in a beautiful box that will protect your photos from getting damage. The box is not just a simple box, its premium box made especially for couples who wants their photos to be safe and part as home decor.

Album

Designing an album is one of the most complicated part of the job, as a wedding photographer, we need to properly arrange documented photos and make sure that there’s a really good story to be delivered to the couples. And the album we provide are not cheap, it’s expensive that will preserved wedding photos forever with thick pages and fine leather cover.

And those are the reasons why good photographers can be very expensive. Because we deliver and provide the best services we can to make our clients happy with our outputs. And to end this post, I want you to understand that there are two huge factors why you should value good wedding photographs from an expensive wedding photographer.

1. Wedding only happen once in your life, so invest on it and get the best photographer that fits within your budget. If your budget is low and want to have that trendy pre-wedding styling and same-day-edit wedding photos. Stop and don’t get those services, book only for the wedding day coz that’s what matters most. And if you really want to have those trendy and amazing service with a very low budget, just be prepare that the photographer you are about to hire are not the same as those awesome photographers that can deliver the best photographs that you can keep for a long time. Think of it as cheap Chinese products that the quality you received are bad and it would look like that it was taken using digital camera with bad editing.
2. Good wedding photographs are memories captured during your big day. No matter how expensive the professional photographer you hire, they will always deliver the best photos for you and provide you good services. It’s not just clicks and photos you are paying; it’s the entire package from the professional photographer’s best output. Wonderful wedding photographs are incomparable against expensive technologies out there such as smart-phones. Just remember, expensive wedding photographs will last forever and expensive technologies will last from 5 to 7 years.

Thank you for taking the time in reading my post, I hope you’ve learned things about it and if you’re looking for a photographer on your big day, you know who to contact. I’m available anytime for a meeting. Cheers!