first part of wedding shoot done...now time to edit!

thenimirra

Thank you everyone for all of your support and good luck wishes! Now I know exactly why wedding photographers charge up the wazoo! From now on I won't even begin to talk to anyone unless they are willing to pay at least $1,500 for full wedding coverage. Good Lord that is TREMENDOUS amount of work and I'm not in the least bit done....now I have to edit nearly 3,000 photos down to 100 or so.

I posted some of the ones I spent Sunday editing on my blog.

Tell me what you think so far:

http://pictureyourworldphotography.blogspot.com/2008/06/get-job-done-first-wedding-success.html

Blurmore

Your stuff is VERY nice. You should definitely be charging 1500 dollars if not more. Overshooting is a rookie thing, and unless you plan on hiring a photo editor, you will grow out of it. Eventually you develop a "sense" of having what you need to tell the story. I have only once gone over 1000 images on a single wedding, and it was a 12 hour/2 ceremony Indian wedding. I think for a "normal" 8 hour job subject fatigue sets in at around 1000-1200 images. I usually complete my sub-contract jobs in 700-900 images (I don't do the editing) and MY jobs in under 700. I use tear sheets of poses/ideas I want to try to keep things fresh, but I only try 3-4 per wedding. Because you end up editing, too much is never not enough, but in their memory of how much time pictures took on their day "too much" may leave a memory of it being "too much".

thenimirra

Hey thanks Jason...I just took a look at your blog and your photos are great too! Looks like you do a lot of these kinds of assignments. I'm not sure if I will ever accept another wedding shoot again....

MooMommy24

Great shots! I hope I can do as well on my first wedding...

thenimirra

thanks Moo...I did a ton of research to prepare for this shoot...namely just looking over other photographers to see how they got their signature shots. I watched videos with PhotoVision to see how professionals did the work and I read a lot of other blogs and photographer websites too. You can do it...but reserve yourself plenty of time after the wedding for rest. I had a hard time getting into my day job this morning...I was still pretty wiped!

lisap

They look great! The couple should be very pleased with them from what you've shown so far.

Good luck with all that editing!!

-- Lisa P.

Elaine

Nice job, Sheba! I can completely relate to the level of exhaustion after doing a wedding, and I've only been the second shooter at a relatively small, outdoor affair! I felt muscles I had not felt since I had run a marathon! I'm not sure I'll ever have the opportunity to do that again, and I'm not sure I'll ever seek it out either, but it was a learning experience, for sure. You captured some lovely shots and moments. Congrats on making it through and all the best as you work on editing!

SavedByZero

thenimirra wrote:

Good Lord that is TREMENDOUS amount of work and I'm not in the least bit done....now I have to edit nearly 3,000 photos down to 100 or so.

Going forward, you shouldn't need or want to shoot that many pictures of a wedding. Even with bracketing you're still trying to edit every 20-30 pics down to just 1 for their books. Good luck with just that part of the process let alone color balancing, croping, resizing and watermarking them all up.

Keep up the great work.

evoryware

Ahhh, I LOVE the 1st and Last.
The couple looks great and I remember now that my wife refused to let me wear all or even mostly white to our wedding. :cry You may want to touch up his finger on the hands and rings shot.

I remember when I first viewed your site a long time ago. You've come a long way w/ it!
Three photogs sounds like a $5K+ wedding job to me!


Regarding prints, the sales process isn't over. I'd bring her the CD and go over it with her on a laptop if you have. Maybe bring a few prints from wedding and bridals, a list of your print prices, and maybe one really big print of my favorite shot, as a sample to show her. Get as much as you can at that showing because once that showing is over, the value drops like a brick.
It may hurt her too much to see you walk out the door with all those prints.

Tdcompton

Good job from what you had posted on your blog! I am shooting my first reception on July 5th (the wedding will be out of country, but the reception back here in the states) and I can't lie, I'm a bit nervous. My mentor is coming as my second shooter, so that will be nice, I know that he won't let me screw it up too much... :uhoh

We are shooting at $300 an hour for 3 hours, 10% discount for paying up front, and they will get all the images on a CD for thier use...

thenimirra

Good luck on your assignment!