Choosing a Wedding Photographer
There are many things to consider when choosing your wedding photographer. The date you’ve selected and the photographer’s availability for that date, your budget, the photographer’s shooting style and whether you connect with the photographer are all important factors. Some photographers are “Shoot and Burn” while others are considered “Full Service” studios, offering a full array of professional services. Which is right for you? We’ll try to help you sift through some of the big stuff here and invite you to call if you need more help. At Ron Brewer Photography, we’re here to help and that means straight answers to your questions.
The “Shoot and Burn” photographer will take hundreds of photographs and burn the high resolution files to a DVD or CD for you. Then you can take that disc to your nearby one hour photo lab and presto! you have your wedding proofs. You can get your enlargements printed directly from these files as well, just be sure you are getting “high resolution files” that are 2MB or larger. Photo labs vary greatly on the final product; based on the skill of the technician who programs the printer, colors might be right on or slightly blue or green or magenta; paper might be lightweight and glossy or mat; basically, you get what was taken, no editing or enhancements. This is a great way to save money on your wedding photography but you may not get some of the services offered by a full service studio (retouching, artistic enhancements and embelllishments).
A “Full Service” photographer will meet with you to discuss your wedding day plans and timeline, find out what is important to you so they are sure to capture the day’s events with an eye on your priority list and have a back up plan should something unforeseen come up. Your photographer will capture hundreds of images then, over the next few days, the photographer will color correct and enhance the images, edit them to a manageable number, create some artistically enhanced portraits and then arrange for you to see the proofs (on line or in studio). We include retouching on any enlargements (8″ x 10″ and larger) and most of the photographs that will be included in your wedding album will also be retouched, this is included in your package price.
The big difference between these two styles? Service and copyrights. With a “Shoot and Burn” studio, the photographer gives you the right to reproduce the images when they give you the files, you are free to alter the original images and have them printed. The “Full Service” studio is offering to do much of the finishing work for you by color correcting, color enhancing, adjusting constrast and exposure and giving you a final product that is “finished”. But they are much less likely to give up the copyright because they are invested in the images to a much greater degree than the “Shoot and Burn” studio.
There is nothing right or wrong about either of these styles and many studios today are struggling with how to service clients who want full service as well as the digital files. So ask your photographer about these issues to be sure you’ve found the right combination of services for you.
Of course there are many more factors to consider when you choose a wedding photographer, perhaps the most important is “Do you like their pictures?” So take a look through our wedding galleries and our album layouts to see if we’re the right fit for you! Then give us a call for that consultation, it’s free and you are under no obligation!