Ron Brewer Photography Blog

So how do you plan the perfect wedding and stay within your budget?  It can be a daunting task, every vendor shows you something that is exquisite and will only cost a little bit more, then all of those “little bits” add up to a whopping 30% or 40% more than you had intended to spend.  As a wedding vendor, I can show you an economical package that may suit your needs, but then I’ll show you what can be done with custom designed albums and bridesmaid’s gifts and parents’ albums and coffee table books and I’ve got you going from about $1500 to $3000 in no time!  What’s a bride to do?

Wedding vendors want to show you their very best, they want your special day to be just that, SPECIAL!  Think about what each vendor is doing for you; some of them base their fees on how much time they spend working on your wedding; some base their fees on what it costs them to put their service together for you (cost of food, servers, assistants, etc); and some base their fees on a combination of factors. 

Photographers base their fee schedule on a number of things:  how many photographers will be needed for your wedding (how many guests, how many in the wedding party can figure into this calculation), how much time they will spend with you (dressing shots before the wedding, multiple locations, staying through the entire reception), what kind of album you’ve chosen (not just the cost of the materials but the cost to layout and design the album) and what we refer to as “post wedding work” which includes color correction, artistic enhancement, and retouching.  We may be doing some of the work ourselves and outsourcing some of the work to others.  These are just some of the factors we must consider. 

For every hour I spend at a wedding, I will spend another 8 hours on these other tasks; so a four hour wedding will translate into a week’s worth of editing, color correcting and retouching.  With my coffee table book offerings, add another 20 to 40 hours of layout and prep work.  This is why wedding photography can get expensive;  if I work 40 hours, I need to be paid for 40 hours, this is how I make my living.  So how to stay on budget…

1. Consider your guest list, the smaller the guest list, the faster things move along, saving you money based on time commitments.
2. Do you really need an hour for dressing shots or will a quick bridal portrait before the ceremony be enough? Again saving you money based on time commitments.
3. Receptions are mostly about dancing and mingling, let the photographer get these shots early and ask your guests to help you with the reception photos so you can reduce the amount of time required for the photographer.   We can pose the cake cutting early if necessary.
4. Keeping your guest list to about 50 people means you only need one photographer, when you get to 100 guests, you need a second photographer or assistant, 150 guests requires three people, and so on. 
5. If your photographer offers on line proofing, ask if you can purchase just the photography and on line service and purchase just the photographs that you want, then put your own album together.  (Be sure you are getting retouched photographs if you go this way).
6. And if you are willing to do all of the “post wedding work” yourself, ask if your photographer offers a “Shoot and Burn” option…you’ll get the files and you can color correct and retouch the images (if you have the time and talent to do so). 

There are other ways to economize; consider a champagne and cake reception instead of a buffet dinner (especially if you have an early ceremony time), use a garden for your ceremony instead of a rented venue or church, choose flowers that are in season for your area and time of year, and ask your vendors for their time and money saving ideas (many vendors have “value added” items in these tough times, what can they give you that won’t cost you anything?).

My best advise truly is to control your guest list…then you can control your budget …and just  maybe have some left over for your new home.

You may have heard about copyrights or intellectual property rights but what does this have to do with your family’s portrait or your daughter’s wedding photographs?  Actually, copyrights have a lot to do with any photograph taken by a professional photographer. 

The nature of a copyright is to protect work-product that was created by someone, so that the artist (or in this case the photographer) can control the use of their creative work and protect their work from unlawful reproduction.  As a professional photographer I have spent thousands of hours learning my craft; I have invested thousands of dollars in camera equipment, computers and software programs, and hundreds of hours learning to use those programs; I spend money to put my phone number in the yellow pages and my work on to a web site so that you can see the quality of the work I produce.  I make my living as a professional photographer, so of course I want to protect the images that I create.

High resolution digital files  have replaced negatives in our digital world and they can easily be copied.  So why do professonal photographers resist giving you a copy of those files?  It’s about controlling the final product. A typical one hour lab can reproduce the images for you but the final photograph may have a slight blue, green or magenta cast to it, based on the technical expertise of the person operating the printer. The quality of the paper that is used may also be a factor; typically, one hour labs use lightweight, glossy paper where a professional lab will use a pearl finish or textured paper that will enhance the image and reduce fingerprints. So while you may have the digital files you might not get the same quality photographs that are offered by your professional photographer…but you will save money!

So ask your photographer about getting copies of the digital files; some will, some won’t, and some will charge extra for them. Knowing your options before you hire a photographer is the best way to be sure you are getting what you really want. And don’t be too hard on the photographers that don’t offer the files, there is another one who will!

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!

White and Denim is a classic choice for a casual family portrait.

Coordinating what you wear to your family portrait can be challenging.  Everyone wants to wear what looks good on them but that doesn’t always mean it will look good when combined with everyone else’s idea of what is best for them.  As you look through the family portrait gallery you’ll see some good examples of how to dress and some that are not so good. 

Here are our suggestions for a well coordinated look that will keep your family’s portrait focused on what is most important, you! 

Solid colors are best, and darker colors are slimming as are V necklines.  If one person wears a print we’re okay but if several people want to wear prints we’re in big trouble because the photograph will be too busy.  So try to stay with solid colors and subtle prints.  Choose two or three colors; black and white with khaki, denim and white, khaki and white.  Then start with the person who will be most difficult to dress and find their outfit.  Now tell everyone else what the color scheme will be and see if they can come up with something that will match or coordinate.

Everyone has a pair of jeans or black or khaki pants and everyone has a white shirt in their wardrobe, so keep it simple and your family portrait will have a well coordinated look.