So, you’ve finally decided to tie the knot with your Mr/Ms Perfecto and have finalised the dates of your D-Day. Now here comes the bulk load of tasks to be done and the shopping spree is about to begin, with a long to-do list and limited time people often miss out or forget about one of the most important thing for the wedding- Well, who is going to capture the memories of the happiest day of your life.
Always remember one thing, after 1 month or few years after your marriage, you might not wear your wedding dress anymore to an event or you wont remember how the decoration was on the gate, the only memories of your wedding that will be with you for the rest of your life are the photographs ! So, pay a little more attention about how they’re gonna look like. Its ironic here, especially in India that sometimes the photographer makes a last time entry into the budget and you miss your favourite wedding photographer because he was either already booked or you spent extra grands somewhere else in shopping and he’s out of your budget now.
To save you from such unseen scenarios here are some tips to help you out.
1. What are you looking for ?
Firstly, you – the decision maker (you/parents/family) must have a basic idea about what do you mainly require ? The bigger the group, more discussion and confusion will be there. Doing a quick market survey, google could be your saviour. See what’s in the “trend” and the variety of choices available out there. Liked a friend’s weddings’ photos, ask her for recommendations. Facebook can also be very much helpful.
2.Studio or Candid ? Oh I heard this new term wedding photojournalist !
Lets talk about it in detail to make you understand the difference. A Studio is the guy who comes from that “XYZ Studios” around the corner of the street. The boss sits at the counter and has a team of hired shooters who come to shoot the wedding. These shooters can click from average to awesome pictures, depends on which “guy” shoots it. The only brand is the STUDIO himself and the shooters don’t have any personal recognition. You might get lucky if the shooter clicked awesome pictures.
On the other hand there are Candid/Contemporary/Wedding Photojournalist most of them are active on online platforms like Facebook/Twitter/tumblr or Flickr. So there are chances that you get to know about them through these websites. Now, in terms of photography, every person has their own distinctive way of shooting so they can be categorised among any of these three (or more) categories accordingly. To avoid you any hastle, lets keep it simple !
A Candid or Contemporary photographer is an artist, each of them has a different style of shooting and “seeing” the things. For most of the duration of the event, he wont direct you to “Look at the camera- Smile- Click-Thankyou madam/sir.” A Candid or any of these three types of photographer would communicate, initiate a talk or might crack a joke or two to make you giggle and shoot like a sniper. You might wonder “ Oh ! When did you click this”
So, my whole point is that some photographers might not be sure about categorising themselves into a particular category and just the wedding photographers, others simply use a tag to define more about themselves. But an artists’ work speak for himself.
#Candid Photographer/Contemporary/Wedding Photojournalist:
#Studio Photographer:
3. Equipment ? Flashes or studio lights ? Should I hire a Nikon shooter or Canon Shutterbug?
Relax ! Do you ask a chef in a hotel which company’s oven did he use to make this delicious dish ? NO, right ! So once you’ve seen and liked someone’s work have faith in it. Any photographer wont leave is best gear at home in a showcase. A camera is merely an extension to a photographer’s mind and soul. Some are used to Nikon while some are comfortable with Canon or Sony. As long as you’re interested in having a good end product, leave the Canon vs Nikon war upto the photographer only. If you still want to know, ask them. Its better to be sure and informed.
One more thing, sometimes people ask me if I’ll put the elinchromes and soft boxes on stage or anywhere. Well here’s a secret- I never bring those bulky lights to kill the free space available for me to move around the stage. At most I use external Flashes/Speedlights when required. As I said, each person has their own style- some might use these lights, others might not. If you still want those lights, discuss it with your photographer beforehand.
4. So you shoot video also and we want an album too !
Video-ummm… I’m a photographer I don’t shoot videos ! Yes, the times have changed and gone are the days when everything was included in the package itself. Now the video means a 3-4min short film with cinematography and vfx. The modern day videographers have evolved, working parallel with us (photographers) and have their own expertise. So don’t get disappointed when your photographer says that he don’t shoot videos. Hire a videographer separately, If you cannot arrange it, talk to your photographer, he might recommend or arrange someone. We all have each others contacts sometimes ;)
Albums ? hold on.. I’m coming to that.
5. So whats in the package ? any freebies ?
Everyone formulates their package in a different way. Some include giving you “All the RAW data” and some “edited” images. While a studio may give you albums included in package or something. At the end, do a little bit of market survey and observe the things. Then discuss your requirements with your photographer about what all does he offers. Mostly the candid photographers provide Edited and Unedited/Raw data as soft copies and the selection of photos to be edited is selected by you. However the number of these edited and raw photographs depends on every photographer individually.
6. RAW data… color correction.. photoshopped.. Whats all this ?
With the new age digital cameras, the “negative-film” is replaced by “Camera Raw” format. This is just a setting on dSLRs by which the camera stores the photograph with highest possible details and ofcourse a large memory space. Some photographers shoot in strictly RAW format. What you get at the end is the only fine tuned and color corrected images in JPEG. Please note that RAW is not unedited JPEG, it’s a picture format .cr2 .arw or .nef, which might not open on your default photo viewer. So check with your photographer what you expect and what he provides.
The edited pictures are the ones which have been toned up in terms or contrast, filters, highlights, vibrance, saturation etc. There is no limit of using photoshop. But here, on a personal note, I’d suggest while viewing the work of your favourite photographer, observe If he takes a good picture or makes a good picture. Sometimes, the image changes from being photographic to graphic.
7. So far so good ! Now tell me what is the least price at which you can give your best work ?
Well, please never embarrass the photographer by saying something like this. A good quality comes with a price tag. We too have the bills to pay. Wedding Photography is not a commodity in the market for sale. You hire a creative individual who will put in his imagination, experience, thought, a part of his soul, the books he has read, his music style and a signature of his personality in making your pictures worth remembering.
I’m not saying that you deviate too much from your budget but choose the best among the options available within your budget flexibility.If the photographer is out of your range, there’s no harm saying no to him and move forward.
Generally a candid/contemporary wedding photographer may charge anywhere between 25K-1.5 Lakh for a wedding. A studio, on the other hand may charge 20-80K for a wedding and give you photos+video+album but certainly a poor value for money. Never compromise on quality.
You can also mix and match. Hire a local studio to capture the traditional stuff and a candid photographer for the artistic work.
8. So I’ve spoke to this photographer and asked him to book the dates ! What…advance payment ?
Well, never expect any photographer to book your dates unless you’ve given him a token amount. So tomorrow if someone approaches him to book for the same dates and giving a token amount before you could do, he’s gone for you ! A wedding photographer will take some amount as a down payment to hold your dates (40-50%) at the time of booking and the remaining after the shoot or at time of delivering pictures. Some might take full payment (100%) of the amount at the time of booking, Yes photographers certainly do that, not studios.
9. Ohkay, we’re set to roll. Anything else !
Wait, if you have hired a candid photographer, congrats ! Now listen.
10. Its been 2 days, when are we getting to see the pictures ?
Keep calm. Sorting out some 60GB of data and more than 4000 pictures takes a lot of time and effort. Everyone has their own timeline. Discuss it early if you want pictures before any particular date. Pestering the photographer to finish work sooner will only lead to low editing quality.
11. So what about albums ?
Good pictures = Good Album, Bad pictures = Bad album.
There are so much variety of photobooks, coffee table books, albums available in the market. A photobook is a lightweight hardcover book. There are more than 20 types of different paper profiles available for printing and prices are too much variable. Some of the top photobook/album, vendors are Canvera, Blurb, Leather Craftsmen each providing a wide range of products. A normal hardcover album of 12X12 size with 50 printed sheets would cost 20K and more. There is no limit in range of albums present in market today. See what your photographer is offering, carefully. Without good pictures, even a diamond studded album would lose its charm.
12. Lots of work ! so less time !
Well I guess a bit of extra pain towards hiring a good photographer is worth it. Afterall Its your big day and it has to be just perfect. So the person covering you at that day is going to your favourite photographer of all the times.
Pardon the spelling and grammatical errors. I’m not much of a writer person.
***
The opinions and views I’ve expressed here are through my personal experiences in this field and to help you understand the small details and insights of Wedding Photography.
Puneet Batra Photography
|| Capturing the Moments ||
Always remember one thing, after 1 month or few years after your marriage, you might not wear your wedding dress anymore to an event or you wont remember how the decoration was on the gate, the only memories of your wedding that will be with you for the rest of your life are the photographs ! So, pay a little more attention about how they’re gonna look like. Its ironic here, especially in India that sometimes the photographer makes a last time entry into the budget and you miss your favourite wedding photographer because he was either already booked or you spent extra grands somewhere else in shopping and he’s out of your budget now.
To save you from such unseen scenarios here are some tips to help you out.
1. What are you looking for ?
Firstly, you – the decision maker (you/parents/family) must have a basic idea about what do you mainly require ? The bigger the group, more discussion and confusion will be there. Doing a quick market survey, google could be your saviour. See what’s in the “trend” and the variety of choices available out there. Liked a friend’s weddings’ photos, ask her for recommendations. Facebook can also be very much helpful.
2.Studio or Candid ? Oh I heard this new term wedding photojournalist !
Lets talk about it in detail to make you understand the difference. A Studio is the guy who comes from that “XYZ Studios” around the corner of the street. The boss sits at the counter and has a team of hired shooters who come to shoot the wedding. These shooters can click from average to awesome pictures, depends on which “guy” shoots it. The only brand is the STUDIO himself and the shooters don’t have any personal recognition. You might get lucky if the shooter clicked awesome pictures.
On the other hand there are Candid/Contemporary/Wedding Photojournalist most of them are active on online platforms like Facebook/Twitter/tumblr or Flickr. So there are chances that you get to know about them through these websites. Now, in terms of photography, every person has their own distinctive way of shooting so they can be categorised among any of these three (or more) categories accordingly. To avoid you any hastle, lets keep it simple !
A Candid or Contemporary photographer is an artist, each of them has a different style of shooting and “seeing” the things. For most of the duration of the event, he wont direct you to “Look at the camera- Smile- Click-Thankyou madam/sir.” A Candid or any of these three types of photographer would communicate, initiate a talk or might crack a joke or two to make you giggle and shoot like a sniper. You might wonder “ Oh ! When did you click this”
So, my whole point is that some photographers might not be sure about categorising themselves into a particular category and just the wedding photographers, others simply use a tag to define more about themselves. But an artists’ work speak for himself.
#Candid Photographer/Contemporary/Wedding Photojournalist:
- What to expect: A Candid or any of above mentioned photographers have an artistic approach towards wedding photography. Most of these will give you 400-500 images per day of shooting. 1000 images for wedding. The choice of final selection of pictures should be done majorly by you. Final edited pictures: 100-200. Unedited RAW data- maybe/ ask and confirm about it.
- Working Hours: It would be highly appreciated by the photographer if you provide a detailed itinerary of your events before wedding to avoid any confusions or mismanagement.
- If the shooting time exceeds beyond the discussed time, be ready to pay for extra hours. Again it depends on the photographer himself if he doesn’t charge you extra for a couple of hours or charges for a full day of shoot in such case.
- But still, If there is extra work- There is overtime for us. Understand that.
- What not to expect: Group shots, Dancing uncles’ Pictures and Posed traditional pictures. Delivering the picture, next evening. If you might miss your mother’s sister’s daughter’s husband’s photo who danced with his wife. Skip this photographer.
#Studio Photographer:
- What to expect: Everything, Literally everything. From bride and groom getting off the car at venue to all the uncles and aunties enjoying snacks, the photos of decoration and stalls they cover everything. You want it, they have it. Posed, candid, group shots, bride and groom being posed like to climb a wall or something, kids dancing and the list goes on. Delay, extra hours ? No problem Sirji. You might have to shoo them away after the event is over. Albums ? ahem, a 230 photos in a karizma album with bride skin looking like a model and splash of flashes in every photo they might include it in their package. All the studio light equipment around the stage to kill the view of stage too.
- What not to expect: A collection of very good photographs with details and emotion. Note this point that when you hire a studio you basically get a team of people who have been taking the same shots at every wedding they shoot. They click by number ! Their skills maybe average or really awesome. So you don’t get any artistic individual to shoot your wedding. You’ll get a mix blend of average, good, nice and very nice pictures. Also they never let any other photographer work in their vicinity peacefully. They have a tough time realising that the new breed of “Natural Photographers” have outdated them. (Yes, I’ve heard this thing many times from these studios- Bhaiya natural photos kheechte hain )
- Sometimes a lot of “businessmen” showcase their work of fairly decent pictures but they send a team to cover the wedding. These people also fall in the same category of studio. So please clear this thing before you decide to book someone. Well if you wanted a studio, you wont be searching online and have found this :p
3. Equipment ? Flashes or studio lights ? Should I hire a Nikon shooter or Canon Shutterbug?
Relax ! Do you ask a chef in a hotel which company’s oven did he use to make this delicious dish ? NO, right ! So once you’ve seen and liked someone’s work have faith in it. Any photographer wont leave is best gear at home in a showcase. A camera is merely an extension to a photographer’s mind and soul. Some are used to Nikon while some are comfortable with Canon or Sony. As long as you’re interested in having a good end product, leave the Canon vs Nikon war upto the photographer only. If you still want to know, ask them. Its better to be sure and informed.
One more thing, sometimes people ask me if I’ll put the elinchromes and soft boxes on stage or anywhere. Well here’s a secret- I never bring those bulky lights to kill the free space available for me to move around the stage. At most I use external Flashes/Speedlights when required. As I said, each person has their own style- some might use these lights, others might not. If you still want those lights, discuss it with your photographer beforehand.
4. So you shoot video also and we want an album too !
Video-ummm… I’m a photographer I don’t shoot videos ! Yes, the times have changed and gone are the days when everything was included in the package itself. Now the video means a 3-4min short film with cinematography and vfx. The modern day videographers have evolved, working parallel with us (photographers) and have their own expertise. So don’t get disappointed when your photographer says that he don’t shoot videos. Hire a videographer separately, If you cannot arrange it, talk to your photographer, he might recommend or arrange someone. We all have each others contacts sometimes ;)
Albums ? hold on.. I’m coming to that.
5. So whats in the package ? any freebies ?
Everyone formulates their package in a different way. Some include giving you “All the RAW data” and some “edited” images. While a studio may give you albums included in package or something. At the end, do a little bit of market survey and observe the things. Then discuss your requirements with your photographer about what all does he offers. Mostly the candid photographers provide Edited and Unedited/Raw data as soft copies and the selection of photos to be edited is selected by you. However the number of these edited and raw photographs depends on every photographer individually.
6. RAW data… color correction.. photoshopped.. Whats all this ?
With the new age digital cameras, the “negative-film” is replaced by “Camera Raw” format. This is just a setting on dSLRs by which the camera stores the photograph with highest possible details and ofcourse a large memory space. Some photographers shoot in strictly RAW format. What you get at the end is the only fine tuned and color corrected images in JPEG. Please note that RAW is not unedited JPEG, it’s a picture format .cr2 .arw or .nef, which might not open on your default photo viewer. So check with your photographer what you expect and what he provides.
The edited pictures are the ones which have been toned up in terms or contrast, filters, highlights, vibrance, saturation etc. There is no limit of using photoshop. But here, on a personal note, I’d suggest while viewing the work of your favourite photographer, observe If he takes a good picture or makes a good picture. Sometimes, the image changes from being photographic to graphic.
7. So far so good ! Now tell me what is the least price at which you can give your best work ?
Well, please never embarrass the photographer by saying something like this. A good quality comes with a price tag. We too have the bills to pay. Wedding Photography is not a commodity in the market for sale. You hire a creative individual who will put in his imagination, experience, thought, a part of his soul, the books he has read, his music style and a signature of his personality in making your pictures worth remembering.
I’m not saying that you deviate too much from your budget but choose the best among the options available within your budget flexibility.If the photographer is out of your range, there’s no harm saying no to him and move forward.
Generally a candid/contemporary wedding photographer may charge anywhere between 25K-1.5 Lakh for a wedding. A studio, on the other hand may charge 20-80K for a wedding and give you photos+video+album but certainly a poor value for money. Never compromise on quality.
You can also mix and match. Hire a local studio to capture the traditional stuff and a candid photographer for the artistic work.
8. So I’ve spoke to this photographer and asked him to book the dates ! What…advance payment ?
Well, never expect any photographer to book your dates unless you’ve given him a token amount. So tomorrow if someone approaches him to book for the same dates and giving a token amount before you could do, he’s gone for you ! A wedding photographer will take some amount as a down payment to hold your dates (40-50%) at the time of booking and the remaining after the shoot or at time of delivering pictures. Some might take full payment (100%) of the amount at the time of booking, Yes photographers certainly do that, not studios.
9. Ohkay, we’re set to roll. Anything else !
Wait, if you have hired a candid photographer, congrats ! Now listen.
- Introduce your photographer to your parents and other family memebers so that he can be familiar with them while clicking.
- Treat him with respect, you’ve hired an artist for your wedding and not a cameraman. Don’t call “Hey you ! click over here ”. If you want a posed shot with your friends, better to call him politely and get your picture clicked.
- Review his work beforehand and once you’ve liked it, have faith. A candid photographer will do his best to cover your wedding coz we love our work so much. But sometimes due to some constraints or improper lighting and situations beyond our control if a few pictures are not that good, then no one is at fault. No photographer would deliberately miss something or give sub standard work. We put our full potential at every wedding to improvise with what we’ve got.
- Explain your itinerary in detail to him to avoid confusions.
- If there are multiple venues, arrange a separate vehicle/taxi for him and his team unless they have any vehicle of their own. Ofcourse so wouldn’t want your photographer left behind when bride is entering the venue.
- We appreciate if we are not directed every now and then to take a shot. We know when to click !
- If there are any last minute changes of programme, keep your photographer posted.
10. Its been 2 days, when are we getting to see the pictures ?
Keep calm. Sorting out some 60GB of data and more than 4000 pictures takes a lot of time and effort. Everyone has their own timeline. Discuss it early if you want pictures before any particular date. Pestering the photographer to finish work sooner will only lead to low editing quality.
11. So what about albums ?
Good pictures = Good Album, Bad pictures = Bad album.
There are so much variety of photobooks, coffee table books, albums available in the market. A photobook is a lightweight hardcover book. There are more than 20 types of different paper profiles available for printing and prices are too much variable. Some of the top photobook/album, vendors are Canvera, Blurb, Leather Craftsmen each providing a wide range of products. A normal hardcover album of 12X12 size with 50 printed sheets would cost 20K and more. There is no limit in range of albums present in market today. See what your photographer is offering, carefully. Without good pictures, even a diamond studded album would lose its charm.
12. Lots of work ! so less time !
Well I guess a bit of extra pain towards hiring a good photographer is worth it. Afterall Its your big day and it has to be just perfect. So the person covering you at that day is going to your favourite photographer of all the times.
Pardon the spelling and grammatical errors. I’m not much of a writer person.
***
The opinions and views I’ve expressed here are through my personal experiences in this field and to help you understand the small details and insights of Wedding Photography.
Puneet Batra Photography
|| Capturing the Moments ||
