How Long Should I Plan for Photos?

Everybody wonders just how long they should plan for formal photography.

Everybody.

They’ve heard it from every client. So don’t feel intimidated to ask your photographer what they feel will work best for you.  The answer truly depends on what you want. If you want a fairly extensive set of shots with just you and the groom at a second location, shots of you at the ceremony site, family shots of both sides of the family, (including every aunt and uncle)…that’s going to take a bit longer then just a short and simple formal shoot with the bride and groom, a formal of the wedding party, and a couple of shots with your immediate family.

It’s best to start at the end, and work your way back.  As a general rule of thumb, most churches prefer to have the photographer completely clear of the main site at least 30 minutes before the wedding starts.  Some sites will require photographers to be clear an hour before.  So let’s start in the middle and say the photographer needs to be clear 45 minutes before the ceremony starts.  On the average it takes me (or my assistant) between 10 and 15 minutes to take down my lighting gear.   That means the very last formal picture in the wedding site should be clicked about 1 hour before the ceremony.  If your wedding is starting at 4:00, that means formal photography has to be done by 3:00.

Depending on the size of your family, and how many family shots you want to take, it can take between 30 minutes to an hour to take family photos.  As we’ve done this, it takes between 5 to 7 minutes to set up a formal pose for a group, and take 2-3 shots in that pose.  If we have a large group (say 30 to 40 people) it can take closer to 10 minutes.  Let’s take an average list of family photographs and break it down:

• The bride with her parents
• The bride with her family
• The bride and groom with the brides family
• The groom with his parents
• The groom with his family
• The bride and groom with the grooms family

That’s six different settings.  At 5 minutes a piece, you’d be looking at roughly 30 minutes to capture those shots.  If you want pictures with your grand parents (one set with the bride, one set with the groom) you would be looking at another 10 to 15 depending on how many settings you would like.

Larger groups take longer to set up (the largest group family shot we ever did was about 65 people.  It took roughly 15 minutes to set up, and another 5 to shoot.)  So, just as an example.  So, with our mock schedule, let’s add that time in.

• 4:00 – Ceremony Starts
• 3:00 – Formal Photography wraps up
• 2:00 – Family Photographs Starts

That’s just for the family photos, we still need to add in the shots of the wedding party.   Most commonly, we are asked to capture the following shots.

• The bride and groom together in a formal setting
• The bride with the bridesmaids in a group
• The bride with each bridesmaid individually
• The groom with the groomsmen in a group
• The groom with each groomsmen individually
• The whole wedding party in a formal setting

Wedding party shots tend to go a bit quicker, especially when taking individual shots with the groom and the groomsmen, and the bride and her bridesmaids.  Unless you have a huge wedding party, you’d be looking at a good half an hour to 45 minutes to capture those shots.  Which, looking at our schedule means that “formal” pictures should be starting at 1:15 to 1:30.

So, our revised schedule would look like this:

• 4:00 – Ceremony Starts
• 3:00 – Formal Photography wraps up
• 2:00 – Family Photographs Starts
• 1:00 – Formal Photography of the wedding party

That would be for just formals in the ceremony site.  What if you want to do pictures on location, say in a park or in an urban setting?  Let’s say you want some shots with just the bride and groom in a fun location, and then a few shots with the wedding party.  Location shoots tend to go a wee bit faster then formal shoots.  Most of the time when we are doing location work, we are shooting much quicker, and more relaxed then when shooting formals.  There’s a lot more fluidity.  With a location shoot I would recomend 45 minutes to an hour for a good session to grab some great shots, and another 15-30 for travel time to and from the location site.  Now our schedule looks like this:

• 4:00 – Ceremony Starts
• 3:00 – Formal Photography wraps up
• 2:00 – Family Photographs Starts
• 1:00 – Formal Photography of the wedding party
• 12:30 – Travel to the Ceremony Site
• 11:30 – Location Shoot

In all honesty, that’s a bit of a longer shoot for us.  But not by much.  If we do location photography, you want to make it last, and get as many shots as possible.  We can most likely fudge a bit on the formal shots of the wedding party, and condense that down to a half an hour, because we’ll have captured quite a few of the full wedding party prior to the formal sitting.   It also gives you a good amount of time to relax between the ceremony and the formal sessions.

But with all things, it’s entirely up to you!  I’ve had clients that want to start shooting formals as soon as the bride is ready at 8:00…and hit four different locations…across town…and that’s not a problem.

Just plan accordingly.

It’s your day.  If you want me to photgraph you getting out of bed, that’s what we are here for.  Just plan accordingly.

Next Wedding Tip Wednessday, we’ll cover that part of it in a bit more detail!

 

How to Chose A Wedding Photographer

This is a question I recieve moreso from friends and family then from potential clients, but it’s one of the biggest questions a couple have to wrestle with when planning their big day.

And the truth of the matter is this.  Find someone who’s work compels you to spend hours going through it, and makes you smile uncontrollably shot after shot.  The price isn’t important, because as we mentioned before, these aren’t just snapshots.  Your wedding pictures are a time capsule that you will come back to again and again.  They are both a visual story of your wedding day, and a historical record to pass down to your grandchildren’s grandchildren.

After it’s all said and done, after the ceremony has wrapped, after the cake has been devoured, after the dress has been packed away, and the decorations placed into boxes, your wedding photographer is the person most responsible for bringing back all those memories decades after the event.

That’s a pretty big responsibility.

So find someone who’s work you cant live without, as opposed to someone who’s work you can simply live with.

When hunting for photographers, don’t just base your assessment off of somebody’s portfolio online.  Most wedding photographers will only post a few choice images.  What you want to make certain of is that even the “common” shots that a photographer captures are compelling.  This is one of the reasons we keep our client galleries open to the public for viewing.  We want our customers to know full well what we are capable of producing from the start to the finish…not just our choice work, but every image our customers receive.

Photographs are crystallized memories given physical form on paper.   They are gateways to the past, and the best preservation of your big day.   It’s very rare that a couple don’t have to work within a budget.  But if there is ever a spot where you should be willing to splurge a little, it should always be your photography.

Why You Should Chose A Professional Wedding Photographer

Let me preface this by saying that if wedding photography is not high on your list of priorities, you can stop reading right now.  Honestly, this article isn’t for you, and it’s perfectly fine having Uncle Gary shoot your wedding.  If you just want a dozen or so pictures to hang on your wall, Uncle Gary can most likely handle it just fine, and would be cheaper too.

But if having a complete record of your wedding matters to you…then you may want to continue.

Wedding Photography isn’t cheap (although we always strive to keep our prices reasonable and affordable to our clients).  I know how tempting it is to just ask your nice uncle Gary, who always has a camera handy and takes snapshots of everything to shoot your wedding.

And I will admit, Uncle Gary does have a good eye.  And he takes some magnificent pictures of your aunt Linda and the boys.  But I beg of you, unless Uncle Gary has actually photographed weddings.  Do. Not. Ask. Him. To. Shoot. Yours.

The same can be said of the “friend you had in college who owns a nice camera“,  or “that one cousin of my mom’s“.  They may have done some very nice work, but unless they are prepared to shoot a wedding, and have experience doing so, you are going to get less then professional results.

Shooting a wedding is an extremely stressful event, and unless you are prepared to deal with it, it can overwhelm you.  When everything goes smoothly, it can feel like the easiest job in the world.  However when things go wrong, you do not want someone without the experience of dealing with everything that can go wrong staring doe-eyed while you walk down the aisle.

I’ve had cameras break during a ceremony.  I’ve had flashes crash, I’ve had memory cards go bad, I’ve had Chandlers shatter due to a bouquet toss.  I’ve had mothers of the bride go on the warpath just before the ceremony.  I’ve had drunk uncles puking on me at a reception (well…near me)  I’ve had those experiences and I know how to navigate them.

I’ve had friends and family in tears, because Uncle Gary only shot 40 pictures, and they had nothing to remember their wedding day with.  They had no pictures of their first dance because Gary’s flash wasn’t firing and he had to wing it.  He didn’t realize that he had his white balance set wrong, so everything has a weird blue or orange glow to it.  I’ve heard 1001 horror stories about people to whom photography mattered, but they thought they could trust Uncle Gary.

You don’t have to chose me, chose someone who’s work you love (if it’s mine, all the better), but chose someone who does this professionally.  Bad things happen, make certain that the person who is responsible for those memories has done this before, and has proven themselves capable of doing it again.  Uncle Gary can still shoot your wedding if he wants to, but at least you can be certain that those wonderful shots that he did get arent’ the only ones you’ll have for the rest of your life.