For Wedding PHOTOGRAPHERS - Wedding picture ratio?

[MohaimenK]

I wanted to get an idea of the ratio of the types of pictures most wedding photographers give to their couples. Is there such a thing?

I mean, lets say you give 200 pictures to them. How do you divide them up?

33% ceremony
33% bride and groom after ceremony
33% reception

etc. Just trying to figure out so I know what I should pay more attention to. I've noticed it gets really boring in the church, at least with the 2 I've done. The 3rd one was outdoor and it took about 30 mins at the most.

Any suggessions would be appreciated. Thanks

 

[SageMark]

Funny you should ask such a question. I just had a wedding last weekend, I was the groom. I hired a fantastic photography team, and resulted in approximately a grand worth of photos. 200 photo's, is off in my opinion.

It's more about how to tell the story, as apposed to a quadratic equation.

 

[SageMark]

Moha,

I see you post here all the time, so I know your trying to take that new mark II and make beatiful things happen. If you send me a message, I'll send you a link to where our album is that you can compare for the growth of your business. It would be of use to you, they are extremely good, it's all they do. We have learned so much from them.

 

[timbearden]

For me it is about capturing the day. I don't have a set limit of photos I give them, nor a ratio. Sometimes a wedding ceremony will last an hour, sometimes only 3 minutes. That will limit on how many photos you get then. Sometimes you get a lot of preparation photos, sometime you don't.

If a photographer has a set limit on how many photos they can have, then I think it would be wise for the bride and groom to choose which ones they receive. As often your choice of what you think may be the best is different.

 

[MohaimenK]

Thanks guys! Yeah I'm still learning. I just think it's harder to do inside church shots than anything else. I jsut feel you can only get so much there.

 

[Phil Holland]

My clients get 800-1000 or so usually. They are divided just as their unique day unfolded. No rulz

 

[MohaimenK]

My clients get 800-1000 or so usually. They are divided just as their unique day unfolded. No rulz

WHAT?!?!? No you're joking right???

 

[Phil Holland]

My clients get 800-1000 or so usually. They are divided just as their unique day unfolded. No rulz

WHAT?!?!? No you're joking right???

Not even a little. Pretty norm for many wed shooters

 

[mwcfarms]

I paid two grand for my wedding photos and that included a TTD. I got 900+ images both in color and B&W.

 

[ababysean]

Usually two standard deviations outside the mean is plenty. or just E=MC2



I'm coming at this from a womans POV. If I had a wedding (JOP in the house! 35 dollars and 30 mins later...) I think I would want most photos of me getting ready and the reception. Yes, the ceremony is important, and yes, I will have other cameras of the reception from guests, but I just would like to have those for memories.
Of the little things I might forget 40 years later, like my table setting and the layout of the reception hall, the colors of my table cloth, flowers, the style of the chairs, my cake, the silverware used, the food.... the stuff that no one remembers but no one wants to forget.
Get some good shots of my bridal party, of the groomsmen, but don't forget to take a picture of my hair, and the necklace I wore, the way the weather was that day, I'd want to remember that too.
So I would say to look for things that make memories and go from there! haha
I'm no help.

 

[IgsEMT]

depends what you're shooting, how you're shooting, when you're shooting, etc.
My average for a wedding that is requested in Candid style is about 80+frames/hr. On more traditional stuff, its a bit less, about 70/hr but idea is the same.

Back in the day when armed with Bronica, it was about 22 roles/6hr.

 

[MohaimenK]

Well lets put it this way, the weddings I've done so far, they've been about 1500-1600 images but do I give them all of it?
I usually pick about 200 good ones and give them that.

 

[Overread35]

How many shots you should deliver for an uncontrolled event like a wedding is going to be impossible to put a number to. It will depend upon your style; your shooting methods; how many photographers you have covering the event; the venue and event itself; your clients expectations etc.....

This is why I think its important to shoot second for an existing wedding photographer - not because you can copy their working model but because it gives you a working idea of how you perform on the day. Ramp a good number of experiences like that under your belt and you can be more confident in knowing what kind of shots and how many you will be able to deliver to your client as well as ensure that you know how to get around to get to all the key event shots that you have to get (the kiss, the cake etc....)

I would also try to build your business model and advertising model around the shots themselves not around the number of shots - quality instead of quantity. I say this because otherwise they will view you as a price per shot and if you deliver less shots than they "want/think they will get" then they will view you and your practice as "poor quality/overpriced". Of course built into this is the minimum level of performance that you have to meet -nailing the key events and other shots/points that the couple point out to you.

 

[Studio7Four]

I'm not a wedding photographer, but I did have a wedding, so I'm somewhat qualified to answer this. If you're going to limit the number of images you provide to ~13% of the ones you take, I strongly suggest you let the client pick which ones. Go through the photos and get rid of the ones which don't pass your quality judgement (too out of focus, etc), and if you shot multiple versions of essentially the same image, sure, you can narrow those down. Then provide the rest in some sort of proofing format for review (such as an online gallery). There will be things in the images which stand out differently for the clients than they did for you, so a particular guest or captured moment might have significance to them but wouldn't have made your cut.

Heck, you might even be able to upsell the clients on purchasing more images from you, once they see all the images and realize how difficult it is for them to narrow down to just the 200 you agreed to provide...

 

[ghache]

The only wedding i did, I did shoot 1200 pictures during the day, I delivered 350 post-processed image.

There was no ratio really.