Wedding photographers - turnaround time for photos?

sopchoppymommy72 · Jul 21, 2011

From the day of the wedding, what is the turnaround time for getting the photos to the couple? I use Zenfolio as my web/hosting site, so when I post them to Zenfolio, they are completely edited and ready to order.
I am currently completing a 500 image wedding (LOONNNNNNG day!) and it is 26 days since the wedding. ( I initially told them 3-4 weeks)
MANY people have hounded me about when they will be ready! Is 3.5 weeks so excessive that I need to be faster?
A million years ago, when I got married, I got my proofs SIX WEEKS after the wedding...
So what do you think is a reasonable time frame??

D-B-J · Jul 21, 2011

What type of editing? Simple saturation and clarity stuff, or labor intensive skin smoothing etc?

IgsEMT · Jul 21, 2011

Are you working over every darn picture in meticulous details??!
My average turn around time is 30days. About a year ago I had a 3 crew 18-hr wedding. Half was outdoors, half-indoors. We were rushed, felt like it wasn't a wedding by a scheduled of events. Anyways b/n us 3 we did over 5k frames, most outdoor stuff were shot in RAW (was HORRIBLE harsh sunny day). Back then, RAWs went through Capture for processing and everything else through LR.
Point is, I managed to deliver the job w/in 2 weeks, about a bit under 2100 frames. It's the most that I EVER delivered in my photographic 15yr career.

My workflow is broken down into 3 general parts.
1 - either the day of the event or next day - job gets loaded on computer (30min-1hr), backed up onto external drive (about 1hr tops), delete the junkies either by me or my wife or we both go through it - (30min). Overall process of about 2.5 hrs; while thats happening we can do something else

2a - leftover goes into LR and various things like crop, filters, minor adjustments go to work.
2b - more extensive work is in PS
could take anywhere from 3hrs and up, depending on the job

3 - once all the bells and whistles in 2a and 2b are done, b/4 the job gets exported as final project, i go through it with fresh eyes for anything else to add or subtract. Could be more effects, deletes, etc. (could take 1-2hrs)

I won't call the client if its been less then 3 weeks EVEN if the job is already done. Fresh last-minute perspective never hurts.

Once the job is ready for delivery, it gets burned on a disk, clients get their product (disk or proofs or w/e was agreed upon) and final product gets backed up instead of the raw footage. Cards get cleaned and ready for next job. I have number of cards that I continuously rotate. Even as we speak I have cards from recent shoot & job is ready for delivery...

sopchoppymommy72 · Jul 21, 2011

It was 565 images, completed. I ditched about another 200+ duds.
Mostly color correction, basic editing. Then I select portraiture shots, anywhere from 35-50 to do more intensive/creative editing.
I run about 30 days - and this is NOT my full time job. I still have 40 hrs a week, 2 teenagers with their activities, and a house to run, so I don't have 10 hours a day to work!

It is clear when someone hires me what my turn around will be - I was just wondering if I was taking too long, or they were impatient!
Thanks for your input!

IgsEMT · Jul 21, 2011

Set the date in the contract. I don't have 10hrs a day either, especially now, since I'm FT back in grad school, 2 little bratts running, I just don't sleep nights

dnavarrojr · Jul 21, 2011

I shot a little over 3000 stills and 14 hours of video at a 3-day event for a client last month. I told them they could have the unedited stuff within 7-days (after I delete the crap) and they can go through it all themselves, or I can cherry pick the best 500 or so stills that matched my shot list and edit them and it would take 60-days. The photographer they worked with last year just dumped 4000 unedited stills on them, so they opted for the 60-days. I did promise to give them 15 "highlight" photos of what I thought were the best within 10-days, though. That mollified them and they've left me alone. It's already in my contract that I won't even look at the footage until after I'm done with the stills.