5 Things Your Wedding Photographer Wants You to Know

 

 

 

Last October marked 10 years Anna Page Photography has been shooting weddings. Holy moly. Time has really flown. I’ve gotta say with over 200 weddings under my belt I’ve seen it all and so have the countless other wedding photographers around the world. We notice things after awhile and are dying to let you know about them! With only 5 of them in this article it’s only scratching the surface and I’ll most likely make a part 2 in the future. So, little ole Anna Page is gonna be real with you now, girl to girl. Without further ado, here are 5 things your wedding photographer wants you to know!

 

Let’s walk-through the venue together!

 

The bride and her mother take us through the beautiful lake-front venue months before the wedding. They forgot to show us the dappled bright sunlight, the fifty mile an hour winds, the bad sound system, and the musician that showed up late that did too many psychedelics in his life. (True story)

I have done a few venue walk-throughs early in my career. Most of the time the ideas I came up with had to be nixed on the wedding day because the lighting conditions, the weather, and schedule are all different than planned. After awhile I decided that scouting a venue or doing a “walk-through” with the bride was not necessary for me. Some photographers do feel it benefits them and they will most likely check out the venue on their own time.

No matter how carefully you plan your wedding day there will always be something that will go differently than what you expected. An experienced wedding photographer has developed the skillz (yeah I wrote skillz) to roll with the punches and make something fabulous. Trust your photographer. They will be able to make snap decisions the day of the wedding for the best results. I have shot at the same venue multiple times and the lighting varied for each wedding. I loved this because it let me create something totally different for each couple.

 

TL;DR: if your photographer feels they need to scout your venue they will most likely do it on their own. If you approach your photographer about a venue walk-through they may charge an hourly fee for their time.

 

Have you shot at my venue before?

 

“Dear Photographer,

I’ve been looking through every photo on your website. I can’t stop, I’m obsessed, I love the way I feel when I look at your work! But I have one serious doubt: I have not seen any photos from Meadows and Fawns country club on your site. Have you shot there and if so, may I see photo examples of your work there?

Love, Bride”

“Dear Bride,

Thank you so much for reaching out. I am amazing, aren’t I? I’m sorry to say that I haven’t shot at Meadows and Fawns but have worked at Between Two Hills Country Club, The Old Mill at Whispering Pines, and of course The Links at Antelope Prairie which has a similar layout to Meadows and Fawns.

Love, Photographer” (not a real email)

I know your wedding is huge for you and it can be scary. That’s why you’re hiring a professional photographer. I got this, girlfriend.

If you like my work and we click then the location won’t matter. I’ll create amazing photos whether I’ve been to your venue before or not. Plus, I can speak for most photographers out there that our hearts are all a flutter when we get to shoot at a location we’ve never been to! We are dying to shoot at certain venues too so if you contact a photographer but they haven’t shot at your venue, don’t write them off too quickly. As wedding photographers we are constantly needing to think on our feet and shooting in a familiar venue doesn’t make that easier, at least not for me. We are creatives. We like to be inspired and new surroundings inspire us!

 

TL;DR: Worry more about finding a photographer that you click with than about whether they’ve shot at your venue.

 

“Just Photoshop it!”

I can safely say that at every wedding someone has said this to me directly or indirectly. When someone asks me if I can just “photoshop that”, the answer is yes and no. Yes, I can make you look thinner. Yes, I can remove your officiant during your first kiss. Yes, I can change the color of the tacky red carpet in your church to look less…tacky.

But no, I can’t make you feel OK about your real body. No, I can’t control what your officiant does during your ceremony. There’s only so much I can do to avoid the tacky red carpet from appearing in your photographs at your chosen venue.

All major touch-ups in Photoshop are time consuming. *record scratch* “Say what? There isn’t a magic button in Photoshop that makes my wedding look perfect in a blink of an eye?”

That’s right. Photoshop is a complicated professional computer program. I learn new things nearly every time I use it. It has taken me years to understand the tools to transform a photograph. When someone asks me if I can “photoshop that” the answer is yes but at a cost. Your photographer most likely includes the basics: editing like color correcting, sharpening, cropping, and color enhancing in their price for the photos on a USB. What most likely is not included are advanced touch-ups much like the ones mentioned above. They are, as I said, time consuming so we do charge either a price per photo or an hourly rate for our time.

 

TL;DR: The answer is YES, we can “photoshop” that for a price. Photographer’s prices vary, so ask your photographer what their touch-up rates are.

 

It’s time to bridal PARTY!

 

Shortly before her wedding I had a bride send me her timeline and a list of “must have” shots of her very large bridal party. I looked over the list and saw a lot of different combos with all the members of their bridal party including bridesmaids, groomsmen, ushers, flower girls, ring bearers, and special attendants. I was given 40 minutes in the timeline to complete all of them plus bride and groom photos.

Nope.

I’m happy to take any and all photos my clients want on their wedding day if I’m given adequate time to do it. We get it. Planning a wedding is hard and brides may not know how long formals could take with that many people. So I picked up my itelephone and called homegirl to see if we could whittle the list down to just the bare necessities since there was no wiggle room in the timeline. After chatting with her for awhile she confessed that she didn’t really want all of those pictures but felt she needed them because they were done at all her friends weddings.

*Aha moment*

I started wondering how many “must haves” throughout the years were genuinely what my clients wanted. Guess what? You don’t have to do what your friends did at their weddings. That was their wedding. What do you want to spend your time doing on your wedding day? If the idea of spending hours and driving to multiple locations for your bridal party photos on a hot day makes you want to punch a baby, then don’t do it. I’ve had brides in the past pick out 2-3 locations for their bridal party photos but every single one of them nixed at least one location on the wedding day because it was too overwhelming. It’s hot, your dress is heavy, your heels make it hard to walk, and everyone’s hangry.

Instead, keep it simple. Pick one good location that you’re in love with. Keep the bridal party photo combos simple too. I find some of them are really dated or not necessary (for example, a picture of the bride with the groomsmen or a picture of the groom with the bridesmaids. Are you really going to print that one out and frame it? Probably not). Having a simple approach to this part of the day will reduce stress. We’ll get the photos done in a jiffy and you’ll have an Old Fashioned in your hand in no time!

If the idea of spending hours taking pictures with your bridal party at multiple locations makes your heart shoot rainbows and unicorns, then your wedding photographer will be all in! Just make sure to reach out to your photographer and ask them how much time they’d need before setting anything in stone with your timeline.

 

TL;DR: 1). Everything takes longer than you think!
2). You don’t have to do what your friends did at their weddings.
3). Contact your photographer to get an idea how much time you’ll need to take all the photos you desire.

 

Pinterest

 

I have a confession: I love Pinterest!

“Wait, you? A woman between the ages of 18 and 40 who has access to the internet? I don’t believe you!”

Yes, it’s true. I luh you, Pinterest. My favorite place to spend time making unrealistic cooking, cleaning, fashion and decorating goals. Pinterest is a great site for brainstorming but as you may have seen it’s a lot harder to recreate exactly what you see(check out this hilarious site here). This also applies to weddings.

Pinterest is a great resource for gathering decor ideas (flowers, attire, venue, etc). However, when wedding photographers get asked to recreate a specific pose or photo a client saw on Pinterest it feels like we’re giving you a crappy version of someone else’s work instead of creating something unique for you. Not to mention a lot of the most popular pins were shot by some of the most talented wedding photographers in the world in the most beautiful locations, so you can imagine us little guys can get a bit discouraged.

This article explains thoroughly how we photographers love and hate Pinterest. Couldn’t have said it better!

 

TL;DR: while we would be happy to view a collection of wedding photos you love to get a good idea of the vibe you’re going for, we photographers typically don’t like to copy another photographer’s photo.

follow me @annapagephoto

annapage@annapagephotography.com
Milwaukee, Chicago, Mid-West, and Beyond

920.948.2029