Sussex wedding photographer's blog

Wedding albums, new suppliers and design updates.

Thursday, January 21, 2010 wedding albums, wedding photographer, wedding photography, wedding photography prices

bride preparing for wedding at Brighton College
I visited the Society of Wedding and Portrait Photographers trade show in London at the weekend, to look at the latest offerings from some of the world’s top wedding album manufacturers. I want to make some big improvements in my album design and supply service this year and the SWPP show seemed like a good place to start.

I currently use a US manufacturer for most of my flush mount albums, I’m very happy with them but wanted to offer some alternatives as well. After three or four hours wandering around the different stands I decided to have a sample flush mount made up by Loxleys in Scotland. Their albums are simple and elegant and the quality was fantastic, the printing looked especially good. They are also very fast, quoting a seven day turnaround compared to 6-8 weeks for a US made album. This doesn’t actually mean anyone will get an album seven days after their wedding, as each one will still need to be processed, designed, then checked and approved by the client before it’s sent off, but I would think a month from time of ordering will be quite possible. I’ll be sending the images for the sample album off in a couple of days and hope to have it back very soon, I’ll put some images up when it arrives.

I was also looking for photo books, as a lower priced alternative to albums. I found one manufacturer that uses proper photographic paper for these, not always the case, and will probably give them a try too. These will have a very plain layout to keep costs down, unless I have already designed an album, in which case I can use the design for the book as well.

The final product I was looking for was a medium priced matted album and I didn’t have much luck with this. The top end is expensive, £1,000 and up, and the bottom end doesn’t look very nice! I’ll keep looking for something to fill this gap.

After deciding on the albums, the next thing I needed to review were my design skills. Some photographers outsource this to the manufacturers or specialist companies, but I prefer to do my own designs and see the job right through to the end. I’ve had some time, during the heavy snow in Brighton and Sussex, to work on some samples and try new layout software. One thing I’ve noticed is my designs are getting simpler and cleaner, I’m cutting down the unnecessary elements and decorations, and reducing the number of images I use for the main pages. It’s too easy, with Photoshop and a computer to start cluttering up pages. I read (somewhere) that if an album is laid out well well you shouldn’t really notice the design, it will just look right and your attention will be drawn to the images themselves, that’s what I’m aiming for. I’ve posted a few examples, these are all double page spreads for a 12 by 12 inch album, so imagine a page fold in the middle of each one.

brighton wedding photographers album design
wedding album layout showing couple on Brighton seafront
wedding album pages showing marriage at Brighton College
wedding album design for Surrey wedding

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by DaveP

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Olivia and Tom’s wedding at The Guards Chapel, London.

Monday, December 21, 2009 wedding photographer, wedding photography

Another winter wedding and the last wedding photography booking of the year for me. Olivia and Tom were married at The Guards Chapel on Birdcage Walk in London at the weekend. Tom is in the Guards and the reception took place in the officers mess at Wellington Barracks, with the wedding breakfast in a marquee in the grounds. As with my previous winter wedding, I tried to get a few shots of Olivia in natural light as she prepared at her parents home earlier in the day.
In fact, with an up to date digital camera, the light was usable all through the wedding ceremony at the chapel and I just managed to get a group photo outside at about 3.30pm before it got too dark. This would have been almost impossible a few years ago, but equipment has improved so much recently that photographing in gloomy churches in winter has become more practical. I’m currently using Nikon D700’s as my main cameras and I regularly use these at ISO3200 and get great results, two years ago ISO800 would have been the limit on my camera before the grain and colour became unacceptable.
For anyone that’s interested, the shots of the ceremony and chapel below are shot at about 60th of a second at f4, ISO 3200, no flash. I used a 70-200 2.8 zoom lens at about 180mm for the bride and groom exchanging rings. The lens has vibration reduction, and I also either used a monopod or rested on something to cut the camera shake down to a minimum. I think the results are pretty good in the circumstances.
The Padre at The Guards Chapel was very relaxed about photography and gave me permission to use flash if necessary. In this case I took some shots with flash and some without. When I did use flash it had to be direct, rather than bounced, which never looks great, so I prefer the shots using the available light here. A lot of churches won’t allow any flash during the wedding ceremony, in fact some won’t allow any kind of photography at all, so it’s worth checking the wedding photography policy before you book a venue.

bride, sister and mother in bedroom preparing for wedding Olivia with her mother and sister getting ready for the wedding

bride altering veil in mirror Olivia altering her veil at her parents house in Wimbledon

bride at window in Wimbledon before wedding At the window seat in Wimbledon before leaving for the wedding

Exchanging rings at The Guards Chapel in Birdcage Walk

wedding guests at The Guards Chapel during ceremony The wedding guests at the chapel

bride and groom kneeling at altar at The Guards Chapel London Olivia and Tom at the altar during the ceremony

ot-434 The newly weds and guests outside the Guards Chapel

wedding car driving past guard of honour at Wellington Barracks The wedding car driving past the guard of honour at Wellington Barracks

bride and groom outside Wellington Barracks at night Olivia and Tom outside Wellington Barracks after sunset

newly weds hugging in front of Wellington Barracks London In front of Wellington Barracks

groom lying across laps of women at wedding reception Tom relaxing with some friends at the wedding reception

newly married couple outside Wellington Barracks London And another outside the barracks

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by DaveP

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Winter wedding photography at Newick park

Thursday, December 17, 2009 wedding photographer, wedding photography

John and Stephanie booked me as their photographer for their wedding at Newick Park Hotel in East Sussex last week. I went to check out the hotel before the wedding and thought it was one of the nicest venues I’ve seen this year. A lovely old manor house set in beautiful grounds, there’s a lake, a gazebo, gardens and views over the surrounding countryside. In summer this would be a wedding photographers dream, in winter it becomes a little more tricky.

I got to Newick Park an hour or so before the wedding ceremony. I wanted to get a few shots of the bride in the daylight before it disappeared completely. There’s a quality to natural light that’s hard to duplicate with flash, and this was going to be the only chance I got before darkness arrived. I was quite pleased with some of the photos of Stephanie in the bedroom window seat. I also managed to get plenty of details such as the shoes, dress and the bride’s hands, all useful when it comes to putting an album together.

The ceremony was at 2.00pm in the library. The registrar was happy for me to take some photos during the ceremony, I just had to stop for the vows so I didn’t disturb the moment. By the time it was over it was beginning to get dark, so everybody came out for a quick group shot at the front of the building before the reception. That was it as far as outside photos went, the light went, the rain started and we were inside for the rest of the day. I had brought some studio lights, so I set up in the library and we took some formal photos and family groups. This worked well, but shooting inside with lights is quite different to working outside on a summers day, it takes a lot longer to organise and you can lose a little spontaneity in the process. We were quite lucky at Newick Park, as there’s plenty of space to work in, but using lights in smaller venues can be difficult.

For the photos of the bride and groom on their own I used a smaller lighting set up, just a speedlight and umbrella on a stand. These aren’t quite as powerful or versatile as proper studio lights, but it means I can move around to different spots and vary poses quite quickly.

Winter weddings seem to be becoming more popular, I’m certainly getting a few bookings for this time of year when they used to be quite rare. I try to think of anything I can do to get better results in winter conditions and this is my list so far:

Check the venue for suitable spots for photography. Make sure there is a large clear area available for groups. Arrange for furniture to be moved if necessary.
Make use of any natural light that’s available. Try to take shots earlier in the day.
If the room looks dull, think about dressing a section of it for the photos, drapes, flowers, chairs for posing etc can all help.
Bring studio lights and set them up before the ceremony if possible.
Use off camera flash, speedlights with umbrellas etc. If you are covering a whole day bring lots of batteries.
If it’s dry, look for well lit buildings or streets that could make good backdrops
Make sure curtains can be drawn if you have to work in front of windows, they will reflect lights. Look out for mirrors too.

Brides hands holding shoes in front of dress
Ring boy being dressed by father
Bride at Newick Park Hotel sitting in window seat
Bride at mirror in Newick Park Hotel
bride and father coming down stairs at Newick Park
groom and son waiting in the library at Newick Park
bride and groom exchanging rings at Newick Park
newly weds and family in the library at Newick Park Hotel
bride, mother and sister in front of Christmas tree
bride and groom in front of fireplace at Newick Park Hotel
wedding party singing around piano at Newick Park
boys speaking at wedding breakfast
mother of the bride laughing with groom at Newick Park
bride and groom close up inside Newick Park Hotel
black and white shot of bride in window

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by DaveP

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January 7, 2010 - 2:15 pm Kelly - Beautiful! Thank you for capturing my sisters special day so perfectly. Kelly x

December 23, 2009 - 4:28 pm DaveP - Thank you Toni, were you at the wedding?

December 19, 2009 - 11:37 pm toni limage - What lovely photos of my friend's daughter's wedding day. xxxxxxxxxx

Wedding photography prices, how much should it cost?

Friday, December 4, 2009 civil partnership photography, wedding photography, wedding photography prices

weddingring

It’s the time of year when work quietens down and I get a chance to review my wedding photography prices and packages. I’m currently somewhere in the mid price range for weddings, a typical client might spend £1,200 to £1,500 for full coverage plus a nice album, between £500.00 and £850.00 without an album. I’m aware that some clients look at the prices and think b***** h***, he’s only here for six/eight hours, that’s £xxx.00 an hour! So I thought I’d write a quick explanation of how I calculate my charges and convince you how extremely reasonable they really are.

A decent photographer will spend a lot longer on a wedding than the time that’s been booked. There are initial meetings with the client, normally taking several hours, then phone calls and emails to confirm details, writing contracts, visits to the venue etc. I usually expect to have done a day’s work before I get to the wedding.
On the wedding day itself, normally a Saturday or Sunday, an eight hour booking will probably take ten to twelve hours by the time I have travelled to the venue and allowed plenty of extra time for safety. On returning home there will be another hour or so downloading the cards, then doing two backups to reduce the chances of losing any images if a hard drive fails.
After the wedding comes the post processing. Digital images don’t come out of the camera in a finished state and will always need some work done on them. These can be straightforward colour and density corrections or more time consuming retouching. Once the images are processed they need to be burnt to disc, then sent to printers and album manufacturers. This can take from a day for a fairly short and straightforward shoot, to three days or most of a week for a larger event and an album design.

Good equipment is vital, I need to have top quality camera bodies, lenses, flashguns, studio lights, computers, cases, cables and all of the many accessories to go with them. If you are a responsible professional wedding photographer you make very sure you carry backups as well, so for every item you use, you bring at least one spare, in case the first one packs up in the middle of a ceremony. Equipment also needs to be cleaned and serviced from time to time. This can all get very expensive, especially when you will be replacing most items within two years. I try to work this out as a weekly or monthly cost and spread it fairly between jobs.

It’s not just about having a nice big camera (though actually I do have a very big camera), the first thing that every client is looking for when they are booking a photographer is a style that they like, If you see a photographer who has a record of good work they will have been working long and hard to achieve that look. Good style has to be backed up by technical competence, which also takes time and study to perfect. Anyone who has worked to improve their skills will be looking for some sort of financial return for their effort. It’s hard to put a price on this, but my wedding photography charges have slowly crept up from low to mid range as I think I have more to offer, though I believe I’m still a bit of a bargain!

Albums prices can make up a large part of the costs. My current range of albums comes from a top U.S manufacturer, there is a huge range, they look great and the quality is very good. They are not ridiculously expensive but, by the time I have paid for the album and done the design work, they aren’t cheap either. I don’t normally offer the cheaper albums for a couple of reasons: firstly, I give all my clients the digital images after the wedding, so, if they are looking to save some money they can go to Paperchase or somewhere similar and buy an album for £45.00, print their photos from disc and assemble it themselves, the second reason is that I don’t really like cheap albums and don’t think they will do my reputation any good in the long run.

I also take into account all the other expenses involved in running my business, dedicated office space, car, other transport, public liability insurance, accountant, web hosting, online galleries, SEO, advertising etc.

When I’m looking at my charges, I work out what I need to do to keep everything to a high standard and maintain a sustainable business at the same time. Currently, these prices seem about right for me, I won’t be retiring early but I’m making a living. In the ongoing recession I won’t be putting them up for a while, and will be very happy if I keep the same level of bookings that I’ve had this year.

You can always find a cheaper photographer and you can certainly pay a lot more, but I’m offering a level of coverage that I think gives a high standard of service and good value for money. So, if you are getting married and you like my style of photography, please get in touch.

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by DaveP

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Tara and Jamie’s wedding at Powdermills, Battle.

Monday, November 16, 2009 wedding photography

I had my first taste of this year’s winter wedding photography a couple of weeks ago. Tara and Jamie were married at Powdermills, a lovely old hotel near Battle, the weekend after the clocks went back. They kept the wedding party to their nearest relatives, about fifteen people, so it was a very relaxed affair.
I turned up an hour before the wedding to take a few shots of the couple before the ceremony. This isn’t something I do very often, but it meant I could get some shots of Tara and Jamie outside before the light went completely. I also brought some strobes and umbrellas with me which came in useful later in the afternoon.

This was one of my shorter bookings. Initially it was going to be for two hours but we decided on three in the end, it turned out to be just about right. When there are only a few guests you don’t necessarily want a photographer for the whole day. I had enough time to take shots of the bride and groom, the ceremony and every combination of formal shot that was needed. After the ceremony I spent a bit more time taking some reportage shots of the reception and that was it, anything more and I would have been intruding on the day.

bride preparing in front of a mirror Tara getting ready for her wedding.