We’d like to remind Forumites to please avoid political debate on the Forum.
This is to keep it a safe and useful space for MoneySaving discussions. Threads that are – or become – political in nature may be removed in line with the Forum’s rules. Thank you for your understanding.
📨 Have you signed up to the Forum's new Email Digest yet? Get a selection of trending threads sent straight to your inbox daily, weekly or monthly!
The Forum now has a brand new text editor, adding a bunch of handy features to use when creating posts. Read more in our how-to guide
Wedding photographer taking forever
Comments
-
Kayalana99 wrote: »To be honest I don't see how any of this is relevant to the OP's question on getting her photos off him and more to have a dig at the photographers pricing.
Eh? Why on earth would I want to do that? Makes no odds to me what he charges.
Exactly what she paid for is relevant because that's what determines how long it should take her snapper to deliver the goods!
If the OP knows that, surely she's better placed to see just how much her snapper is wriggling?We're all doomed0 -
Hang on, I'm thoroughly confused.
You say you paid £800 for 3.5 hours snapping, files on a USB stick and an album.
What was to be on the USB stick? How many images and in what form?
And how many pictures in the album?
There are 300 images which will be stored to USB, I'm assuming JPEG
65 pictures in a storybook album0 -
Ah, now we know what's what
Just so you know, once the snaps are taken, the process is (or should be)
1 Edit out the blinks, gormless expressions, duplicates and general c rap
2 Do any Photoshop work necessary
3 Make the images that are left ready to print and then burn to USB stick
Let's assume that somebody takes 1000 snaps to make sure he has 300 "good" ones to give to the happy couple.
Stage 1 should take no more than 4 hours, even for the most indecisive snapper
Stage 2 should be the same, even if you want a fair bit of "magic" worked
Stage 3 is 15 minutes on a slow computer
So I can't see why even a part-timer couldn't have got your files to you inside a week or so.
Nothing happens about the album until you've chosen what you want in it, but "proofs" don't come into it. Once the snapper has your list, all he has to do is sit down with the album-maker's software, drag and drop your files into the appropriate places in the album, then upload it all to the album-maker.
He would have to be a bit useless to make that process last more than 4 hours for an album with 65 pictures in it. After that, it's all down to when the finished album is delivered from Italy, and I'd be inclined to allow a minimum of a month for that.
So ... you're getting the runaround for sure. The only questions are why, and where you go from here. Let's hope that the message you sent yesterday (?) does some good.
Personally, I'd give him 7 days to respond sensibly, failing which I'd bring up the big guns. Like I asked originally, is he a member of any trade association or whatever?We're all doomed0 -
Stage 1 should take no more than 4 hours, even for the most indecisive snapper
Stage 2 should be the same, even if you want a fair bit of "magic" worked
Are you sure that those times are right? Using your logic, the first stage is sifting through 1,000 photos - in 4 hours that would be 15 seconds per photo. Then the second stage would be 50 seconds each.
I am not in anyway a professional photographer - however those times seem a stretch.. I may be wrong. (Although I agree - it shouldn't take as long as it has)0 -
Are you sure that those times are right? Using your logic, the first stage is sifting through 1,000 photos - in 4 hours that would be 15 seconds per photo. Then the second stage would be 50 seconds each.
I can understand you raising an eyebrow, but 15 seconds per image is more than enough for a pro wedding photographer unless they're singularly indecisive or they can afford to make the picture editing their life's work.
All that's involved is opening a folder in something like Photo Mechanic, then clicking on the first image. After that, it's a simple case of hit one key to tag the shot as a goodie, or hit another key to bring up the next one. That should take a lot less than 15 seconds per shot, which is why I actually allowed more time to go through the "good" ones a second time to bin some in order to bring the number down to the final 300.
Your 50 seconds a time for Photoshopping assumes that all 300 need attention, which definitely should not be the case. Unless the customer expects intricate cosmetic "airbrushing", the actual Photoshop process for an image would normally consist of hitting the appropriate function key to apply an automated "action".
Having said that, I do totally understand how difficult it is for an amateur photographer to believe the times. I've shown two or three would-be wedding snappers how 'tis done and seen their reactions ...
We're all doomed0 -
Your 50 seconds a time for Photoshopping assumes that all 300 need attention, which definitely should not be the case. Unless the customer expects intricate cosmetic "airbrushing", the actual Photoshop process for an image would normally consist of hitting the appropriate function key to apply an automated "action".
Having said that, I do totally understand how difficult it is for an amateur photographer to believe the times. I've shown two or three would-be wedding snappers how 'tis done and seen their reactions ...
As always these things depend on what you've paid for.
Certainly for a basic/ cheap and cheerful package your timings are about right though I'd more expect a batch process being run in Lightroom during the RAW to JPG/ TIFF conversion rather than in Photoshop.
Of cause most will then have individual photos reviewed, your typical B&W or Sepia treatments applied, vignetting, object removal etc. This is where timing can be extended significantly depending on how many photos are being done and how much is standard settings or fine tuned etc.
Its not just about how indecisive the photographer is but also about how creative they are. Some want to do the standard job and get it out the door as soon as possible, others may want to "play" with the photo more to see if HDR suits a photo or not, would a different crop or aspect ratio work better etc.
Read any photography or art magazine/ book and you will see whilst there are rules and so you can do the basis by learning them there are also plenty of exceptions to the rules which by their nature of being exceptions means they can really only be found through experimentation and this takes time.0 -
InsideInsurance wrote: »As always these things depend on what you've paid for.
Very true.InsideInsurance wrote: »Certainly for a basic/ cheap and cheerful package your timings are about right
Thank you. Always nice to be damned by faint praise
InsideInsurance wrote: »though I'd more expect a batch process being run in Lightroom during the RAW to JPG/ TIFF conversion rather than in Photoshop.
Not sure I see what you're getting at there, but FWIW in 10 years as a pro wedding photographer, I never knew of any pro using TIFFs for wedding snaps!InsideInsurance wrote: »Of cause most will then have individual photos reviewed, your typical B&W or Sepia treatments applied, vignetting, object removal etc. This is where timing can be extended significantly depending on how many photos are being done and how much is standard settings or fine tuned etc.
Gosh, you're not by any chance a retired wedding snapper of the 'blad on sticks and Spicer Hallfield album variety are you?InsideInsurance wrote: »Its not just about how indecisive the photographer is but also about how creative they are. Some want to do the standard job and get it out the door as soon as possible, others may want to "play" with the photo more to see if HDR suits a photo or not, would a different crop or aspect ratio work better etc.
True - but the snappers who actually want to "play" with the photo are unlikely to be professionals earning their living from wedding photography unless they can get away with charging very high prices indeed.InsideInsurance wrote: »Read any photography or art magazine/ book and you will see whilst there are rules and so you can do the basis by learning them there are also plenty of exceptions to the rules which by their nature of being exceptions means they can really only be found through experimentation and this takes time.
Again, very true. But if you read any photography or art magazine/book, you will also see that there's an astonishing amount of pretentious nonsense talked about photography. And frankly, a lot of bluffing going on too. Always has been.
Anyhow, fascinating though our discussion no doubt is for everyone reading it, are we by indulging in it helping the OP with her problem? How about we just agree that she's getting the runaround bigtime so surely she now needs to be thinking of an ultimatum?We're all doomed0 -
Not sure I see what you're getting at there, but FWIW in 10 years as a pro wedding photographer, I never knew of any pro using TIFFs for wedding snaps!
Gosh, you're not by any chance a retired wedding snapper of the 'blad on sticks and Spicer Hallfield album variety are you?
True - but the snappers who actually want to "play" with the photo are unlikely to be professionals earning their living from wedding photography unless they can get away with charging very high prices indeed.
TIFF is a lossless format so whilst the majority will go for JPG, esp for sharing with the client, there can be reasons why a lossless format may be preferred or requested.
I would love to be a retired wedding snapper, tbh, would love to be retired but not made it that big just yet (not any kind of wedding photographer just to clarify beyond the normal guest with camera)
I disagree that all wedding photographers have to be the do the basics/ tick the box, get it out the door type to be able to be "professional". As per my previous post, our wedding photographer is really a model/ fashion photographer by trade that does half a dozen weddings a year. He certainly is doing well for himself despite the fact that he "plays" with the photos. Likewise some dont want to maximise their income but have a comfortable one and enjoy their job/ life balance etc0 -
InsideInsurance wrote: »TIFF is a lossless format so whilst the majority will go for JPG, esp for sharing with the client, there can be reasons why a lossless format may be preferred or requested.
Yes, TIFF is a lossless format. I know that, thank you. All I said was that I've never heard of a pro photographer using TIFFs for wedding snaps. There is no real-world advantage in using TIFFs for weddings.InsideInsurance wrote: »I disagree that all wedding photographers have to be the do the basics/ tick the box, get it out the door type to be able to be "professional".
Sorry, but you lost me there.InsideInsurance wrote: »As per my previous post, our wedding photographer is really a model/ fashion photographer by trade that does half a dozen weddings a year. He certainly is doing well for himself despite the fact that he "plays" with the photos.
Well, good for him. Perhaps he makes enough from his main occupation to subsidise to some extent his wedding work. I certainly knew two advertising photographers who did just that.InsideInsurance wrote: »Likewise some dont want to maximise their income but have a comfortable one and enjoy their job/ life balance etc
Indeed. That's why for the last three years, we limited ourselves to a maximum of 40 weddings a year
But enough already. Let us hope that the OP's snapper does the decent thing PDQ and that this sorry state of affairs turns out right for her in the end ...We're all doomed0 -
Not sure I see what you're getting at there, but FWIW in 10 years as a pro wedding photographer, I never knew of any pro using TIFFs for wedding snaps!
So you are a "pro wedding photographer".............. and you call the end results "wedding snaps" and refer to your fellow pros as "snappers" ........:think::think:0
This discussion has been closed.
Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply
Categories
- All Categories
- 353.8K Banking & Borrowing
- 254.3K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 455.2K Spending & Discounts
- 246.9K Work, Benefits & Business
- 603.4K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 178.2K Life & Family
- 261K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 16K Discuss & Feedback
- 37.7K Read-Only Boards