How many photos should you receive?

Each photographer works differently and there are those business model is to give you a fixed set amount of the best all fully edited and then hold back others to sell on top afterwards. Others will say that you get 1000 images "edited" which could be 10 different angles of your shoes and 10 in black and white. I say "edited" because one persons translation of edited is different to others and for me very large quoted amounts suggest that their idea of editing is quite different to mine.

For a full day my contract says I will deliver at least 400 fully edited but the final amount depends on the wedding, it could be a 1 venue winter wedding with 30 guests and no speeches for which 400 will be more than enough images to tell the wedding story.

Contrast that with a Summer Church wedding starting at prep - a car/horse and carriage or both - 8 bridesmaids, then on to a venue with bouncy castle, live music, magician, garden games first dance then fireworks,sparklers all which will generate extra images so you could very quickly end up with many more than the 400 I promised.

Its better that they say 350 properly edited rather than 1000 of questionable quality. I am wondering how many the photographer who let you down said - I am going to guess it was far more than the new quote- and they let you down. 100s and 100s of photos is not always a good thing.

I have a selection of before and after editing images on my website.

Thank your for your reply.

We are getting married in November and are having our venue all in one place. I'll be getting ready there and possibly the groom too, so there will be no fancy cars to photograph or travelling involved. We are only having around 45 day guests and 70 evening guests, if that. We aren't having a magician, but have booked a magic mirror and fireworks for entrainment (alongside the DJ) and we'll also be having sparklers. Our wedding party consists of the best man and an usher (h2b's 2 brothers) and I have a moh only (my sister) and a page boy.

Knowing this, would you say 250-350 photos would be enough? Or should I contact them and try to negotiate the amount we'll receive? I just don't want to miss any of the important details!

I can not speak for the photographer but for me I could see my normal quoted 400 minimum being about right up to my normal 1st dance + a bit of extra dance floor action price, so about the same as the 350 quoted but then for me the fireworks and sparklers would generate extra images on top of the 400. I quote an amount so that there is a number in the contract but I do say it is at least 400, a shorter day package would be a smaller quoted amount.

I'm sure they will see it the same way in that fireworks are not the norm and their normal coverage is 350 so the fireworks would be extra images on top. But they may want to work out an extra cost to cover the extra time, but that's not something that I would do.

As for missing important details I never delete images to get down to my quoted 400 amount - if they are good then you will receive them. I take an unlimited amount and then go through them one by one, lets take a natural looking shot of the two of you walking along, I may take 10 shots but 2 you will be looking at the floor, 2 you will have THE worst expression you could think of - another the groom could look like he has 1 leg as he is walking then I may have two with identical expressions but one of them you can see the flowers better, so that 10 now down to 4 and now its down to 4 I can spend time working on the few, lighten areas, darken others, remove distracting things in the back ground until I am happy with the image, if I were to give you all 10 they would all be with no extra editing.

Here is one, you may also get a looking at the camera version or each other but if I were to supply 15 different facial expressions I would not be able to do so with the kind of work featured here. You have to click the image to start the before and after animation

I concur with what Bill has written, but I thought the perspective of another photographer might be useful.

When I tell the couple that I will deliver a number of images it is always the aboslute minimum. I may typically deliver double that number. The reason is a simple philosophy of “under promise and over deliver”.

As Bill says, “Edit” means different things to different people. When some people say they edit their photos they literally mean they remove some of the images and leave the edited set which they deliver (most photographers call this culling, but some call it editing). Edit to others is adjusting the exposure (brightness), the contrast, the colour and cropping (reframing) the image - these changes impact the whole image. Next up the scale is editing which involves removing distracting objects (such as a fire exit sign), brightening or darkening selective parts of the image etc. Lastly you have full retouching which would include fixing skin blemishes, reshaping bodies, etc. Most, though certainly not all, photographers go to step 2 of this (adjust the exposure, colour, crop) for the bulk of the X hundred images. If you’re having a printed album then you might go to the next level up, which uses more selective adjustments. The final step isn’t that common for wedding photography. Ultimately the only way to know what your photographer will do is ask them. These are the questions you might want to ask:

1) How many images will you deliver? Is that a minimum or a fixed number? What’s the number you typically deliver for a wedding of X hours and Y locations?

2) Do you deliver all you think are worthy of delivering or do you make others available to purchase?

3) Of the bulk that you deliver, what kind of editing do you perform on them?

4) If I buy an album, what kind of editing will you do on those images?

Lastly I would say it’s not about the number but the quality, both in terms of the composition and the moment, and the technical quality of the image (though more the former than the latter). I know it sounds like a cliche but it’s really true. In the US photographers often deliver, literally, 20 different photos of the bride’s shoes. I wouldn’t dream of doing that - one or two only. In years to come you’ll want to look at pictures of people’s faces, not shoes! 100 fabulous photos is infinitely better than 750 mediocre ones.

Hope that helps! Enjoy your day.

Thanks again. They are aware of the fireworks and sparklers but are still only able to edit a maximum of 350, so I wouldn't receive any more than this. I can see what you mean about not wanting/needing to edit all of the photos as some will be similar and it would mean you can't spend as much time editing each one. And, let's face it, some won't be great in terms of expression etc. anyway, as you've said. As long as the 350 gives me a good mixture of photos, I think I will be happy.

Its also worth mentioning that there are some who send all of the days images to a 3rd party (typically India ) for culling and basic colour brightness contrast editing then they may do a little extra work on a few "hero"shots themselves. There can me many reasons for working that way and one is that it can suit some shooters who only shoot weddings as a weekend thing because they have another full time job during the week.

Numbers mean nothing sometimes, like Bill said but if there was one piece of advice I give couples is to make sure you see hundreds of photos from each wedding and not just the photographers best picks from loads of weddings.

You wedding is in November, its dark and cold so everyone will probably be packed tightly in a warm room which will make the photographers job harder trying to get photos of people so I would say around 400-450 including fireworks but every photographer is different.

I cant add anything to the advice given by the other photographers earlier in this thread......really good advice...

Peter

Such a shame your first photographer let you down!

When I was trying to decide whether my photographer was for me I asked if there was a full set of wedding photos I could see (I.e. from one wedding). She was more than happy to do so and showed me what she would send to the bride and groom and what she sets out for the album for multiple very different weddings. I would say personally (as a bride and non photographer replying to this) that I wouldn’t want to go with a photographer that had a maximum number of images. I would expect a mimimum and maybe a guide of what to expect but a maximum number to me implies that when they reach that number of good images the rest could just get discarded without further consideration.

If I were you I would continue to get quotes from other photographers you like so you can choose the one that suits what you want them to deliver best rather than just deciding if this one is the one for you or not.

Thank you for the advice! I’ve just sent a text messaging asking if there is a full set of photos that I can see - Let’s hope there is! In terms of the maximum numbers, he has said that I will receive a minimum of 250-350, with the possibility of getting more than this depending on how the day goes. I think someone else suggested that it’s a case of under promise and have a happy customer than over promise and have a disappointed one.

In in terms of getting more quotes, we have a very limited budget so we are so limited as to what we are able to get. I’m happy with the photos I’ve seen of his (here’s a couple) so I don’t think there is an issue with quality.

Oh I see! From reading your initial messages I thought it was a maximum, if it’s a guide that’s not so bad. Definitely nice photos and I hope they send you a real wedding package to look at to help you decide. Best of luck with it - I’m sure if you like the selection of wedding photos they send you’ll be golden!

When I first asked him, he said based on the length of time he's there 250-350 is what I'd expect to get out of the approx. 2000 that he takes. After speaking with him some more, he said it's likely that I will get around 350 photos and maybe 'a few more' (how many a few is I do not know!?).

I asked about the full selection and he said that he always tells clients that only a select number of images from their wedding will be used to market for further bookings, so can't provide me with a full set. I'm not sure how I feel about this to be quite honest.

I also found out that he's only been photographing weddings for a year and is not doing this full time as he's still building his portfolio. I knew that he wouldn't have a tonne of experience (he's charging £500 for bridal prep to after my fireworks/sparklers). Unfortunately, this is our maximum budget so can't stretch to someone more experienced.

I feel really torn! love the photos I've seen but don't want to only end up with 250 photos for 11-12 hours photography! And I know that we all have to start somewhere in terms of experience, the best photographers were new at one point. I just don't know! Advice would be greatly appreciated!

Please don't get hung up on numbers, he is inexperienced and only been shooting a year so not even he will know how many he will get so hes given you 350 as a min number, its a winter wedding which is harder to shoot and he will lose a lot of images that are less sharp using probably a older camera etc.

Ask him if you can see a few hundred photos from a winter wedding like a blog post. If you want I can give him a once over to put your mind at rest, no problem.

Thank you Bruce, if you don’t mind I’ll take you up on that offer! I’ll send you a PM with the details now.

And I asked about seeing more photos, but he said he doesn’t have any that I can see that aren’t already published on his website.

On one hand I really wouldn't feel comfortable not seeing a complete wedding. Whilst he might not have the agreement from a previous couple to show a complete wedding on his website, almost all wedding photographers retain the copyright to the images they took, so he ought to be comfortable showing you a complete set, perhaps in person? It's important, because anybody can show a decent image or two from each wedding.

On the other hand, £500 is fairly low for a wedding photographer for a full day and if you can't pay more then fair enough and you probably have to accept someone with less experience. Less experience doesn't necessarily mean low quality, just like not having professional-level equipment and backups/spares of all equipment isn't necessarily a barrier to getting photographs that you love. More experience does however increase the likelihood of that though and the equipment decreases the likelihood of a disaster ruining a large number of pictures. The less you spend the more you're leaving to chance.

Fingers crossed that he can show you some more images and that you like them.

Well there you go, he hasn't got that many on there then.

This is really tricky to advise without sounding like I have an angle on it.

With smaller budgets and inexperienced shooters you do run the risk of the issues, like being let down. One thing that I have seen many times on this forum is that a low cost new start up is booked for 1-2 years away and the shooter realises that they have gone in too low, maybe they had no bookings at the time, sometimes they just realise its more work than they thought so will just drop the low value one and book a higher one. Yes it can be bad for reputation but 1- they don't yet have one and 2- they have a full time job and weddings are just extra cash any way.

If a shooter is not willing - makes excuses why they can not show you a full set then that should sound alarm bells.

A winter wedding is very different and harder to shoot than a Summer one and fireworks are really difficult to get right. try to find someone who can show you a whole wedding and shots taken in the winter and of fireworks. Those fireworks are over in seconds and cost a lot of money perhaps you need to decide if photos of them are important to you.

Think of your favourite movie, They probably filmed Hours upon hours for that movie, but they kept only the best bits, Why!? because that was all needed to be said. It summed it up perfectly. Imagine adding every scene in titanic where D'Caprio or someone forgets his/her lines, They tend to film every line 3 or 4 times so add them in too. It just wouldn't make sense. And seems ridiculous. Same for Wedding photos.
I don't understand people and wanting hundreds of images.
Do you really want 30 pics of your shoes or cake. Or 50 images of you in your dress smilling away hardly moving and blinking in half of them.
How many will you put on your wall? What ones would you pic? Best ones right?
What is more important to you?
The perfect capturing of the best moments of your life? Or those and 900 ones that you will look at once and quickly skim through to get to your favourites shots.

So with that said 250-350 (He's probably taken double that and culled it to the best) as a minimum is more than enough I'd say to capture the day pefectly. Thos 250 photos won't feel like an 8 hour version of Titanic haha. And if anything will make you want to look through them again.
PS, I hope you had a great Wedding and were you satisfied, and in the end did the number of photos really matter that much in the end? so long as you got that 1 photo that you always come back to and smile at?