Wedding photography - what is the fastest and best way to process?

Question

What is the fastest way to get the photos to the client in a professional manner? Ours took six weeks to get, is that a long time?

Answer 1

Well do you like the pictures? Are you happy with the quality of all or most of what you see? If you are then 6 six weeks is fine. If you're not happy with the results and it took that long then it wasn't worth the wait. I generally try to get the pictures online for the b/g to view within 2 weeks if possible. This is when the wedding is still fresh on peoples mind and they are still excited about seeing the photos. These include retouch and manipulated images. As much as we'd like each and every photo taken to be good and clear, they are not and have to be worked on to look their best for viewing. This process involves going thru at least over 1200 images. This can be time consuming. To be fair, most of us would like a decision made on which pictures are selected for the final book as soon as possible but chances are that the bride hold off for longer then they should. I didn't get a final decision from a bride until a year after the wedding on which pictures she wanted in her album. We rushed and rushed to get her the pictures.

Unless it's in their contract that they are to have the pictures ready for you by a set date than I would say 6 weeks (although a little long for my taste) is acceptable. If they went beyond the date promised then you can negotiate for a freebie. Like a free enlargement or a book or something.  

Answer 2

Cassie, I am just an amateur photographer, but 6 weeks is much too long, in my opinion. They should be ready for you when you return from your honeymoon. With today's technology, digital photos can be downloaded in less than 10 minutes and placed on a CD for you to see. This can then be put on your TV for you to select which ones you want blown up and placed on paper for you. In fact, you could just keep the CD and show them on your TV whenever you want to show them.

Regards,

Dan

Answer 3

There is no such thing as the "fastest and the best".  You can have fast, or you can have good.  not both.  the best way to shoot and process in camera raw, but this is very time consuming.  the fastest is to shoot jpegs straight from the camera.  Dan, no offense, but you really have no idea what goes into processing these things.  You don't just go home, and download the images and burn a cd, there is a great deal of work involved when/if you shoot in raw mode, as I do.  Shooting the wdding is the easy part, the hard part is spending hours and hours in post processing.  6 weeks is a little longer than average, i usually have my weddings pictures done in 30 days.

Answer 4

I usually deliver the proofs within about 2 - 3 weeks, sometimes less depending on the number of shots and the complexity of the event.   I really don't think six weeks is outrageous, though. Some people are just slower at post processing than others.   As long as the result was good, I don't think 6 weeks is out of line.