Demystifying Wedding Photography

I saw this on another photographers website/blog and I thought, even though one would imagine wedding photos to be self-explanatory...this might help fill in the gaps and explain why portfolios are a collection and not someone's entire wedding.

As I have found time and time again, better to over explain and sound boring, then leave room for misguided assumptions

That those 5-10 perfect moments we post on our blog the day after a wedding and the photos we share in our first meeting with a bride are our best work. I learned very quickly that my brides were expecting that level of perfection for every single photograph. Some were expecting me to do total magic and turn their fluorescent-lit, 1970’s carpeted town hall wedding into some sort of visual masterpiece. I don’t accept work if the venue is a shambles, by the way. Another perfectly good reason to turn down a wedding. Share with them the things about the album they’re looking at that made those photos some of your best. Tell them that the couple required no coaxing, pleading and begging to just ‘act natural’. Tell them that the location was carefully planned to take the photography into consideration. Tell them that the couple took your advice and didn’t place the head table smack in front of a gigantic window (also in my contract). Explain that you will also provide them with ‘regular’ pictures to record their day, their guests, their carefully planned details. But that perfect shot of the rings that took 10 minutes to style (it’s not easy hanging a diamond off a dew drop!) and then another 5 minutes to photograph will not be the norm for every one of their resulting 500 images.

Read more: http://www.digital-photography-school.com/two-things-i-tell-every-bride#ixzz10KOoZwc8