"How many photos should I deliver to my couple after the wedding?"
Issue #42
[Read Time - 7 Minutes]
Just a quick reminder for those new to this newsletter.
INSIDE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY is about the inner game of weddings.
I don’t talk cameras or tech because there are way smarter people who care more about gear than I do.
I talk about the things that I wanted to know when I started out.
I focus more on the things that take a new photographer who wants to build a business shooting weddings deeper into the special nuances of wedding photography.
It’s the stuff that wedding photographers WANT to talk about with each other but are afraid to.
Wedding photographers are typically a bit cagey about their process.
It’s common thinking that talking too much to “the competition” about how they shoot and what they know will reveal the recipe to their secret sauce, and they’ll lose business because of it.
I’ve been blessed to have shot all the weddings a photographer could ever wish to shoot, and now I want to help others experience what it’s like to call themselves a Professional Wedding Photographer.
I’m covering the touchy topics and asking the quarrelsome questions I wanted answers to when I started out.
Most of the time, I could not get a good answer because photographers are notoriously territorial and never want some young hustler upstaging them. I get it.
I had a LOT of questions early on, and I didn’t mind upstaging my elders.
Today, I’m setting the stage for the new hustlers and uncovering the content they need to know before they even ask.
Today’s question: How Many Wedding Photos Should I Deliver To My Couple?
The short answer to this often asked question is not exactly the fan-favorite response,
“It depends” (I know...sorry)
There are just too many variables for a flat numeric response. You have to consider:
How many hours are you shooting?
How much variety is there within the “scenes?”
Is there a reception?
Is there dancing and drinking (this matters a lot)
Do you like to shoot a lot or a little?
You can shoot for 10 hours and get 500 great photos.
You can also shoot for 5 hours and 500 great photos.
Here’s my take on this question (ie, the longer REAL version).
When you’re looking through all the photos you’ve shot after a wedding, you’re in the “culling” process.
I call this called Editing.
This should be the only time you decide on a photo’s viability.
To put it another way, that is a bit less creative and more blunt, this should be done once and never again.
When you’re editing down all the photos you took, you’re making an important decision.
You’re choosing whether the photo stays and becomes part of the photographic history of your couple’s wedding day OR it goes and becomes deleted data, never to be seen again... that’s it.
Don’t make this harder than it needs to be.
When I edit, I use a program that lets me color-code the photos one by one.
My color scheme is Green for Yes, Red for No and Hot Pink for a duplicate to edit with a Green.
I cover this whole process in full detail in my Wedding and Event Photo Processing Blueprint - Link at the bottom
From there, I move the Processing part in Lightroom.
Don’t make your life difficult.
Yes or No, and when it’s No, stick to that decision.
“But how do I choose what stays and what goes?” Excellent question, I have an excellent answer.
When you’re editing or culling, consider these factors:
Is this a great shot or not? If you love it, keep it.
Would someone else find this shot special? Be compassionate but ruthless on this one. If no one would care, dump it. You’ll find many of your artsy detail shots fall into this category, so try asking this follow-up,
Does this photo advance the story of the wedding day? Now, you can keep some of your art because it serves a purpose.
Is it redundant? If someone would love to see this person or this moment, you’re keeping it, BUT if you have multiple shots of the same person or moment, choose 2 to 4 of the best and dump the rest. No one wants to wade through 10 average shots of the same thing when there are clearly three that stand above the rest. Again, be ruthless. Keep the best angle, the best lighting, or the best expression, and dump the rest.
Is the person in the photo memorable? This is a bit of a downer, but think of it this way - If someone in one of your shots died suddenly and this was the last photo of them, would someone be grateful you shot this?
This has happened quite often over the years, and getting this call is horrible.
What you DO NOT want to say is, “Yeah, I did shoot them but I think I tossed it because I didn’t like the shot.”
Of course, you would never say this, but if you did toss a shot unnecessarily, you’d have to live with that (This is also why I keep the Discards for each wedding for a few weeks after the wedding. You never know)
Everyone is important, but not every photo you take is important.
Try to make everyone look good, and the editing part goes a lot smoother.
In the end, you should have the best moments with all the best people, plus a great collection of guests and details to round everything out.
My goal is always to show the photos to someone who wasn’t there (usually my wife), and if she “felt” like she was there, I did my job.
Now for the caveat, because I’ve looked at a LOT of other photographers’ weddings (both keepers and discards).
DON’T ever think you can give your couple too many shots because you can’t.
If you’re following the guidelines above, your shots are either awesome to everyone or special to someone.
NOTE: When you’re shooting an extra special person (Grandma, Grandpa, Mom, Dad, etc), make sure you get a few extra snaps of them so you know you’ll have a good one.
That’s pretty much wedding SOP (standard operating procedure).
And to answer your next question - If they’ve been invited to the wedding, they’re special enough to get a photo of them, so you don’t have to make that hard decision.
That’s one reason I like to try to capture everyone having a good time at least once.
So, I know what I just said sounded a bit conflicting.
Be ruthless when you edit, but keep anything special, and btw, everyone is special.
Yes, it is conflicting, but it’s also a dance.
A significant part of your craft is preserving this day and everyone in it, but it’s ALSO picturing this wedding through the eyes of your couple and their family.
If you’ve ever been part of a wedding, you’ll know it goes by very fast.
What happens before the wedding is easily forgotten (Read last week’s issue if you want more on that).
Once the reception gets into gear, the prep and the ceremony seem further and further away.
This is why you’re here, right?
You’ll get better at “seeing the moments” the more you shoot.
If you’re just starting out, err on the side of keeping more than you might like and creating a Photographer’s Favorites folder that highlights your very best (lighting, angle, expression) moments. This part comes at the end, when you’re categorizing things.
Like any creative endeavor, as you get better at shooting and preserving moments, you’ll also get better at trimming out the things that get in the way of telling a great story.
And that does bring up a really great point I just thought of...The Wedding Book!
This album, as most like to call it, is your best of the best collection of images.
If your couple loves the image and it’s integral to the story, it’ll go in here.
Now you don’t have to sweat giving them a few too many (just not a few hundred:)
Read more on Wedding Books here
So, at the end of the day, the loaded question of How Many Wedding Photos Should I Deliver To My Couple? comes down to you.
I’ve talked with former brides I didn’t have the opportunity to work with and heard their stories.
I’ve heard how this person or that person wasn’t photographed and how unhappy they were because of it.
This is a tough one to hear because, yes, the photographer hired should’ve tried to get everyone, BUT, the bride should’ve also mentioned the special people, AND yes, the photographer should’ve asked if there were special people to focus on.
Now you see a bit more of how this entire process is a dance.
Communication is essential to making everyone happy.
So, if you were to pin me down and force me to answer, How Many Wedding Photos Should I Deliver To My Couple? I’d tell you, “As many as you need to tell the story of the day, including all the details and all the people that make this story complete…now please get off of me!”
What I HIGHLY encourage you NOT to say is, “I deliver 500 photos,” which I’ve seen a LOT of photographers do as a marketing line to impress potential brides.
You don’t know how many photos you’ll shoot.
You don’t know how long you’ll be there.
You don’t know IF there will even be enough good things to shoot to fill your 500-image quota.
What happens if you only have 450 shots that should be in your gallery? Will you add in 50 that should be in the trash?
And what happens if you have 600 great shots? Will you trash them because that’s what you said you’d deliver, and you don’t want to offend your other clients?
Of course, more time typically yields more photos, and different weddings yield more opportunities to take more photos, but the creative process of retelling the story of this wedding day with photos is about your ability to preserve the day as it happens.
Again, it’s up to you.
Serve your couple.
Serve their families.
Serve their guests.
Be a good storyteller and tell the best story you can.
“Photography is a way of documenting history, preserving moments that would otherwise be lost.”
– Steve McCurry
How many photos you deliver to your couple is one part of the “inner game of wedding photography.” THIS is what I write about each week in this newsletter.
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If you’re starting and haven’t quite figured out how to handle the hundreds, or even thousands, of photos from an event, I’ve created something to help.
It’s a guide to help you process your wedding in one week, and it’s a system I’ve used for over 25 years and still use today. Don’t spend weeks processing and miss out on The Glow. This system will help you get your photos to your client, make them happy and make you look like the professional you want to be.
Here in the digital age, do you find that you differentiate between high resolution images that can be printed out, and smaller files that they are allowed to share on Facebook or other social media?
Do you charge differently for each type?