Topics 16-20
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#16 How soon will I have my prints and album?
in the not too distant future it will be possible to upload image from a wedding in real time to design house on the other side of the world and your wedding album will be laid out in in real time. The album will upload the files back to a local lab and late in your reception a courier will drop off your wedding album. At the very least it will be at your hotel when you wake up in the morning.
In the meantime, well, these things take time. Sure, not as much time as it did a few years ago, but the amount of time varies widely from studio to studio. Some can make albums in days using one hour photo processing and peel and stick albums, others can take years before you'll see your album. One Catch-22 we've seen is that some photographers run such a poor business (usually the low priced leaders) that they need new business to bring in deposits so that they can pay for wedding albums of the older clients. This scenario works fine until there is a sales slump and then there is a cash flow problem and then they are out of business.
You will want to get a realistic idea about how the process works from each photographer you interview. When you place a print order, how long before you have it in your hands? Will you need to select images for your album, or will the photographer do that for you? Once your layout is approved, how long before you have it in your hands? Keep in mind that things will take longer during the holiday season.
#17 . Tell me about the layout process for my album?
A fairly common thing to see from a studio is drop dead gorgeous demo album. They've spent a month making it perfect. It's beautiful, and makes them look great. Then, if you ask to see a current album they give a client, it's busy, the pictures aren't that great, and they are clustered together with too many similar images. in forgettable layouts. So, what happened? Typically the studio went out if its way with a nicer wedding to make an impressive demo album. They had interest in the client and their wedding. The other wedding was something assembled in a few hours, with minimal interest. There could be a variety of reasons. It could be something as simple as they weren't into this client's wedding, or they became too picky and too difficult to work with, or it could be that they outsourced their album production services (such as places in India) in order to save time and money.
You are going to want to see current stuff. They should have layouts they can show you on their computer monitors that they have been working on if they do it themselves. If they outsource album design they should be able to show you what has been presented to them.
You are going to want to get a good idea about how the album design process works. How soon before you see the first layout? Who will design it? Can you make changes? How many? How long will each change take? Do they retouch the images? If so, how many? Do they color correct the images? Do you get a say in the design of your layout?
#18 . Are you albums peel and stick?
With the popularity of flush mount albums there is a concern to get them done faster and cheaper. A new set of albums have come about that is gaining popularity. These are albums that are peel and stick. This means that the pages have double stick adhesive on them and photos are placed on top of them. There are two advantages for these albums. First they are very cheap, and second, a photographer can bang one together in less than a day.
I'm very skeptical about the longevity of these albums. The adhesive can delaminate over time which means it dries up and the photos fall out of the album This happens faster if the album is stored in a warm place. The other concern is that the adhesives from some over seas manufactures are often solvent based. The good news is that they won't dry out as quickly. The bad news is that they are more likely to discolor or eat through your wedding album images.
A much better solution is for these albums to be manufactured at a good album company where they use quality materials and offer a warrantee. The net/net is to avoid peel and stick albums at all costs!
#`19. When will I get my high resolution images?
Does the photographer/studio offer the high resolution images from your wedding without watermarks? If so, when do they give them to you? This seems to vary quite a bit from studio to studio. Our belief is that the longer the photographer holds onto your images, the more likely they are to get lost or damaged. You more or less want to have your high resolution images in your hands before your one year anniversary.
I'm going to just touch on a much larger subject. When you get your high resolution images from your photographer on DVD or CD, these discs won't last forever. In fact, they may last only a couple of years. They are easily damaged and seem to be easily lost as well. You cannot expect your photographer will keep your images on hand just in case your loose or damage your DVD. When it's gone, it's gone. You will need to learn how to back it up. It's also a good idea to give copies to family members so that you have it spread around a little. There are also some free places you can store your images that we know about. Feel free to contact us for more information.
#20 . Do you double book your wedding dates? Will you send a sub if you get a better job?
Such harsh, direct questions! But, you need to ask the questions. What you want to know is if they are going to split from your wedding leaving you a flunky to finish your wedding so they can run across town and do yet another wedding. Typically, this is a bad deal for both weddings that hired the photographer The first gets a rush job, and the second gets a tired photographer. What if they get a better job? Many wedding photographers are other types of photographers who merely dabble in wedding photography. If they do print photography for example and get a call to do a $100,000 shoot in Jamaica, you're wedding won't hold them back. If they work for a paper and a major event happens they may not be able to come to your wedding. Just the same if they are police or fire personnel and the city goes on tactical alert, they can't make your wedding either.
Of course when they sell you on a wedding they will swear up and down that they are coming to your wedding. But, ya know, sometimes promises are forgotten. If for example you hire someone perhaps a little too young to photograph your wedding you run the risk of them making poor decisions such as hanging out too late the night before with their posse. This is why it's better to hire someone who is a wedding photographer, not a moonlighter. Someone who has been doing wedding photography for a while knows the score and perhaps won't be as apt to make bad decisions. You don't want photographers who call in sick to weddings and send a sub. This isn't a job at a pizza restaurant!