Given the significance of weddings, people expect top-quality photographs to be taken. When you hire a professional photographer to cover your wedding, you expect it to be done perfectly, with the photos being produced a few days later. However, this isn’t usually the case. Even with reputable professionals like Kate Legters Photography, photos still take time. There’s no getting around the fact that you’ll need to be patient if you want your wedding photos to be done right.
The photographer taking pictures at your wedding is just the first in a series of steps until you get all your photos.
How Long Before You Receive Your Photos From the Photographer?
On average, expect to receive your wedding photos from the photographer in about 4 weeks. Depending on certain factors, this timeline could be longer or shorter.
For example, if it’s the peak season for weddings, expect lots of them to be happening around the same time as your own. This means that your wedding photographer will likely have other weddings to cover around the time yours is happening. This could mean a longer wait. Similarly, if your chosen wedding photographer is any good, they’ll likely be reputable. This means many people will seek them out to cover weddings, meaning they’ll have photos of other weddings to work on too.
Other factors that could affect how long your photographer finishes processing your wedding photos include:
i)The kind of wedding photography package you ordered
ii) Whether or not it’s a full wedding
iii) The number of guests at the function
iv) Whether the photographers were amateurs or professionals
v) Whether or not you need fully-edited photos
Of course, just because it may take weeks to receive your wedding photos doesn’t mean you won’t see a thing. The standard industry practice is for the photographer to process a few photos immediately after the wedding. Within a day or two, they’ll send you some of these photos to give you a “sneak peek” of what to expect. This first batch may include only 1 or 2 photos to as many as 15. With your permission, the photographer can also post such photos on their website or social media accounts.
Sending this first batch of photos also allows you to make suggestions. This is especially important for the photo book. You may not be impressed by what you see in this first batch. You can then make suggestions or have these photos omitted entirely from the photobook. Find out ways to get Instagram followers.
What Makes the Process Long?
Getting your pictures taken is only the first part. There are several other processes that the photographer has to complete before presenting you with the photos. These steps are largely responsible for the weeks of waiting:
1)Curation
Not all the pictures taken at the event will be worthy of being reproduced. The photographer has to go through all of them, selecting which ones are good enough to be sent to the client. This is a painstaking process because some weddings can have thousands of photos taken. The photographer has to examine each one long enough to determine its cursory quality.
2) Choosing the Relevant Photos
Similar to the curation process, the photographer has to ensure that each photo presented to the client carries the wedding theme. This means that pictures that don’t seem to blend with the wedding narrative are discarded. This is also a painstaking process. The photographer will have to be in constant communication with the client to help weed out unwanted photos.
3) Editing
This is the process that tends to occupy most of the photographer’s time. This is where all the finer details are considered. From examining the different lighting angles to the mood, each photo is thoroughly scrutinized for anything that may make it seem unsuitable for the photo book. As always, the client’s input is considered throughout this process. Ensuring that the photos have a semblance of cohesion to them is also part of the editing process. This is especially true for photos that may have been taken at different locations and times.
This editing process will often involve more curating. After all, there may be photos whose quality may not agree with the wedding story once edited.
4) Printing the photos
The photos to be printed are those that will have been thoroughly edited and curated. Depending on the number of photos, this process could take more than a month.
Is It Worth the Wait?
Weddings are memorable events that need good-quality pictures to last a lifetime. While some of the steps involved may seem overly excessive, the resulting photos will preserve the dear memories of your wedding day for generations to come.
