Wedding turn around

[beaconlightboy]

Just curios what the average length of time it takes you all to turn around your wedding pictures after the shoot?

[jessiper]

Which part? The proofs, the disc, an online gallery?

[coreypolis]

faster the better.

If you get a good workflow down, you could have a proof book/online proofing down the same weekend. Atleast put a couple of the best up on a blog or somewhere so they can see them right away.

The pros will always say to create an emotional attachment rihgt away with them.
The longer you put them off, the less you'll want to work on them, especially formals or albums.

[MazerRakhm]

I don't know what the normal turnaround is, but I have a short story about this that really annoyed me. Some people give wedding photographers a bad name.

We went to a friends wedding on August 12th.

The hired photographers put little buisness cards on the tables, I didn't look at it much at first, but put it in my pocket for later.

Upon looking at it, the card said:

Bride & Groom Name
August 12, 2006
Our wedding photos may be viewed after Septembr 23th
web address
Username:xxxxx Password:xxxxxx

I was already annoyed at the photographers because I did not like the couples engagement pictures at all, I wasn't the photographer and my opinion wasn't asked so I kept my mouth shut though. My wife was further annoyed at the way the two photographers shot the wedding; they were both shooting the same thing at the same time. The horrible QA of a buisiness card that they left at every guests place setting is what really did it for me.

Needless to say that when the 23th came and went, I was not supprised to find no pictues on line. I checked back on October 23th with no luck, we finally heard from our friends that the pictures were up by the week of Thanksgiving. Obviously meaning we were supposed to check Novemberr 23th.

Moral of the story IMO; I don't care how badly you miss spell it, you should have something to the customers on the day it was promised. Even if it is just a page saying "Due to circumstances this gallery is being delayed." That would be a lot better than "404 Page not found" we all saw until the pictures showed up.

/rant

[tony fanning]

It takes me around 3-4 evenings to get the on-line gallery up.

[FotOz]

Ten days - signed, sealed and delivered. Album and CDs.

[Wazza]

I tell customers maximum of 2 weeks, but it only takes a couple of days of editing, and another day to do a private gallery, or one for the family to order prints.

[picturecrazy]

I'm slower... I still work a day job.

I tell them two months. It never takes that long but if you say two months and you deliver in 1 then you're a hero. If you say two weeks and deliver in 1 month then you're bad.

Even if I could get these out within 10 days, I would never say 10 days... at minimum I'd say a month. Life happens... people get sick, cross-country funerals, your mom has a heart attack, you fall and break something and need to be on heavy medication for two weeks... etc...

[paul33]

Shoot Saturday, spend Sunday with the family, work Monday and as much of Tuesday as necessary but 99% of wedding galleries are online by close of the Tuesday ...... printed proofs available once couple are back from honeymoon !

[TeeJay]

Even if I could get these out within 10 days, I would never say 10 days... at minimum I'd say a month. Life happens... people get sick, cross-country funerals, your mom has a heart attack, you fall and break something and need to be on heavy medication for two weeks... etc...

What a chearful person you are :D - I'm sure glad I'm not related to you! ;)

[picturecrazy]

What a chearful person you are :D - I'm sure glad I'm not related to you! ;)

I am actually a very cheerful and optimistic guy. But I'm also realistic. Having a bit of both is a good thing for running a business!

All I'm saying is that you should give yourself some room for life's curveballs to happen.

[tim]

Proofs I get up in around 2 days on average. I have had them done within 12 hours a couple of times, and a couple of times it's taken my 5 days.

For albums I ask the B&G to choose their favorite 20 photos or so, my contract says they're done within 28 days. In practice it takes less time usually, but after a couple of rounds of changes it can take some time. It takes Queensberry 3-6 weeks to print and bind the album, depending on the time of year.

[TeeJay]

Picturecrazy: I couldn't agree more, I've been running my own business for 16 year now!

... it was just your chosen "problems" that I thought were little morbid! :-)

[karensimmons]

Blog posts w/in 3 days after.
Online w/in 20 days.
Proofs 10 days after the online release.

And yes, I think it's smart to underpromise and overdeliver. My contract says images will be posted online w/in 30 days of the wedding. That gives me a huge cushion in case I need it. And no matter how much you want to chastise someone for being "pessimistic" the time will come when you need it - and yeah, the two reasons I needed it were - my dad died and my mom died. So morbid? Sure. Realistic? Sure. Better to promise 30 and deliver in 12 than promise 10 and deliver in 12.

Karen

[hart]

Does anyone do retouching on the proof album or do you just show the customer the shots "straight-out-of-the-camera" and let them know editing will be handled after they choose their shots?

[tim]

Does anyone do retouching on the proof album or do you just show the customer the shots "straight-out-of-the-camera" and let them know editing will be handled after they choose their shots?

A half dozen shots might get retouching, and anything that needs to be retouched because I did something wrong gets done - quicky.

[jessiper]

Does anyone do retouching on the proof album or do you just show the customer the shots "straight-out-of-the-camera" and let them know editing will be handled after they choose their shots?

I do all editing and retouching for the proofs/online gallery. I'm going to do it anyway, so I might as well do it in the beginning, however, I will make sure the prints are perfect so I'll take another look at them before having them printed. I want my work to look it's best, even if it is just a proof. Also, I guess I should mention, I'm a bit of a perfectionist, and I just can't leave them untouched. :rolleyes:

[tim]

Jessiper, do you do printed proofs? My proofs are online/on DVD unless the customer requests and pays for prints, so I feel less need to edit them all. It saves me HOURS on my workflow. Anything that gets printed or used in an album gets whatever work it needs, but honestly all I usually do is white bal/exposure/brightness/contrast/saturation/vignette. Keep it simple.

[jessiper]

Jessiper, do you do printed proofs? My proofs are online/on DVD unless the customer requests and pays for prints, so I feel less need to edit them all. It saves me HOURS on my workflow. Anything that gets printed or used in an album gets whatever work it needs, but honestly all I usually do is white bal/exposure/brightness/contrast/saturation/vignette. Keep it simple.

I do offer a certain amount of proofs, then will put the rest on the disc. I also include some 5x7's & 8x10's of their choice as well. I guess we had different definitions of "edit." What I do is white bal/exposure/brightness/contrast/saturation/vignette as well (mostly batch process), and some B&W conversion. I don't have any actions that I use yet, so I didn't even think about that part. ;)

[dsze]

Proofs are up in 1 day... all receive basic processing and some get more. Album preview done in one more day. My goal is to get the entire process down to 5 hours or less after the wedding day.

[sapearl]

Approximately 400-500 4x6 commercial lab proofs in proof books are available for pickup about 3 weeks after the event. At that time I also give them the URL and password to the online proof gallery.

I ask them to return the order for the final album as well as enlargements in 4-6 weeks. When I receive the order I tell them it takes about 8-10 weeks for me to assemble their ablum. - Stu

[tim]

Stu, I get images up online into my ordering in 1-2 days usually, I often get quite a few print orders from family in the following week while the emotions are still running strong. I'm even considering having cards printed to give guests saying where they can see the photos, mainly to get more print orders.

[jessiper]

I'm even considering having cards printed to give guests saying where they can see the photos, mainly to get more print orders.

That's a good idea. I bet the B&G do e-mail your website info. to a lot of people, though. I don't see how it could hurt (unless the pics really suck, but that's not the case w/you, of course!). :p

[tim]

The B&G put my website on the wedding programme at my last wedding, I had half a dozen calls to my toll free number to ask about the images from the last wedding, that will have cost me a few dollars (not much). Since then i've changed the navigation so people can see the proofs without calling me. The cards will probably help get small orders, but since I have minimum orders that's fine.

[jessiper]

You have a toll free #? That's nice of you. Even if you just get some small orders, I'm sure it would be worth it.

[sapearl]

Tim, realistically I could probably get my proofs up online in about 4 days if I hustled every night after getting home from my regular job. You make a valid point about "posting" while the emotions are running high. My "market model" is still under construction and subject to review. :D

But what I balance against a quick online release is the following: I've always placed a lot of value on watching the initial reactions of the B&G as they see their pictures for the very first time when I present the proof books to them in my home. The second reaction is never the same. This is VERY important feedback to me as a photographer, and I use it to help make me a better photographer.

You can learn a lot from a client by observing their body language, facial expression, comments...... most of which would be lost if they'd already seen their images online, possibly on a crappy monitor. It's also an excellent opportunity to solicit comments, explain cropping, touch up options, etc.

But your comment Tim does cause me to ask the following question:

For those of you who provide BOTH lab proofs AND online proof galleries, would it be better to
(1). "release" the online gallery first, or
(2) open the gallery the same time you give them the proofs, or
(3). do it any old way since from a marketting standpoint it makes no difference in the long run.

How do you all feel about this?

Stu, I get images up online into my ordering in 1-2 days usually, I often get quite a few print orders from family in the following week while the emotions are still running strong. I'm even considering having cards printed to give guests saying where they can see the photos, mainly to get more print orders.

[jessiper]

Tim, realistically I could probably get my proofs up online in about 4 days if I hustled every night after getting home from my regular job. You make a valid point about "posting" while the emotions are running high. My "market model" is still under construction and subject to review. :D

But what I balance against a quick online release is the following: I've always placed a lot of value on watching the initial reactions of the B&G as they see their pictures for the very first time when I present the proof books to them in my home. The second reaction is never the same. This is VERY important feedback to me as a photographer, and I use it to help make me a better photographer.

You can learn a lot from a client by observing their body language, facial expression, comments...... most of which would be lost if they'd already seen their images online, possibly on a crappy monitor. It's also an excellent opportunity to solicit comments, explain cropping, touch up options, etc.

But your comment Tim does cause me to ask the following question:

For those of you who provide BOTH lab proofs AND online proof galleries, would it be better to
(1). "release" the online gallery first, or
(2) open the gallery the same time you give them the proofs, or
(3). do it any old way since from a marketting standpoint it makes no difference in the long run.

How do you all feel about this?

You make a great point about watching their reactions when you give them the prints. On the other hand, they love being able to see their images so soon after the wedding. (I put them online w/in a week, then get their proofs to them w/in a few weeks) I would personally rather have them see their pics for the first time w/me, but w/digital I don't know if that's best. They want it NOW!

[sapearl]

I forgot to mention one of the more important reasons why I wait a while before putting the the proofs online.

The B&G are paying my contract and normally are off on their honeymoon for a couple of weeks. IMHO It's only appropriate that they should see the work first, as opposed to the rest of their family seeing it online before them.

[jessiper]

I forgot to mention one of the more important reasons why I wait a while before putting the the proofs online.

The B&G are paying my contract and normally are off on their honeymoon for a couple of weeks. IMHO It's only appropriate that they should see the work first, as opposed to the rest of their family seeing it online before them.

Yes, but I only give the login info to the B&G. They'll usually call me when they get back in town.

[tim]

Tim, realistically I could probably get my proofs up online in about 4 days if I hustled every night after getting home from my regular job. You make a valid point about "posting" while the emotions are running high. My "market model" is still under construction and subject to review. :D

But what I balance against a quick online release is the following: I've always placed a lot of value on watching the initial reactions of the B&G as they see their pictures for the very first time when I present the proof books to them in my home. The second reaction is never the same. This is VERY important feedback to me as a photographer, and I use it to help make me a better photographer.

You can learn a lot from a client by observing their body language, facial expression, comments...... most of which would be lost if they'd already seen their images online, possibly on a crappy monitor. It's also an excellent opportunity to solicit comments, explain cropping, touch up options, etc.

That's an excellent point Stu, I never even thought of that. Since I don't do printed proofs i'm not sure how well it'd work, but I could do a presentation on a TV or laptop. The other issue is I work from my home, and it's not very client friendly - I moved recently and this place isn't so good. I usually meet customers in cafes in town.

I forgot to mention one of the more important reasons why I wait a while before putting the the proofs online.

The B&G are paying my contract and normally are off on their honeymoon for a couple of weeks. IMHO It's only appropriate that they should see the work first, as opposed to the rest of their family seeing it online before them.

Yes, but I only give the login info to the B&G. They'll usually call me when they get back in town.

I do this too - the B&G get sent the email with the location of the photos, they tell everyone else. I'm going to modify my contract to say do they want their proofs publicly viewable by all as soon as they're ready, and do they want a password on the gallery.

[jillybean]

I PP all shots (usually 200) for the 4x6 proof album- generally in the b&g hands withing 2-3 weeks.

[CyberPet]

It depends on the workload. If I don't have a wedding every weekend, I can pretty fast get the images online after about 3-4 days, but juggling orders and other things often come in the way, so I tell them realisticly 2 weeks, unless it's something special. They then have 3 weeks to order images from the online proofs for a special discount price, and I usually have them out of the road after 2 weeks as well. I don't do albums, so it's an ala carte order they do.