What is the average of good pictures in a wedding?

[fs_tigre]

Hi,
What is the average of good pictures in a wedding out of 100? Or simply a good photographer will never get bad pictures?

The reason I’m asking is because last Saturday in my niece’s wedding I took about 90 pictures during the ceremony at the church (I was shooting in M mode f/5.6 most of the time) and probably 15 or 20 are showing some motion (blurred) the rest of them are nice, so I’m a little disappointed with my results.

Can someone give me some advice or share their own experiences, since I will be practicing next Saturday as well in my sister-in-law’s wedding, this time the ceremony will be in the park so it will be a little different, I will be probably shooting in AV mode.

Thanks

Oh, I'm just a begginer and doing this just for fun!

[craiglee]

i shoot about 1000-2000 pictures a wedding. a lot of them are just bracketing or bursts. out of those i reduce it down to about 300-400 shots in my first filter pass. then it gets to something like 200-300 photos i edit individually.

[fs_tigre]

Ok, I feel better now that I know professionals also get this unwanted results.

then it gets to something like 200-300 photos i edit individually
When you say edit, you mean edit with Photoshop?

Is it common to edit every (the 200-300) photo in Photoshop after the wedding? Or what is the normal process? Shoot, edit, print…?

Thanks

[Jared Byer]

Ok, I feel better now that I know professionals also get this unwanted results.

When you say edit, you mean edit with Photoshop?

Is it common to edit every (the 200-300) photo in Photoshop after the wedding? Or what is the normal process? Shoot, edit, print…?

Thanks

For me editing is in Aperture. It includedes saturation, sharpness, contrast. I do my black and white conversitions in there. It can include tweaking color balance, cropping, straitining. Setting black points and bringing back highlight details. Noise reduction, etc.....

[jerrybsmith]

I too shoot about 1,000 to 2,000 depending on what is going on. I cull those down to about 500 keepers and do color and exposure corrections in Lightroom. From these, the client selects about 150 they like best for the album. I enhance those in Photoshop as I build the album spreads. I got this tip at a seminar and it saves me a ton of computr time. If the client is to receive the digital negatives, I send them as they came out of Lightroom with no additional editing.

[p360]

I too shoot about 1,000 to 2,000 depending on what is going on. I cull those down to about 500 keepers and do color and exposure corrections in Lightroom. From these, the client selects about 150 they like best for the album. I enhance those in Photoshop as I build the album spreads. I got this tip at a seminar and it saves me a ton of computr time. If the client is to receive the digital negatives, I send them as they came out of Lightroom with no additional editing.


That's a good practice. Thanks.

[fs_tigre]

So, it is necessary to edit the final photos in photoshop, right?

[cdifoto]

Technically (focus, exposure) you should be around 80-90% if not higher, depending on your skills and gear. Aesthetically, that's open to interpretation. I'm only wowed by maybe 15 images I take out of 1,000 or so but people tell me I'm insanely critical.

[tim]

For an eight hour wedding I take 600-1200 photos, plus some from my assistant. This gets culled to 300-500. Of those 500 anywhere between none and twenty will be good enough to go into my portfolio, average of perhaps 3-5. 100 or so will be candidates for the album predesign. The rest are moments that i've captured that I want them to have, to remember the day, but that probably won't make the album.

[craiglee]

i rarely use photoshop unless it's to remove flash reflections or just an ocassional sky replacement, healing, adding stuff. mostly though lightroom.

oh i use photoshop to put my signature in.

[SuzyView]

I am a pro and I take anywhere from 800-1500 images for an event. Because of the lenses and the cameras I use and the 5 years of experience, I can probably keep around 300-500. It's all a matter of practice and skill and knowing the gear. From your gear list, you have some limitations. I would love to tell you it's all skill, but it isn't. The gear makes a huge difference for shooting quickly and in a stressful situation. I could not do what I do without my f2.8 or faster lenses.

[fs_tigre]

100 or so will be candidates for the album predesign.Do you edit (to enhance quality) any of these pictures with a program such as PS? If yes, how often you do this, I mean is this part of your routine edit the final 100 pics?

[shaggymatt]

Sounds about the same for me. Between my assistant and I, we end up with about 2000 total for an 8 hour event. After Lightroom grading, I end up around 1000.

3 stars (above average snapshots): ~800 images
4 stars (album worthy): ~150-200 images
5 stars (portfolio worthy): ~10 images

Only 4 & 5 star images receive editing in Lightroom & Nik Software; more time of course applied to 5 star images. When I present the images to the customer on my ordering site, I put the 3 star images into a separate snapshots category. As I've said before, an image that I may not feel strongly about may be very important to the client, so I do not chose what gets shown and what doesn't as long as it isn't a poor representation of my work. If Grandma Ethel passes away a week after the wedding, that 3 star image is going to be super important to them which otherwise would've been sitting on my hard drive.

Mental thing for me which helps me see progress is that I create collections; prep, service, and reception and work out the collections. Those categories also carry over to the ordering site. Otherwise I tend to feel overwhelmed.

FWIW, I took a lighting class a couple months ago and the instructor who had shot over 1800 weddings told me that initially it took him between 50-100 weddings before he'd have images he'd feel were strong enough for his portfolio.

[tim]

Do you edit (to enhance quality) any of these pictures with a program such as PS? If yes, how often you do this, I mean is this part of your routine edit the final 100 pics?

I edit in Bridge/ACR, and about 1% in Photoshop. Check out my FAQ thread for a link to my workflow.

[-MasterChief-]

i have about the same as Tim. about 1200 max shots, narrowed down to 250-300. do my exposure, WB, and batch sharpening in DPP and do my final edits in Photoshop. about 100-150 go to the album (if ordered). 10 or less go into the portfolio.

[fs_tigre]

Check out my FAQ thread for a link to my workflow

Where can I find this link?

[shaggymatt]

Where can I find this link?

In his signature (bottom line).

[fs_tigre]

Wow! I didn't see it.

[ctcks]

This is a great thread.

[magnum703]

I am a pro and I take anywhere from 800-1500 images for an event. Because of the lenses and the cameras I use and the 5 years of experience, I can probably keep around 300-500. It's all a matter of practice and skill and knowing the gear. From your gear list, you have some limitations. I would love to tell you it's all skill, but it isn't. The gear makes a huge difference for shooting quickly and in a stressful situation. I could not do what I do without my f2.8 or faster lenses.

Good point! Time to get the 85L f1.2 then! HA HA HA. No... jk.... I'm still recovering from the damage to my account buying the 70-200 F2.8 IS! lol... Ooooo I just loooove photography!

[Mike]

I'm with the others - shoot around 1000 shots (depending on the length of the wedding) and import the lot into Lightroom. Then cull them initially getting rid of at least half - oof shots, missed shots, blinkies etc. Then I'll process each remaining shot in Lr. Then Mrs G will cast her eye over my final selection and give a bride's perspective to each shot and I may lose a few more from the selection! :D

[Mike]

Where can I find this link?

In his Sig as mentioned and it is also linked here with a whole host of other interesting and valuable wedding reading: http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showpost.php?p=5999915&postcount=2

[bnlearle]

I shoot as many as 6000 and like to keep the number to the bride and groom below 500.

I usually will have two folders on a disc (sometimes two separate discs). The first is the main disc/folder. These are my favorites. The top 200 or so that I think are going to be entirely representative of the full day.

The next couple hundred are there as extras - explained as such so that the couple judges them accordingly and is more excited about having extras to go over on, say, a rainy day instead of having my GREAT shots mixed in (and sort of diluted) with my good shots - if that makes sense :)

Don't get me wrong... I'm not including images I don't personally think are awesome. I just like to separate so that the great stands out from the good :)

Bobby

[elisesanchez]

I would say we shoot about 2500 shots a wedding. Then we edit that down to around 150-200. Shoot, shoot, shoot, and keep shooting!

[nazpicman]

I do a lot of event photography, and look at it as a matter of percentages. Out of 100 photos shot there is a percentage that are total garbage. At the opposite end there is a %, (maybe equal to the garbage) that are really super and are portfolio material. Then there is what is in the middle that can be saved possibly with some work or discarded and this is where the tough decisions are as to how to handle them...keep or discard?

[bnlearle]

Just to add, I'm a firm believer in only showing what YOU like. My clients pick me based off of what I've shown over the years. Over the years I've only shown what I love. Therefore, I continue to show only what I love. I shoot for me - and in the end the clients love what they get... does that make sense?

But yeah, shoot for you. Edit for you. In the end, the client will love it, as well :D If that's shooting 1000 and editing down to 500 or shooting 6000 and editing down to 250... shoot for you and edit what you love :D

Bobby

[nazpicman]

Just to add, I'm a firm believer in only showing what YOU like. My clients pick me based off of what I've shown over the years. Over the years I've only shown what I love. Therefore, I continue to show only what I love. I shoot for me - and in the end the clients love what they get... does that make sense?

But yeah, shoot for you. Edit for you. In the end, the client will love it, as well :D If that's shooting 1000 and editing down to 500 or shooting 6000 and editing down to 250... shoot for you and edit what you love :D

Bobby

Very good way to look at and approach it. The beauty of digital is that you CAN take so much more than film, knowing you will get those outstanding shots in the whole mix, but also realizing that not all will be perfect and uasable. Have not ventured into the wedding work yet, but did my first paying gig yesterday for a family reunion. In the process of editing now.