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(photos: Gordon McGowan) Wedding Photography Courses

Welcome to the 6th section of this 7 part series "Turn Your Photography Into An Excellent Paying Career".

WHAT HAPPENS AFTER THE WEDDING

Backing Up Your Files
 
When you have left the wedding and arrived home, the work has not finished yet! It is now time to ensure that all your images are backed up safely. Download all images onto your computer and make sure you back them up onto at least another computer or on CD/DVD.
 
Selecting the Images
 
You may have 500 images taken from the wedding but when processing them up, try and select up to 200 for viewing purposes. If you offer any more than this, you can confuse your client and they will be a long time at the design stage trying to decide on which images to choose. Ensure that you have selected a good range from each section of the wedding to reflect the full story of the bride and grooms day. You want to visually create a story of their day and keep this in mind when selecting. Obviously include the couples desired list within your selection.  If you have a website where you can upload your images for friends and family to view, get them on there as soon as possible.
 
At the Viewing
 

The couple normally come in 3-4 weeks after their wedding day. On that viewing day, ensure that they have set aside the time to spend with you viewing and choosing the photos. Make it clear beforehand that they will not be spending just half an hour with you and then dashing off with any previews to select later.
 
Make sure they are comfortable and then leave the room when the photo slideshow starts.  Choose the appropriate music, then let them relive their day. You must allow them plenty of time hence encourage them to see the slide show as many times as they wish.
 
The idea is that you will be helping them choose the photos and designing the album with them at this viewing. If you are offering album and prints, the chances are they will re-order above their package price as they are swept away in the moment, hence adding to your profit.

 
Album Design
 
There are several different ways of designing and printing the album.
 
The most  traditional way is for the client to select the albums from manufacturers catalogues and/or your sample albums and then they can choose the colour mounts etc. from there. It is then best to leave the album design with you once they have chosen their photographs.
 

Nowadays, many album suppliers will have their own software where you can select their albums, choose mount types and colour, drag and drop photos into the album, which is all done on the computer. It is a good idea to have some of these albums on display to show your clients so that they can see what they are actually getting. Then, once the album has been designed, you can submit your order on-line (your designed album) to the manufacturer and they will have all your inputted details to process the order at their end. Many of the manufacturers also offer the option of then actually putting the album together for you.

There are also album suppliers out there that take your images and design the album for you. They produce a Wedding book of the day and they are printed in a book format. There are several options on whether you wish to choose a metallic finish, gloss or matt finish and options for various frills on the design. They look very trendy but the drawback is that you or your client have very little say over the design of the album and quite often the parents albums are identical mini versions of the main album. In the real world, more often than not, the two sets of parents want different images in their albums. Many photographers are using this route however these days as the albums do look very professional.
 
Selling after the wedding
 

Do not give up selling when the bride and groom come in to view their photos after the wedding. If you allow them a nice little preview album to take away with all their photos in and then let them choose their 30 photos (in their package) in their own time you loose the ‘heat of the moment’ and lose sales. Time drags on and they generally only end up ordering the 30 in the package ordered. They are recovering from the costs of the wedding and do not wish to put anymore on the credit card! If you get them to select their photos at the viewing with you, they are all wrapped up in romance remembering those special moments and cannot resist those extra prints. Have a price for each extra reprint ordered on top of their original package.
 
To make life easier for them and to ensure that you get the extra orders, you could consider offering them monthly instalments payments. This can take the pressure out of the extra cost for them and they are more likely to buy more.
 
Beware scams on reprints
 
These days, people will try and scan images and print them off themselves. Even though Copyright laws exist, there is really very little you can do in these instances apart from get angry when no reprint orders come through. The only way to go is to not rely on reprint sales and charge upfront for your services.
 
Reprints and parent albums
 
More often than not, parents and friends will want to have reprints and/or albums hence they will need to view the images. There are several ways of doing this:
 
Have facilities on your website to download all images of the wedding so that friends and family can view and order on line after the wedding direct on the internet. This is the easiest way for families.
 
Provide all images on CD as low resolution files so that they cannot be copied.
 

Print all photos on a contact sheet but ensure that the photos are large enough to be viewed properly and be appreciated.

Arrange another viewing for parents and friends.
 
You can price up your reprints dependant on the size  (e.g. 5” by 7” etc). Also offer parent albums with 12, 24, 36 photos as well as well as framed prints
 
Products To Offer (Examples)
 
- Reprints
- Albums
- High res photos on CD
- CD/DVD video of their photos of the day to music
- Framed prints / canvases
- Parents albums
- Thank you photo cards
- Baby club vouchers (maybe a discounted voucher on their first baby photos)

We run Wedding and Portrait Photography Courses with some of the top pro tutors..

Remember that we run Wedding & Photography courses (including Essential Business Advice) using Top Pro Tutors in fantastic venues and using at least 9 models on every course. Check these out on:

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