Lessons learned about photography contracts

I thought I would share some of the things I wish I would had known before booking a photographer.

Mostly what I want to share is about paying for digital copies of your photos... Overall, make sure you know exactly what you are getting.

First, make sure you are getting high-res photos. Low-res photos won't do you any good if you plan on printing anything larger than 4x6.

Make sure to ask the photographer whether they put their “signature” or not on the photos – usually it is their name in the corner of the photo. Luckily, my photographer gave us high-res files without her signature.

Make sure you understand whether you are getting, raw, edited or fully edited photos. Our photographer had a sheet explaining what we were getting so I thought I understood. I did not. I was aware that I was getting edited photos but not fully edited photos. I figured this was okay because I know how to fix stray hairs, face blemishes, etc using photoshop. When our engagement photos were ready to see, I loved the one she showed us on her website. But, when I got the digital files in the mail, they seemed not as sharp and the colors had a different tone. I was upset about this and talked with our photographer, Kristen, about the differences. I want to first say that Kristen is amazing and was very patient with me. I hired Kristen partially because I liked the style she edits with and I didn’t get that in the digital photos. She explain that she applied her vintage tint to the digital photos. However, when she finishes editing them, she lightens areas and darkens others - and this was not done on the digital photos. It is a lot of work to do that so I wasn’t happy about having to do that myself. She offered to do a few of the photos for me which was incredibly nice of her. I guess my suggestion to you is to have the photographer show you the difference between a raw photo, a minimally edited photo and then a fully edited one so you can see the difference. Ask whether the photos on your website will the same you will get for your digital files. I still think Kristen did an amazing job with our photos – I mean she made us look GOOD. I ended up editing the photos myself with Windows Photo Gallery and Photoshop. They don’t look exactly like Kristen’s but I love them. Most of the photos I just sharpened them a bit and turned up the contrast. Here’s an example of Kristen’s versus mine.

From KristenTaylorBlog.com

Mine.

From KristenTaylorBlog.com

Mine.

I used these photos to make a photobook for my mother in law that she asked me to do. I did the book on Mixbook.com and used her Groupon deal. I have to say I love Mixbook.com – it offered really cute options and I am so pleased with how it came out. So, if you are on a tight budget, then go with making your own photobook. I suggested to my mom that we make her a book through Mixbook.com instead of her ordering one through the photographer because it will save her, oh, a couple hundred buckaroos. Here’s a peak of our mixbook!

I hope that helps anyone who is hiring a photographer!

So far, I love my photographer!

I know in my last post that I left things off in a "we'll see" way. However, since writing that post, it has been confirmed that I definately love my photographer. For the following reasons:

1) After signing our contract, she sent over a hard copy.... just look:

How freakin' cute is that? This stationary is an example of how wonderful her products are, including her photo albums. She has such amazing style.

2) She addressed all my concerns in our contract with no hassle. Example: She agreed to drive beyond our contractually agreed limit for our engagement photos to Clarkston, MI for no extra charge. Where I grew up! She usually shoots in Birmingham, MI and it is a very cute city, but it has no meaning for Wes or I. Clarkston is where my family is from...my dad grew up in the same house I did. It has a pretty and quaint downtown area and it served as a nice backdrop for, hopefully, some really wonderful pictures. The point wasn't to have Clarkston as the main feature of our photos, but being somewhere we considered to be one of our homes made us feel more comfortable.

3) You can probably tell by the tense I am writing in, but we have had our engagement photos taken and it was a lot of fun to work with Kristen! We don't have the photos yet... sad face. I keep checking her blog every day to see when she is going to put up some sneak peeks. I was saying before in my last "photography" post that I felt that if I gave Kristen something cool to work with that she would respond to that. Well, she did. Of course, she did all the typical Kristenesque shots. (Grabbing Wes's arm while I smile at the camera and Wes looks off into the distance while contemplating our future...so dramatic.) But, she also took pics of us on the swings, holding pumpkins from the local market, holding a cupcake from the local cupcake shop AND using some props that we brought along. Such as:

Part of what makes us a fun couple (in my opinion) is that we have completely different viewpoints on 99% of everything. Yes, that makes us fun. Well, at least interesting. Yet, ultimately we both want the same things... family, adventure and world peace. How we are able to reconcile our differences to be even better people has helped make this almost 4 year relationship more rewarding than I thought possible. So, we used these silly flags and a few other things to represent those sentiments.

I can't wait to show you some of the engagement photos!

*all images are personal photos

How to book your photographer like a crazy bride

By far, the most important expense on our wedding day for us is photography. The cake will be eaten, the invitations hopefully admired for least 1 minute (please!) but then tossed aside… my dress carefully stuffed away only to be pulled out when I am feeling nostalgic. But, the photos will remain. I promise to pinch every penny for everything else, but I have to absolutely have photos that knock my socks off.

This past summer, I was working on the major components of the wedding. I met with my first-pick wedding photographer with my mom and to-be mom. I knew going into the meeting that she was outside of our photography budget. But, I love love love her photos. I figured I would try and see if she would come down a little and she did based on that were adding a few extra goodies to our package. The moms also very much liked her photos. Her photos are crisp while still being romantic. I probably would have booked her right away, but a few things gave me pause. 1. She was very friendly! However, she wasn’t overly zealous and all warm and fuzzy – more business-like. Which is good but not what I was expecting. 2: I felt like many of the weddings she photographed all looked a little bit alike. I think it is because her customers have beautiful weddings but they lack personalization… in my opinion. So, my big question is: Can I get her to shoot my wedding with a bit more creativity?

It seemed like I had to definitely meet with another photographer in order to make a decision. I had an appointment booked with another photographer for July 3. However, the goal was to meet with three photographers, so I could feel like I was making an educated decision before spending tons of money. I found a few more photographers whose photos were also fabulous, but one by one they all got back to me saying that they were booked already! WHAT! We were still 1 year away…..how can they be booked!?!! Sad face. All those stupid wedding checklists in books, magazines and online say to book your photograph 9 months to go. Lies. All lies.

Naturally, I freaked out. All I could think was WHAT IF MY FIRST-PICK PHOTOGRAPHER GETS BOOKED BEFORE I MAKE A FREAKIN’ DECISION?! One part of me was telling me that I needed to wait until July 3^rd to meet with another photographer to ease my concerns about creativity before making a rash decision. But the other part (the crazy part) was telling me to but a deposit on that photographer NOW. What to do!?

Sigh. I gave into my craziness and emailed the 1^st-pick photographer to book her before I had met with the other photographer. Whatever. I know that I am ridiculous, but I also knew that I would be happy with her photos and she is (sort of) close to our budget.

The good news is that because we had to work out a contract I still had time to meet with the July 3^rd photographer.  (I did feel slightly guilty for meeting with another photographer even though I had told photographer #1 I would book her.) Wes and I went to the second meeting and it gave us a lot of think about, but we still felt that we had made the best decision going with photographer #1.

So without further ado… Kristen Taylor of Birmingham, MI will be shooting our wedding!

All photos from Kristen Taylor Photography Blog

Swoon.

I feel that if I make our wedding fun and unique, then Kristen will respond to that. Now, I have to make all of you promise to smile and not be talking on your cell phone in all my photos!

What do you think should be the most important thing to spend money on? Would you book somebody without meeting with anyone else?