just curious- how many photos were "keepers"

ncwenze · May 2012

hi knotties. i found a photog on craigslist. ive seen her stuff on facebook, and she has a nice blog of engagement phots. the price was right, we signed a contract, and did an engagement session.

we did a two hour engagement shoot at navy pier in chicago. she took 500 photos, changed lenses, got some cool angles, all that jazz. she edited them within two weeks. i just got the disc from her last night and there are only 40 keepers, i would say of the 40 about 5 are awesome. but i feel kind of mediocre on the rest.

i wanted to know out of your engagement photos, or wedding photos how many were taken,and out of those - how many did you get back that you love? my fiance thinks im being crazy, he thinks 40 keepers is totally acceptable, he keeps saying how many did you want? so i am reaching out to you knotties to try to help put it in perspective. am i being unrealistic? are 40 edited photos a good amount out of 500?

here are two that we think are great

fallbride1109 · May 2012

I can't remember how many E-pics I got and I can't find the link to the gallery. But it certainly wasn't 500. I am wondering if you got EVERY single image that they took. My photographer pared mine down to the best before she sent them to me.

I didn't love every single one, but there were certainly many that I did love, enough to make an entire photo guest book out of. I would say that out of say 100, I loved 60% of them with 20 or so ones that I thought were great. I have a sampling of my E-pics in my planning bio

But if you got 500 images, yeah, you should think more than just 1 or 2 of them are great.

Out of the 875+ wedding pictures I got, I loved every single one of them and many, many of them were keepers.

StephBeanWed61502 · May 2012

We had a short e-pics shoot (only an hour) and ended up with 50ish photos that they actually showed us (I'm sure the photog took many, many more than 50 shots). Of that, I'd say 10ish were "keepers" and we ended up purchasing 4 (photog charges us per print) Of the 10 that were "keepers," the four were chose were great and the other 6 were kind of "good enough to stick in an album but not worth paying for individually" quality. I agree with Stephie - it sounds like you got every single unedited image the photog took, which is why the ratio of keepers to total photos seems off. 40 seems fine to me for a 2 hour shoot, but I agree, only 2 "wows" would make me a little nervous.

MrsKathyC · May 2012

Out of the 400-500 wedding pics, we got maybe 15 or so pics that I thought were truly keepers.

If you do nothing else for your wedding, be sure you have a competent, professional photographer!

GrayceandDanger · May 2012

It sounds like maybe your photographer didn't pare down the images a whole lot as PP said. Most photographers I've looked at engagement sessions result in probably around 50 photos posted (maybe 100 on the high end). 500 photos posted sounds like a lot and maybe they are just the type of photographer to give you everything they took.

The 2 you posted are really nice. The composition is great I can tell the photographer at least has knowledge in proper lighting bc that one close up photo of you guys is very well backlit. So in looking at the photos it at least looks like you didnt hire some guy that just bought a camera 2 weeks before your session

I think they are great.

Also what are your reasons for not liking the others? If its because they are blurry, poorly composed, poorly lit and just not good photos than I would be curious as to why they posted them. If you don't like them because you don't like the way you look in the photo you have to remember that often you are overly critical of photos of yourself.

Do you have a link to the gallery to see the rest?

ncwenze · May 2012

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/special-topic-wedding-boards_photos-video_just-curious-how-many-photos-were-keepers?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Special Topic Wedding BoardsForum:30Discussion:95b0258c-9913-4df2-bf2c-ff910f94c669Post:8c57468e-a879-449f-bac5-79c2e259b0e1">just curious- how many photos were "keepers"</a>:
[QUOTE]hi knotties. i found a photog on craigslist. ive seen her stuff on facebook, and she has a nice blog of engagement phots. the price was right, we signed a contract, and did an engagement session. we did a two hour engagement shoot at navy pier in chicago. she took 500 photos, changed lenses, got some cool angles, all that jazz. she edited them within two weeks. i just got the disc from her last night and there are only 40 keepers, i would say of the 40 about 5 are awesome. but i feel kind of mediocre on the rest. i wanted to know out of your engagement photos, or wedding photos how many were taken,and out of those - how many did you get back that you love? my fiance thinks im being crazy, he thinks 40 keepers is totally acceptable, he keeps saying how many did you want? so i am reaching out to you knotties to try to help put it in perspective. am i being unrealistic? are 40 edited photos a good amount out of 500? here are two that we think are great
Posted by ncwenze[/QUOTE]

she only showed us 40 of the ones she took. the ones i dont like are because im not looking at the camera, or my mouth is open in a weird way, etc. it didnt really have anything to do with the photos themselves. i think i am being overly critical of myself (which is easy to do). my fiance turned about 25 of them into a beautiful slide show and added music which really made me love them more. thanks for the input. i dont think its the photographer. i think it's me. i feel more reassured, thank you :)

caitlintaylor07 · May 2012

I'm a family/lifestyle photographer and on a good day I take 400-500 photos in a 1-1.5 hr session. That counts the 10 shots I did in one pose that mostly all look the same- only I can really tell the differences and I pick ONE that is the best of each pose. My clients get between 35-50 fully edited images of the ones I thought were best. I would say your photographer gave you the normal amount. And for what it's worth- I LOVE those photos! The photog seems to know what they are doing. Try to not be overly critical of yourself- you look beautiful in those photos!

ChristyMariePhotography09 · May 2012

Hi,

I am a student photographer, but have a bit of experience in and outside of a studio with various photography companies. I think a lot of what these ladies are saying is on par. As a photographer, I like to make sure I take a lot of angles, styles, etc that the couple might like/want. Pair down the ones that just didn't work out.

Then I finish editing the rest. I'll provide the couple with the all of the rest of the pictures, good, wow, and okay ones (because there will be a mix of them) and in the contract state an agreed number of images they can choose to have as final images.This goes for E-Pics and Wedding pics. That way the client has the opportuntity to choose the images they really do like, and are not stuck with just the ones the photographer likes or thinks are good.

Christy
Student Photographer

cyndilouwho77 · July 2012

40 doesnt sound so bad...the pics look really nice. Are you planning on using the same photog for the wedding, cause if you are I think you could talk to her about getting more pics the way you want them. She might think that you not looking at the camera looks great, but just tell her you would rather be looking at the camera....It doesnt hurt to try.

I think we ended up with only about 15 e-pics out of the hour we were together and only about 6 of them I am in LOVE with....but thats ok cause I do love them!

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