PHOTOGRAPHER SHOOTING GUIDE

HOUSEKEEPING

~ Wedding day attire should reflect the level of higher end events we are hired for. For males that means dress shoes, suit pants, and tucked in long sleeve button-up dress shirt. We prefer a tie, but recognize some camera straps and bags can be difficult with a tie so a vest or suit jacket is suitable instead. For females dress shoes (flats okay as long as they’re dressy), slacks, and a 3/4 or long sleeve blouse are required.

~ All shooters should arrive at the first scheduled shoot location 30 minutes prior to the listed shoot time. Once everyone is on site, Shooter1 should go over timeline with Shooter2. This is the time to ask any questions, go over everything logistically, and to ensure both shooters have everything they need to slay all day. This is also the time to review gear, cards, and sync camera times (our editors thank you in advance!).

~ Hopefully this doesn’t happen often, but occasionally there will be times when team members are meeting each other for the first time on the wedding day. It’s far more likely this would happen when the 2nd shooters for photo and video just haven’t crossed paths yet. In the event this does happen please introduce yourselves away from the clients. We don’t want to say “nice to meet you” to a fellow team members in front of the client, or give any similar indication. We’re a united front as a team. We can always say things like “this is our first year together” if we get put on the spot.

~ We ask all shooters to capture in RAW (if you use a Canon R5 or similar higher resolution camera we like C-RAW). We shoot on duel mirrored cards, that way we have 2 identical memory cards from each wedding. Unless otherwise stated by the main shooter, you will be provided an SD card at the beginning of the day. You can then just hand the SD card over to the main shooter before leaving. Keep your wedding card handy for 48 hours just in case please.

~ Please don't shoot wider than 24m especially for getting ready or portraits. We don't want photos to look distorted or fisheye. You should only be using wider than 24m for big group shots when needed in tight spaces.

~ When you are shooting throughout the day, please star/rate anything that you feel we must see or that is important. When we import the images into Lightroom the first thing we look for is stars. These indicate to us that this is an important photo, something you think should be in the client gallery or that we should use for their album.

~ Number of photos captured is important to us when hiring photographers. We budget for around 2,000 images per photographer per wedding. That’s about the average for our shooters. If you are a little less or higher than that – totally fine. Please keep shot counts reasonable.

~ We think this is rather obvious, but just to set expectations properly, we do not consume alcohol at weddings. Sometimes the bridal party will offer it to be kind, but please just politely thank them and decline.

~ Invoices can be sent to us the day before the wedding or day after. We strongly prefer all invoices be sent to us through PayPal. If you have invoicing set up through Quickbooks or other processors that accept credit card, we can accept that as well. Occasionally we get asked about credit card fees from contractors. Things to keep in mind: 1) book-keeping is much easier and cleaner when you bill us through your CC processor. 2) The speed – No waiting on checks, or needing to “run to the bank” or waiting for payments to clear. 3) No 1099 is required for either of us when payment is done via CC. 4) All fees associated with the credit card processing are 100% tax deductible. This means the actual out-of-pocket cost is very minimal at the end of the year to collect payment quick, easy, and legal (as opposed to friends and family style payments which are ill-advised for business transactions). We personally believe the world is set up to do business this way at this point. We only accept payment via CC here at Whalen Productions from our couples. With that said, we are in the business of keeping our team happy – so if you have any questions/concerns please reach out to Matt 🙂

GETTING READY

~ Generally, Shooter1 will start with the brides side, and Shooter2 will start with the groom’s side. Sometimes the guys just aren’t quite ready for us when we arrive, and in these cases, we have Shooter2 start with the beauty and candid ladies getting ready photos while Shooter1 will photograph the details (dress, shoes, flowers, rings, etc). Then once the guys are all in the same room for getting ready, Shooter2 will slide over and start with them.

~ We hope that every getting ready location is naturally beautiful, but in real life we sometimes have people getting ready in less than ideal room situations. It’s our job to get great photos though, no matter what. If we have a difficult or cluttered room we often times move or re-arrange the room set up so we can take advantage of the best window light.

Let’s start with guys getting ready sample photos. Initially we start with grabbing some of the important detail shots.