What is the difference between Quality and Quantity?
You may think these things go together hand in hand and they can do if reimbursed correctly and delivered honestly.
I get asked all the time by clients making enquiries about the fact I limit my photos in my wedding packages, “why do you do that?”, “Can’t I get them all?”, “Why this number?”, “Is that all you take?”
These questions are asked genuinely from the client due to ignorance of what a Photographer actually does to achieve those 400, 500 or 600 images and how much time goes into delivering between 400 – 600 QUALITY images.
I always give them a run down of my costings and my hourly schedule for editing and that seems to enlighten them and educate them and thus brings about a new appreciation for how much dedication and skill we photographers put into each photo.
Quantity
There has been a trend in the wedding photography market from some amateur photographers to supply ALL images taken on the day. This gives the client the impression that they are getting a QUANTITY of fantastic photos of their wedding day. It gives the client the false belief that every time we photographers click the shutter button, that we are taking a photo that is good enough to give to them.
That is completely wrong. There are a lot of elements that can effect a photo and make it unworthy of producing for the client. Let me list a few things…
Over Exposure, Closed Eyes, People making stupid faces, People being blurry, under exposure, too much reflection of flash in something shiny, people getting in the way of a shot, people not being captured in a flattering stance and just general bad angles.
As the client…do you really want all of those photo? What are you going to do with all those bad ones? Bin them? Hang them up on your wall with the rest? Show them to your family and say “wow…look at this photo…Uncle Barry’s eyes are closed and his tongue is hanging out because he’s mid talking….”
As a photographer…Honestly….I don’t want to give you those photos as you are not going to look at them, use them or showcase them in any way, so my brand and my skill is not going to be showcased or appreciated and only negativity can come from those photos, directed at my business…….because I’m not giving you QUALITY photos.
So…I limit my photos to a certain amount so that you are getting QUALITY photos. Photos that will be a great representation of my skill in editing those photos, my skill in capturing artistic and technically correct shots in camera and also my skill at working with you to create that shot that you are going to hang on your wall and thus making you happy you booked me in the first place.
Quality
To bring you a quality image a photographer must do 3 things.
- They must have the right equipment and the correct lighting to handle any situations, including darkened rooms, shadows created by dappled light and bright sunlight, creative rain shots and backlit shots. They must also have the correct lenses to achieve the depth of field they want and the sharpness associated with the photo they are wanting to achieve.
- They must capture the photo correctly in camera. They must be able to know their camera, it’s settings, how to expose correctly and change their settings in an instant for spur of the moment shots. It is very hard and sometimes impossible to edit and correct a photos that is overexposed because the photographer did not expose the photo correctly in the camera in the first place. They need to understand shutter speed and what shutter speed to have in certain situations. Blurriness is no substitute for QUALITY images.
- They need to have the skill of correctly enhancing the clients photos to a standard where the colours are correct, the exposure is brought into line and the whole feel and look of the photo (whether it be black and white, Sepia or a creative edit) then the photographer must have the skill in their editing software to achieve those looks without just applying a “filter” based on what the client would like achieved. It takes a lot of training in all editing software (I personally use Lightroom and Photoshop together) to be able to truly master all it’s functions and to use the editing software correctly to achieve QUALITY photos. As photographers we either Pay for this training or we don’t and self teach from others or free workshops, online seminars, 1 on 1 training and mentorships. This is an important skill as not 1 Photographer can say that they have taken a photo and NOT edited it in some small way, shape or form either in camera or out of camera. We all have to edit….and it takes time….. which brings me to my next point.
Quality takes time. That is for any industry. A Plumber takes time to do a Quality job, a house builder takes time to do a quality job, a jeweller takes the time to do a quality job….. I take on each photo approx 15 minutes for 500 Photos. That’s 7,500 minutes, that’s 125 hours, that’s 3.2 weeks (calculating 38 hrs in a week). Now, that’s IF I spend 15 minutes on each photo. But there are some that take much longer if we have to take people out, correct the lighting, put something in (like a lost loved one), do a creative edit and sometimes I’ll spend maybe up to 30 Minutes just on 1 photo because….. I want to give my client a QUALITY assured image and not just take them out of the camera and not edit them just to give my client a QUANTITY of images.
I take pride in delivering Quality images to my clients. That is not just in digital form either. It stretches across prints, albums, canvas’s and Printed products. If the Quality is not there in the digital image in the first place, then everything down the line will look crap aswell. The prints will look bad, the canvas colours won’t come up well and I certainly wouldn’t want to look at a 50 page wedding album full of wedding photos where people’s eyes are closed or they have bad positioning. So Quality is a Must!!!
If I was to charge my client for my time editing 2000 photos I would be very unaffordable. Lets just base this on $5 a photo as it takes 15 minutes a photo …for Example…I’m paying myself $20 an hr…. That’s $10,000. PLUS….I then need to charge you for my time on the actual wedding day (which was an all day package and 15 hours) so $20 an hr….. That’s $300…which really…is nothing compared to the photos….. But then I need to cover my costs of the insurance I pay per year for public liability insurance, then I also need to cover the costs of Fuel, food, maintenance on my equipment, the cost of hiring a second shooter (if needed on the day), the training and education I’ve had and am going to have, the electricity and power it takes to run my equipment at home, to cover the editing time I put in on my computer to achieve QUALITY images for my clients wedding.
So that all adds up to well over $10,000….. would you pay $10,000 for your wedding?
…..
To cut a long story short…… Please respect your photographer and the photography industry in general. We are like any other professional in any other job. We have overhead costs, we have a life outside of our photography business and need to eat, sleep and play aswell. My calculations have been based on $20 an hr for a professional service. I know I would like to be paid more than $20 an hr….. So what is the photographer working for per hour that is giving you 2000 photos of your wedding day? I would say less than $5 an hr….. To be honest, I respect myself and my profession much more than that.
QUALITY over QUANTITY is a WIN WIN situation for both the client and the photographer. Lets all respect and help each other grow into better and more successful versions of ourselves.
Just my 2 cents worth – Diana