The 30 Wedding Photos You Need to Take (2023)

FAQs

How many wedding photos do you really need? ›

While knowing that you should plan on delivering somewhere between 400 and 800 photos from a typical wedding day is helpful, this number only tells you so much. Most customers really care about having a wide variety of photos, so they make sure to cover ALL of their wedding days.

You can typically expect to receive around 60-80 final photographs per hour of wedding coverage.

Know how long wedding photos will take.

For the best results, photographers agree that wedding party portraits take about 30 minutes, family portraits take about 30 minutes (if you're sticking with only photographing close family), and couple portraits take between 45 minutes to an hour.

In a 30-minute photography session, you could get around 20 photos to choose between, whereas from a 1-hour shoot you should expect 40-50 pictures to look through.

On average, couples tend to include one to three photos per page—for a 20-page wedding album that translates to somewhere between 10 and 60 photos.

Most professional photographers don't give out their unedited photos.

Some photographers don't edit their images at all. This is called “shoot and burn,” which means they shoot a wedding, “burn” the images to a disc (or upload to a USB drive or “the cloud” because this is the 21^st century) and call it good.

Is 300 photos enough for a wedding? For a standard 8 hour day of wedding photography, this means a photographer should expect to pass along 400-800 photos to their clients.

“Shot list” is a buzzword you'll likely hear at some point during the wedding planning process and refers to a list of photos you want your photographer to capture on the big day.

Do all wedding photographers own your photos? ›

Under federal law, if there is no agreement to the contrary, your wedding photographer, or any photographer for that matter, owns the pictures that they take.

2 hours of coverage will give us enough time to document the ceremony, photograph you with your guests that are in attendance, and take some gorgeous portraits of you newlyweds.

Advice – Wedding Party Photos should be around 45 minutes to 1 hour. During this time, we get a variety of shots in a variety of poses. We start off with the basic, classic photos focused on great expressions and lighting. Then we move into a set of fun and creative shots.

Four Hours

Generally speaking, high-end wedding photographers offer this in their starter packages. They know that images are what's most important for some couples and four hours is just enough time to photograph the end of the getting ready portion, ceremony, and formals.

The idea is that the 60 percent color anchors the space and also serves as a backdrop for what comes next. Your 30 percent is the secondary color. You'll be using half as much of this color as your main color.

What is the rule of thirds? The rule of thirds is a composition guideline that places your subject in the left or right third of an image, leaving the other two thirds more open. While there are other forms of composition, the rule of thirds generally leads to compelling and well-composed shots.

The most basic of all photography rules, the rule of thirds, is all about dividing your shot into nine equal sections by a set of vertical and horizontal lines. With the imaginary frame in place, you should place the most important element(s) in your shot on one of the lines or where the lines meet.

The most popular wedding album sizes I tend to suggest are around the 12×12 inch size which give you the best of both worlds.

In order to keep your guests engaged and interested in your slideshow, we recommend making it around 5-10 minutes long. This equates to between 60 and 120 photos. If you choose to include video clips, make sure they're on the shorter side in order to keep the momentum of the slideshow going.

What should a photographer avoid? ›

If a client were to show these unedited or unretouched images to family and friends, it could severely harm the photographer's reputation. A professional artist only displays their best work. Having raw, unfinished photos represented to others as their work could make a photographer look unprofessional and incompetent.

In general, wedding photographer prices in the U.S. tend to range between $1,150 and $3,000, with the average wedding photographer cost hovering around $2,000.

If you are going to have a large wedding with 150+ guests, two photographers can ensure none of your guests are left out of the pictures.

The average wedding photographer in California costs about $3000. This price includes digital images, a full day of wedding coverage and professional editing.

They are simply photographs of some of the smaller details of your wedding day. These are typically one of the first things your wedding photographer will capture when they arrive on your wedding day. Detail shots can include any of the little things that make your wedding day unique and special!

Short answer: typically, no. After reception formalities are over (toasts, dances, cake cutting), you don't really need your photographer to hang around for much longer unless dancing photos are super important to you (1 hour of dancing coverage can be plenty).

You and your children and grandchildren can look back on them forever. Imagine looking through your wedding album on each anniversary, and with your family on special occasions and holidays. Having them printed isn't just for you, but also for your children and grandchildren and future generations.

Not all weddings need second photographers, and not all photographers need to work with another shooter to create beautiful images. I highly recommend asking your photographer how many shooters they need to cover your day, and go from there.

What time of day is best for wedding photos? ›

Golden hour is well known as being the optimal time of day to take wedding photos. Golden hour occurs in the first hour after sunrise and the last hour before sunset. These are the times of day where the sun is at its lowest point and features soft, diffused lighting.

1-2 weeks for amateur photographers or 4+ months for luxury photographers. 4-12 weeks. 3-5 weeks or longer if you had a lot of guests. 2 weeks for an elopement, 4-10 weeks for a full wedding.

For a standard 8 hour day of wedding photography, this means a photographer should expect to pass along 400-800 photos to their clients.

Depending on the specifics, the time frame could be anything from two weeks to six weeks on average. Photographers will, without a doubt, work promptly to get your photos to you. In fact, many photographers will give you a preview of some of the altered photos they've taken before sending you the final product.

Expect both hair and makeup respectively to take 30 to 45 minutes per bridesmaid (and mother of bride) and 60 to 90 minutes for the bride. Factor in even more time if there's only one photographer expected to document both partners' getting-ready moments.

How many photos should a wedding photographer give? The short and simple answer is ~100 per hour of shooting or roughly 800 photos for 8-hour wedding day coverage.

That depends on the photographer, the client, and how much editing needs to be done on the photos. Culling and basic corrections would take an hour or two. Detailed retouching can take several hours per image.

Having a second shooter on your wedding day allows you to add tons more images to your final gallery. This includes more coverage during your ceremony, more creative angels during the couple portraits, more points of view during your First Dance- the list goes on!

It tells the story of your wedding day

Your wedding images help tell the story of your wedding day, from the moment you begin to prepare for the day up to the end of your wedding reception. Having wedding photography allows you to have the entire story of your wedding day documented forever.

Wedding photography is important because it will capture your day, it will capture your memories, it will tell a story, and not just any story, it will tell a beautiful story of your special day, a day you will never forget.

Should you share all your wedding photos? ›

Whether you post your wedding photos on social media is entirely up to your personal preference. Some couples prefer not to go this route because they feel uncomfortable about the people they didn't invite seeing them, while others are happy to share the photos with everyone they know.

While one photographer should do a great job at a regular wedding, two photographers can capture more angles, and they also can be at two different places at the same time. Like one is shooting ladies getting ready while the other one is with guys. Or one can shoot details of the ballroom while another shots portraits.

Though a beautiful photograph can make that memory that much more special, the most important thing is that you find a photographer whose goal is to make beautiful images *and* ensure that you feel amazing as they're being taken.

Retake Them

So, you can't exactly just throw another wedding, but you can re-create your wedding-day look for a second shoot. While it may not have the same sentiment attached and there are of course added expenses involved, it would give you another chance to try out a new photographer, style, beauty look, etc.

Your wedding photos will capture the memories of your special day that you will cherish forever. Flashing your best smile is a must.

In short, the copyright of photographs taken on your wedding day is owned by the photographer. As the creator of the images, the photographer automatically owns the copyright and only they can grant permissions to other people to use these images.

For most couples this will be photos with parents, grandparents and siblings. After that you can start to think about aunts, uncles, cousins, nieces, nephews etc. Even if you do have a large family it's important to make family photos go quickly.