Simple wedding photography tips for saving money!
Your wedding is a day when there is no limit to spend money for you and your family. Why Not! It is the most happiest and much awaited day of your life. Ranging from wedding planners and caterers to photographers, every thing is expensive. Whatever the budget you fix, it seems less. Thus, You start thinking about saving money on several occasions during your wedding. Most of us have learnt the tips from our Naani or Mother for saving money on many stuffs. But what about photography? Wedding photography is emerging in India with the growth of 20-25% every year. I already told you the tips for hiring a candid wedding photographer in my last write-up. Let's talk about wedding photography tips for saving money on your wedding day!
The moment you try to hire wedding photographers, everyone seems expensive and you try to find the cheap one. But as they say, "Cheap does not mean good and good does not mean cheap always." Why wedding photographers are so much expensive to hire?
In almost every wedding the photographers spend 55-60 hours. Most of the full time wedding photographers carry the full frame kit of worth 4-5 lac and it is just a tip of the iceberg. For example, I create 1200-1500 images of three day event and then post processing takes enough time. Surprisingly, their camera kit is not insured also, at least, not in India (I hope the insurance companies must be reading this write up and they would come up with this idea). Moreover, Most of the photographers end up in making less money during their first few years of wedding photography career.
If you are really thinking to save money over your wedding then it should not be the wedding photography. You must invest in the photographer and you will really get your money's worth. Read these wedding photography tips for saving money and get most out of it.
1. Find wedding photographers over online directory pages: If you google the candid wedding photographer, you will find certain links appearing on every search engine. In today's world, everything is market oriented. The more advertisers pay to google or facebook or twitter, the more their advertisements will flicker across your profile or browsing pages. You get the opportunity to see only 10 results over first page of search engines. You hardly scroll through the second or third page of google.
Sometimes, you like the work of the photographers which appears in the first page of the google but they are pre-booked. Sometimes, their quotes do not go with your budget. In this case, You can google for some company which offer complete list of vendors. These platforms give you the opportunity to find out the photographers with in your city under one roof. All the relevant information is given including price, services and experience by showcasing the work of the photographers. Some of these listing pages claim that they have more than Thousands of photographers listed on their platform. I am not sure to what extent it is true. Of course! It helps to zero in on the photographers with in your budget.
2. Don't reduce your wedding coverage: I get emails to know about my prices and services. Many times, my quote seems higher to my client and they usually say "what if you only cover our wedding day?" or "we have only four hours of function so can you please...?" It is not a business meeting or product launching which is to be done in four hours. It is a wedding day!
What if there are great moments to be occurred next to the four hours? Your wedding is a continuous link of a chain. Some of your friends have not come to attend your event yet, some have stuck somewhere in organizing your special day. The most closed friends are busy with your wedding till the eleventh hour. So reducing your coverage means you are cutting off the moments and the indulgence of your special friends and relatives.
Most of the time, If client allows me then I am comfortable to cover the entire three days event and prefer to stay there all the time as the great moments cannot be anticipated. A photographer can only make a scene-selection and create some stunning shots by merging its subject and scene together. But he/she cannot anticipate that what moment is going to take place in the next few minutes. Photographers develop their 'eye for a shot' putting incessant efforts into it.
Instead of reducing the coverage, you can request your photographer, if he/she can shoot your wedding without assistant. Some photographers are good at shooting with natural light. Some are good at studio light.
Ask your photographer whether he/she can shoot without extra light. You can have a talk with your event planner to arrange better light in the shooting area. Most of the time, I shoot with available lights and if there is the better light arrangements then it enhances the quality of the shots. Carrying no extra light really saves money from the end of the photographer also. If the photographer is comfortable to shoot without any assistant or external lights, he/she may not have any problem to lower the quote for your wedding photography.
3. Design your own wedding album: As I said, invest in the photographer not in the wedding album packages. Your wedding album is the product which is designed at the later stage. Photographers create stunning images at the initial stage and your half work is done.
Wedding industry in India is so huge that it is almost difficult to provide all the solutions under one roof. Some are best at printing technology, some are best at making photos, some are great at decorations and planning your event. The way you outsource different services, in the same way, even the full time photographers outsource the printing technology. The printing technology needs four times investment in relation to photography. One can ride in a one boat at one time. Yes! The aesthetic sense of the photographers is developed by working all day round the year. But it does not mean your aesthetic sense is also not good enough.
You may ask your photographer whether he/she can agree to shoot your wedding without album packages. If you don't buy wedding album packages, it saves your money. But you will have to invest your time to design your own wedding album. It seems a weird thought. You get some, you lose some. By investing your time in designing album will save a good amount of money. Request him/her to retouch your photographs perfectly and provide you in digital format only.
Make sure, your photographer will provide you the processed JPEG format file. Don't forget! Such ready to print digital photographs must be in high resolution.
Your next step is to sign up an account at photojaanic or zoomin. There are more online web solutions for designing your own canvas, album, calendars, coffee mugs. Once you create an account over these platforms, you can choose the default layouts of your album. There are several cool layouts for designing albums. Once you are done with designing, you can place your final order then and there. They also give some good discounts time to time and deliver your album at your doorstep.
Photojaanic: Photojaanic is a partner site supports of Snapfish in India. Sadly, Snapfish has discontinued its direct services from India. Photojaanic offers services like Wedding Photo books, Photo calendars, Posters, Photo gifts etc. You can see here the entire list of its products and pricing.
When you select a size of your album, I would suggest you not to go for a square size like 12x12 inches. If you don't know the cropping rules, It may ruin your photos as photographs are never made in square. Either photos are made in vertical or horizontal. It is simple as our eyes never see the life in square so does not the camera. You can go for a 9x12 inches size or any size in a rectangular shape. You just have to upload photos and rest they will do it for you. Their professional designer will make better changes like color correction, cropping and layout designing to look your album cool. You will get your first sample design in 48 hours as they claim it. Shipping and handling charges are paid separately.
You must read their refund and cancellation policy in case you want to cancel your order once it is placed.
Photojaanic Album Layout
Zoomin: Zoomin is an Indian company which provides the online photo services. You can store unlimited photos there. They also claim that if you are not happy with the orders, they re-print it. You must read their return policy. The best part of their services is that they do have COD (Cash On Delivery) option. They also have the pricing list online. As I suggested before, Don't go for a square size photo album. Here is the complete list of photo books and themes. You can check their help page which covers the broader perspective of your queries.
Though, no idea is a perfect idea yet you can extend it to make it better. If you find these wedding photography tips for saving money helpful, do let us know! If you have saved your money from different ideas, Plz give us your feedback here. I would really appreciate your efforts. Siddharth malkania is a journalism graduate from Indian Institute of Mass Communication and Law graduate from Campus Law Centre, Delhi University. An avid traveler, his passion for photography takes him to amazing places. After having worked as a photojournalist for two years, he travelled to Tokyo and brushed up his skills of hotography there. Currently, He is a candid wedding photographer based in New Delhi, India. Feel free to contact him or send him an email at buzzme@siddharthmalkania.com