Engagement Shoot

Congrats to haley and Derek, the winner of our February Wedding Fair Engagement session! We had a ton of fun with you this last week. Keep an eye out for the Engagement video which will be coming soon!

8x8 Finao Element TXT - Signature Album

12 x 12 Tuscan Treasure album 50 pages

The Cost of a Wedding Photographer

For many couples, photography ranks high in importance because pictures are tangible keepsakes that are intended to last. A photographer should be selected only after careful consideration of cost, professionalism and personality.

Typical costs:

Wedding photography can be broken down into four basic categories: budget, moderate, upscale and luxury.Budget photographers start usually at or just under under $1,000; moderate photographers start between $1,000 and $3,000; and upscale photographers between $3,000 and $5,000. Luxury weddings photographers between $5,000 and upwards of $10,000. For those on a very limited budget, NEVER consider asking a friend or relative to take ceremony photos with a digital camera unless you want more photos on top of the professional photos. What should be included:

Basic wedding photograph packages should include 1-4 hours of coverage by one photographer, viewable proofs online, and a limited number of prints. We at Stephanie Williams Photography do not offer these types of packages but you can custom design a package like this using our Ala Carte Menu.  Packages between $1,000-$3,000 (depending on the category) may include an additional photographer and more hours of coverage, plus an album or photo book, though for some photographers, the fee will cover only the photography. Packages that costing $3,000 or more may include 6+ hours of coverage, 2 photographers, multiple shoot locations, or albums or photo books. Additional costs:

Extras can include more hours of coverage, additional photographers, special albums or photo books, parent albums, or additional shoots (such as an engagement session which is included in all our new 2011 packages). Discounts:

Packages are typically the most cost-effective way to purchase wedding photography services. Don't be afraid to ask your photographer if there are any discounts or promotions going on. Weddings are often scheduled on weekends, and some photographers may offer discounts on off-days. Don't forget that the price often dictates the quality in services & products. Try to go for at least a moderate priced photographer and don't forget that Stephanie Williams Photography includes cinema in every 2011 package!

Jess + Dan

Just wanted to say congrats to Jess & Dan who said I do yesterday afternoon! It was a beautiful day in Rancho San Rafael with all the trees flowering out. It was a ton of fun, so thanks for letting me be part of your day!

Finao Cover Swatches

2011~ 8x8 Finao SIgnature Guest Book

I wanted to share a few examples of our signature guest books by Finao which we will be offering in our packages next year. If you like them, one of these can be added to one of my current packages for a fee. 

You get your choice of the materials like the leather shown and signature pages come in white or black. This book has less upgrades then the 8x10 version but is still very beautiful! All Finao Albums are hand made to order. Nothing is on the shelf.  You pick the leather, the page color and the images and off we go!

 So what are the differences between the two signature albums?

8x8 ~ has one single image per page, one type of leather/material on cover, no name imprinting, 10 pages (5 for photos/5 for signing). For your cover, you can choose from the following collections:

Brocades Collection, Middle Earth Collection, Eclectic Looks Collection, Garbo Collection, Haute Color Collection or the Happy Cow Collection... 59 total Materials to choose from!

8x10 ~ can have multiple images per page, one or two tone leather/material on cover, name stamping (*Some materials don't allow stamping due to their texture),  message stamping on the inside of the cover, 20 pages (10 for photos/10 for signing). For your cover, you can choose from the following collections:

All That Jazz Collection, The Basics Collection, Colours Collection, The Paraphernalia Collection, Tricycle Alley Collection or the Urban Legends Collection...40 total Materials to choose form!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW SWATCH COLLECTIONS

This book is shown in "Fox Downs" leather from the Middle Earth Collection

8x8 size ~ Black Signature Pages 

This is a sample book and is shown with 20 pages but normally they only get 10

2011~ 8x10 Finao SIgnature Guest Book

I wanted to share a few examples of our signature guest books by Finao which we will be offering in our packages next year. If you like them, one of these can be added to one of my current packages for a fee. 

 So what are the differences between the two signature albums?

8x8 ~ has one single image per page, one type of leather/material on cover, no name imprinting, 10 pages (5 for photos/5 for signing). For your cover, you can choose from the following collections:

Brocades Collection, Middle Earth Collection, Eclectic Looks Collection, Garbo Collection, Haute Color Collection or the Happy Cow Collection... 59 total Materials to choose from!

8x10 ~ can have multiple images per page, one or two tone leather/material on cover, name stamping (*Some materials don't allow stamping due to their texture),  message stamping on the inside of the cover, 20 pages (10 for photos/10 for signing). For your cover, you can choose from the following collections:

All That Jazz Collection, The Basics Collection, Colours Collection, The Paraphernalia Collection, Tricycle Alley Collection or the Urban Legends Collection...40 total Materials to choose form!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW SWATCH COLLECTIONS

This book is shown in "Drifter" leather from the All That Jazz Collection and the spine is in "Baby Boi" from the Tricycle alley Collection

8x10 size ~ White Signature Pages ~ Copper Name and Inside Message Stamping

Digital Negatives VS. Edited Images

Even though we include the digital negatives and a limited copyright release in all of our packages people still have a lot of misconceptions about what a digital negative is and what you can do with them. I hope to explain the many questions I get on this and what the differences are between digital negatives and edited images.

What is a digital negative?

Lets compare digital to film for a second. Think of a film negative. They are unedited, extremely easy to store, and hold a ton of potential. Digital negatives are exactly the same. These files are straight out of the camera, not retouched or resized. Great things can be done with them, if you know how. However, digital negatives are NOT the images you see in our portfolio, in our albums, and on our blog. The photos in albums, prints, portfolios, or in our blog have had extensive editing.

Why would I want a copy of my digital negatives?

Most of my clients like to have these images because they want a digital copy of all of their wedding photos. They also like to make prints of the photos themselves, post them online in places like Facebook or MySpace. You can do what you please with your negatives, as long as you follow the limited copyright release. If you would like to see a limited copyright release, let me know and I will provide a voided online image for you to read.

Does that mean I own the copyright?

No! Per federal law, The company who took the photos retains the copyright to them, and copyright ownership is not something that can be sold. When you get your disc with the digital negatives you will also get the written copyright release that gives you permission to use the images for certain purposes, such as making prints. The release is made out to the person who purchased them (such as the Bride and Groom), and cannot be duplicated for other people to use.

What am I NOT ALLOWED do with the digital negatives?

You CANNOT give or sell your copyright release to anyone else. For example, you can’t e-mail the photos to your Cousin and tell her she can print as many images as she wants. you CAN Make prints with your release and mail the images to her. Only the bride and groom have permission to use the images. You also CANNOT make changes to the images (cropping and resizing are ok, but please leave the image editing to us – that’s what you pay us for!). You CANNOT duplicate the disc or put image on a new disc for your friends and relatives, wedding magazines, websites or other vendors (although we are happy to submit your images to wedding magazines or other vendors who would like to use them for advertising ~ as long as they give us due credit!. Stephanie Williams Photography is the only entity authorized to sell or distribute the images that they own. If you have a specific request, we are more than happy to work with you to accommodate your needs.

Why are your prints so much more expensive than local store prints?

Each image goes through major retouching before being printed which can take hours, not to mention very detailed/skilled work, so we charge accordingly for this service. This is the main reason why there is such a difference in price between taking a digital negative to your local neighborhood one-hour photo and getting a 4×6 for $.20 and purchasing one from us for $15. At the one-hour photo place, you are paying for the low-quality paper it is printed on, the antiquated equipment that prints it, and the two seconds it takes them to run the image through. When you purchase from the photographer directly, you are get an image that has been printed by a professional photo lab on super high-quality photographic paper and the time it takes us to carefully retouch the image as well as calibrate it to the specific printer that our lab will be using. This requires expensive computer software and hardware, as well as lots and lots of time (roughly 30 or more minutes per image). For larger prints, we also have a special process that allows us to enlarge the image to virtually any size without any loss of quality. This is something that you just can’t get at one-hour photo shops.

What do you do to “edit” a photo? 

This is an extremely hard question to answer with in writing. Depending on the specific image, the process is different. It could mean increasing contrast, adjusting the white balance, color correcting, removing blemishes, slimming down unattractive body parts (only to an extent - we can't make you look 2 sizes smaller or anything...), opening closed eyes, erasing debris or distracting backgrounds, adding special effects like vignettes or sepia, etc. The possibilities are truly endless, and every single image requires something different.

Also, each image goes through two different bouts of editing. The first round of editing is where we make minor tweaks to the image to make it presentable for proofing. Mostly this is color correcting and contrast.

I would much prefer to answer this question visually. In the following examples, the “unedited” photo is the image straight out of the camera, the “proof” photo is the photo after the first round of editing (this is the image that you will see in your proofing galleries, as well as the image you will receive with your digital negatives), and the “edited” photo is the image after extensive retouching work that we will use for prints, albums, canvases, etc.

I like the edited photos and would like them as digital negatives. Can I pay extra for you to retouch all of them?

For an average wedding with 600 proofs, it would take us about 300 hours to do this, which would take six weeks of working non-stop 40 hour weeks, and the cost would run about $10,000. Although we would love that money, we cannot sacrifice that much of our time or we would be forced to neglect our other clients. We can do retouching on individual files for $35 an hour (typically two images per hour).

If you have any other questions about editing, digital negatives, or anything else, please e-mail me and I will be happy to help!

DVD/Copyright Release

Wedding Albums

Save the Date PostCards