About Weddings
What is so unique about Weston Photography wedding coverage?
Wedding photographers use a variety of methods for lighting their subjects: flash, reflectors, studio-lighting, and natural light. Weston Photography uses primarily natural-light. Therefore, the most important factors in obtaining gorgeous wedding images are LOCATION and LIGHTING. When selecting outdoor locations, look for even lighting and beautiful natural backgrounds. Indoors, seek out locations with lots of windows to allow as much natural light as possible! Because Janine is not dependent on artificial light sources, she is quite mobile while shooting and studies her subjects from all sides to capture with available natural light.
I want Weston Photography to photograph my wedding--what do I do next?
Follow this simple checklist:
- Contact us to determine if Weston Photography is available for your wedding.
- Print out Wedding & Event Agreement (PDF). Then read it, complete it, sign and return to Weston Photography along with your $600 deposit to reserve the date.
- Print out Photo Request List (doc) to help you organize the photography for your big day and designate an event guide to assist the photographer.
- Schedule a pre-event consultation (via phone or e-mail) two to three weeks before the event date in order to finalize the actual shooting times, locations, your request list (in writing) for specific photographs, and share your stylistic preferences with your photographer. Don't forget to send a copy of your wedding invitation!
- Relax and prepare for your wedding day!
- Within 60 days after the wedding:
- Order frame-quality prints and enlargements through online proofing
- Submit your top 100 images for your album(s) through our convenient album design form
- As a newly married couple, share and enjoy your prints, albums, and gifts for family and friends!
How many hours of photography do I need?
Weston Photography recommends starting pictures, both formal and candid, at least 1 hour and 30 minutes before the ceremony begins. Consider taking pictures of the bride preparing for her special day, bride with her family and bridesmaids, groom with his family and bridesmaids, and emotionally charged moments just before the ceremony. Capturing the majority of your wedding when make-up, hair, and flowers are fresh will provide you with photographs you will cherish. If the bride and groom do not want to see each other before the ceremony, shots can be taken separately, with the bride and groom photographed together, as a couple, just after the ceremony.
How much should I budget for photography?
How much do you value the photographs obtained from your wedding day? After the ceremony has passed, the toasts given, dinner savored, cake eaten, and flowers have wilted, only the still photographs from your wedding day will stare back at you from the walls within your home. Set aside time and 10-30% of your event budget for photography. Limit the time your photographer is shooting, by concentrating the most important elements of your wedding within a set number of hours. For example, focus more time on the formal and candid pictures of the bride and groom, family, wedding party, and ceremony, and then limit the amount of time spent photographing the reception to location shots, toasts, cake cutting, and dancing.
How much do you charge for wedding photography?
The answer depends on how much you would like done by a professional photographer versus how much you would like to do yourself. Many couples are quite capable of ordering prints, some even tackle designing their own albums; however, after the wedding, most couples are so busy honeymooning, moving into a new home, and starting their new life together that they never get around to it! Don't let years go by after your wedding without the albums and prints you wish you had from the start. Put your mind at ease and book Weston Photography for your wedding with the Ultimate Digital Wedding package.
To maintain a fresh creative perspective for your wedding and give you the attention you deserve, Weston Photography has limited wedding bookings. Contact us to find out if we're available for your wedding day!
How long will it take before the images are posted for online ordering?
The 100 top images will be posted online within two weeks of your event.
How will my wedding guests access the online photos?
Weston Photography will provide business cards at your event with information containing website URL and secure login and password information for your event.
Who will design my albums?
The best person to design your album is someone who has plenty of experience manipulating digital images using photo-editing software like Adobe Photoshop. If that person just happens to be you, great! If not, your album designer must have a great eye for color, layout, and design. The most versatile photographer will not only capture great images, but understand and employ digital workflow, image printing, and album creation. Weston Photography meets all of the above qualifications for album design--providing you with an end-to-end solution for your wedding photography.
When will I get my digital negatives?
Knowing how valuable your wedding images are, Weston Photography includes your high-resolution digital negatives (with a photography copyright release). You will receive your digital negatives within two weeks of your wedding.
What can I do with the digital negatives?
Negatives are power. In this digital age, you should expect the photographer to include or give you the option of purchasing the digital negatives from your wedding. Keep in mind, it is best to order frameable prints through your photographer to assure the highest quality in color reproduction, cropping, and finish. With digital negatives, you can:
- use photo-editing software to edit & stylize your photographs (crop, convert to black & white or sepia, add borders, etc.). You can download Picasa for free!
- display your images on a digital photo frame
- order prints through your vendor of choice
- create your own albums at My Publisher
- put together a musical slideshow with PhotoShow software
- post your photos online for friends and family at Snapfish
- make custom creative gifts at Cafe Press
- preserve your photographs in a format that is longer-lasting than film negatives
What type of digital camera do you use?
Weston Photography uses a variety of quality lenses in combination with 8-megapixel Canon Digital SLRs. These cameras are not like your Uncle Fred's point-and-shoot digital. Our camera-lens combinations are capable of shooting much faster in all lighting conditions, allowing us to capture the action as it happens! With our cameras, we can then produce frame-quality prints up to 30x40 inches in dimension.
What location and time of day are best for taking photographs?
Photography using natural light can be very flattering; however, timing is important. Because lower angles of light are most flattering, the first two hours after sunrise and last two hours before sunset are ideal for photographing an outdoor wedding. Find out when the sun will rise and set on your wedding day at www.sunrisesunset.com
How can I prepare ahead for wedding photographs?
- Make a request list for specific photographs and names of individuals to include in each formal group shot.
- Designate an "event guide" (person) to point out important individuals for informal or candid photographs to the photographer during the wedding that you wish to have photographed.
- Schedule a pre-event consultation (via phone or e-mail) two to three weeks before the event date in order to finalize the actual shooting times, locations, your request list (in writing) for specific photographs, and share your stylistic preferences with your photographer.
- Set aside at least one hour of time that ends 1/2 an hour before the ceremony commencement of the wedding and a 30-minute time frame afterward for photographs that cannot be obtained during the wedding.
What should I do if you aren't available to photograph my wedding?
Visit one of my mentors, and Berkeley Photographer, Eliot Khuner at www.ekphoto.com
Are there any vendors you recommend?
Looking for an edible conversation piece for your reception? For a real hit, book a giant chocolate fountain for your wedding at www.thechocolatemess.com
If you need a guitarrist, take a look at Jay Alvarez at www.jayalvarez.com for classical, Spanish romance, and jazz solo guitar.
Isn't being a wedding photographer stressful?
No, not at all. I'm the mother of three young children--multi-tasking under stressful conditions is what I do best! On the weekends, I actually love to get out of the house and photograph a wedding, just to relax!
What are people saying about Weston Photography?
Read a collection of cheers for Weston Photography.