Matt Emrich Photography
I usually arrive whenever and wherever the bride and her bridesmaids are getting ready. Not only does this yield some wonderful images, it also allows the bride to get used to me and, I hope, render me ‘invisible’ for the rest of the day…so I can get those great expressions in both the candids and the portraits.
My day continues throughout the ceremony and the reception, ending only after the last dance has been danced and folks are headed out the door (or just sitting around in small groups, talking and visiting).
The number of images I take during a typical wedding varies and I pare this number down to 400 or so ‘keepers’ which become the possession of the bride and groom. The only images I delete, since everyone always asks, are the ones nobody would want: multiple exposures of the same shot (bracketed with different light readings); shots where someone’s eyes are closed and/or looking at another camera; shots where a guest’s flash has fired, blowing out my shot; etc. I do not throw away any other images.
Every image a couple receives has been personally worked on by me in Photoshop or Lightroom. I’m not saying I do a lot of work on each one (most are very good right out of the camera), but I do like to look at each one and apply a little sharpening here, a little color saturation there, etc. I do occasionally tweak some images that I think would look good with a little ‘extra’ something:) For example, sometimes I’ll convert an entire image to black and white but leave the flowers in color. Other times I might add a Gaussian blur to parts of an image but leave the subject in clear focus. Whenever I do this, I also keep the original image intact, so the couple can choose which one (or both) they like best.
It takes about two weeks for me to finish a wedding and post the images on the web. I use Smugmug and Shutterfly for my clients; they are given a password-protected site where they can view all their images, view a slideshow, order prints, etc.
I also give my clients two DVDs of their full-rez images, one in color and one in Black & White. They can take these DVDs anywhere they like for printing (although I do recommend a pro lab for anything larger than a 5×7), and are free to make as many copies of these as they wish. My contract clearly states that each couple has unlimited printing rights for life so if your photo lab has issues with copyright, simply show them the contract.
As far as albums go, these range in size and price so contact me if you’re interested. I’ve had couples call me a year after their wedding, wanting to do an album, and that’s no problem:) You can see the various album options on my contract page.
If you’d like to see an example of what a full-day wedding looks like, please visit the following link:
and scroll down to ‘Featured Galleries’. By clicking on one of the 4 icons in that section you can see exactly what the bride and groom received on their DVDs, view a slideshow of a whole day’s wedding, see what prices are for prints, etc (although you can use your DVDs to make your own prints as well).
I am frequently asked if I employ 2nd shooters. While I do occasionally utilize an assistant, I stopped using 2nd shooters a few years ago after finding they greatly increased my workload without really increasing the number of ‘keepers’ my clients received! Having shot hundreds of weddings on my own I feel fairly confident in my abilities to not only capture all the important moments, but to anticipate them as well. This cuts down on the need for a 2nd shooter. A 2nd shooter will typically give me 600-800 images to sort through, many of which are duplicates of images I already captured. The added expense of hiring another shooter (which has to be passed on to my clients) simply doesn’t work with my pricing structure …I’d rather spend my time making killer albums!
