Raw vs Rendered Images - at a wedding

We have had many of our clients ask us recently about the difference between rendered portraits and raw images. Steve always loves to start his stories to our girls in this fashion so in honor of him...When I was a kid...photographers took almost the exact amount of images as they showed their clients. When my husband and I got married it was a big deal that our amazing photographer, Henry Glover, took over 300 images!!!! My dad being a wedding photographer himself was shocked - and after cleaning out our firebox this summer I know why he was - the bill to just to process those images was well over $300 - and that was only to be able to see the "raw images" YIKES!!!!!! No wonder my dad was shocked!!!! With his average wedding bringing in about $400 total there was no way he could afford to be that frivolous with his film (For those of you in the younger crowd - film is like the old time version of a memory card)! Anyway, that is why wedding photographers typically shot 120-150 images at a wedding and that was it!!!! Then came digital...Fast forward to our last wedding... a small wedding at the bride's home where we shot a total of 1194 usable images (yes usable that is after I deleted about 200 because they were too dark, blurry, or I am in the middle of the frame fixing someones hair) - WHAT A HUGE DIFFERENCE!!!!!!!! So how do we handled all of these images? Well the first wedding we did we "rendered" every image the bride saw - so we picked or favorite 150 images and spent hours photoshopping every detail of the images! we did this twice - because in the end the same 25 were chose over and over again - there were a few differences between the bride's family and the groom's but most of the same images were chosen over and over! However - brides would call back multiple times saying, "I know you took one of my sister and our Uncle Harry - I did not see it do you have that image?" and then Steve and I would "render" another few images and post to our website.

I found out quickly though that brides did not necessarily want a picture of their sister and Uncle harry but they needed to see it as it was a memory they had at the moment. So now I had a problem that needed a solution! Steve and I are very particular about the portraits that leave our studio - not because we are uppity but because in the days of digital cameras we want our clients to know that our images are worth the money they are paying - not only do we take time to take the portrait but we spend hours making them beautiful pieces of art to be enjoyed for generations. However to truly charge what we would need to "render" 1194 wedding images would make us out of everyone but Donald Trump's price range. So what to do what to do??????


So we are experimenting - We have decided to put up all the "RAW IMAGES" of our wedding on a secure website with a password given only to the bride and groom - of course they can share it with whomever they choose. These images are the usable photos that be used to create a "RENDERED PORTRAIT" Our brides can then see all of their choices and choose the images which become rendered.


PLEASE NOTE!!!!!

ANY image purchased from our studio for printing is Artist Rendered even if they are shown on the website only as a raw image !

And since a picture is worth a thousand words here is the picture version of my ramblings...

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