As a wedding photographer I am regularly shown wedding photography packages from other photographers and asked if I can do a similar package. I am all for customising my packages or coming up with a package to suit the budgets and requirements of any couple, however there is one thing other photographers offer that never makes any sense.
That thing is the package that includes a bunch of loose prints.
I see it all the time, the photographer has a perfectly good package on offer with a great wedding album and tacked at the end is some random number of 6×4″ prints. Makes no sense. Why offer a bunch of random prints that will be dumped in a drawer or shoebox and never see the light of day? The reason is that it is a carry over from the days of film photography and the mindset that you have to have a package with a bunch of extra prints because that’s how it has always been done.
When film was king, packages often revolved around a number of rolls of film. A minimum package would have say 3 rolls of colour and 2 B&W. That’s 180 frames. You could expect 60 to go in the album and the photographer would just offer the rest up as extra prints in the package. They’d offer 100 extra prints and the remaining 20 might be breathing space to allow for dud shots. Fact is, if the photographer didn’t hand them over, they’d just go in the bin.
So are packages with those extra prints better value? Well, frankly no. It’s just being wasteful. With the introduction of digital wedding photography, only what is needed has to be printed. Although still controversial, handing over a disc of digital images with the album is becoming more common. All my packages include a disc of images. Then the bride and groom can get whatever small prints they want in the future. Exactly what they want.
Photographic prints are a chemical intensive product that require a range of heavy metals, acids and other nasties. Not printing unwanted prints is great for the environment. That’s why I love the wedding photography packages I offer. Only what is required gets printed and is presented in custom designed and made albums that use materials of the highest quality sourced from suppliers who are as environmentally responsible as possible.
My wedding albums come from Queensberry and they are stunning.
You can see more of my wedding photography on my website here.