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Bride and Groom, Limerick Sands Hotel, Limerick, David Gilmartin Wedding Photographer

Wedding Photography - Frequently Asked Questions

 

What is your wedding photography style?

Take a look at the samples in my wedding photography portfolio and the real weddings in the wedding photography galleries. My wedding photography style is probably best described as natural and documentary. For most of a wedding, I am likely to be in the background. I try to capture the emotion and atmosphere of the wedding day without being very obvious.

Who will take our photographs?

I am the only photographer in this business, so it will be me!

Do you take posed photographs?

If a couple would like some posed photographs, I will certainly take them. This typically involves some direction or suggestions. I don't do highly contrived poses. They make everyone (especially me) uncomfortable.

What about group shots?

Yes, of course I take group shots. Typically, the bride and groom or their parents, will request shots of the bridal party and families. You should allow about five minutes for each group. In the pre-wedding consultation, I ask the bride and groom to come up with a list of any group shots that they would like. I also ask that someone in the bridal party assists with getting the groups together as they probably know the people involved and it speeds up the process.

Are you insured?

I carry public liability and professional indemnity insurance and I can provide details on request. If you are looking for a wedding photographer, you do need to confirm that they are insured. Some local authorities responsible for public parks, require confirmation of the photographer's insurance before granting permission for photography. They are also looking for minimum public liability insurance cover of €6.5m. Are you insured for your wedding? It is well worth taking out insurance cover for your own wedding to protect against unforeseen events.

Are you a member of a professional organisation?

Not at the moment. I do review this every year. If you would like to know more about this, please contact me.

Do you offer a pre wedding shoot or engagement shoot?

Yes. Some couples find a pre wedding shoot beneficial. Some use the shoot to produce an image for use in a signing frame or as an engagement portrait. Here is some more information on the pre wedding shoot.

What equipment do you use?

Most of my work is done with Canon EOS 1D digital bodies and Canon L series professional lenses. I always carry two digital bodies. I also carry a Canon 1v film body to most weddings along with some film. I use a small amount of flash in darker spaces (most churches, some function rooms, registry offices etc.). Where possible, I try to shoot with natural light and avoid using flash. For winter weddings, I carry some additional portable flashes and some studio flash heads if required for internal shots.

You mention film, why would you use film?

I still use film because I have always done so and I like the results. I still do a lot of portrait and reportage work shooting with film. Digital cameras are great tools for shooting a wedding. Getting the images from the camera to the client is, in most cases, much faster. Images shot on film (black and white or colour) have a unique look. There are many photographers shooting "vintage style" weddings that must spend a lot of time making their images look like they were shot on film. I may shoot some images on film at a wedding, but not a full wedding. At some point, I may look at offering a film option for weddings with hand finished prints. Are you interested?

How long do I have to wait for my images?

After your wedding or civil partnership ceremony, I download all the images from the memory cards and back them up. Within a day or so, I can select a small number of images that can be posted on my Facebook page as a "teaser". A lot of couples like this, but it is up to you.

Your images will be edited. If you are checking out other photographers, be sure to ask if the images they supply are edited and what exactly the editing involves. I shoot RAW format images with the camera and these require processing (similar to film development) to turn them into finished images. Every shot must be evaluated and then colour adjusted and further processed as required. Some images will be converted to black and white. All this takes time! It takes much more time to edit your wedding images than I spend shooting. Your edited images are normally available within two weeks (it may take longer during the summer). These edited images will be placed in a private online gallery and I will send you the access information. You can share the gallery with family and friends.

Your USB Drive should be ready within four weeks of your wedding or civil partnership ceremony.

You mentioned editing images. Uncle Jack thinks the clown costume was a mistake. Can you fix this in the family group shots?

Not as part of the standard service. Colour correction and any other required RAW processing is all I will do to the image. If you think some images would benefit from retouching, we can discuss this. Any retouching is an additional service and charged accordingly.

When and how do I pay you?

A non-refundable booking fee is required along with a signed booking form to secure your booking. The balance of your photography fee is due one calendar month before the ceremony.

I accept payment by cheque, cash or bank transfer.

What is on the USB Drive you provide?

There are two versions of your wedding images stored in two folders. One folder will contain high resolution images with no watermarking. These are suitable for printing, even at large sizes. A second folder contains low resolution images with a watermark. These are suitable for sharing with friends and family online.

Do I own the copyright of the images on my wedding disk?

You are granted a licence to print the high resolution images from the disk for personal use (commercial use is not permitted) and to share and distribute the watermarked images. Ownership and copyright remains with the photographer (me).

Where can I print my images and get the best quality?

You will get the best colour reproduction and quality if your images are printed by a professional lab. The photo machine at your local supermarket or electrical retailer will not be up to the task and you may be very disappointed wish the results. For a photographer, this is the downside of providing images on a USB Drive. A poor choice when printing images can make my work look average at best.

The same is true for wall products such as canvases. I have seen some images reproduced on canvas that look truly awful. Some of the lower price canvas prints that you see on the group discount offers are churned out with little or no concern for the accuracy of the reproduction.

I do supply canvas prints along with a variety of other wall products. I use a professional lab to produce these. I have a high degree of confidence in the lab's ability to reproduce the images faithfully. You can order prints and wall products from your online gallery. The prices are very competitive for professionally produced products.

Do you supply wedding albums?

Yes. I supply a variety of wedding albums. Albums can be ordered at any time, although a significant discount is applied to albums added a part of your wedding booking.

There are a range of high quality coffee table books that can be used as a main wedding album. This has been popular for smaller weddings. Some couples also choose these books for their parents.

I can supply the traditional or classical albums, storybook style albums and matted albums. All are produced by reputable manufacturers who only supply to professional photographers. Take a look at some other wedding album information.

Why should we spend money on a big expensive book that gathers dust under the bed and is only taken out every five years?

I'm not going to make you buy one, but ... you may want to read this discussion of why wedding albums are important.

Other Wedding Photographers supply Eco Friendly Albums and USB Drives. Are yours Eco Friendly?

I am sure that all my wedding albums are Eco Friendly to some degree. After all, they are printed on paper and a large percentage of that is most likely recycled. The packaging materials are certainly recycled and recyclable.

USB Drives are electronic devices and at their core, are not very eco friendly. You can enclose them in a wooden shell and claim they are eco friendly, but they are not.

The "eco friendly" claim can be very much about marketing and justifying higher costs for materials and higher prices for you. The EU is pretty good at ensuring all packaging is recyclable and most manufacturers today will use raw materials with a proportion of recycled materials (if they can) for cost reasons. Manufacturers are also very careful with energy costs - because they are costs.

I have a voucher from a group purchase site for a photobook, can I use the images from my USB Drive?

Of course you can. See the response to the question above regarding printing images. I ordered three photobooks from a major consumer supplier and had to return them due to defects in the printing. I am very picky about printed products, but these were very obvious defects. You really do get what you pay for and sometimes a lot less. There really is no substitute for professionally produced wedding albums and coffee table books. If you need more information, please contact me.