Hello Human!
Today I am going to ramble about what photographers call “turn around time”!
Now, our wedding turn around time is 6-8 weeks, and regular portrait sessions about 1-2 weeks…. but let me explain why!
With weddings we typically have to go through around 2-3k photos.. not all of those are good, either. We were either testing our light, taking test shots of Mark, or we missed focus. We’re professionals, not perfect 😉
From the time we take your photos, we upload them all to our computer + external hard drives + build a Lightroom Catalog for you (our program that we edit it that holds all your wedding photos).
Basically if we could, it would usually take us around 12-24 hours total to do a wedding, but we never do it all in one sitting because we like to take our time and make sure everything looks perfect.
Sometimes, when we stare at our screens too long we go a little stir crazy. Like.. we start to see funny colors, can’t agree if skin tones actually look right, or just don’t have the creative juice flowing.
We also usually have 2 – 4 weddings / 3-7 portrait sessions every month, which means each client has their own turn around, but they can all overlap another one.
So what are we doing in those 1-2 / 6-8 weeks?
We are a mix of personal life, shooting, and editing, and taking a day off at least once a week! Trust me, burn out is real, and creatives need that time to recoup!
Usually for me, we shoot the wedding, I upload it, then I wait a few days before touching it because I want (and need) to come back with fresh eyes to edit.
After a session / wedding the whole day is still so fresh it’s almost counter productive for me to try to cull (narrow down to the good images, not out of focus or blinking ones) and edit.
That doesn’t mean I don’t want to, just means my brain needs a break!
On average we actually deliver images early, but photographers – give yourself some grace – sometimes life gets in the way and you need to build in padded time (like for me, my car broke down last week).
We are always excited and can’t wait to hear from our clients, plus you are not bugging me when you’re excited too! It’s one of my favorite parts of the job hearing from our clients!! That’s why we always try to get a blog post out after a wedding within 1-2 weeks! We want to share that sneak peek with you because we’re just as excited as you are!!
I mean for the most part, turn around time just means how much grace period your creative person needs to turn around a product of quality! Every photographer is different, and that’s totally fine, just make sure to ask yours what their policies are!!
Hope you enjoy little insights into the photography world!!
Love, Jamie + Mark
