New Toys!

It’s a long time since I shot a wedding on film, and I have to say I don’t miss it at all. The quality of digital cameras exceeds anything traditional 35mm film could produce, and the advantages of being able to check shots as you do them is fantastic – there’s nothing worse than getting films back from the lab only to find that the bride or groom blinked all the way through the shoot – been there!

A common misconception with digital photography is that it saves time and money – in fact it’s the opposite. Digital cameras cost far more than film ones, and they are constantly improving which means that we have to upgrade far more often to keep ahead of the game. For 2007 we have invested almost £3000 in new equipment, including a pair of Fujifilm S5 Pro cameras. Despite the name these are 12 megapixel digital SLR cameras which are optimised for wedding photography. The tests from these cameras are sensational, and I can’t wait to shoot my first wedding with them.

The other great innovation which is both a blessing and a curse is Photoshop. There are almost no limits to what can be achieved in Photoshop these days, but it does mean that I now spend far longer at the computer than I ever did in the darkroom. A typical wedding for us will generate 2-300 photographs, and every one has to be opened and tweaked as necessary in Photoshop before it ever gets seen by the client. This can mean anything between 5 and 10 hours of processing time, but it’s essential to put in the extra effort to give our customers the best possible pictures.

All of this investment – over £10,000 in the last 12 months for us – and time explains why wedding photography costs what it does. Sure we could do it cheaper, but the quality would suffer, and that’s unacceptable - we hope you agree.