What is a bad wedding photographer. For the bride, it can be one who is too pushy, not pushy enough, not on time, missing important pictures, is rude, take lousy pictures, fumbles with equipment, something breaks and no backup, takes too long to post pictures online, takes too long to send the files on dvd (cd are too damn small), takes too long to design the album, doesn’t return calls or emails, gets injured or dies before the wedding, and I’m sure many, many more  examples.

Heather and Jason's first dance at Windows on the River in Cleveland Ohio

(just an obligatory image from my most recent wedding, consider it an advertisement)

How does the bride spot the problem photographers? Too cheap,little selection in online gallery, all or most pictures from the same wedding, not any or many references, slow response to phone or email questions, and not being business-like are some of the warning signs.

Ring bearer insurance

(the 2nd and last advertisement)

So when does a good photographer go bad? First of all, photographers need input, lots and lots of input! We need to know when and where to be. We need to know about little surprises that make great pictures. We need to know your expectations, are you traditional or anything goes on the wedding formals? If you need the files or book in a hurry, we need to know. Most photographers will either meet your needs or let you know what the delays may be. That is another difference between the good and bad photographer. And last and pretty important, the good photographer takes great pictures!

Getting ready to catch the bouquet.

I lied!

Photoshop can do many things for your photography. but if a little is good, is a lot, better? It depends. There are 3 uses for photoshop in wedding photography.

1. making a visual point. I can draw you eye to the most interesting part of your picture. These are effects like darkening the edges, blurring most of the picture but leaving the important parts sharp, and of course making the picture into a black and white with some color (spot color, not a favorite of mine but still worth mentioning).

2. Retouching for glamor or just to make you look better. I can smooth out your skin, thin your face, arms, stomach, and much, much more. I can make you smile.

3. special effects. I can take a bad picture and make it look interesting. Well maybe not the ones above but most of them. I can use motion blur. I can make it look like an illustration.

I can overlay a texture like sand, tree bark, or anything else you can think of. The down side is that it all takes time and although I do these retouches when I design an album, I have to charge for this service if you want them on the files, BUT I CAN DO IT!

How much is too much. I would say it’s up to you. But if you notice the retouching more than the picture, it is too much.

Wedding photography at University Circle in Cleveland Ohio

I am breaking from my normal format to give the Cleveland, Akron, and Youngstown bride some ideas of where to shoot your portraits and and formals. This first blog will only include Cleveland and the surrounding area. Stay tuned for Akron wedding photography locations and Youngstown wedding photography locations.

For weddings at Cleveland, here are some of my favorite outdoor locations.

1. Squires Castle at Willoughby Hills, Ohio

photography at Squire's Castle in the Cleveland Metropark system

Squire’s Castle is only roofed for 1 room and my cause problems in rain or snow.

2. Italian Gardens near University Circle and Wade Lagoon.

The Italian Gardens on MLK

The downside of the cultural gardens is that it is very popular and there will be limos lined up at almost any time of day.

3. The free stamp near Cleveland city Hall on Lakeside in downtown Cleveland.

Photography at Cleveland Ohio downtown at the "Free Stamp"

4. Edgewater Park

Cleveland wedding photography at Edgewater Park

Only major problem is the wind (most of the time) and rain or snow (some of the time).

More sites to come in the next blog!

I shoot a lot of weddings and especially in these hard times, I want to make a suggestion to todays’ brides. When you plan your wedding photography, plan for the future and live for the wedding day. What I mean is that on the wedding day, live in the moment and enjoy it with friends and family. That is what weddings and marriage are all about. But in planning the kind of photography you want and what you will remember of your wedding in 10, 20, 40, 60 years from your wedding day, think of the future.

Moments that will last a lifetime

The first dance, another moment that will last forever.

This is why I believe in photojournalism as the best style for weddings. Artistic photography can be beautiful, but will it keep it’s meaning for you in the furture. Just my 2 cents worth.

Michael Steinberg

Remembering your best man and Maid of Honor

Not all brides want the same thing when it comes to  photography of their wedding (but you knew that). I think most just want pictures that make them look beautiful and happy and make everyone else look happy too. But there are other considerations. We photographers can offer a fairly large and complex set of products.

The first is our time and how many of us you get. We sell our time in hours, packaged times like 4 hours, 6 hours, ect., and unlimited or even 3 days for Hindu weddings. We sell an assistant, a second shooter, or even a third.

We sell some of our files, all of our files, corrected files and retouched files. We sell prints, all sizes from wallets to pretty much as big as you want to go and canvas mounted prints. We sell engagment shoots and can send the files directly to any newspaper you want them printed in.

Michael and Cristen engagement shoot at Garfield memorial in Warren, Ohio.

And lastly, photographers offer everything you could want done with your files. You can get traditional albums, coffee table books, copy or redesigned coffee table books for parents, wedding party, and whomever you would like to give one to. The prices for a book can vary from $40 (or less) to $16,000 and more (Pictobook precious metals series), not including design fees. And the size for the album can vary from 4×6 inches (maybe smaller) to at least a 16×20 book.

So what are you buying. Here’s my advice. If money is no object, whatever you want. Otherwise, know yourself. If you are a scrapbooker or a graphic designer, you may only need files (spend more money on the best photographer you can afford). If you want a great album, ask your photographer for samples of albums and find the album manufacturer you want. Sometimes the album will look better than individual albums. I would still pick the photographer you like the best but 2nd best might be better if you like his albums better. Lastly, if photography is not that important to you, I would put the money into a videographer and use a friend. After all, it’s your wedding!

In the past when I shot film, the most important thing that a bride wanted was a great wedding album. In these days when you get literally thousands of pictures from your wedding, more is not better. Think about 10 years from now at a family get-together, which would be better? Everyone looking at a beautiful wedding album or getting the family around the computer to look at a thousand pictures. I would argue that the album is the best way to remember your wedding and many brides, who want files only, will never use the files other than to email them to friends or to make a small number of prints for personal use.

Tracie and Greg wedding reception at Landerhaven in Cleveland

The coffee table albums will give you the best and most lasting memory of your wedding, not the vast number of digital files. There is also a second consideration. Most photographers, myself included, will base our prices partly on the cost of our time. Time spent on correcting files, designing books, and of course the time shooting the wedding itself. If we could spend more of that time on the design and correction of the files for the book, there might be saving you could negotiate with the photographer. And I offer these suggestions as a photographer who offers packages with high res files only! Please note that this blog is from my perspective only and I welcome your comments. If a bride has a choice between getting the files and getting an album, I would suggest the album any day of the week.

Michael Steinberg

Gloria's wedding

As I have said in past posts, I will design books for brides who have high res files and printing or copyright for their images from their photographer. I use Finao, Graphistudio, Pictobooks, and Asukabook and I can use any other book printer that you would like. I can design with your imput or using my own design sense and composition. I can send you a pdf of the design as I do it or surprise you. I will give you the cost of the book, parents books, or wedding party gift books before you commit to starting the design. So if you are interested, go to my website to look over the prices www.weddingphotographercleveland.com/rates and get some idea of price although I would suggest contacting me by email or phone to get an estimate based on exactly what you want. I am including samples of my design work below. Enjoy.

getting ready

Lisa Book

Ted and Diane

Kendra"s book

I may be in the minority on this one, but I offer packages that offer the bride the option of hiring me for the photography only. There are a lot of photographers out there that have an option of shooting the wedding and giving the bride the files. If you are one of the brides who have the rights to your files, you have options.

1. You can design your book by yourself. The positives are that if you are good at photoshop, you can have a book printed and save a lot of money. On the downside, it is a lot of work and may take a ton of time and the better and best books will only sell to photographers. You will also need to put much more time into the files, just color correcting and sharpening (standard with most shoot and burn packages) is usually not enough to make the picture sing. You cannot expect a photographer to do a ton of extra work on 400-2000 files, it is not economical (1000 files@1 minute per file is about 2 days of retouching and 1 minute is an underestimation of the time to make a file perfect).

Cleveland wedding photography showing how files are improved

2. You can have your photographer, another photographer (like me), or a retoucher work on the files you want in your book. The downside is cost but it will still save you money but will still not give you access to premium coffee table book manufacturers (unless the photographer or retoucher will include that in the cost of the retouching,(I will, email me for an estimate).

3. You can shop arround for someone to design and print your book which is the same process you used to find your photographer. You can pick out the design style you want and have creative control (my style)  or use the style of the book designer (also my style). Best of luck with your wedding coffee table book.

Cleveland wedding photography at a reception for a coffee table book.

Michael Steinberg

What I really wanted to say is hiring a wedding photographer is a lot like hiring a house painter. Lets say you have a outside wedding at a time of day that the natural light is good and the weather is not a problem. This is not unlike hiring someone to paint a wall with white paint. For the most part, just about any painter could handle it, even college kids would work. In this situation, you can probably get an amateur with a good photographic eye and get pictures you like. That is not to say that if you wanted a mural painted on the wall, the same college kids could paint a masterpiece and also if you want great photography, the best is still a pro, and the more expensive generally the better the work.

Now lets say the weather is terrible, the service is in a dark church, the reception is at night in a beautiful venue with a lot of reflective windows, and you have a million posed family and wedding party shots to do and only about an hour and a half scheduled. In this situation, the odds of getting great photography with an amateur, or even a starting pro, is about like hiring high-schoolers to paint the Metropolitan Opera House. Not a pretty sight.

And remember when the Pope wanted his ceiling painted, he went to Michelangelo, not Earl Shive (I can paint your car for $200).

Josey and Coleman at their reception in Youngstown

Michael Steinberg

It’s really not all that hard, even if it can be time consuming. There are 5 steps.

1. Start the search. If there is a bridal show, and you love crowds, it can help. You can do searches on the internet. You can read the bridal magazines. You can go to the bridal forums such as TheKnott, WPJA (wedding Photojournalist Association, The Fox hot list in your town, you can ask married friends and family who they used, and many, many others. This should give you a bunch of names to start with. I would have a tendency to avoid Craigslist, but that might just be me.

2. Take your list and go to the photographers website starting with the ones you think might be the best fit first. Remember that any photographer I know would have no problem covering a distance of up to about 75 miles with no or low travel costs (this is my experience and is true for my own business), so you have more choices than you might think. Then make a folder of your favorites and the cost of each.

3. When you have your list, you can email or call each and see if they are available for your date. I would tend to go easy on the compliments since we photographers are a vain group and if you tell us you love us and leave us, we tend to take it personally.

This is Josie's wedding and is just here to confuse you

4. Set up meetings with as many photographers as you think you need and can handle without going crazy.

5. Lastly, before booking, talk to references, do a bridal forum search to see if anyone has any problems with the photographer, check the Better Business Bureau (although very few bad eggs turn up there), and then take the plunge. You’ll thank me in the morning.