Field notes
Field notes
Practical writing on culling, editing, delivery and running a studio - aimed at photographers working large weddings and events.
culling
How to cull 4,000 wedding photos in under an hour
A twelve-hour wedding produces thousands of frames and most of them are near-duplicates. Here is a culling pass that gets you to a shortlist without opening every file.
1 min read
clients
The 12 questions every couple should ask their wedding photographer
Send this to couples before the first call. The bookings that go wrong almost always go wrong on something in this list that nobody raised early enough.
2 min read
editing
How to edit wedding photos correctly: a colour workflow that survives 500 frames
Editing one photo well is easy. Editing 500 so they look like one wedding is the actual skill. The order you work in matters more than the sliders you use.
1 min read
tools
Wedding photo editing software: what each tool actually costs per year
Monthly prices hide the real number. Here is what a working event photographer typically spends across editing, culling, delivery and storage in a year — and where the overlap is.
2 min read
culling
Culling software for event photographers: what actually saves time
Most culling tools promise hours back and deliver minutes. The difference comes down to three features — and whether the tool understands groups or only single frames.
2 min read
delivery
How to deliver a wedding gallery in 48 hours instead of six weeks
The six-week turnaround is not caused by editing time. It is caused by four queues that only move when you sit down at the desk. Here is how to remove three of them.
2 min read
big-events
Shooting a 500-guest wedding: timeline, shot list and what breaks
A 500-guest wedding is not a 150-guest wedding with more people. Three things scale badly, and all of them are fixable if you plan for them before the day.
2 min read
delivery
Face-matched guest galleries: how they work and what to tell your clients
Guests do not scroll 4,000 photos to find themselves. Face matching solves that — but it comes with a consent conversation you should have before the wedding, not after.
2 min read
business
How to price wedding photography packages without guessing
Most photographers price by looking at what the person down the road charges. Here is how to work out your actual cost per wedding first, so the number means something.
2 min read
backup
Backing up a wedding shoot: the 3-2-1 rule on an actual shoot day
Everyone knows the 3-2-1 rule. Almost nobody follows it on the day, when it matters most. Here is what it looks like between the ceremony and getting home.
2 min read
big-events
Second shooter workflow: syncing two cameras, two cards and one gallery
Two photographers produce one gallery. The frustrating part is not the shooting, it is that the two sets arrive in different colours, different times and different naming.
2 min read
business
From inquiry to invoice: running a studio without five separate apps
The average working photographer runs their business across a calendar, a contract tool, a gallery host, a spreadsheet and their inbox. Here is where that actually costs you.
2 min read