FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
| F.A.Q. |
| Q: Who are the photographers? A: We are Shawn Clark & Jenifer Day, a husband & wife photographic team. We bring you over 10 years of photographic expertise and creative professionalism. See the “About Us” for a detailed history on who we are and how we met. Q: What does your fee include? A: When we give our clients an estimate, we want to make it clear that the price includes the following: photographing the event(s), editing the images afterwards, gas/travel, equipment, insurance, archiving the images (meaning we NEVER delete images!) and posting the images on our website for client access. Q: What equipment do you use? A: All of our camera gear is Canon. We use EOS camera bodies and L-series lenses. We also use Speedotron lighting equipment, Apple computers, X-Rite color management hardware and software, and the latest Adobe software, among others. Q: Are the photos captured in film or digital format? A: We shoot digital (unless specifically contracted) and we always capture in RAW and never JPEG. This means we shoot at the best quality possible. RAW file format is part of the digital camera’s technology that allows the most information of an image to be recorded. Meaning each image will be rich in color with minimal noise and sharp detail once it is processed into a JPEG for printing. Shooting in RAW, processing them and then converting it to a JPEG is what retains the best quality. Shooting the images in JPEG in the beginning does NOT allow for this. If you would like further details about the technical processes, programs, and procedures we use, don’t hesitate to ask, WE LOVE TO TALK SHOP! Q: Do you retouch the images? A: When appropriate we will subtly retouch and enhance some images. We also offer some artistic enhancements and we can also convert the images to Black & White and/or Sepia for a vintage feel. If you would like additional retouching we can provide you with a proposal for these services. Q: If you shoot digital, why can’t we receive our images at the end of the day? And/or why does it take up to 10 business days to receive our images? A: Because we believe in Quality! ☺ We would like to clarify that our workday does not stop at the end of your wedding/event/session – it actually continues on an average of two hours for every hour we shoot for you as we painstakingly go through every image we shoot several times. First, we edit out the images that are not of the highest technical quality, duplicates, and ones that are over represented. Next, we go through the images again and pick the ones that we feel are the strongest and craft the best digital image by adjusting the exposure, crop, color, and creative effects (if appropriate) of the RAW capture. Then we go through the images again to make sure we have complete coverage of the event and tell a great story with the images. Finally, we go through each image again and group them into an appropriate order and create the proofs as appropriate. While our workflow may seem ridiculous to many photographers (many of whom shoot jpegs and upload the images to a website that night to get the most print sales), we believe we our efforts are small compared to the trust that you place in our ability to create the best images we can for you! We strive to capture the highest quality images “in camera”, but that is not always the best interpretation of the image. Q: Do you ever shoot more than one wedding in a day? A: No. We do not, because once again, we believe in Quality. Not quantity. At a seminar, we once listened to the presenter brag about how much money he made photographing three weddings on 7/7/7. The most important thing we learned from him was to not learn from him! Q: Why don’t you give us the digital negatives? A: We read in a bridal magazine a piece of advice that read something along the lines of: if the wedding photographer does not give you the digital negatives, walk away. We feel this is an incredible disservice to you. You are paying for us to capture the best images of your day possible. Part of our service is to process the digital images so the images make beautiful prints for you to cherish for generations. By keeping the digital negatives “in house”, we maintain the fidelity of color management and quality control to insure the highest quality reproductions that will last for several generations. In addition, as we stated, we will spend between 20 and 30 hours editing and processing your images after your wedding; time we are sure you would rather spend with your new spouse! By not including the digital negatives in your package price unless requested, we can keep our prices low and our quality high. If you should like to purchase some or all of the digital negatives (which most of our clients do) either before or after your contract is completed, we would be pleased to create a custom package for you at very reasonable rates. Q: Do you photograph ONLY in San Francisco, Miami & Boston? A: No. We are primarily located in Miami, but we are available for destination weddings/events. Please send us an email for more info. |
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