Our Wedding Photography Workflow 

1. Format our flash on the cameras that they will be used
2. At the end of the wedding event we count all of the flash cards before we leave the venue.
3. If time allows we download all of the flash cards to our laptop and do a quick display using Photo Mechanic Pro to verify that there are not corrupt files.
4. Create a directory on our hard drive with the couple's names and date
5. As soon as we get home we download the files using Downloader Pro. We have set up the program in such a way that it names the files sequentially based on the time of capture and adds the camera serial number and model as a prefix. That way me minimize the possibility of having duplicate file names.
6. After we finish downloading the files we make a copy to a second hard drive on a different workstation.
7. Burn two DVD copies of all the files making sure we verify the DVDs. This step is critical.
8. Take one the DVD copies to a different location.
9. Do a file selection using Photo Mechanic Pro. Once that we have selected the files they are copied to a separate computer for batch processing.
10. Run a proofing action that does color adjustment sharpening and creates versions in BW, Sepia and Color. The last step resizes them to 4x6 300 DPI.
11. Create a folder named lab and open three copies of Breezebrowser and display each of the 3 of the proof versions (color, sepia and BW). I proceed to select the ones that will be printed in each of the versions and copy them to the Lab folder.
12. Upload the selected files to the lab via FTP.
13. Make a copy of lab folder and run it though a watermarking action that places a copyright symbol on each of the photos.
14. Using the IPTC metadata editor in Breezebrowser separate the images in sections i.e. Bride and groom, groups, ceremony etc.
15. Run all the photos though a Breezebrowser custom gallery function that uses the IPTC data.
16. I upload the gallery to my website and notify the couple.



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Wedding photography is an evolving field that requires artistic talent, vision, and highly technical expertise.

In the past wedding photography was almost always limited to stiff posses without much regard for the underlying story, emotion, romance, and behind the scene events of the wedding day.

Although there is still a big segment of the wedding industry that practices traditional photography with its preplanned poses, and recreation of the wedding peak events such as the kiss, the ring exchange, etc., the modern wedding couple demands a more contemporary approach to their wedding celebration.

Wedding photojournalism has been in vogue for the past decade. The central idea behind it has been the capture of the wedding events without any interference or direction from the wedding photographer. The photographer is there to capture the true essence of the wedding day. As a result of this realistic approach the photographs are a true representation of the wedding day. Hard core wedding journalistic will be totally opposed to posing any wedding related event. If it doesn’t not happen during the wedding it won’t be recorded. This includes family group photos.

Several photographers offer a hybrid approach to wedding photography, usually a combination of traditional and journalistic wedding photography. In this approach the photographer focuses on documenting the wedding day but the coverage also includes a session with the couple for formal posed or semi-posed photographs and also family group photos.

The latest trend in wedding photography is toward a more fashionable approach. Inspired on high-end fashion magazines such as Vogue, Elle, InStyle, Cosmopolitan, Glamour, GQ, American Photo, etc., and wedding magazines the photographer seeks to make the couple’s fantasies real. In the fashion wedding photography approach the goal is to make the wedding couple look their best. Their romantic interplay is glamorized to its maximum expression. The everyday couple becomes like wedding celebrities. Attention to detail is required to achieve the perfect look.

This approach requires a great deal of artistic talent behind the camera and also great computer image editing skill to produce a unique photo. Half the photo is made on the camera with the second half achieved though digital image editing and manipulation.

Which style is best, is for you to decide. In our experience a big segment of the wedding couples want to capture the reality, details and romance of the wedding day but at the same time they have fantasies about their wedding and the way they should look.

When making a decision for a wedding photographer look closely to the photographer’s portfolio and see how it agrees with your philosophy on how your wedding day should be photographed. Regardless of your philosophy please make sure that you select a master of the craft, you and the next generation deserve masterpiece memories of your wedding day.

Juan Carlos Torres is a very respected and awarded wedding photographer in Oregon. He has a Masters Degree in Remote Sensing with a strong background in digital image processing and photography. His wedding photographs are unique and very artistic and have been featured in national and international magazines. For a sample of his works please visit portland oregon wedding photographer and salem oregon wedding photographer

Myth: Digital photos are pixilated or fuzzy.
Reality: most people that say that have never seen a photo produced by a professional grade digital camera. The quality of modern digital cameras is equal of greater than film cameras.

Myth: Digital photos don't last they will fade in a couple of years
Reality: Only the photo capture part is digital. The printing is done using traditional photo paper on the same paper and chemistry used to print film photos. So, both will last the same.

Myth: Digital colors are muddy.
Reality: Only if they are produced with cheap, low quality cameras and/or the photographer doesn't know how to adjust them and process them for printing

Myth: Digital photos are dangerous; the photographer can lose your photos.
Reality: Nowadays most photos are stored using Flash Cards that is one of the most reliable forms of digital storage. After the wedding the photos are downloaded to the computer and additional backups are created on CD or DVD allowing several copies of the same event to reside on different locations. In the case that photos are accidentally deleted they can be recovered using software. With film there is only one copy. It is not uncommon for the photo labs to lose the film, damage it in the printing machine, process it in the wrong chemistry, scratch it, etc. Film also can be damaged in camera, be fogged, damaged by X-rays at the airport, suffer color changes due to heat or age etc.

Myth: Digital photos lack detail.
Reality: Only if they are produced with cheap, low quality cameras. It is not unusual for us to produce 30x40 inch prints from our professional grade cameras with stunning detail.

Myth: Digital is cheaper because there is no film.
Reality: Professional grade digital cameras and lens are very expensive. In addition the professional photographer has to invest on computer equipment and software to process the photos.

Myth: I got a digital camera that takes great photos now I can start a career as a wedding photographer.
Reality: Wedding photography requires that you have artistic talent and that you learn photography including composition, lighting, etc. A wedding is an uncontrolled event that requires technical and artistic skill. It is not the place to learn photography.

Myth: I don't have to take care when I take photos anymore I can fix it later in Photoshop or other photo-editing program.
Reality: Garbage in and garbage out. There is no fix for badly composed photos, out of focus, bad lighting, etc.

Myth: Digital photography is easy now I don't need a professional wedding photographer.
Reality: If you trust your wedding memories to somebody who doesn't have the professional skills you are likely to be sorry or disappointed.

Myth: I am afraid that the photographer will do weird effects
Reality: the purpose of the editing software is to enhance the quality of the photos. It is not a license to create weird stuff. Talk to your photographer about your expectations.

Myth: Digital will never be better than or equal to film.
Reality: Digital cameras are equal or better than film in terms of resolution color fidelity etc. and far superior in low light situations. The "film look" can be easily emulated using digital imaging processing techniques.

Myth: I got a bigger fancier camera with more megapixels than your so my photos will be better than yours.
Reality: Unless you have the technical and artistic skill the camera that you use will have minimal impact on the quality of the photos that you produce. A great camera in the right hands will produce great results. Some of the greatest photos in history were produced using mechanical cameras.

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Digital wedding photography presents special challenges to the every day wedding photographer. The risk of losing the precious wedding moments of a couple brings nightmares and anxiety to most photographers that I know.

As a professional wedding photographer and a certified computer systems administrator I will offer some recommendations about the best way to protect digital wedding images.

Star by formatting the flash cards and/or micro drives in the camera that you will use to take the photos. Even when it is possible to format the flash cards in your computer using a flash card reader it can lead to compatibility issues and data loss.

Although flash cards are very resistant to abuse it is always better to play it safe and keep them away from shock, heat, and magnetic sources.
Once you return from the wedding download the images to your computer. Once they are downloaded, browse through the images to ensure they were successfully downloaded and then create backups to CD and/or DVD. Never browse through your images on the Flash card. In our studio we create two DVD copies of the files and we also copy them to two different hard drives on different computers. One of the DVD copies is stored at a different location.

A computer RAID (Redundant Array of Independent (or Inexpensive) Disks offers a great deal of fault tolerance to protect your data. There are several levels of RAID and each of them offers different levels of data protection. For practical and common implementation I am going to discuss the most common types of RAID:

Level 1: Mirroring and Duplexing: requires two drives and the data is written (mirror) on the two drives simultaneously. If one of the drives fails the data can be recovered from the good drive.
Level 5: Block Interleaved Distributed Parity: This is one of the most common and solid implementations of RAID. It requires a minimum of 3 drives and allows the data to be written across all of the drives. If one of them fails you simply replace the failed drive and the RAID is automatically rebuilt.

Most operating systems allow you to build some form of RAID however if the OS fails you also lose the RAID. The recommended RAID is trough the use of a RAID card.

Tape backup offers a very solid way of backing up your files and operating system. It has been around for a long time and has proved to be the most reliable form of backup. Tapes are very portable and make the storage at outside locations very convenient. Tape backups require a backup program what makes scheduling backups and automating the process easy.

Offsite FTP Backups: Can also be set automated using computer programs. At a set time interval or continuously the computer that holds the data connects to a remote location server and uploads the files. The main disadvantage is that they create a lot of Internet traffic and in the case of wedding photographers that store gigabytes of images the transfer time can become prohibitive.

Drive mirroring through software: Drive mirroring basically means that you can use a program such as Norton Ghost, Acronis or Drive Image to make an exact copy of all of the contents of your hard drive. The process can be done manually or automatically. The data image can be done on DVD, CD, to another hard drive or across the network to another computer. Some programs allow incremental backups where initially you create a full backup and after that only the files that have been changed from the last backup are backed up. One of the advantages of drive mirroring is that it allows the backup of the operating system files along with the data. In the case of a computer crash you can replace the failed drive run a disaster recovery CD or floppy and restore your computer to a working state in a matter of minutes.

File synchronization: File synchronization programs have been around for a long time. They allow you to have a real time copy of the data in two places simultaneously. The synchronization can be set to happen at a specific time or in real time. The idea is that if you change a file on the master computer the corresponding file on the remote computer also changes.

External hard drives: With the price of hard drives dropping everyday they present a great alternative for backups. Units equipped with USB or Firewire ports are the most recommended. They are portable enough to be taken offsite. You can either buy ready to use units or you can buy an enclosure that holds several drives and populate it with hard drives. Some of the ready to use units come with a basic backup programs that allows one touch backup of specified directories or complete hard drives.

Drive Trays: Computers can be easily equipped with hard drive trays that allow the easy removal of hard drives to be stored away from the computer for safety. The advantage over portable USB or Firewire is that internal hard drives use a faster connection to the computer.

Backup to disk: As hard drive prices have been decreasing, backing up to disk has become commonplace as a replacement to tape backups. A server or a unit attached to the computer is set up with several disks and the backup software is scheduled to backup the files to a different disk every day of the week. The advange is that there is not tape library to manage and the process can be totally automated. In addition the process is much faster than with tape.

As we can see there are many options for file backups with different levels of reliability, automation and price. Ideally, the wedding photographer will use a combination of the above backup strategies. Relying on a single strategy can be fatal to your wedding files, your business, and professional reputation.

Setting up scheduled backups is a must. With the data volume that the typical wedding photographer deals these days a couple of days without backups can create a big liability in the event of a disaster.

Keeping a backup copy at a remote location is also a must. It doesn't matter how many copies of your data you have, if all of them reside at the same location they are potentially exposed to the same level of risk.

Some photographers have found that for weddings more than a couple of years old it is wise to give a copy of all the files to the client. This makes the client happy and the photographer gets an extra backup copy.

It is also recommended that you take the outmost precautions at your place of business including an alarm system and that you physically secure your computers with antitheft cables and that you keep all the backup media in a safe. Also, your working computers need to be equipped with surge protectors and battery backup systems to avoid damage due to lighting or electricity spikes.

In addition to the above strategies the wedding photographer must have liability and disaster recovery insurance.

To some, the above guidelines may seem paranoid. However, the wedding day memories are too precious to be lost.

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As a professional wedding photographer I get this question asked more than anything else. Rarely will somebody ask me about my wedding photography education, awards, or professional memberships. I believe the root to this question lies on misinformation about the different qualities of film and digital.

Film
For a photographer with no computer experience or who does not want to spend the time correcting digital files film is the way to go. Film allows the photographer to photograph a wedding or event and at the end of the day be done with the process. When the time comes to print the photographs the photo lab will take care of color balance adjustments and retouching.
From a technical aspect film has a wider dynamic range than digital. This means than in high contrast scenes film has the edge. It can handle them better without blowing the highlights.

Digital
The greatest advantage for digital is the control of the photographic process in the hands of the artist. The photographer is not longer at the mercy of the lab to produce a photo that reflects his inspiration and vision.
Digital allows the photographer to shoot more frames without the expense of film and development, which can translate into a more complete coverage. After the event the photographer simply edits out the bad photos and you as the customer end up with the best selection of the day.
The digital medium is ideal for backup. Multiple copies of the event can simultaneously exist in different locations in the event of a catastrophe. With film there is always only one copy of the negatives, which could be duplicated, but the second copy suffers significant quality degradation.
With digital it is possible to produce different versions of the same photo including black and white, color, sepia, etc. through a very simple process.
Digital allows for a faster workflow. If your photographer offers digital gallery previews your photographs can be available in a matter of hours for viewing and ordering. In addition, slide shows and DVDs can be produced for the client.
Digital retouching in the hands of an expert can create amazing results.
Since there is no chemistry involved to develop digital the digital process is more environmentally friendly.

Resolution
In terms of resolution both film and digital can produce similar results. With the advent of 11 mega pixel and above digital cameras, digital has the edge for enlargements due to its lower noise levels and the lack of grain.
Many purist talk of the film look, which is basically film grain and noise that gives film its unique look. This film look can easily be simulated with digital image processing techniques.
Many people would be surprised to know that most photo labs will scan film prior to printing. In other words direct film to print is a myth. Digital photos when printed on true photo paper are virtually indistinguishable from their film counterparts.

What does the film vs. digital war means to the client? I believe that when selecting a wedding photographer the client has to focus on the end product more than anything else. At the end it doesn’t matter if the photographer uses film or digital. What really counts is the quality of the photographs that he or she will produce for your wedding day.
There are good and bad photographers using film or digital. Your task as a client is to weed out the bad ones and select a photographer that will capture beautiful memories of your wedding day.
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