Having trouble delivering wedding photographs? Check out these 7 tips

When it comes to delivering wedding photographs, you can choose to use the more traditional methods such as CDs or USBs or modernise this part of your photography business and opt to share photos with clients through a series of private galleries. Because thanks to these private areas, the bride and groom will no longer have to travel to your photography studio to view their wedding photos, and what’s more interesting, the process of sharing photos with clients will become another sales tool in your wedding photography business.

If you want to improve this final part of your business, in today’s article we are going to give you several ideas to delivering wedding photographs in a professional, elegant and very profitable way for you. Don’t miss all the recommendations.

 

 

 

When sharing photos with clients, look for a method that is practical for both of you, functional and also allows you to monetise your wedding photos much more.

 

 

Why is the way wedding photographs are delivered to the wedding couple important?

 

When it comes to delivering wedding photographs to your clients in the best possible way, the first thing you have to consider is whether you want to offer a much more practical and functional service for couples or whether you prefer to continue with the more traditional methods. Before making this decision, consider that the time of physical media for sharing photos with clients has practically come to an end. Now the bride and groom want to be able to access their wedding photos from any device (mobile, tablet, computer, etc.) and at any time without having to waste their time making an appointment with you just to pick up a USB.

For this and for many other reasons, client galleries with username and password are a great solution to offer a much more complete service to your wedding couples in these new times. Another advantage of using a private client area with respect to, for example, traditional CDs, is that in the latter your clients will only be able to view their photo reports, not having the options to select and buy more photographs that the client area offers you.

On the other hand, with private galleries with multiple options, your clients will not only have the opportunity to view their wedding photos, but they will also be able to carry out many more actions and continue buying extra products that were not included in the initial budget, such as: selection of extra photos, printing of images and copies in paper or professional formats, etc. There are many possibilities when it comes to sharing photos with clients online.

Tips to follow before sharing photos with clients

 

 

How many photos are delivered at a wedding, how many photographers have to be present at the wedding, 1 or 2, how to deliver wedding photos?

These are just some of the issues you need to resolve before you start sharing photos with customers. Therefore, it is important that before you get to this point, you create a methodology to follow so that your clients’ experience is perfect. This way, you will also be able to save valuable time with each one of them.

Here is an article with some marketing tips that will help you plan your business strategies, especially if you are starting out as a wedding photographer.

>> Marketing tips for wedding photographers

And if you want to meet some of the best wedding photographers who rely on the business solutions we offer at Arcadina, here we leave you a very interesting compilation article.

>> The best wedding photojournalism websites for 2023

7 tips for success when it comes to delivering wedding photographs to clients

 

Even if your work throughout the wedding is really excellent, the bride and groom will take into account both the final work you give them and the treatment received at all times and, of course, the type of service you have offered them. Especially if you want them to have a very good impression of you, to leave you a good review, to hire you for future photo shoots or even to recommend you to their friends, it is essential that you can establish a wedding photography delivery system that is as comfortable as possible and, of course, 100% effective.

That’s why, before the moment comes when you have to share photos with clients, it is important that you keep in mind a series of previous questions that will help you to offer a better service to your clients. And to help you, at Arcadina we are going to share with you 7 recommendations that you can include in your business strategy to make the bride and groom who decide to trust you to cover their wedding day even happier.

1# Specify in the contract the number of wedding images to be delivered

How many photos are taken at a wedding? Sometimes couples, when hiring a wedding photographer, are very aware of the quantity rather than the quality of the photographs they are going to receive. Therefore, even if you explain to them that all the special moments will be photographed and that they will have plenty of images, it is a good idea to give them an estimate of the number of photos you are going to give them after the wedding.

This way, your clients will have clear expectations and will not be disappointed when they see your images. When estimating how many wedding photographs you are going to deliver, always shoot on the low side, so that if something goes wrong during the celebration and you can’t take all the photos you would like to, you can at least make sure that you reach your goals with your clients.

2# During the wedding, take many more wedding photos than you have agreed with your clients

Of course, if, for example, you agree with your clients to deliver 500 images, it is important that you more than meet this number of photographs taken during the wedding.

For this, during the celebration and the rest of the highlights, it is important that you check from time to time how many images you have taken and in some of the quieter moments of the wedding, you can even take a quick look to check the quality of the images you have been taking to make sure that you will be able to deliver the number of photos you have agreed in the contract.

Another good reason why it is a very good idea to take many more photographs than agreed upon, especially if you are a wedding photojournalist, is that you will find it much easier to capture the spontaneity of the guests and the wedding couple.

3# Surprise the bride and groom the next day with a small selection of the best wedding photographs

 

A detail that always pleases the bride and groom when giving wedding photographs, especially if they don’t know that you are going to do it, is to surprise them the day after the wedding by sending them a private sample gallery so that they can see a small compilation of the most emotional moments of their wedding.

You can let them know that these photographs are unretouched and that you will later deliver them edited and at a higher resolution, but even if they are not 100% perfect, the newlywed couple will love this beautiful detail and will remember it very pleasantly.

4# When it comes to delivering wedding photographs, don’t leave out any special moments

When you start with the post-production process, make sure you select the best and most striking photographs of the link at first. And once you have selected the best material, make sure that among the most common images that have been discarded in a first selection, there is no photo of any important detail that you have not previously selected.

5# Take special care to include photos with all guests

The same goes for the wedding guests, even if it is a group photo, it is important that you make sure that 100% of the attendees appear in any of the images you have selected to give to your clients.

Because imagine that in a photograph of the bride with her best friends a few of them appear with their eyes closed and that is why you had discarded it at first, if in the end you see that it is the only image in which they appear together, it is important that the bride keeps this beautiful memory even if the image is not 100% to your liking.

6# Give your clients more wedding photos than agreed in the contract

Although in the first point we recommended you to fix a more or less approximate number of images in the contract with the bride and groom, if everything went well during the wedding, you will certainly have more than double the number of photographs agreed with the clients on your memory cards.

To make sure that the couple will be surprised and grateful for your work, when sharing photos with clients, you can increase the number of images delivered. It will be a surprise for them and can help you, for example, to get them to write a positive review in your testimonials section of your website.

>> 4 tactics to get client feedback if you are a photographer

7# Use the private galleries to share photos with clients

 

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If you decide to use private galleries to deliver wedding photographs, the bride and groom will be able to: view, select, download, buy, etc. all the photographs they want. In this way, the delivery of images will move to a higher level within your business strategy. Because with the delivery of photographs on, for example, USB, your options for extra income will be almost completely eliminated, but on the other hand, if while your clients view the images that are included in the budget in digital format, they can buy photos printed on paper, download more photos than agreed or create an order with a single click, we assure you that you will achieve a much more profitable wedding reportage.

In the following article we talk a little bit more in depth about the advantages of including this type of galleries in your business strategy.

>> Private galleries: the best tool for delivering photos to clients

In addition, so that the wedding guests can also buy the photographs in which they appear and paper copies much faster, you will be able to activate Artificial Intelligence in the private galleries that you consider to speed up the search for photographs through the recognition of faces and texts. In the next post we will talk in more detail about this interesting issue.

>> Did you know that you can now search for images by selfie? Find out about this new AI feature

Here are some examples of all the possibilities that private client galleries offer you when it comes to delivering wedding images.

Sample galleries of wedding photographs to attract more clients

Sample galleries are perfect for showing an undecided bride and groom an example of what their wedding photography can look like. Also, once they have hired you and the big day is over, you will be able to send them through their private area a selection of the most exciting photographs of their wedding day for them to see before they go on their honeymoon, as we have recommended before.

This option is ideal so that, for example, during their honeymoon they can see a preview of what will later be their wedding album. It won’t take up much of your time and your clients will be delighted with this pleasant surprise. And if they’re up for it, they can even try a post-wedding session.

>> Would you like to sell more post-wedding photos? Discover 7 infallible tricks

Surprise the bride and groom with a multimedia presentation gallery

Once you have decided how many wedding photos you are going to give, the private slideshow gallery is the best option to leave your partner speechless. A sample gallery is very similar to a presentation gallery but with the difference that in the latter you can add a melody and the images can be automatically played as a slideshow. In this type of gallery you can also choose to include a video of the wedding. We assure you that with this type of private galleries, you will leave your clients speechless.

Another idea where you can use slideshow galleries is to showcase your pre-wedding images during the reception, the couple will love this way of viewing your photo shoot.

>> Are you a wedding photographer? Check out these tips to organise an irresistible pre-wedding photo shoot

Make life easier for brides and grooms with image selection galleries

As we recommended a moment ago, when you make a contract with a couple, you can agree on how many photos you will deliver per session, for example, 500 wedding images. This way, after the day of the wedding, you can create a private gallery for those clients where you can upload, for example, 1,000 photographs. This way the couple will have the option to choose the 500 agreed “at least” plus as many extra images as they want for a small fee. Another idea is to tell your clients that instead of the agreed 500 they will be able to choose 650 courtesy of the photographer.

We emphasize the expression “at least”, because in our selection galleries you will have the option to set a number of photographs (at zero cost) that your clients will be able to select, and when they exceed that number, they will have the possibility to continue choosing images of their wedding day at the price that you stipulate. This option is very interesting, because we all know that at the moment of selecting the images, if you give the bride and groom the possibility of choosing some more photos (even if it is for an extra price), the vast majority will end up with more photographs than those agreed in the contract.

In the following help article we explain how you can create this useful gallery for wedding photographers.

>> Arcadina Help: Customer Area – Create a selection gallery

And in this blog post we talk in more detail about how to share photos with clients.

>> How to create a photo selection gallery for clients?

Organise the downloading of wedding photographs via a private gallery

When creating a presentation gallery, for example, you can use a compilation of the best wedding photographs. But in addition to this fantastic surprise, the bride and groom will want to keep a digital copy of all the images of their wedding day that you have agreed with them in the contract. And they will be able to do this if you provide them with access to a download gallery.

In addition, a very interesting option that these download galleries allow you is that they can be shared with more than one person. Imagine that you take the photos of the wedding photocall. The bride and groom will be able to share the download link of these images that you give them with all their guests. And also, as we have already mentioned in this article, if you activate the AI, the guests will be able to search for their images if you activate the AI.

Here is our help article with all the steps to create a digital download gallery.

>> Arcadina Help. Customer area – Create a digital download gallery

Sell more wedding images through your client’s private area

When continuing to do business with your clients through private galleries when delivering wedding photographs, the sale of printed images is an extra service that is very popular with clients. When making the contract with the bride and groom, you can offer them, for example from the pre-wedding reportage, the possibility to print some images.

Another very useful option offered by a private gallery is that the bride and groom will be able to share the link of the wedding day photos with their guests so that they can buy the prints of their choice. And being an online service, you will be able to offer them different payment methods, such as PayPal, Stripe (credit card payment) and TPV Virtual (direct payment gateway with your bank, only available in Spain) or Bizum.

If you still don’t know how to create this type of sales gallery, the following help article will explain it to you.

>> Arcadina Help: Customer area – Create a digital sales gallery

Create multiple galleries so your customers can select, download and buy everything they want

Another option to deliver wedding photos is to create a multiple gallery for download, selection and sale where the bride and groom can perform several actions at once. Can you imagine the amount of time you can save with this type of private galleries? In the next post of our blog we will talk about it.

>> Create multiple photo galleries on your photography website

And if you want to follow all the steps to create this complete gallery, come back to our help.

>> Arcadina Help: Customer Area – Create a gallery with multiple modes

Learn how to deliver wedding photographs and make a living from wedding photography

When it comes to delivering wedding photographs, it is important that you keep up to date with the latest news, see what media your ideal client is moving in and offer them all kinds of extra services to make your wedding photos even more profitable.

Did you know that you can now create a series of packs in your private galleries to make it easier for customers to buy them? In the following help article we explain it to you.

>> Arcadina Help: Shop & Client Area – Formats – Packs

In addition to being able to create all kinds of private galleries, at Arcadina we are pleased to offer our business solutions to many wedding photographers around the world. If you also want to be able to offer your clients all these business options, we encourage you to try our services, they are free for 14 days with no permanence costs.

Today we want to share with you the interview of Enrique Oliver from sensaciones de boda who tells us how he handles the delivery of wedding photos when he is a destination photographer.

>> “My sales have gone up, without doing anything, with Arcadina Labs”, Enrique Oliver

And finally, we would like to ask you a question. Until now, how did you like to share wedding photos with clients? We’d love to read your answers in the comments.

Arcadina goes with you

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Arcadina is much more than a website, it is business solutions for photographers.

If you have any queries, our Customer Service Team is always ready to help you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. We listen to you.