How long should it take to see some proofs/pictures?

Good rule of thumb is 2 weeks...but she should be responding/ communicating with you, especially if she has accepted full payment before delivering the pics! Is there a timeline spelled out in the contract?

It should be in your contract... for our wedding photos it said 2-3 weeks and it ended up taking 3 weeks.

Our proofs were put on a CD for the engagement session. They said it would take a week. I don't understand why it takes a whole week to put pictures on a disk. I called them and asked if I could have them earlier and she said sure you can have them right now. Can't you call your photographer? Its harder to ignore phone calls.

I had called but voice mail...

Finally got a response this afternoon, so I guess I was getting worried for nothing. Getting my pictures this weekend.

Great discussion, as a wedding photographer, I'd like to offer my two cents.

Your photographer should be getting back to you within a few days. While your pictures may not be finished they should always be willing to give you progress reports. Give them a call or visit them at the address on your contract.

As for how long it takes to get you pictures, it depends on several factors. The most important factor is the time of year. In August it can take me a couple months to get people their pictures, while now in the middle of December there is a one week turnaround. I'm just less busy.

Jamie- If you hired a professional photographer you probably want them to do more with your pictures than put them on a dvd. I spend about 3 or 4 hours of editing for every hour of shooting. Gorgeous pictures are a process, and if you like your photographers final work its probably worth waiting a week or two. Communication is key.

Hope this helps. Good luck!

Matthias

www.matthiasphoto.com

I agree with Matthias in that it shouldn't be more than a few days to see a few of the early proofs. I don't think most people realize how long it takes to go through and edit the shots. I generally ask for about 2 weeks to totally finish. It shouldn't take any longer than that though.

I'm so pissed at our photographer. It's been almost 3 months. I finally got rude and hoping I have them by next week. I knew better than to use this girl....and she's already paid off. Grrr....

Jamie - Just backing what Matthias said.. Generally speaking for a wedding, it takes me 30-40 hours to complete a job. I guess that is what some people get by taking the $500 craigslist photographer... they will shoot, burn and run, just like any person with a point and shoot camera would. A professional photographer will not be shooting images (at least not the entire wedding) in a JPG format. This allows us more flexibility in post processing to work with the images.

Generally speaking, I usually deliver in the neighborhood of 200 album quality images, EACH one of those images has had hand corrections or creative edits applied. I also provide, "better than a point and shoot snapshot" category which is anywhere generally from 600-800 images. I don't know all the important people or who might be sick, and that might be the last precious image you get of that person, which might not have fallen into what I'd put into an album.

Guys....there was no editing done to any of my photos. I was taking them as it on a disc. There wasn't anything for them to do other than download them which should take less than a few minutes. I understand it will take longer to get my wedding pictures back and my album. But even then I will still get my proofs back quickly because they are not editing every single picture because I won't be buying every single picture. Getting proofs back should not take that much time.

If they are like me, I don't ever let a client see an unedited proof. At the very least the pictures are all run through checks for exposure, and white balance.

I agree with you though, for an engagement shoot, it shouldn't take longer than a week. This is a second job for me, and I could turn out an engagement shoot in a week. If it is the same photographer that is shooting your wedding, you might want to address this with them.

I am a wedding photographer & it only takes me about 3 days at most to edit the pictures. So, I'd say they should be ready in a week or so.

My photographer can give us a disc within a few hours if need be. We are paying for 75 pictures to be edited and done up all fancy and then she is sitting down with us and we are having an hour session to pick out the album pictures (if it even takes that long). That's all included in our 500 dollar price besides the album price itself and they range from 50 to 300 dollars. We are probably going towards the 90 dollar album since anything above 150 would be Itailan made and take months to get back.

My friend just started her Photography business and she guarantees discs within 3 days because she likes to look at every pic and fix any flaws first...lol and she says that can take 2 to 3 hours depending on the number of pics. So far she does a shoot, goes home, edits, and by the next afternoon she calls, so they client can pic up disc or she post them to online viewed.

Our turn around is a week. We edit the photos prior to giving them to a client and the average is about 700 with one photographer, obviously more with two photographers. its not just copy them to a disk. Most professionals will shoot a good portion of the day in RAW format which needs to be converted etc...and takes time

I just got my engagement pics back....it took 3 1/2 weeks. But I knew going into it that it was Christmas pic time & people with Christmas pics would be getting their before me. I told her I wasn't worried as long as I had the pics by the end of the year, so I was happy to get them today.

I had about 50 edited photos. I know they've all been hand edited because I'm not that good looking in real life!

We've had a disaster. Married Nov 2009, still no album as of july 4, 2011. we've resorted to blogging about our "adventures" in trying to get this done. http://peteredelphotographyreview.wordpress.com/

guy simply won't return phone calls or emails. just flat out ignores us.

Has everyone gone nuts... Summer Weddings all come at once, first off, if you are paying a photographer 500.00 to shoot the most important day of your life.... Then you get what you deserve. Secondly for the one that paid 500.00 for a album, book, 75 nice images etc... You made that person work for free!!! or your album will be from hobby lobby and wall greens....lol Wedding packages from professional photographers, should start at 1500.00 and go UP!!!! Thats just for coverage, and the turn around time for a professional photographer that has a normal wedding season (4 Weddings a month, both Saturdays and Sundays) the turn around time is 8-12 weeks... That is why we post facebook samples up the week after the wedding... But wow 500.00 lol get real!!!

We used Savior Productions in Key West Florida, Beth Rooney was our photographer we were married 6-25-12, it has been 5 months and we are still waiting for 100 4x6's boxed photos (not even in an album) we were promised as part of the Marriott Wedding package. Lucky for us, our Mom gave us a wedding album she created online via Shutterfly and our Niece took over 1600 digital photos that we were able to use to give as gifts to our bridal party, friends, family & vendors. However, we do hope to receive Beth's photos before our one year anniversary if at all....

Hello!! I will like the input from a professional photographer. I do not know what to do. My wedding pic were taken 5 month ago. She was my aunt's friend, and aunt my asked if she could do my wedding. I had a wedding far from were the photographer lives.We talked, and she told me: Flight me and my husband to your destination wedding, make sure we have were to stay and I will cover your wedding. I flew them here, they stayed at my family's house, my aunt took them to several places on the island, and they did nice stuff (i didn't covered that). I did payed for 2 nights in a boutique hotel. I did saw the engaged right away on the website. But not he wedding pics. We agreed that she would give them to me in a CD. I did contact her 2 month after the wedding to acknowledging the fact that it take time, but I still wanted a status. She told me they would be ready after a month, then after a month I contact her, told me I was next, a month more, that moth passes, total 5 moths. Nothing yet.

Is two plus months to long to wait for pics