Quality vs Quantity

Everyone want amazing wedding photos, and most people would likely want a lot of them.  How many that is, I guess is a little subjective.  If you're looking at booking a photographer for your wedding, you may notice some mention how many photos you will receive.  Some may say a few hundred, some over a thousand, some may even say every photo that was taken.  The problem is that it becomes unrealistic to expect upwards of a thousand photos to all be good photos.  Then the question becomes, well why deliver those bad photos at all?  It's important to not be swayed by number alone, as it doesn't always represent better value, and the chances are there will be very little editing done to make them as good as they can be as it becomes a very time-intensive process that many photographers just will not do.

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It’s no secret that in an ideal world we would like to have lots and lots of amazing photos, more than we could wish for from your wedding day.  It may well be that by booking the very best photographers you will get this best of both worlds, but for most people it will be a sweet spot somewhere in the middle.

It’s unlikely that a photographer will say categorically how many photos you will receive from your wedding day, simply because every wedding is different and they may either be struggling to meet the number for a less eventful wedding, or be limiting the number and trying to pick and choose for a more eventful wedding.  Chances are they will be vague on purpose, or give a range that they can expect to deliver at the end.  Naturally this will depend on the length of coverage you decided to book too. 

So what about quality?  Quality and quantity CAN go together, but not always, and certainly not if the photos are delivered quickly (like, in under a week), or generally for photographers at the lower end of the price scale.  This is not always true but is generally the case, as some of the top photographers can get everything so perfectly in camera that there is very little editing required. 

Photographers just starting out may decide to focus on the quantity of images to give their prices perceived value, as they may lack the experience, equipment or technical know how when it comes to shooting and editing to give the photos they deliver a more refined look.

As photographers develop and improve their skills, you will find the quality goes up, and the quantity may go down a little.  There is now more thought put into the image, and which images out of perhaps several of a given scene or situation are the best, and the rest are not delivered as add very little extra value to the overall gallery or album.  This culling process is a big part of why you choose a photographer, as they have the benefit of experience in choosing images that best represent your wedding day.

While at first glance, having many hundreds or even over a thousand wedding photos may be a great concept, in reality you’ll probably find that many are repeats, or very similar variations of existing images, or that don’t really bring much to the table (or even worse, can be ‘duds’ that haven’t been taken out).  You’ll probably find that in the end you’ll only really love a smaller selection, with the rest being a little mediocre in comparison.  This can ‘dilute’ the experience a little, when a preferable alternative is to receive a smaller number of images but have them all stand out and be of higher quality, so that you hold them all in a higher regard.

So what it boils down to is whether you place more value on a greater number of images, of which you’ll have to pick your best anyway, and the likelihood is they may not be of such high quality, or receive fewer, have the photos all mean something, have a greater impact and usually be of higher quality overall.