Captivating Imagery: Pittsburgh Wedding Photographer and Professional Photography Services

About a year ago, I made a change in how I sell prints to my wedding and portrait clients. I’m pretty excited about it because I believe it really improves their overall experience with Captivating Imagery and ensures top-notch quality photographic prints. First, let me describe what brought me to this change.

If you’ve shopped around for wedding photography or portraits before, it’s likely you’ve come across Pictage, a large company based in California that provides an online platform for selling and fulfilling print orders through their in-house lab. At first, it seemed like a no-brainer for photographers who want to focus on their craft and not get tied up with fulfilling client orders. I used Pictage for sales and print fulfillment for a few years and was happy to have someone else handle my print orders especially as I was busy building my business.

But the photographer in me, a.k.a. my type A side, could not overlook the fact that I wasn’t seeing my work going out and into the hands of my clients. How could I be certain of quality control? Not to say that I doubt Pictage’s print quality, but there’s a lot more than meets the eye that goes into making good prints, so I decided to take back control and personalize this process by accepting orders though my own online proofing galleries.

In the wedding photography business nowadays, most clients expect to get a disc of their images with permission to print them for personal use. And I don’t see why they shouldn’t, because it’s great to have a thorough set of images documenting their day. The value of that is substantial and increases with each year that passes. But I’d like to point out some flaws in this business structure and encourage other photographers to elevate the quality of their prints by getting in between sales and print fulfillment.

When you process 500 plus images to burn to a disc, you can’t possibly ensure that each photo will print as the best print possible because of the shear quantity of files you’re dealing with. As a result, it’s standard to make general adjustments to each file for exposure, color-correction, contrast, or by adding a vignette and then move on to upload the images to a web gallery where clients will order their images and photographers are no longer involved in the process. This is where I think this method falls apart. If you could know which files your client would purchase from that web gallery, wouldn’t you take some extra steps to make sure the file looks its very best? For example, by my decision to get in between the print sales and print fulfillment, I now have the ability to retouch the images I know my clients are ordering and I feel that is what really separates my prints as professional prints from the photographers who use Pictage or its many competitors like SmugMug. Taking the extra step of retouching every image in a set of 500 or more is pretty much unheard of—and if there are photographers out there who offer this service, they should be charging beaucoup bucks, because the time that it would take to do that is incredibly valuable.

To further my point, I’ll touch a bit on some of the many things that go into making a “professional print” professional. Pros like myself use professional monitors that are highly calibrated to an industry standard so that images edited and retouched on our monitors should appear the way they will look in print. My lab has a professional lab manager who oversees all aspects of the lab to ensure the industry standard so that when I get my photos back, I am a happy girl.

In contrast, when clients take their disc of images to Target or Wal-Mart, the printers there are supervised with much less scrutiny and are set to print averages so that the darker images (think of bride and groom’s first dance in a dimly-lit ballroom) print lighter and lighter images (think of a bride by a window) print darker when that is not how they were meant to be. Treating these images as average exposures is a mistake and results in poor prints. Yuck. And you don’t even want me to get started on color variances in labs like that.

I hope I’m demonstrating the value of professional prints and by professional, I don’t mean Pictage or SmugMug, or any other company out there that’s making money off of photographers and their helpless clients. Prints and albums are the final product in most cases and I want to leave my clients with a great experience and not wonder what they’re seeing as the fruits of my labor. I feel so strongly about this that I’m confident in offering a money-back guarantee on prints ordered through all of my client proofing galleries. Yes, this approach requires more time and effort on my part, but I get the satisfaction of knowing my clients are getting good quality prints and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This last post of 2011 is near and dear to my heart. While visiting with my family in Hershey, Pa., my sister and her husband sat for a maternity session in a guest room at my parents’ home. Well, now it’s a guest room/baby room because as you will see, my mom has everything ready to go for her first grandchild. I normally do maternity sessions in the studio, so this was a good opportunity to find new ways to show what a special time this is for expecting parents.

Betsy and Steve are going to be great parents. It’s easy to see that they are going to make sure their little baby has everything she needs (and more!)

They picked out a name for their baby girl and it’s top-secret! I guess we’ll have to wait until February.

This one below is one of my favorites. Here’s where you can see the crib all ready for the baby.

Bets and Steve, thanks for the opportunity to photograph your maternity session. I can’t wait to meet your baby girl. I love her already and have been praying for her! God bless you!

Here’s a fun engagement session with Colleen and Jeremy who were married in October. This one just slipped away from me a few months ago because I finished these images and delivered them in the midst of the wedding season, so I’m just getting around to blogging about their session now. Colleen and Jeremy wanted to start at Mt. Washington to be photographed with the view of the city that brought them together in the background. The college sweethearts met while studying at Pitt.

You can’t help but smile being around these two.

Then we headed downtown to Market Square and the Cultural District—we really got a lot of exercise that morning! So we stopped at Starbucks for a break. Note that no Starbucks branding can be seen in these photos. I’m half joking here because we were nearly chased away by some defenders of the Starbucks corporate identity. No worries, Starbucks, I still love you!

It was fun walking around downtown because we had time to get to know each other between our stops for photos. I love this flirty photo by Heinz Hall.

And something about this photo of them walking by all of the colorful signs from Pittsburgh’s Cultural District feels fun. Basically they were on a Saturday morning date and I tagged along. Thanks for letting me do that guys!

Then we stopped at the small garden across from Katz Plaza with the fake magnolia tree. I just love that there’s a lot covered in ivy right in the middle of downtown Pittsburgh, so it seemed like a good place for a straight up portrait.

Colleen and Jeremy, it was so much fun spending that morning with you. I hope you’re doing well and loving your newlywed status!

Rebecca and Patrick were married this past September in Heinz Chapel. When I came across their wedding, I was struck by what a good day this was. There are days that just seem to come together effortlessly and this was one of them. There was plenty of time for photography, amazing locations and a great of people to work with! What a breeze! There was only one thing that slowed me down: a gigantic group portrait on the grand staircase at the Renaissance. It’s a nice idea to have a photo of all your guests, just tough to execute when there are 200+ people. It takes time to get everyone lined up on the staircase and it’s difficult to make sure everyone can be seen. We did it though! Many thanks to Alex Jones who has a lot more experience with photographing groups of this size. I’m only showing some of my favorites from 2011 weddings, so I won’t be posting that group photo, but it was a big part of the day as a specific request from Rebecca and Patrick.

So we started at the Renaissance with Rebecca and her family. I asked Rebecca to stand by the window while her sister laced her dress. That’s one of the ways I generally interact with a bride when she’s getting ready to make the most of the available light.

Here, we went for an old Hollywood feel with Rebecca lounging on the bed. Alex helped me with some off-camera lighting. It only took a few minutes and I’m happy we had time to go for something a little different.

This is one of Alex’s images of Patrick right before the ceremony outside of Heinz Chapel. I love Patrick’s expression here. He is ready to make it official and kiss his bride.

This is another one by Alex. I just love seeing the rings in the groom’s or best man’s palm.

After the ceremony we did some on-location portraiture in Oakland and downtown Pittsburgh. It’s fun to photograph the bridal party as they walk from one location to the next. It’s a slice of life from their wedding day, no parking signs and all.

Here’s a late-night favorite of Rebecca and Patrick. When couples are willing to leave their reception for a few shots at sunset or after the sun goes down, I get really excited. It’s something I encourage everyone to do if they can fit it in. It’s so much fun!

I’m getting all geared up for the 2011 wedding season here in Pittsburgh and I have an exciting way for brides and grooms to enhance their wedding photography. Captivating Imagery is now offering Studio Bridal Sessions at SteelGate Studio. I’ve developed a new approach to bridal sessions which seem to have gone by the wayside over the last decade or so. When I think of my grandma in her wedding dress, I’m immediately taken back to a beautiful studio portrait of her with her train fanned out. It was fitting for her 1947 wedding and she looks so lovely. I’m glad to know what she looked like in her wedding gown and to have a stunning portrait of her at one of the most important times in her life. There’s a lot to be said for that.

While wedding photography has dramatically changed since then, I think there is still a need for beautiful portraits of the bride. And while I always take time to photograph the bride on her wedding day wherever we are in the time that is afforded, there is no substitute a studio bridal session. I’ll share more about that later in this post, but for now, let’s get to some images of what I’m proposing is a more contemporary approach to studio bridal portraits.

This is from Evette’s session. She’s getting married in June this year and wanted to give her husband-to-be some portraits of her in her wedding gown in a more relaxed setting. It’s very unlikely we’d have much time for this type of portrait on her wedding day, not to mention most brides don’t want to wrinkle their dress or mess their hair. The look is more on the sexy side and it shows of the neckline of her gown. It’s a nice alternative to a boudoir session because a bride can be dressed in her gown and be a total knockout. Plus, if a family member or friend stumbles upon the portrait someday, there’s no need to blush!

The sessions include two looks with many variations, so we take our time and try new angles and poses.

The session also includes a stylist who pampers the bride prior to the session with complete make-up and hair design. Amber Altany did Evette’s hair and make-up for this session. It is a wonderful experience for the bride and invaluable for me as the photographer, because the stylist stays during the shoot and assists with stray hairs, adjusting the dress, and touching up the make-up. That way, I’m free to focus on what I do best.

We made the most of the natural light streaming in from the studio windows. Ok, now on to a fashion-inspired look with studio lighting. This second look aims at showing off the details of her gown in a fun and lighthearted way.

We got out the wind machine and really had fun with it.

Rather than using a muslin or canvas backdrop like the traditional studio bridal portraits, I opted for gray seamless with a nod to fashion photography.

Evette’s dress is to die for. Here’s a full-length view of the back:

And now with a slightly different lighting set-up, Evette really shines in this close-up.

So, in keeping with the times, this approach to studio bridal portraits is a fun and fresh way to create gorgeous images of the bride before her wedding. In my experience, I find that these images are cherished by both brides and grooms and they become more and more valuable as time passes. A wedding is the perfect occasion to commission a portrait session that highlights the bride’s beauty at such an important time in her life. I recommend scheduling studio bridal sessions between 4 and 2 months prior to the wedding. It is a wonderful, stress-free experience that couldn’t come at a better time for most brides. Studio Bridal Sessions are $450 and include a stylist and a disc of high-resolution images with permission to print for personal use. If you’d like to know more, please contact me (Kate) to schedule a consultation.

Here’s a slide show of Evette’s session: