Frequently Asked Questions
Solas Studios Specific
- What does “Solas” mean? And why don’t you have a physical studio?
- When hiring Solas Studios, what is included in my package?
- If I hire Solas Studios, who will actually shoot my wedding?
- What kind of equipment do you guys use?
- How do you backup your images? Are they safe if something bad happens?
- How much editing do you do? Do I get color photos, or black and white? Do you do artistic editing or special effects?
- Do you guys travel?
- How does payment work? Do you accept credit cards?
- Do you shoot in RAW or Jpeg?
- Can I find you on any vendor resource websites?
- What type of photos can I expect to get from my wedding day?
- How are your albums designed? Do we pick the photos?
General Wedding, Wedding Photography Questions
- Do you have a list of recommended wedding vendors in the Central New York area?
- Why should I hire a professional photographer for my wedding?
- Why are professional wedding photographers so expensive?
- Who owns the copyright to the images? Shouldn’t I automatically get all the originals?
- What does a typical wedding photography timeline consist of?
- What is a “Rock The Dress” session?
- Why are Engagement sessions great ideas?
Solas Studios Specific
Q: What does “Solas” mean? And why don’t you have a physical studio?
A: “Solas” is Irish Gaelic for “Light”. We have a fun gaelic theme going on here with our business, as our favorite colors are orange and green.
We tie that into our business name because the word photography is based on the Greek φῶς (photos) “light” and γραφή (graphé) “representation by means of lines” or “drawing”, together meaning “drawing with light”. That’s where we get Solas or “Light” from. We call ourselves Solas Studios because we do plan on having a photo studio in the future, but currently that is not were we are headed. In the mean time, our studio is our orange and green home office, where a lot of the “magic” happens. The most important part of the “magic” comes from our clients!
Q: When hiring Solas Studios, what is included in my package?
A: Our 2012 base package is $2,495 and includes not one but TWO photographers, all day coverage from the getting ready pictures to the end of the reception, an Engagement or “Rock the Dress” session, a print-released full resolution DVD of all images, an album credit, a print credit, and an online album for viewing all of your images and sharing them with friends, family and guests who can order prints directly from your online album (takes the stress off of you having to order prints for them!). You will generally receive about 1,000-1,600 images (depending on the length of your wedding and pre-wedding plans). Other items can be added to the base package for additional fees such as albums, more prints, gift products, additional engagement/rock the dress/bridal shoots and more. Likewise, if you do not need an Engagement, RTD session, or print-released DVD, they can be removed from the package for a price lower than the $2,495. Please contact us for a brochure and product sheet to see everything we have to offer!
Q: If I hire Solas Studios, who will actually shoot my wedding?
A: Colleen & Greg, the owners and photographers, will shoot your wedding. We will meet with you, discuss all the details at your consultation, and get as much information that we can. We will work with you to give you exactly what you desire at your wedding. We typically also travel to the wedding venue a few weeks prior to the wedding with our clients to get ideas and discuss them together. When you hire us, you get us. Unlike some other photographers, we won’t send another photographer you’ve never met with, to photograph your wedding, event, or portraits.
Q: What kind of equipment do you guys use?
A: We use top of the line Canon digital SLR cameras, flashes, and a wide assortment of Canon “L” glass lenses. If the wedding venue requires it, we sometimes also use portable studio strobes. We always bring plenty of backup equipment to weddings. Typically, we wear special belts and harnesses which carry all our equipment on our person, so you don’t have to worry about us running to our camera bag and missing an important shot! For post-wedding work, we use Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop CS5 to edit all of our images, on top of the line color-calibrated monitors. And of course, because we are photo junkies, we’re continuously upgrading, and adding to our equipment list. The more we have, the more fun things we can do!
Q: How do you backup your images? Are they safe if something bad happens?
A: We backup your images on two hard drives on our computer, on two external hard drives, and an online location hosted in a different part of the country. We do this immediately after we return to our office after your wedding. We take very good care of your images, and treat them better than we do our own!
Q: How much editing do you do? Do I get color photos, or black and white? Do you do artistic editing or special effects?
A: We edit every single image. This includes any sharpening, color correction, and all artistic effects. We are photo artists, not low budget photographers who will slap unedited images on a DVD, give it to you and call it a day. Generally while editing, we convert to black and white, sepia, or do other effects to each photo as we see fit, per our artistic vision. If when you receive your images you don’t like a particular effect, we can go back and edit an image to make it different. To date, our customers have all been very happy with our creativity, but we don’t mind if you’d like to see an image edited differently! As a final point, we do not charge for all this extra editing. It’s included in your base price. Other wedding photographers in Central New York may charge you as much as $150.00 per hour for editing of your photos and retouching, AFTER the wedding! We don’t do this. It’s all included. The editing is one of the most fun parts of our job, and since we do it right the first time, we don’t worry about an extra charge!
A: Have passport, will travel! Yes, we can travel anywhere inside the country and out. Distances more than 50 miles outside of Syracuse, NY may be subject to a travel fee which varies depending on the time of year and type of travel required. Please contact us for a personalized quote.
Q: How does payment work? Do you accept credit cards?
A: We do require a retainer reserve us for your special day, with the remainder of the balance paid on or before the wedding day. If you are on a budget, we may be able to work out a payment plan with you. Retainer amounts depend on items included in your package. Yes, we do take credit cards – Visa, MasterCard, Discover and American Express.
Q: Do you guys shoot in RAW or Jpeg?
A: RAW. Always RAW. It gives us the most control when editing your images and produces the highest quality possible on the final jpeg images.
Q: Can I find you on any vendor resource websites?
A:Yes! We can be found on the following websites. Click their banners below to view our profile on them.
Q: What type of photos can I expect to get from my wedding day?
A: We tend to lean towards a photojournalistic style approach for wedding photos. By this, we mean that we like to tell the story of your wedding day as it unfolds – with majority of your images being natural and candid type photos. We do, however, do a fair share of traditional posed shots for formals as well, depending on the amount of time you allow for your formal photos. With us, you get two photographers, Colleen & Greg. We each have our own styles, so you will be guaranteed to get two perspectives in the images from your wedding day. If you feel that you are unable to squeeze in enough time to get the all of the formal photos you would like, consider booking us for a Rock the Dress session, once the big day is over!
Q: How are your albums designed? Do we pick the photos?
A: We have many different album options in different price ranges. All albums are custom, digitally designed by us, selecting the best photos that document your day. We design your album to tell the story of your wedding day from start to finish, and will accompany it with text and various photos from your wedding. If you would like a little more control over the design of your album, that’s fine! Just let us know what photos you definitely want in your album, and we will fit those in with the overall design. Before giving your album to you, we digitally proof it with you (via email, or our website) so you can see it, before we actually send it for printing!
General Wedding, Wedding Photography Questions
Q: Do you have a list of recommended wedding vendors in the Central New York area?
A: Yes! Below is a list of other wedding vendors we recommend or have worked with. They may offer a discount to you for being referred to them by us, be sure to tell them we referred you.
DJ’s
Videographers
Other Vendor Resources
Premier Wedding Vendors Syracuse
Foremost Wedding Vendors of CNY
Q: Why should I hire a professional photographer for my wedding?
A: A professional photographer will be timely – arriving at your wedding promptly, and getting the results to you on time. A professional has just the right equipment and film for photographing your wedding. Having attended many weddings, an experienced wedding photographer will be at ease at your wedding. A professional uses a color laboratory that is in the business of meeting high professional standards of print quality. And, a professional is used to working with individuals, couples, and groups to make the formal photography go smoothly. When you think about the cost of photography, remember that the photographer’s fee is only part of your investment: You, your parents, your extended family and your friends will be investing time with the photographer during your wedding. Don’t waste time on your wedding day with a photographer who won’t produce results you’ll love and cherish for many years to come!
Q: Why are professional wedding photographers so expensive?
A: Wedding photography is an art. Anyone can go out and buy a camera, but only a skilled artist can create images that will make you proud for years to come. You truly get what you pay for. Hiring a professional wedding photographer may be expensive for some, but it is worth it to document your wedding, a special day that will probably only happen once in your entire lifetime. Generally speaking, most weddings are on the weekends. Even if a photographer can shoot a wedding once a week, that’s still only a maximum of 52 weddings per year he can do. If he’s charging $1,000 or more per wedding, that would be $52,000. Consider that more than half of that money has to be put towards equipment, maintaining that equipment, insurance, advertising, prints and products. Then consider how many hundreds of hours he spends meeting with their clients, visiting the venues, working on your itinerary with you, shooting the actual wedding, and then editing all the images during the weekdays, realistically he’s probably making about minimum wage per hour. This is why booking a professional photographer will usually cost a minimum of $1,500. Sure, you can go on craigslist and find a “photographer” who will do your wedding photography for $300, put all the images on a DVD and call it a day, but isn’t it worth it to hire a real professional for your once-in-a-lifetime event?
Q: Who owns the copyright to the images? Shouldn’t I automatically get all the originals?
A: According to US Federal Copyright law, images produced by a professional photographer are copyrighted the moment they are created. Federal law prohibits copying or reproducing copyrighted material without permission from the owner of the copyright, i.e., the photographer. When you order a DVD with the full resolution images from us, your DVD is print released and you may make as many prints from those images as you want. However, we still own the copyright to the images and may use them for whatever purpose we need, such as advertising or product samples. However, we are usually polite and ask you if it’s okay first.
Q: What does a typical wedding photography time-line consist of?
A: Generally, the photographer(s) arrive an hour or two before the wedding ceremony. It’s most common for us to take photos of the bride getting ready before the wedding, and the groom as well if he obliges. We then travel to the ceremony location, and take photographs of that venue. Directly afterwards, the bride, groom, bridal party, and photographers will usually head to a secondary location to do formal photos for an hour or more. Then, we all usually travel to the location of the reception where the guests are waiting. The bride, groom and bridal party are usually then introduced, and then we photograph the reception. Once the bridal party has been introduced, some time thereafter the DJ will call all family members for formal family portraits together with the bride and groom, if this has not already been done. Then, everyone heads back in. The photographers photograph the rest of the reception. When everyone is eating, we DO NOT take photos. Guests at the wedding generally do not appreciate having photos taken of their mouths open, woofing down food.
Generally that is the photographer’s and DJ’s break time. Depending on how lively the reception is, the photographers may be dismissed early or they may stay right up until the very end when the venue closes. It’s not uncommon for the bride and groom to dismiss vendors early if the reception and dancing has died down and guests have started leaving, even if the reception was scheduled to run for another hour.
Q: What is a “Rock the Dress” session?
A: You may know it by it’s other name, “Trash the Dress”. We like to call it “Rock the Dress”, because the real purpose of the photo session is not to trash the dress, but to show it off! Generally speaking, Rock the Dress sessions are done after the wedding and honeymoon. It’s a great way to get some really fun photos of you in your wedding dress, before you put it away and never wear it again. It’s common for brides to go into water with their dress, sit on dirt or grass, sling mud at their husband, or whatever you can think of that you would normally never do in your wedding dress before the day of your wedding! It’s all about having fun.
Q: Why are Engagement sessions great ideas?
A: The Engagement session typically takes place weeks, or months in advance of your wedding day. It’s a great time to learn how to work with your photographer(s), learn tips and tricks on how to look better for photos on your actual wedding day, and to get to know your photographers and become friendly with them. It’s also a great way to get amazing photos of you and your fiance, for display at your wedding venue!
More coming soon…!
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