WEDDING Photo Delivery Guide
Introducing Pixieset & YOUR ONLINE GALLERY
Your photos are now edited and available for download through a hosted, secure service called Pixieset. This makes it super easy for you to share the gallery with friends and family wherever they are.
Once you have had time to view the entire gallery on a large enough, good quality screen, I would really appreciate your feedback at chris@chrisjack.com.au.
You can also use this email address to request any further changes/requests if you think mistakes have been made in selecting photos or editing, or there any photos you prefer cropped or coloured differently.
For example, please ensure that each family group photo we took has been included in the gallery.
It is not recommended that you crop or change the colours of any photos using your own photo editing software, as this will result in degradation of the saved JPEG. I would much prefer to make the change for you on the original raw photo and offer that as an additional download (if required).
If you wish to post photos to social immediately (especially from your phone) consider downloading individual photos. These will be 2048 pixels and ideal for Facebook, Instagram etc.
When downloading from Pixieset as High Resolution, they will be at the maximum resolution of the camera body (approximately 5000 pixels or greater at the longest edge*).
How to Download to a Mobile Device on Pixieset
FAQS
SHOULD I DOWNLOAD THE HIGH RESOLUTION PHOTOS IMMEDIATELY?
Probably not… the file sizes involved are quite large (depending on the length of your coverage) but could be 6GB-12GB in total size. As you might request a few changes to photos, and I may make minor changes to photos over the next few days (as I always double check the gallery a few days later) it is recommended that you initially download just the web size photos for posting to social media etc.
At the ‘photo handover’ date (or just before) which is 30 days after the wedding, it is vitally important that you download all photos at HIGH RESOLUTION for safekeeping.
TIP: Create a personal reminder or calendar event to download all photos in high resolution 30 days from now.
Where are my photos?
They have been uploaded to Pixieset and are available online at a URL you should have received in an email with the subject line ‘Photos for [Your Name]… are ready’ together with a password.
If you are having trouble finding the gallery link and password email, try searching ‘photos for’ in your email client such as Gmail to filter the results.
Is the GALLERY publicly available?
No, it should only be available only to people you share the link and password with. The primary main gallery photo will be publicly visible together with the name of your wedding (first names only) but not the whole gallery. If you are not prompted for a password when accessing the gallery via the URL, please let me know so I can attach a password.
Some or all photos might be used in a public portfolio or on social media, however according to your agreement you can nominate a certain number of photos to be kept 100% private and never shown publicly. If you require this, please let me know and I will email instructions on how to faciltiate this.
CAN I CHANGE THE GALLERY PASSWORD?
I can change the gallery password for you if you prefer a stronger password than the default password, or would like a more personalised password. Just let me know as soon as posslbe if this is required.
Where should I store the photos?
Your gallery will be hosted for two years from the wedding date. Having said that, it is highly recommended that you download them and then upload them in HIGH RESOLUTION to multiple cloud storage services such as Google Drive, Google Photos, OneDrive, iCloud, Dropbox etc. within 30 days of the wedding date.
If you have a Dropbox account for example, you can downloaded directly to Dropbox for this purpose (without needing to download and then upload again).
You may also wish to encourage friends and family to download in high resolution and keep a copy as well. This way, you have multiple copies of the galleries stored and backed up.
Can I print the photos?
Yes! Absolutely, and this is recommended so you also have a physical copy of your favourite photos. When printing, use the High Resolution version of the photo (do not print from the ‘Web Size’ versions).
I also offer both an album design service and album printing service. Please get in touch for a price list and further details.
Can I get all the photos that were taken?
On average for most weddings, about 60 photos are delivered per hour of shooting and 30 during portraits or family group photos where things are slowed down. Many more photos than this will be captured but I choose the best photos based on their photographic merits, which takes many hours of culling.
It would be practically impossible to edit every single photo, as it takes about one minute to process (edit) each individual photo. Portrait photos can take much longer than this. If you received every photo, you would also get many double ups and duplicates that looked almost identical, test photos or burst shots of the same shot etc. that would be of no value, and just ruin the gallery.
At times when I am shooting portrait photos, there may be many photos taken per second but only a few selected (intentionally). Over a period of 2-3 seconds depending on the camera mode there may be 30 photos taken, and the best expression chosen from that burst of photos.
If you feel that there is a photo missing from a moment or group photo that you recall I captured, please let me know asap and I will go back and double check the frames. Please make any requests before the photo handover date, which is 30 days from when the gallery was first delivered.
Some photos look too WARM (ORANGE) or too COLD (BLUE)
Photos are processed on a professional NEC Multisync PA272W colour calibrated monitor. I shoot all photos in raw format, which means it is easy to change the warmth (orange) or cold (blue) skin tones after taking the photo without any image degradation. If you feel some photos or perhaps even the entire set is too warm or too cold, then please let me know as this is one of the easiest changes to make.
In some cases this may be because you are not viewing the photos on a colour calibrated monitor, and may be using a photo viewer which is not colour managed. In these situations, you will not see what I am seeing (even taking into account variance between people and ambient light).
Windows computer users in particular, may find that the photo viewing application they are using is not properly colour managed. Mac users are generally blessed with native support for colour managed viewers and do not have the same issues. Google Chrome (depending on the version you are using) is generally colour managed on both Windows and Mac systems.
If viewing photos on Windows 10 please use Windows Photo Viewer or Google Chrome as this renders correctly colour managed colours. If you use a photo viewer that is not colour managed like MS Paint or Microsoft Photos (Windows 10) the photos will generally be over saturated and not reflect what will look like when printed or the editing intent.
Some photos may be intentionally colour graded warmer or colder than the ambient white balance for creative effect.
For example, slightly extra warmth than correct white balance might be added to photos for a more dreamy, sunset effect, or photos taken in cold colour situations like shade on on overcast day may be warmed up slightly to improve skin tones.
You might also be viewing the photos on your phone or tablet at night in ‘night mode’ where the warmth of the sceen is increased to reduce eye strain. Be sure to turn off an night mode on your device before viewing photos.
If you are still not happy with the warmth in certain photos (too warm or too cold) let me know and I will take a another look. Please get back to me within the next 30 days though, as after this I may not have access to the original photos on my main editing suite to make changes easily.
Can I change or alter the photos, add filters etc?
Applying a filter, cropping or editing a JPEG photo after it has been exported from the raw file will result in a degraded photo when it is saved again. Each time it is edited and saved from that point it will degrade even further.
It is not recommend that you further edit or enhance any photos such as applying filters in Instagram etc, especially if you are printing from the photo.
Can I crop the photos?
By cropping and exporting (resaving) the JPEG again you will lose some detail and degrade the photo.
If there is a particular photo you prefer to be cropped differently, please let me know and I can do this for you and retain the quality (although the resolution will always decrease during cropping). That is because I would edit the photo from the uncompressed 14-bit raw file, not the 8-bit compressed JPEG file (so there would be no photo degradation).
Please also bear in mind if you are using album design software, there is probably a crop feature in the software that can do this for you (and retain the quality).
Some (or all photos) are too dark?
This may be a combination of personal preference (you prefer skin tones to be brighter) or you may be looking at photos on a screen which is not colour calibrated (including correct brightness). If you believe some photos are too dark for your taste, please let me know and I will certainly look into this and either increase the exposure or discuss other options.
Most smartphones these days in dark situations will tend to boost the shadows to the point that there are almost no shadows at all. This results in a flat looking photo with no depth, and is not a great look for printing.
A small number of photos may be intentionally, creatively or artistically either shot or edited to be dark (for example silhouettes).
Can pimples be removed or other blemishes fixed?
While it would not be feasible to remove small blemishes and pimples from every single photo in a complete gallery due to this being a time intensive manual process, your coverage style includes a certain number of ‘touch ups’ for FREE.
For Elopement style coverage this is 25 photos (to cover most of the portraits) and with Contemporary style you can nominate up to 50 photos for touch-ups.
Documentary style does not include touch-ups (as no portraits are taken) however these can be ordered for $7 each photo if required.
To nominate photos for further touch-ups, please create a favourites list in Pixieset and using the notes feature, indicate what touch-ups you are requesting. Please see the original agreement for full terms and details, or just reach out to me for further clarification chris@chrisjack.com.au.
You may request touch-ups that include:
Spot/blemish removal.
Teeth Whitening.
Skin softening.
Iris Enhancement.
As these are ‘destructive’ processes (removing or modifying the pixels) these must be specifically requested by you.
Please note: Photos touch-ups do not include ‘Photoshopping’ for example removing background objects, stray hair removal etc as this is an extremely labour intensive task and in some cases, could take hours or longer per photo.
Can YOU PHOTOSHOP OUT THIS OR THAT?
The simple answer is yes, but there may be an additional cost which I can quote for, as the scope of Photoshop work is infinite. In other words, one single photo change could take half a day to do propery to a professional level where you would be happy printing from it and blowing it up to a large size to place on your wall.
It is very common for guests at a wedding to say things like ‘can you Photoshop me so I look thinner’ or assume that it’s relatively easy to remove background objects. Sometimes it is, but many times it isn’t a simple task at all!
While Photoshop can do just about anything, the scope of possible changes via Photoshop is absolutely unlimited in terms of difficulty and time involved.
I can however, do additional Photoshop work on any photos if there is something that is bothering you.
Costs for advanced Photoshopping photos are quite reasonable, and are based on an hourly rate of $80 per hour quoted to the minute. In some cases these changes may be very quick.
Common Photoshop requests which I can quote for include stray hair removal, removal of bra straps or mobile phones left in pockets, background removal of objects such as security cameras, exit signs etc. The scope is endless!
Please request a quote for any Photoshop changes to photos, via the favourites list or by emailing chris@chrisjack.com.au
Why are some photos in Black and White?
Some photos may be provided by default in black and white. They may be provided in black and white in addition to full colour, or they may be only black and white.
This is done for one of three reasons. (1) The photo may look better or have more impact in black and white due to the high contrast of the scene, or because it draws more attention to the subject (2) The photo may only work in black and white only (for example where there is a strong unwanted colour cast such as green or pink from other light sources - and this could not be avoided at the time) (3) The photos portray a candid or emotional moment, and this works really well in black and white to convey the story, rather than seeing distracting colours in the frame (for example a bright orange traffic cone in the background).
These photos are sometimes provided as additional photos (with the colour photos also provided). If they are provided without colour versions, it will be because the colour versions are unappealing or unworkable as a colour photo.
If you would still like the colour version of a black and white only photo, just let me know and I will edit and export this into an ‘extras’ folder.
Can other EVENT suppliers use the photos?
There may be many suppliers or vendors that would like to use photos for their promotions, posting on social media etc. Suppliers are welcome to use photos for dated posts such as social media posts, blogs etc providing they attribute the photographer e.g. ‘Photos by Chris Jack’ and link to my respective social media account. Permission is not required in this case. You may also send suppliers selected photos for this purpose which is a lovely way to thank them as they are all looking for new photos for their social media.
If suppliers wish to use any photos permanently (for example in a website gallery) or on a printed brochure they should contact the photographer for usage terms (which probably won’t cost anything but may include agreement on appropriate attribution).
CAN YOU REMOVE A PHOTO OR PHOTOS?
If there is a particular photo or photos that you don’t want featured in your gallery at all (for whatever reason) please let me know the photo numbers and I will delete these.
If however you would just like the photos HIDDEN from other guests, and not deleted, please let me know this specifically and I will create a special CLIENT LOGIN where you will see all photos, but other guests will not see the photos you (as the client) have hidden.
When DO I GET THE MAXIMUM RESOLUTION PHOTOS?
The high resolution (maximum resolution) photos are uploaded at the same time you receive all photos. Just choose ‘High Resolution’ from Pixieset when downloading. To verify these are the correct high resolution photos, the pixel size at the longest edge for most photos should be more than 5000 pixels (depending on the crop).
Please download the HIGH RESOLUTION photos within 30 days of receiving them.
CLIENT CURATED GALLERY
Some clients prefer to curate the gallery into their own personal highlights. For example, you might want to select 300-400 photos from the final gallery and then provide these to guests for download and viewing. These could be your favourite photos or just to tell the story of the day using your narrative.
If you would like to curate your own gallery, just create a favourites list in Pixieset named something like ‘My Gallery’. Let me know by email when you have finished curating your gallery (as I won’t otherwise know).
I will then be able to create a completely separate gallery in Pixieset.
You can also choose (by indicating to me the photo number) the main primary photo for this gallery.
There is no cost for this service, just let me know if this appeals.
FEEDBACK
I would love to get your feedback on individual photos or the entire gallery. Please email me with your feedback or comments (good and bad!) as in some cases I may be able to rectify or improve the gallery to meet your expectations. For example, there may have been a particular photo that you expected to be in the gallery. Please let me know, as your overall satisfaction is my primary concern.
You may also want to create a favourites list named something like ‘Feedback’ and tell me why you love or hate certain photos! Finally, if there is any photo that you prefer not to be in the gallery, just let me know and I can hide it.
Alternatively, if you would like to hide photos yourselves (without my intervention) please request a ‘Client Access Password’ and I will email this through. That way, any hidden photos are still accessible in your client gallery, but are hidden from the main public gallery you share with friends and family ;)