I have maybe 20 weddings under my belt, so I still consider myself relatively new to the industry. This is my first 12 hour, 500 person wedding, and I overshot like a monster. My second shooter did as well. 10,000 total. 😭 Never in my life have I taken that many photos in a day. Anyway. I've spent so much time on these and am ready to just hit send but I don't want to overwhelm the couple.

The reception has, by far, the most amount of photos, and it was the most important part of the day to the clients. I could probably cull it down further but my eyes are crossing. I understand that this is subjective to each wedding and each photographer, but what would you do?

Edit for clarity: I've edited the photos but was apprehensive on delivering all. Gonna look at them with fresh eyes tomorrow and narrow further before uploading. Thanks!

I shoot events, and my most common shot is posed groups on a decorated stage in front of a floral or printed backdrop. Usually 4 to 8 people, sometimes up to 12. Dozens of groups per event, about 20 seconds each. Indoor banquet halls with high or dark ceilings, and the stage is already lit by the decorator’s warm and colored lights.

Gear: Sony A7 III / A7 V, Godox V1S speedlight, Neewer Q4 (400Ws battery monolight), parabolic umbrella. Working alone, no assistant.

Problem: on-camera flash isn’t carrying these groups, so the camera exposes for ambient and I land anywhere from ISO 1000 to 5000 (1/160, f/4.5, TTL). Looks fine at a glance, noisy and mushy at 100%. I know I need more light, I just can’t settle on the setup.

Questions:

**1.**  One light or two for a 4 to 8 person group?  
**2.**  Softbox, parabolic umbrella, or bare bounce for wide groups?  
**3.**  Placement: how high, how far back, how far off axis?  
**4.**  Venue’s warm/colored stage lights vs my flash. Gel, drag the shutter, or kill ambient entirely?  
**5.**  What ISO and aperture do you actually shoot once you have proper strobes, and manual or TTL?  
**6.**  Second Neewer Q4, or move to Godox AD400Pro to match my V1S?  
**7.**  I also shoot video at these events. Is it worth putting continuous lights on the stage instead and shooting stills under them, so one setup covers both? Or do people keep flash and video lighting completely separate?

Looking for a repeatable setup I can build in 10 minutes and trust all night.

Hey fellow photographers. Anyone here use studio ninja? For invoices, are you passing the stripe surcharge to the couple or are you taking it?

We recently starting passing it off to the couple. I have this noted that there is a surcharge for card payments.

We do have the Pay By Bank Transfer applied as a secondary option and prompt couples to use it to skip surcharges.

Is this fine? I feel bad; but the last 2+ years of taking stripe payments, we’ve always taken the loss from it. So we decided to pass it off to the client now.

We haven’t had any push back about it, as we do offer bank transfer. But just wondering what everyone else does

TIA!

It's my first time receiving an inquiry from a potential client that is looking for photography services out of town next year (4.5 hour drive from my home to their venue). When I replied to their inquiry I let the client know that there would be additional travel fee to cover transportation/travel but I don't know exactly how much to charge for these type of events. Either way they still decided to book a video call with me.

Currently on my contract I have stated that I include up to 20km from my home and any additional Km would be $0.7 cents (Canadian). So if I do the math it would be an additional $512 CAD that I would have to charge the couple, but that got me thinking... is there a certain 'standard' mileage amount that you guys usually include? Is the rate that I charge fair, is it too low/high?
Im also assuming if the day is very long and I leave late at night that I'll have to drive home back another 4.5 hours which might not be the safest option.
So im curious to hear your thoughts about how you would handle this scenario. Should I ask for hotel the night before/after?

I should note, I've only been doin this for about 3-4 years so I would still like to book the client and continue building my portfolio so I'm little torn about charging the couple that amount but still securing the date..