Our commitment is to provide a potential client with a complete understanding of our business and our policies. Your knowledge of our practices puts you in the position of making an educated decision as to our services. Unfortunately, we will never cover every question that you might have. If we have failed to cover any of your concerns in this section, we urge you to email us and we’ll do our best to answer your inquiries in a timely manner. Read on and learn more about Charmed Life Photography!
We opened a very large working studio as a collective; over 15 photographers partake in its upkeep. It’s worked out very well for everyone. Our greatest benefit has been the ability to work with other photographers to compare styles, techniques and approaches. We often share with our students that the day they think they have their craft figured out is the day they start to loose their edge. We feel we have become better photographers because of our association with the North Denver Photographers’ studio.
Charmed Life Photography owns the images captured at your event or session. In fact, all photographs that are taken by Charmed Life Photography are Copyrighted Materials ©, and are protected by National and International Law. However, we are very open to releasing ownership of all images taken at any event to clients. Should we reach an agreement, we would like to retain the use of some the images for our own promotional activities. Because we garner income from selling prints of our images, we will transfer ownership of the images for an additional charge. Once you own the images, you have the right to alter, combine and reproduce the images as you see fit. Likewise, your ownership allows you to require permission for anyone including Charmed Life Photography to use these images.
Like any photographer you might choose, we typically provide some photo re-touching for finished products. Almost all of the professional photos you see are processed with Photoshop to a certain extent. Cropping, color correction, blemish removal, vignetting, collages, etc all require additional time and effort. Most of the photos that a client would choose have at least a minimal amount work done to them. One of the differences between an amateur and professional is the ability to take a seemingly simple image and turn into art. It might make sense to choose a predetermined number of images that we would work in a post-event environment. Choosing this option would obviously increase the time it would take you to receive your images. We strongly suggest that if your intent is to get prints done somewhere other than through Charmed Life Photography, that you ask our opinion as to which lab would give you the best results. We are not responsible for color inconsistencies or poor imaging resulting in using an inferior lab, inks or paper.
Photographic coverage refers to the amount of time we are at an event or session taking photographs. At Charmed Life Photography, we define the coverage beginning at the time we actually start capturing images. Using a wedding as an example, we will arrive at the church or location in advance of the start time and early enough to set up all the equipment we need to shoot the wedding and reception. This set up period is not considered part of your photographic coverage. Nor do we include the time it takes to strike our equipment as part of your photographic coverage. If you contract us for 6 hours, we shoot for 6 hours. Break times are covered in our contracts. Wedding day can sometime be a stressful time for any number of reasons, Charmed Life Photography’s policy of arriving early and leaving late eliminates us from being a source of any stress.
We urge clients to reflect on their needs in terms of photographic coverage. You can choose four, 5, 6 or 8 hours of coverage. More coverage allows us to capture images that are many times the most cherished. Preparing for the wedding is a perfect example where more coverage is preferable: Shooting behind the scenes as a Bride prepares for her special day is commonly an overlooked opportunity. Photographing her makeup and hair session, those occasional tears and the laughter can be the stuff of memories. Capturing these kinds of candid images also allows friends and family to experience an unseen part of the wedding day.
Our experience as documentary photographers will allow us to go relatively unnoticed in these settings. However, in some cases the environments where these activities take place require the use of flash photography to achieve the highest quality photograph. The decision would then be whether to forego the maximum quality by using natural light thus minimizing our presence or allowing us to use flashes to ensure our best work. We would recommend utilizing both methods to make certain you have adequate selections from which to choose.
Clients choose our ordering website to allow them and their family to view and order finished prints at their convenience. Our website allows images to be ordered in color, black and white or sepia on a number of paper options and textures. The website is published for a minimum of two months. The retail price of the prints can be negotiated in advance with all purchases being delivered directly to the party ordering the print. Each print ordered comes with a 100% Re-Print Satisfaction Guarantee. The website option is something to consider.
We are happy to include a separate in-studio Bridal session or Engagement session at no additional cost based on these conditions:
- Images captured at the Bridal/Engagement sessions are solely owned by Charmed Life Photography, thus allowing unlimited use in promotional and advertising activities (a signed release will be required to fulfill this agreement).
- In the case of Bridal Sessions, the Bride needs to be in full accoutrements including gown, veil, jewelry, etc.
We rely on Bridal Portraits derived in the controlled environment of the studio to help sell our services. We would be honored to include your image among these.
In order to lock in and book a date, a signed contract along with a 50% retainer is required. Our contracts meet industry standards and are available upon request. However, nothing is etched in stone and a custom contract is drawn up for each client. Feel free to contact us to discuss any changes you’d like to make.
Quite the contrary, we probably charge too little. Let’s explore a 4-hour wedding session: Certainly, if all we did was work those four hours, one might be justified in calling our rates excessive, yet with a 4-hour wedding, we have not only those four hours but also travel time to and from the event location. Additionally, with every hour spent shooting there are as many as three additional hours of organizing, selecting, cropping, re-touching and archiving the images. Include the time spent emailing, phoning and speaking directly to our clients and you might want to divide that package price by 16-20 hours instead of 4 hours to determine our real hourly rate.
Hiring a professional photographer comes with the knowledge that certain standards and results are forthcoming. Those standards and results are a function of good hard work and the time it takes to do the work correctly. We have all heard stories of friends of the family or family members who volunteer to take pictures during weddings or for senior pictures, and we’ve all heard the horror stories of these seemingly good intentions resulting in not only poor quality photographs but missed opportunities. In the case of a wedding, those opportunities are lost forever. Don’t let your special day be one of memories only. Hire a professional photographer, pay a fair price for their skills then relax and enjoy these special moments to the fullest.
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