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No matter what your wedding budget is, some expenses are vital. Especially, a professional wedding photographer. Eirik Halvorsen is one of them and he found a brilliant way to prove why specialists like him are essential to every ceremony.
“I recently came across a thread in a wedding group on Facebook where a bride-to-be said they wanted to save money by not hiring a professional wedding photographer and let the guests be in charge of the photos,” Eirik told PetaPixel. “I mean, they will take pictures, right? You just have to get everyone to dropbox you the photos after and you can make your own album and look back on those special moments forever.”
Not quite. Eirik married his wife almost four years ago and hired his dream photographer to capture all the precious moments. So he took the photographer’s images and compared them with actual photos from the same wedding, taken by the guests. Composition, lighting, image quality and other features differ dramatically. “All I know from the experience of getting married is that all that is left today is the photos,” Eirik said. So if you want those photos to look great, they should be taken by someone who knows what he’s doing.
More info: eirikhalvorsen.com | Instagram (h/t: petapixel)
RELATED:
“[These] photos are actual photos from our own wedding taken by our guests,” Eirik said
The couple came up with this idea while scrolling through a wedding photography group on Facebook
“A bride-to-be said they wanted to save money by not hiring a professional wedding photographer”
“I mean, they will take pictures, right? You just have to get everyone to dropbox you the photos after…”
“… and you can make your own album and look back on those special moments forever”
Can you though?
Luckily, the couple haven’t followed this advice and had hired a photographer instead
Image credits: Jeff Newsom
Quite the contrast, right?
Image credits: Jeff Newsom
“Me and my wife <…> cut cost everywhere possible to be able to hire our dream photographer”
Image credits: Jeff Newsom
“All I know from the experience of getting married is that all that is left today is the photos”
Image credits: Jeff Newsom
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What do you think ?
AcousticGString 8 years ago
I have photographers who could cut me a deal, but I'd rather spend my money on the honeymoon, and my future with that person. I feel like the more pricey the wedding, the more stressful.
Yugan Talovich 8 years ago
Studies show that the pricier the wedding, the sooner the marriage breaks up.
Load More Replies...
Just a Purpler 8 years ago
I don't really care about photos, I'mma just spend my whole budget on the cake tbh.
Amanda Panda 8 years ago
hahaha, you have my attention ... i need to know what sort of cake would require the bulk of your wedding budget!
Load More Replies...
Just a Purpler 8 years ago
I agree, those photographer's photos are a thousand times better, but it kinda seems like the point of this post is to explain that photos are the most important part of the wedding. They are a nice plus, but to some they are more important than others.
Ianthé Baeyens 8 years ago
As a photographer, I think the point is to show people the difference before they ask their guests or grandfather to take some pictures instead.. if you put all that money/effort in your wedding, it would be a shame if you only have bad quality images, right?
Load More Replies...
Rebeka Zając 8 years ago
this is stupid. most of those "amateur" photos look like made with 20 year old cameras. If you have decent camera you would avoid all this grain and "moved" photos, you dont need proffesional photographer for that. I made some photos(for free ofc) on my friends weddings with camera worth 250USD and they looked great.
Anna Thouvenin 8 years ago
Eirik Halvorsen's wedding was in 2011. Do you remember the quality of your phone's camera in 2011? I do. They are horrible. Only in the most recent years (since 2013-14) you can compare a phone's camera to an actual camera. But even my galaxy S6 struggles in places with poor lighting or moving subjects...
Load More Replies... Yugan Talovich 8 years ago
A friend took a dozen photos of our wedding. Good enough. I was there for my wife, not photos.
Hans 8 years ago
Comparing cherrypicked professional photos to "lemon-picked" smartphone snapshots...well. I remember this BP post, which goes into the opposite direction: https://www.boredpanda.com/dog-films-wedding-gopro/ Thus: forget about professionals, but also ban private smartphones, simply let the dog take the photos!
Mike Chin 8 years ago
its a 2 minute video and probably 8-12 hours of footage they had to edit thru. You also need video editing experience. The ceremony part had someone pointing the dog in the right direction. There's another video of a gopro attached to a bottle of fireball that was much more interesting
Load More Replies... Smoky 8 years ago
Somehow I like the photos from guests more. Yes, the photos from the photographer are really beautiful and have a lot more quality but the guest's photos are more personal, more realistic and more "out of life". Also like other said before: photos aren't the most important thing of a wedding, it is the love (and maybe the food ;))
Marie-Ève Lacombe 8 years ago
I 100% agree with you! If I ever marry, I don't want pictures that look like they are straight out of some fairytale or too calculated . Those kind of pictures always end up looking similar anyway. I want them to feel real and spontaneous. And it's nice to have the vision of the guests and it's like a little gift from each of them.
Load More Replies...
Catalina Ioan 8 years ago
Thank you! It was beyond me how nobody was pointing out that sad, sad flaw in his logic... It speaks volumes about him, and not in a good way.
Load More Replies...
Carlos Jimenez Jr. 8 years ago
What's the point of taking a photo if you're going to photoshop the hell out of it? We pay people to capture the most cliche parts of the wedding, walking down the ailse, holding hands in front of a door or whatever. No one takes candid photos of conversations or dancing or of ugly faces and unflattering moments. I kind of hate the philosophy of commercial photographers.
AcousticGString 8 years ago
I have photographers who could cut me a deal, but I'd rather spend my money on the honeymoon, and my future with that person. I feel like the more pricey the wedding, the more stressful.
Yugan Talovich 8 years ago
Studies show that the pricier the wedding, the sooner the marriage breaks up.
Load More Replies... Just a Purpler 8 years ago
I don't really care about photos, I'mma just spend my whole budget on the cake tbh.
Amanda Panda 8 years ago
hahaha, you have my attention ... i need to know what sort of cake would require the bulk of your wedding budget!
Load More Replies... Just a Purpler 8 years ago
I agree, those photographer's photos are a thousand times better, but it kinda seems like the point of this post is to explain that photos are the most important part of the wedding. They are a nice plus, but to some they are more important than others.
Ianthé Baeyens 8 years ago
As a photographer, I think the point is to show people the difference before they ask their guests or grandfather to take some pictures instead.. if you put all that money/effort in your wedding, it would be a shame if you only have bad quality images, right?
Load More Replies... Rebeka Zając 8 years ago
this is stupid. most of those "amateur" photos look like made with 20 year old cameras. If you have decent camera you would avoid all this grain and "moved" photos, you dont need proffesional photographer for that. I made some photos(for free ofc) on my friends weddings with camera worth 250USD and they looked great.
Anna Thouvenin 8 years ago
Eirik Halvorsen's wedding was in 2011. Do you remember the quality of your phone's camera in 2011? I do. They are horrible. Only in the most recent years (since 2013-14) you can compare a phone's camera to an actual camera. But even my galaxy S6 struggles in places with poor lighting or moving subjects...
Load More Replies... Yugan Talovich 8 years ago
A friend took a dozen photos of our wedding. Good enough. I was there for my wife, not photos.
Hans 8 years ago
Comparing cherrypicked professional photos to "lemon-picked" smartphone snapshots...well. I remember this BP post, which goes into the opposite direction: https://www.boredpanda.com/dog-films-wedding-gopro/ Thus: forget about professionals, but also ban private smartphones, simply let the dog take the photos!
Mike Chin 8 years ago
its a 2 minute video and probably 8-12 hours of footage they had to edit thru. You also need video editing experience. The ceremony part had someone pointing the dog in the right direction. There's another video of a gopro attached to a bottle of fireball that was much more interesting
Load More Replies... Smoky 8 years ago
Somehow I like the photos from guests more. Yes, the photos from the photographer are really beautiful and have a lot more quality but the guest's photos are more personal, more realistic and more "out of life". Also like other said before: photos aren't the most important thing of a wedding, it is the love (and maybe the food ;))
Marie-Ève Lacombe 8 years ago
I 100% agree with you! If I ever marry, I don't want pictures that look like they are straight out of some fairytale or too calculated . Those kind of pictures always end up looking similar anyway. I want them to feel real and spontaneous. And it's nice to have the vision of the guests and it's like a little gift from each of them.
Load More Replies... Catalina Ioan 8 years ago
Thank you! It was beyond me how nobody was pointing out that sad, sad flaw in his logic... It speaks volumes about him, and not in a good way.
Load More Replies... Carlos Jimenez Jr. 8 years ago
What's the point of taking a photo if you're going to photoshop the hell out of it? We pay people to capture the most cliche parts of the wedding, walking down the ailse, holding hands in front of a door or whatever. No one takes candid photos of conversations or dancing or of ugly faces and unflattering moments. I kind of hate the philosophy of commercial photographers.
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