Everyone has that one day, where even though something is scheduled out, the question “how long” will always arise. A photography session is usually on that list. While a wedding photography session might not be one of those moments, it never hurts to have an idea of the time commitment. Each photographer has a different answer to that question, but I will do my best to aggregate those answers. With that in mind, let’s get into it.
Now, I suppose I should explore what that implies. When I say “wedding photo shoot”, that can mean a number of different things. The duration of the wedding day, the duration of the session, or any pre-wedding day sessions. In all of my packages, I include what I refer to as an engagement session. Essentially, that is a pre-wedding shoot. Each package also includes my available time for an entire wedding day, festivities and all. With that groundwork laid out, I will explain what each one amounts to.
From all of my research, the average answer is 30 minutes (Emily, 2021) (Kim, 2021). This is specifically for the post-wedding shoots with the entire wedding party. In addition to these photos, the couple portraits may take up 45 minutes to an hour worth of time (Kim, 2021). The real amount of time is dependent on the length of the wedding itself. On average, a wedding photographer should be hired for 6-8 hours for the duration of the wedding, ceremony, and reception (Jenkins, 2024). To clarify this information, in my packages, I cover between 6-10 hours worth of time.
Vivo Photography (2020) actually provides a reason for the coverage of 6 hours, coverage of 8 hours, and coverage of 10 hours, creating a timeline of events for each one. I don’t want to take their content, so I highly recommend looking through their coverage of the topic. Generally, the idea is taking images from getting ready to the reception (Erin, 2017).
I believe that I have covered the question of “how long does it take?” to the best of my ability. As I mentioned before, there is no clear-cut answer, minute to minute. With that in mind, the timeline of events is the biggest time factor. Know what that looks like and you’ll have your answer. I hope to have answered your question and that you have an excellent week.
All the best,
Logan Clark
Works Cited
Erin. “Our Perfect Wedding Photography Schedule (That We Use For Every Wedding).” The Youngrens, 27 May 2017, https://theyoungrens.com/photographers/shooting-workflow/the-perfect-wedding-photography-schedule/. Accessed 10 July 2024.
Forrest, Emily. “A Guide to the Ideal Wedding Photography Timeline.” Zola, 20 January 2021, https://www.zola.com/expert-advice/how-long-do-wedding-photos-take. Accessed 10 July 2024.
Forrest, Kim. “The Ultimate Wedding Photographer Timeline.” Wedding Wire, 10 December 2021, https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-ideas/the-ultimate-wedding-photography-timeline. Accessed 10 July 2024.
Jenkins, Marisa. “How Long Do Wedding Photos Take? (Timeline Breakdown).” Wedding Frontier, 27 May 2024, https://weddingfrontier.com/how-long-do-wedding-photos-take/. Accessed 10 July 2024.
Rojas, Breanne. “How many hours of wedding photography do you really need?” Vivo Photography, 12 February 2020, https://www.vivophotography.com/blog/how-many-hours-of-wedding-photography-do-you-really-need. Accessed 10 July 2024.