I know quite a few good DJs who take 100+ good photos (give or take) a night, and they are growing in numbers
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People have very different definitions of "good" :D I'm with Benny on this one (and the majority I've seen are in the third category).
I'm also not going to mention the guy on MDJN who posted 200+ iPhone gig photos every single week... But he would be a prime example.
Julian
This is the first I've ever heard of a tog being booked to stay on at the evening and I've yet to see many DJs up here, myself, my brother and the DJ I mentioned who does the day time togging too, put up even a handful of 'good' photos never mind over 100.
I had last week's bride ask me if I had more than the 7 or 8 shots that I'd captured and the truth was no - I dumped a few that had had captured 'dance face' and that was it.
There's only so many shots of people actually dancing as opposed to standing about posing as a group that you can take before they all end up looking the same.
Kind of like the ceremony I suppose, even at my own wedding there's only so many backshot photos of us looking at each other whilst the Humanist talked that I can be bothered looking at and I'd never really thought about it but getting to know some togs over the past while and asking why it's standard they only stay for the first few tunes that's their responses 1. I've been here all day, I want to go home, 2. Auntie Mabel dancing is the same as friend Jenny dancing is the same as the young team bouncing around, after an amount of them, the shots just become noise.
I think the point is that the most of the people posting 100+ photos, aren't photographers, never mind good photographers. Often they don't appear to be reviewing what they're posting before they post them (never mind applying any kind of post processing). A local guy just posted 228 photos of last Saturday's gig - about 20 of which weren't even in focus!!!
My take on this is that every photo I post that carries my watermark represents my business and can be shared without any context. Meaning that a single shot could be the sole item that someone uses to judge the quality of what I do. Because of that, I share few and far between and cull heavily from what I shoot before I even consider sharing anything.
People also get fed up with having a camera shoved in their faces after a while! Chatting to a photographer a few weeks ago.... he mentioned that brides are currently expecting to get around 700 edited photos from a photographer for a typical all day package and some are now upping this and demanding 1000+.
Quantity over quality?!? :)
Julian
I understand why the majority of togs leave after the first dance, but for me, it feels like the story of the wedding is incomplete.
The evening entertainment makes up around 1/3rd of the day. The first 2/3rds are the more 'formal' aspect of the day. To finish the story with a few dancing pics after the first dance feels like the story is left a little short changed.
However, I don't blame the togs for this. The reality is that the majority of DJs are quite frankly awful, so there is nothing else to capture.
When I have certain pieces of interaction during the evening, it's a shame they are not captured. And most of all, I always feel it's a shame that the very last dance of the night isn't captured, because it's usually full of emotion.
The weddings where the tog has stayed to the end definitely feel like they capture the full wedding.
We're incredibly biased in this point of view. If you start looking at the point of view of what photos the client wants - especially when it comes to putting together their albums - any post first-dance dancing shots (generally) take up a fraction of the final cut. It took me a long time to accept this because I agree wholeheartedly with you, but look at your local venue's social media stuff. How many photos do you see of the party vs. a candle on a bloody table? That's what clients want. They may love the idea of having a shed load of photos of the evening but when it comes to it (for the most part), they are more interested in everything before the first dance. Same as when the clients love the idea of having a ceremony at midday and then partying hard until 4am - we know (for the most part) that we're not going that far.
If there was a market for togs to hang about you can bet they'd be exploiting it.
Guys like Benny and myself offer a happy medium where the evening is captured not just on 100 phones.
I've got my video work flow so slick now that I can have it edited, clipped, colour graded, a full watch for QC uploading and out the back with a bottle of wine in under 15 minutes. They look great, my clients love them and unlike most online mumbo jumbo, it really is a USP.
I actually quite like the fact there's so many DJs out there doing it badly. Just like the music, if the majority are 'ok' it makes it really easy to stand out.
On the subject of evening entertainment and photographers, I saw this yesterday: -
Photographer Forced to Spend Hours Photoshopping Lines From Wedding Photos, Issues Warning That Lasers Can Ruin Sensors
Is that a real problem? Do any of you use lasers, or been asked about them by photographers?
The most interesting thing I gained from that link? I learned what "chimping" is :eek::D