Dear Bride
It is our greatest honor to be a part of your special day. We deeply thank you for entrusting us with your most special memories.
We are already working tirelessly to make sure your day runs without a hitch! We’ve put together some helpful resources to help you understand a little more about what makes our studio unique, and what you can expect from us during and after your special day. We will be in touch with you throughout the weeks leading up to your wedding to go over final notes, create a portrait schedule (one of very few studios that do this!), shot list, and any other important details you wish to communicate. For more on what to expect the day of your wedding, read on!
About
Ulrich Studios is the premier wedding photography and cinematography studio in the tri state area. Our style is deeply rooted in photojournalism, influenced by fine art and fashion photography. The result is creative, clean and crisp wedding photography that is romantic, fun and emotional. We pride ourselves on not just being photographers, but rather artists creating unique and expressive imagery.
We’re all about organization, simplicity and beauty. Below we’ll break down a few of our techniques and styles so you can get a feel for what your images will look like and how we’ll navigate your day. Our typical approach combines elements of each style, adjusted for factors like the background, lighting, and client preferences. However, if you like a particular style, be sure to let us know during your initial meeting or engagement photo shoot.
Our Styles
SIGNATURE - Our Signature Style can be described as high definition, vibrant, crisp, and clean. Skin tones are accurate and the natural colors of the scene “pop,” giving the image a beautiful aesthetic. We are big on natural light and can be found chasing down the most beautiful light we can find all over the wedding hall!
EPIC - Our Epic Style incorporates advanced camera techniques used to create compelling and creative effects. This includes HDR photography, Advanced Off-Camera Flash, Shutter Drags and much more. Our Epic Style also applies to our Night Time Photography. For your engagement session, these would be the last few shots of the night. For your wedding, this would be our “reception sneak out.” For these shots, we again use advanced camera and lighting techniques to create interesting effects. For example, we capture the motion in traffic lights, balance hot lights and flash to create an interesting, moody, yet vibrant image, and much more.
EDITORIAL - Our Editorial Style incorporates poses and post-production often-found in fashion photography, where much of our inspiration and training comes from. These are generally described as “vogue” shots and utilize more serious, intense facial expressions. The backgrounds are more moody with deep shadows and dramatic lighting.
Your Portrait Session
PHOTOJOURNALISM – One of our most important wedding features. You’ve probably heard us use this word many times already but might not know exactly what it means. Allow us to explain!
Wedding Photojournalism takes awareness of surroundings, knowledge of human behavior, and requires a lot of background observation and intuition. Each image captures an emotion, tells a story, or portrays a mood or feeling. We’re paying close attention to the environment, listening in on conversations and anticipating that smile, laugh, tear, or hug. We’re there waiting for that expression, that moment, that feeling, allowing it to happen as it happens – ready to document it in its purest form.
NIGHT PHOTOGRAPHY - Our passion for understanding lighting and camera equipment has helped us develop a style of night photography that exposes for stunning backgrounds, creates a dramatic effect, and maintains a natural feel to the image. Notice that we’re not creating harsh, flash lighting on our subjects. Furthermore, the backgrounds and lights in these dark scenes are not only visible but play an integral part in the composition of the images.
POSING - Whether you’re stiff as a board or used to being in front of the camera, we’ll make sure we give you as much direction as you need to create natural, comfortable poses. We’re always paying attention to things like unplaced hands, unflattering angles, or awkward expressions. At the same time, we’re creating an environment where you’re comfortable and your personalities and affection are the focal point of the image.
ADVANCED FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY - You can see some of our advance flash techniques in our night photos. We also use flash photography to create interest in daytime and nighttime scenes. For example, sometimes we’ll introduce a flash flare into the scene to add interest to a first dance or bride and groom kiss.
Other times we’ll introduce intentional mixed lighting to create interesting effects. And another method we use to “save the skies” is using daytime flash techniques to bring out the subjects while exposing properly for the dramatic backgrounds.
WE HAVE FUN - We love setting up scenes where you and your family/friends can be silly, fun, and playful. Whether you’re jumping, doing silly poses, or expressing some inside jokes between you and your friends, we’ll be sure to have a great time during our couples session and our wedding party session. In some scenes, the idea sometimes is to get you out of your comfort zone by getting you to do something silly, ridiculous, or even inappropriate. During those moments, and especially in between, we’re snapping away to get those smiles and natural emotions.
SAME DAY SLIDESHOW – A same day slide show is an incredible feature to share with guests towards the end of the wedding. We’ll project images of your special day, portraits, and beautiful moments right up on the wall AT your wedding! It makes for a uniquely beautiful and sentimental wedding finale and is always a huge crowd pleaser.
THOSE DETAILS - You’ve spent thousands of dollars on the details of your wedding - rings, floral arrangements, centerpieces, venues, giveaways, etc. We’re not going to let it slip past us!
We capture the details of your wedding with the same attention and with many of the same techniques as we’ve described above. Your day moves quickly and while you may not have the time to sit back and fully appreciate the taste of the cake or those beautiful custom napkins, we’ll be sure to have gorgeous pictures of it.
After Your Wedding
You want the good stuff already! So here it is.
PRODUCTION & PRINTING- You’ll receive an online gallery to your images (approximately 1,000 per wedding) within 4 weeks. Depending on your video package, trailers and longer videos take between 4-8 weeks.
You can order prints whenever you’d like - feel free to reach out for advice when setting up a gallery wall of your images. We love to print on unique mediums, such as metal, wood, acrylic, and uniquely textured print paper. Now, lets talk albums!
ALBUM DESIGN PROCESS – Our work for you doesn’t end once we’ve left your wedding hall, in fact it’s only just begun. From the moment we arrive at your wedding, we are planning your album. Yes, really. An immense amount of time, care and detail go into the album design – after all, it is what holds your everlasting memories. Throughout your wedding day, we are quietly envisioning unique scenes for each page that we make sure to capture in perfect sequence for your unique story.
After you receive your wedding gallery, you will be invited to our studio for an album appointment where you will be presented with a custom, digitally designed album. During the appointment, you will view your album and make desirable edits with us hand-in hand. You’ll be able to ask any questions you have regarding image selection or design and receive answers right then and there. At the end of the appointment you will approve your album for print and receive your keepsake in less than 6 weeks.
OUR ALBUM STYLE – Clean, clean, clean. Did we say clean? When designing your album our goal is to make this special heirloom timeless and elegant with clean, crisp designs and layouts. Our page and border color choices are strictly black and white. We love full-page “wow” photos, uncluttered natural layouts, and a clear and consistent style. Some things we avoid are – excessively edited coloring, overly blurred images, photo backgrounds, color borders, layered pictures, and unrealistic montages.
We believe your album is a true story telling piece, so each spread will reflect a particular moment true to its chronological occurrence. We give each picture its own platform – so we don’t cram them on the page or blur them into other photos and we try to keep the backgrounds similar so each page flows smoothly. We can’t wait to deliver each beautiful piece to you!
Time to Countdown
It’s a big day, and this is a lot of information. We get it!
If you have other questions, feel free to email us at info@ulrichstudiosphotography.com or call 201-490-8807.
We’re always here for you.