Q: “How would you describe your style?”
A: Carl Elixir Studio is a creative photo & film studio that specializes in creating authentic and stylish images for couples all over the DMV area. Our unique and timeless style is deeply rooted within photojournalism while influenced by fine-art and fashion. Through the usage of creative lighting, unique compositions and artistic post-production, we will highlight beauty while telling the wedding stories. We are drawn to high fashion, storytelling, and most of all, documenting the sentimental moments between lovers, families and friends, and creating visible representation of people’s style, love and value.
Q: “Can you tell us a bit more about your entire process?”
A: We hope to provide you with an easy and stress-free experience throughout the whole process, so please take a moment and read about our 6 step process HERE.
Q: “Can you share a sample timeline that’s often used by your studio?”
A: Sure. We have a very detailed wedding day timeline guide, along with some photos that can help you better understand what’s going on at each part of the day! You will find this 8 hour timeline HERE.
Q: “If we are not doing a First Look, then how do we ensure that we have enough time for our portraits and family photos?”
A: Simple! A popular way that a lot of couples get around this is by extend their cocktail hour by an extra 30 minutes. So instead of 60 minutes, you will have a 90 minutes cocktail hour. This ensures that there will be 20-30 minutes for all the family photos and wedding party photos, nobody will feel rushed! Then you will have at least 30-45 minutes to get your own portraits taken, we never cut corners on these! Finally, you can even have some time to join the cocktail hour yourself and enjoy a drink or two, while our photographers utilize this time to shoot the reception room details. All these photos (family photos, couple’s photos and detail photos) are very important to us, so we want to make sure that we reserve enough time for them.
Q: “Do we need a second shooter?”
A: Yes we strongly recommend this! Honestly this has nothing to do with how small your wedding is, by having a second shooter just provides you with so much more possibilities, more angles and moments can be captured simultaneously, bride and groom getting ready session can be documented in parallel. Everything on a wedding day will happen only once, and we wants to miss out on an important moment just because another one is happening at the same time. In addition, a second shooter also plays the role of a lighting assistant sometimes, thus allowing the lead shooters to have some breathing room and more time to think about the creative aspects of the wedding day. They would then be able to focus more on the artistic shots and present you with more ideal work.
Q: “How many final photos will be delivered?”
A: To ensure a better experience, we try and not to deliver every single photo that’s taken. The reason is simple, sometime we can over 4000 photos on a wedding day, and many of which are simply misfires, test shots or redundant files. To be honest, it would be quite torturous to make you go through all these. Your overall experience is very important to us, therefore we will cull, edit and deliver only what we believe are the best and most representative photos of the day. There is not an exact number that we try and stick to since every wedding is different, and it would be silly to just tie our hands with a number. However, you should expect roughly 300-800 professionally enhanced images from an 8 hour wedding with 2 photographers.
Q: “What’s the difference between a Classic package vs a Signature package?”
A: Classic package features an associate photographer as your lead shooter. Signature package features Carl Elixir himself as your lead shooter. All our photographers have at least 5-10 years of wedding photography experience and follow the same extraordinary standard that Carl Elixir has created. The subtle difference lies within the artistic vision and approach that each photographer has. Shakespeare once said: “There are a thousand Hamlets in a thousand people's eyes.”
Q: “Can we see a comparison between Classic package and Signature package weddings?”
A: Sure, here are some full wedding galleries from the Classic packages and the Signature packages.
Q: “We love your editing style, can you tell us a bit more about it?
A: One of the most common compliments that we’ve gotten throughout the years: Your photos are really beautiful because they are NOT TOO BRIGHT! We get it, you are looking for something special, you want photos with VIVID TEXTURE and RICH COLOR, none of those overly blown out images. Editing over the years has become an irreplaceable part of our work, in fact, it takes up to almost 50% of the overall look. We use a very unique enhancement method to add more life to all the photos. A custom color grading will be meticulously applied, while optimizing exposure, clarity, contrast, and composition. In addition, all photos taken by our studio all go through the same editor: CARL. Carl himself will personally fine-tune and edit all your wedding images, editing is his passion and throughout the years this has become our final quality control. Carl will go through each and every photo to ensure that whatever that comes out of our studio will always have the same brilliant consistency and excellent quality.
Q: “What is your travel policy?”
A: We offer a complimentary 60 miles of travel radius. Any venue between 60-100 miles, there is a flat rate fee of $150 per shooter. Any venues outside of the 100 miles radius, we will provide a custom travel quote based on the location.
Q: “Do you have limitations on how many locations we can cover on the wedding day?”
A: No limitations! You can choose as many locations as you wish on your wedding day!
Q: “If we have a long gap in between our wedding day where we do not need coverage, how much would the hourly rate be?”
A: 50% of a normal hourly rate.
Q: “Should we order everything that we need now or can we order them later? Such as photo albums, extra hours, 2nd shooter, full documentary film, etc.”
A: Our suggestion is that you try and add everything now than later. That’s because 6 month or one year from now, there is a chance that our pricing may go up so slightly, so you might be paying more later vs if you get them now.
Q: “How long will you save/store our photos/videos?”
A: We will provide storage and backup to all your digital files for exactly 1 year after they have been delivered. However, you do have the option to purchase a permanent backup solution where we will store and backup all your wedding files on 1) a physical disk and 2) virtual gallery. This way you will never have to worry about losing your precious memory.
Q: “Can we give you a Pinterest board of our favorite wedding photos that we found online?”
A: The short answer is no. We are strong believers of uniqueness in every photographer’s work, so sampling one of two photos from different photographers and putting them together is like creating Frankenstein. Having a “template” like that is similar to tying our hands, it will only affect our work in a very negative way. You want us to have the freedom that we wanted and create our best work for you.
Q: “Do you have insurance?”
A: Absolutely, we make sure that both our clients and us are fully covered at all time. Please let us know if your venue needs our insurance information.
Q: “Do we have the rights to the images?”
A: Yes, we let you own rights to every image/film at no extra cost. You can request an online and print rights release with any wedding package.
Q: “My venue is really dark, how do you handle these situations?”
A: We have shot in the darkest of dark chapels and reception halls so no need to worry! If the situation allows, we will set up additional lighting to ensure we get bright crisp pictures. Some chapels do not allow for flash photography; and for that reason, we shoot on cameras and lenses that have superb low-light performances.
Q: “We are not too comfortable in front of a camera, will you help us?”
A: Remember you are not alone, most people feel a bit awkward in front of a camera. That is why we make every effort to capture you candidly being yourself. We will talk you through posing naturally and show you some pictures throughout the shoot to reassure you of how beautiful you look in our photos! Engagement session is also a great way for you to get more comfortable with your photographer. Throughout the process we will communicate with you and give you tips on what to do. During entire experience, couples gain more confidence, broaden posing horizons and ultimately become super models (just kidding).
Q: “Can we follow you on social media?”
A: Please do so! Follow along as we post our latest works on Instagram: carlelixirstudio
Q: “Do you have a preferred vendor list?”
A: Sure! We understand just how important a good team is, therefore we have a whole list of outstanding wedding vendors that we can share with you, just let us know if need them!
Q: “Do we need to tip our photographers/videographers?”
A: Gratuities are never expected, but always appreciated.
Q: “We like everything that we’ve seen, what’s the next step?”
A: Please go ahead and fill out the contact form, let us know your choice of package and any a-la-carte items. We will then draft and send you a contract to review. Sign it and send us the deposit, then you are all set!