You’d love the evenings back. You know other photographers outsource. But two worries keep stopping you: it won’t look like your work, and you don’t really know who ends up looking at your couples’ photos.
Both are reasonable. Your style is what couples booked, and their images are personal. This post goes through what to check before you send a single file to any editor, us included, and ends with a checklist you can use to compare.
Style matching comes first
The whole thing depends on one question: will the finished gallery look like yours? If it doesn’t, nothing else matters.
A good editor should ask you for three things before they start:
- Your preset or LUT, the actual file you use in Lightroom.
- Three to five finished frames you’re proud of, ideally from different parts of the day and in different light.
- A line on how the day should feel, such as “warm and soft, nothing contrasty” or “true colour, documentary, no heavy skin work”.
What happens next matters too. We grade test frames from your wedding against your preset and references and check them side by side before working through the full set. That match step is on our timeline for a reason: grading a whole wedding in the wrong look and then correcting it is slower for everyone.
For films, a link to one of your past edits does more than any written brief.
Do a trial edit before anything else
Never judge an editor by their portfolio alone. Their portfolio shows range, not your look. What you need to see is your own wedding, edited to your preset, next to how you’d have done it.
Our first project is free: any Gallery tier or the Highlight film, edited and delivered exactly like a paid one, with no card needed. Pick a typical wedding rather than your hardest. You want to know how the everyday work will look.
When it comes back, compare it with your own edits on the same kind of venue. Look at skin first, then whites, then greens. Those are where a mismatch shows.
Turnaround in peak season
An editor who’s quick in February might not be in September. Ask what their turnaround is all year, and when the clock starts.
Ours is seven business days from the day your footage link works and the brief is complete. UK bank holidays don’t count as business days, and midweek weddings come back just as fast as Saturdays. Rush delivery in 72 hours adds 50% to the order.
Our editing team is in Pakistan, four to five hours ahead of the UK. The team works in shifts around the clock, so a link is picked up soon after it arrives, whatever time you send it. Turnaround is still counted in business days.
Revisions: how many and how they work
Ask how many rounds are included, how you ask for them and who does them.
Ours are in every package: two rounds on the Engagement gallery and the Highlight film, up to three on the Wedding gallery, three on the Feature film. You write what should change, it goes back to the same editor, and each round takes about two business days. Our revisions and refunds page has the details.
The same editor matters. Someone new picking up your notes has to learn your look again.
Who sees the files
This deserves a written answer from any editor you use, so ask it plainly:
- Who opens my files?
- Are projects passed to subcontractors?
- Which other companies handle the files, and where?
- What happens to the copies after delivery?
- Will you tell me if something goes wrong?
- Can I have a signed data processing agreement?
Here’s how we answer. Only the people working on your project open its files, and everyone on the team is bound to keep projects confidential. Our editing team works from Pakistan, so the files are accessed there. The companies we use to run the service are named in our data processing terms. We delete our working copies once the project and its revisions are finished, unless you ask us to keep them. If a signed data processing agreement is something your studio needs, email hello@backstagepost.com and we’ll send one.
We also edit white-label: no watermark, no credit, no contact with your couples, and nothing shown in our portfolio without your written permission. That’s set out on our confidentiality page.
Check your couple contract
Before you outsource, read your own contract and privacy notice with fresh eyes. A checklist on The Yes Girls suggests making sure your contract allows for third parties in post-production. Many photographers already have a line like this; some don’t.
If you’re unsure what yours should say, especially about sending images outside the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office publishes guidance for small businesses. It’s worth reading before you start rather than after.
It’s also worth telling couples, in plain words, that you work with a small team for editing. They booked you for the photos on your website and a date you promised. Being open about how you deliver both is easier than explaining it later.
Per image or per wedding?
Editing services price in a few different ways. Per-image pricing is common, and the number looks small until you multiply it by a full gallery and a busy month. Per-wedding pricing is easier to plan around.
For context, The Soc’s pricing calculator puts most UK wedding photographers between £1,200 and £3,500 a wedding. Our prices are flat per project, in pounds:
| Package | What’s included | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Engagement gallery | 100–200 images from up to 1,000 raws | £40 |
| Wedding gallery | 300–500 images from up to 3,000 raws | £65 |
| Highlight film | 5–8 minutes, 1–3 cameras and drone | £80 |
| Feature film | 15–40 minutes, vows and speeches in full, teaser | £120 |
The project file and the listed revisions are included. Add-ons, such as rush, are priced separately and you choose them before we start.
A checklist to use with any editor
- Do they ask for your preset and reference frames before starting?
- Do they match test frames before editing the full set?
- Can you try one wedding before paying?
- What is the turnaround in September, and when does the clock start?
- How many revisions, and do they go back to the same editor?
- Who opens your files, and where are they?
- Which other companies handle the files?
- What happens to the copies after delivery?
- Will they sign a data processing agreement, or your NDA?
- Do you get the Lightroom catalogue or project file back?
- Is the price per wedding or per image, and in which currency?
Your next step
Send one wedding as a free trial and judge the match on your own work. The how it works page shows each step day by day, the packages page lists every price, and the FAQ covers the rest.
If culling is the main thing you want off your desk, read should you outsource wedding photo culling?. If you’re deciding what delivery date to promise couples, see how long a UK wedding photographer should take to deliver photos.