Frequently Asked Questions:
If you have questions, you should first read our frequently asked questions list below. The list is compiled from emails we have been collecting since we started in 2005. Most of the frequently asked questions below are from real emails. Some are simply represented just because they are always asked all the time. Many of these questions have duplicate information because most of them are based on REAL emails. We have edited some of these for logistical reasons and try to keep them updated the best we can. We also update this list regularly. If you don’t find your answer below, please use our contact form to ask us your questions directly. We are here to help you have a wonderful event!
What we offer:
Photography
– Professional customer service.
– Ability to schedule your day the way you want it.
– 3 months of high resolution proofing and downloading of the edited image. The link can also be used by family and friends.
– Permission letter to make prints. (Home rights use)
– All final image are color corrected and enhanced.
– Unlimited photo requests during your session.
– Free online proofing.
– Free album design with unlimited revisions.
– Additional disks available at affordable rates
– DVD’s have been decommissioned but can be made in special circumstances or can be sent on a thumb drive. Contact us for details.
Photography Questions:
(Photo booth questions below)
Q: What areas do you travel to?
A: We travel the entire Outer Banks from Carova Beach to Ocracoke Island. We are also available for local, national and international events. Travel charges may apply.
Q: Do you offer any discounts for military, fire or police service?
A: Yes and thank you so much for your service! Please contact us for the discount details.
Q: Do you offer any discounts for locals?
A: Yes and it’s significant! Please contact us for the discount details.
Q: Do you have any current specials?
A: We sometimes run specials and you can find them on our specials page here: https://outerbanksproductions.com/outer-banks-productions-specials/ or use our website search and search for “specials”.
Q: Is there a discount for adding photography photo booth services together?
A: Yes – Always you can subtract 10% off for wedding photography and photo booth combination packages. Restrictions may apply.
Q: I know my date but don’t have a venue or time of day yet. Can I still secure a date with Outer Banks Productions?
A: YES! We only book one wedding a day.
Q: Can I secure my date for photography & photo booth?
A: Yes! You can book OBP for both services for your wedding day!
Q: What is your shooting style?
A: Michelle and Douglas are both photo-journalistic in nature and try to be as unobtrusive as possible. We will work with you to capture the images you are looking for on your wedding day! We shoot a lot of images and are fun to work with!
Q: Where can I find your current pricing?
A: Please use our contact form on our website, call or TXT us. Our rates are likely not listed on our website.
Q: What is your typical payment process to secure a date and take care of the final payment?
A: Our standard retainer is 50% of your total to secures your date. We will send you a PayPal request or invoice to make this payment. The final balance is due 4 weeks before the day of the shoot and is best paid for with a check or credit card. We can also make payment arrangements if necessary. Just let us know. we are very easy going with this!
Q: How many hours of service do I need?
A: We have 1 hour packages for photography and 4-6 hour packages for the photo booth. Give us a call and we can walk you through your day and give you a suggestion on the amount of time you need. It takes us about 2 minutes of questions and this will give you a time frame that you can use for any photographer you choose.
Q: What if I need additional time during the event?
A: You can add more time to your event if needed. Just let us know 1 hour before the scheduled finish time. We simply require cash, check or credit card and we can pro-rate our current hourly rate in half-hour increments! Any payment must be made at that time. Over the years, paying later has become an issue and we all like to avoid that.
Q: What equipment do you use?
A: Our main equipment we use is Canon, Panasonic, Apple. If you call us we can give you the whole list and chat.
Q: The last photographer I spoke with told me he limits the number of images he shoots and gives us. Do you give a limit?
A: All packages come with unlimited images in the time promised unless we have made a very rare special agreement in advance.
Q: Do you offer all of the images or just a few?
A: I love this question! We give you everything we shoot except any obvious duplicates or blurry image. For example, if we shoot 5 shots of the large group during the portrait session and there are shots with and without people’s eyes closed, you will receive the best shot. Also, we do not give you an image that may not be properly rendered because of technical reasons including blurry images. Our goal is to give you as many quality images as possible! A typical 5-hour wedding will receive thousands of images.
Q: Can we make high resolution archives of our images?
A: Yes! Absolutely!
Q: What rights do we get with our images?
A: Once you get your images, you can make prints, cards, wedding albums and it’s all fine with us. This is called “Home Rights Use” and includes anything non-commercial. We even give you a letter to take to your lab and they can also call us and we can talk with them.
Q: How long does it take to get the images on disk.
A: In the early part of the season, it can be 6 weeks. In situations such as hurricanes and our busy season & holidays, it could take up to 12 weeks. We do not guarantee a completion date but always try to get you your images as soon as physically possible. Please ask about our rush delivery options and let us know if you are having a reception back home and need the images sooner. We always work with you on this.
Q: Are you available on my date?
A: Just contact us through our contact form with your date and location and in most circumstances, we will get back to you within 24 hours! Please make sure to check your SPAM folder for all wedding vendors emails!!!
Q: Are Douglas and Michelle fun to work with?
A: Our clients love us and our children say we are the best parents in the world. So based on that, YES!
Q: Do you have a contract?
A: Yes. Our contract is designed to protect both you and our company. We will email you the contract at the time of booking. You can also request a blank contract for review if needed. It should be noted that since 2005, we have never needed to exercise the contract and we are always willing to consider removing any verbiage that may not work with your situation. For example, we once had a client that sold military equipment. He asked us to remove any verbiage in the contract that allowed us to use the images of his daughter in any advertising. We did that right away! Never a problem!
Q: How many images do we get
A: For small elopements you can get 100 to unlimited images. For larger weddings, it is not uncommon to receive 2000 or more images! For the photo booth, we often print out 60-100 strips, each with 3 images. The high resolution images can be downloaded by request.
Q: What additional products do you offer?
A: All printable items are possible!
Q: Are all the prints in your print packages the same, like with grade school photos, or can we choose individual image numbers as we wish?
A: You get to choose each and every print with any of print packages. If you get (40) 4×6′s, each one can be a different image or the same. You have full control. You pick the image numbers, give us a quantity for each image number and then we place the order with our professional lab. They will ship the prints directly to you and they are 100% guaranteed!
Q: How do I know my images are safe after the event?
A: The first thing we do with the images after your event is put them on our main computer. We then back them up to two different hard drives. We don’t format the cards until all backups are verified. We then separate the hard drives for safety. We actually still have every single image since the day we started the business and that is well over 1 million images! (Yes we have lots of hard drives!)
Q: How long do you promise to keep the images?
A: Officially, we promise to keep the event images for 6 months. Just so you know, our internal policy is to never delete anything! So officially after 6 months, there are no guarantees, legally. With that being said, since we still have everything from day one of business, you are always free to contact us and see if your images are still available. At some point, hard drives and DVD disk archives will fail and we will lose very old data. We have retrieved several wedding customer’s photos, years after their wedding due to a fire or other tragedy. In all cases, if you need your images uploaded to the proofing site after they have been removed, there is a fee for re-uploading them. Please contact us if this is your situation!
Q: What does online proofing mean?
A: Online proofing is an internet-based service that allows you to view your event images and view them online via an internet browser. This service is your first contact with your images. We will upload the images only after they have been color corrected. Additionally, you will be able to send a link to the site, to friends and family. They can then order images from the event on their own. This is a very popular service and it is free with all of our packages!
Q: Do you watermark your images?
A: Only on Facebook.
Q: Can we bring props to our event?
A: Yes, we love props! Being creative is awesome and we encourage this. It’s always a lot of fun! Someone once brought a President Trump cutout to one of our family portrait sessions. We now charge extra for Biden cutouts because of inflation 😉
Q: I have a dog, a cat and an iguana that will be at the wedding. Will you shoot them also?
A: We will only shoot them if they try to bite us! LOL! No, seriously we love pets and together have owned, dogs, cats, rabbits, rats, lizards, birds, turtles, butterflies, and fish just to name a few. Please feel free to bring your pets and we will love to use our patients to capture them and you together!
Q: We want to capture a jump shot of our large group, but some people can’t jump. Can you help?
A: Yes we can help! Those that can’t jump, just stay still with their hands in the air while everyone else jumps. It looks great and we shoot several shots to get it right. We will also provide great coaching during this shot, so just ask and we will make it happen!
Q: Can you shoot sunset images?
A: Yes, but you need to be on the western side of the Outer Banks in most cases for great results. We are very good at shooting sunset shots but we need a few things. First, we need a good location where the sun can be seen setting. Additionally, it’s best when there are clouds or haze that will glow orange during the final sun setting moments. This provides great color saturation and makes the photos look awesome! Knowing how to set the camera for this is a big deal and we are pros at that.
Remember, before asking for a sunset shot, ask yourself this question, “Will I be able to be at a location where the sunset will be visible.” We know this sounds silly but we get asked to shoot sunset shots all the time and there is no sunset. LOL!
Q: Do you mind if our friends shoot alongside during our event?
A: We don’t mind if your friends shoot alongside us during your event, but please let everyone know you are paying Outer Banks Productions to shoot professional photography for you and we need to do our job without amateur photographers in the way. Additionally, the amateur photographer often creates undesired shadows on your images that do not look good. This happens all the time and despite us telling them that are ruining the images, they often persist. It’s very frustrating! On top of all of that, when there is a second photographer, the people getting photographed end up looking in two different directions. This makes the photos look bad and unprofessional. There are some additional suggestions that we have and all of this is covered in our OBX wedding handbook. or you can give us a call for details.
Q: One more question and then I will pay. I just want to make sure we get the disk with all the photos. That is what is advertised on your website but I want to make sure. That way we can make copies and create a photo book.
A: Yes, you receive the disk with the high-resolution images and can make copies and create a photo book no problem!
Q: What time should I schedule my ceremony?
A: Often the best time is before sunset. There are a lot of variables that could change this answer. Feel free to give us a call! We would love to help you out and advise you on the best time to shoot the ceremony. We also take any portrait sessions into account. The rule of thumb is to add a little time in case there are clouds. We are pros at advising these times, otherwise, we would not have been in business for this long.
Q: Do you shoot more than one wedding a day?
A: We only shoot one wedding a day unless there are 2 very small events that require only one photographer each!
Q: What if I have a specific portrait list? Can I make a list for you?
A: Yes. We have shot close to 1000 weddings and we are familiar with the basic shot list. Please send us a list that consists of any specialty shots or special events and details that you might have. Before your wedding day, we will go over your shot list and timeline and talk about your style, your portrait list, the time you have allotted for it and make sure that the list fits the time frame. If you make a portrait list make sure you have enough time scheduled to get that list done.
Q: What if I am having just a quick ceremony and just want some pictures with my new spouse. Can you do that and how long does it take?
A: Yes! Short quick weddings are no problem! That is usually about 2-hours of photography and covers the family portraits, the ceremony and then we have some fun with getting some romantic portraits, usually on the beach. Our 2-hour packages are designed that way because 1 hour just is not long enough in most cases. As of 2022, you can contact us about our budge 1 hour sessions with various number of final edited images.
Q: We have some more questions but they are not answered here. How can we get in touch with Outer Banks Productions?
A: Please us our contact form or TXT us any time! We are know for answering questions very late in the night and early mornings.
Photo Booth Questions:
Q: Your website mentions you have an open-air design. What is that?
A: Open air means that there is no booth or tent, rather a backdrop and everyone can be seen while the pictures are being taken. This newer style is very popular and gets your guests very excited! We don’t currently know of anyone else on the Outer Banks offering this style so we feel we are the most advanced!
Q: What makes your photo booth unique?
A: Besides the open air design, we offer a professional unit that has a digital SLR camera, dye-sublimation printer and professional lighting for great exposures. We offer an “open air” photo booth so everyone can see the action! The old photo booth tents are becoming old and outdated. We were the first Outer Banks photo booth vendors to offer this because we saw early on the great advantages such as getting much more people in the shots!
Q: Is your photo booth manned?
A: Yes and we offer assistance with props and ideas.
Q: Do we get a digital copy of the photo booth images?
A: Yes and the images are high-res and very large. Great size for enlargements, if needed.
Q: Do you have good props?
A: Yes, we have the best props and are always adding to the collection. Also, feel free to bring anything special you may want for your guest and we will be glad to accommodate!
Q: Can we customize the prints with our event information?
A: Yes! There is an area at the bottom of the print just for that. Let us know what you want when you will out your contract.
Q: How many prints come out?
A: Our professional printer will print 2 copies. One copy is for the guests and one is for the customer’s photo book.
(Please see our Photo booth link for additional information)
Additional Questions:
Q: How long have you been in business?
A: Outer Bank Productions opened it’s doors in 2005 and has shot over close to 1000 weddings as of 2022.
Q: How do the albums work?
A; You pick your favorite style then you get to pick out 50-75 of your favorite images. If you have more favorites, you will need to add pages to your album at an additional cost. After we have that we will create your album and send you a proof. You can approve it at that point or we can make changes. Once you have approved the album we will send it to our professional lab to be printed. It can take up to 2 weeks for printing. Then they will ship it directly to you. We are very flexible with the whole process from start to finish!
Q: How did Douglas Haber & Michelle Haber meet?
A: We will tell you our story if you tell us your story! (Hint: It started with a phone call and a blind date.)
Q: Can we use Outer Banks Productions for more than just wedding services?
A: Yes! We offer portrait packages such as family portraits, engagement and trash the dress sessions and other commercial services Please use our contact form or TXT us for any other questions.