General F.A.Q
1. Is Milan the one who will come to shoot my wedding or portrait?
Of course. I don't have identical twins that I know of at the moment (let me double check with my mom). Else, I will be there personally for each and every photography assignment of Milan Teh Studio.
02. Do you shoot video?
Nope, been delving deeper and deeper towards photography and I find that there are so much more that I wanted to learn and explore. Will stick with what I do best, but may be able to share a few names with you - those nice and talented people whom I've worked together before in a wedding.
03. Do you offer prints or photobook?
Yes, we have a variety of print options by our Kodak Professional certified photo lab and ISO-9001 & ISO-14001 certified printer vendor. Also, we offer coffee table book/photobook too. Contact me to learn more.
04. How many photos will you shoot?
Until smoke comes out from the camera.
Generally speaking for a 5 hours wedding, the amount of photos would approximate 250 or more. This is largely dependent on the happening of the event - more happening, more photos. No limitation till I get Guinness World Record being the first photographer who smoked the camera.
If say, it's a portrait photo session, there will be at least 20 quality photographs in the span of an hour time.
05. Should I take account of your food?
Yes, I'd love to have two hard boiled eggs and roti bakar, thank you. (I jest)
Actually, thank you for being thoughtful on our behalf. However it's not always necessary to provide meals for us. We'll usually eat earlier before a shoot starts if time permits. At times the starting time is a funny hour or it's a back-to-back ceremony followed by reception event, then we will really need food arrangement (simple vendors' meal by hotel or restaurant). After all, we are humans too. Trust me, you won't want any of us fainted halfway.
06. How many backgrounds do you have in your studio?
At the moment, I shoot on-location or outdoor. I have endless of backgrounds, the sky is the limit.
07. Do you travel out of Penang?
Yes. I travel throughout Malaysia and up for unusual wedding arrangements. Despite based in Penang, I've been traveling actively to Langkawi, Selangor and many Malaysia states wherever people who like my work needs me. I'm the Camera Man, without a cape.
08. What is a good time to book your service?
The rule of thumb is as soon as your date is confirmed. More than 70% of my clients are working/reside overseas. Having the geographical constraint, full time work, and wedding planning to do concurrently, it's no easy feat and requires early planning. It's common that I am booked 9 months to more than a year in advanced from the photo session date.
09. I called or texted yesterday to ask about the service, meaning I've booked your service?
No. I receive plenty of anonymous calls and text messages weekly. Therefore, we practice sending confirmation email to clients that are keen to sign up with us first. Then, having all the service content and terms of service agreed upon, a non-refundable retainer fee of 50% from the total that you are signing up is required to confirm the booking. The date & time will then be sealed just for your photo session.
10. What is your payment term?
A 50% non-refundable retainer fee will be collected to confirm the service, balance is payable two weeks before the event date. We accept cash, cash deposit, online/telegraphic transfer, cheque or PayPal.
11. I love XYZ's photo so much, can you shoot like them? I have some collections in Pinterest too!
Yes and no. I'd be happy to see a few photos as reference to better understand your expectations.
However, it's even more important that you engage the photographer whose work you love and resonates. I also confess that it's impossible for me to shoot like someone else as our life experiences, knowledge, and personality shapes our work and that makes each of us unique. I hope you come to me because my craft fits your preferences.
Pinterest is a nice reference of mood board for inspiration but on the photo shooting day, it's not possible to recreate things exactly by following them shot by shot. From experience, referring to it during photo session will slow down the shoot greatly and affect the quality of the outcome.
12. I'm working abroad and will only go back when the date is near...how?!
Don't worry. A huge majority of our clients were in your situation. Most importantly, you'll just need to sort out your itinerary and we'll go through via email and I'll make our own notes accordingly. What's wonderful is that the internet enables us to hold video/voice calls when needed. It's all good and under control for the photography part.
13. Milan, you're a 'Chinese', do you shoot Malay, Indian or Punjabi weddings?
Yes, and I LOVE them, each of them is so unique and possesses lots of different photo opportunities, I love variations in my work dearly (and secretly admire the food being served in these weddings). Till date, I have shot most kind of weddings - Garden, Christian, Chinese, Malay, Indian, and Punjabi weddings. I'd call myself 'MaChinDian' Photographer if I could!
14. I really like your work but we're real tight on budget, could you give me some discounts?
Sorry we can't. I believe in being honest, if I were to mark up the fee and very soon provide a small amount of discount to give you a false perception you got a bargain, I think it's not professional and wasting your time compared to providing you our professional fee at the very first place.
Also, I only accept limited amount of photo assignment each year. You are investing based on our experience, quality of work, professionalism, energy, time, ongoing photography education and professional equipment used for your photo session. In return, you'll get photographs that matters to the heart - the non-repeatable memories that is carefully preserved.
15. How long will I get the photos?
Generally, delivery time of final work varies according to our work season. A full day wedding which involves softcopies only will take about 1 month, 2 moths if it's a peak season. Assignments which involve printing would take approximately 2 months.
16. I need the express sameday slideshow on the same day and it's a luncheon reception!
Sure, I'd love to do it for you. I've been working on this kind of time frame several times already. But I need a bit of your help to make sure there's working projector, notebook/DVD player, sound system for the output at the reception area - you wouldn't want your exciting day time memory vanquished in front so many guests, do you?
Also, I will need a power point and a chair/table to work this out too.
17. Can I use that song I heard over the radio for photo slideshow?
You can but we can't. It's illegal for us to use pop music to create your slideshow. However, we will use music that we bought from Triple Scoop Music, they have a lot of amazing royalty free music inside and some by Grammy awards winner too.
Each music costs USD60 and will be handpicked by me to suit the mood I wanted to convey for the slideshow, our collection grows each year just for you without additional charges. I'm a fan of nice acoustic music and I'm a musician too, you can find out a little more about my taste.
18. I want all photos returned in RAW(.nef/.cr2) format.
Sorry but we don't practice returning photos in any format other than the JPEGs. I've photographed a few professional wedding photographers' wedding and they are very happy with the JPEGs :)
Imagine I'm a chef to a western restaurant, you come to me cause you wanted to have a fine dine of scrumptious fish & chips with my family secret ingredients and sauces fried to golden perfection in a warm plate (end product). It'll defeat the purpose if you ask me to sell you the uncooked fish in that cold water tank & potatoes that I have yet to peel the skin in my kitchen (raw file) to you don't you think so?
19. What is your photo equipment?
I shoot with two Nikon's professional DSLRs with lenses ranging from ultra wide angle, prime lenses and telephoto lens.