Wedding photographer review: Dave Sarabia Photography

Another super late review, but better late than later right?

I don't remember how I found Dave, but I think it was during the time I was pooling content for this post: 10 Wedding photographers for that bright and natural look.

We booked Dave two months before the wedding. Odiba, hindi kami nagmamadali haha. Swerte namin because both our prenup and wedding date are still free on his calendar. We really didn't think we could get a photographer of his level to cover for us in such a short notice, so thank you Lord! Our prenup fell on a Monday, and on a Holiday pa so I wasn't expecting his availability. But thank God he's vacant! Yehey! Dave and his team were perfect. They were right when they said you have to really invest on your photo and video team. He's the reason our wedding looked more expensive. Like 50% more expensive wahahaha. Seriously.

I have no complaints about Dave. I would recommend him to anyone looking for a very skilled and professional wedding photographer. Unlike other couples who like to meet beforehand and get to know their suppliers first before signing the deal, we skipped that formality and just made sure to get a credible one who wouldn't bail on us hahaha.

Related: Wedding Blahs - Preps, reviews, musings, and more

Our prenup location was supposed to be at Ninoy Aquino Parks and Wildlife Center, but Dave (or Darlene, I don't know who's answering their facebook eh hahaha) suggested against it and offered to give alternative locations within Manila that we may want to consider. Gasgas ka kasi masyado si Wildlife, uninspiring na daw, and they want to give us fresh photos. Naks. That kind of input talaga I really appreciate. That's professional advice goys! So in the end, hindi kami natuloy sa Wildlife. Nag FEU Diliman kami, kasi libre hahaha.

Anyway. The first time we met him was during our prenup na. He came with this wife, Darlene, who's also a photographer, and we did the shoot at our college campus. In fair, they were the first ones to arrive on the location, and partida bumabagyo pa non guys.

It was so nice working with them. Hindi awkward, and they would direct us with the poses which I appreciate very much because we suck as models and we're professional tuods. It's worth noting too that Dave was always smiling and super nice and friendly with us. He didn't mind the heat, pawis, putik, and lagkit all around. We were so tired after the shoot but it was worth it because I knew he really worked hard to look for the best spots for us. Kahit umuulan pa.

With that I believe we were able to get the most out of our prenup and wedding locations. No important detail was missed and it's always a delight looking at his edited photos. They're all very warm, natural, and elegant. :)

The package we got was You Complete Me, it was ₱47k that time. It includes:

• Prenup session + Wedding coverage
• Prenup AVP
• Onsite Photo AVP
• SDE film by God's Grace Productions
• Raw and edited photos and videos (we provided the hard disk)
• Custom USB (which I never followed up, nakalimutan ko na haha)

Well, they completed our wedding talaga. We were able to get all our raw and edited photos and videos after around 4 weeks. We sent him a hard disk (via GrabExpress) and he sent it back within a few days. No hassle whatsoever, just make sure to have more than 100GB of free space on your hard disk.

I full on recommend them for your wedding.

Contact

Dave Sarabia Photography
davesarabia@hotmail.com
0917-903-6185
fb.com/davesarabiaphotography

Learning Lightroom: Wedding Photos

I've been tinkering with Adobe Lightroom for the past few months, thinking I could learn how to edit our wedding pictures if needed, because honestly I'm worried about the output of the editing hehe. Since we're on a budget and couldn't afford to hire photographers who are experts in my preferred style, I decided to learn.

And learn, I did!

I'm definitely not there yet but I'm so excited to learn.

Here are a couple of my edits. The original photos are all taken from Unsplash. I would've preferred getting unedited samples but I couldn't find a bunch of raw wedding photos! So yeah, these will do.

Here's the before and after of the photo above:

I brightened the photo, warmed it up, desaturated the greens, and made the trees pop out from the background a little more. This is definitely closer to the output I have in mind, and I didn't have to use a preset!

Thanks to the guys at Smart for providing the photos. If you would like to learn photography you should check out their online photography classes and courses. They even have a module on lightroom.

The original photos are already great on their own, they're clear and are frkn stock quality. I just wanted to get some good photos for practice hehe.

I think I have a problem with exposure though. I want to brighten the picture without losing the details of the subject. Tips are much appreciated!

The goal is to produce photos similar to what these photographers do. Long shot, but willing to learn! What do you think?