Don’t be fooled
Three Mistakes people commonly make when choosing a photographer:
1. Don’t overlook the photographer’s personality.
You will be spending MORE time with your photographers on your wedding day, than even with your spouse. You NEED to be sure that they are a good fit for you, your family, and the style of wedding you want.
2. Don’t Prioritize products over the photography itself.
If you have a limited budget, do not scrimp on the QUALITY of the photographs to ensure that you receive tons of product (books, canvases, prints, etc.). Hiring a less expensive photographer will leave you money for the album, but what’s the sense if the images are poor quality and not worth being proudly displayed in your book. It’s better to ensure that you GET all the AMAZING photos now… you cannot re-create the day. You CAN however, save up and have books and canvases made at a later date when you are out of school and making the big bucks!
3. Don’t expect professional results from an amateur or hobbyist photographer.
Just because they can photograph a horse in a field or some flowers, doesn’t mean that they are qualified to capture all the important memories of your wedding day. Ask around… I guarantee you will find someone, often more than a few, of your friends and family who will relent that they regret NOT hiring a better photographer. Uncle Bob ruined their photos and even though he intended well they can never get those memories back… they are gone forever.
Don’t be fooled by the razzle dazzle of slick working websites and handful of great images. Wedding photography is more than having a great looking Flash site and a camera. Here are some ways to spot a bad photographer.
You see the term “second shooter” or “assistant”
Second shooters are often people who have just started their photography careers and don’t yet have a business of their own. Most of them will fall into the 80% of new businesses that fail within two years. ”Assistants” are usually there to pack gear around and most are just trying to figure out if they want to start a photography business. We are a dedicated husband and wife team. TWO tried and true photographers. Each of us working is constantly working to develop ourselves as photographers. We each have our own style, and method of shooting. But together, we can do great things. We are often told that we are like a well oiled machine. It really is true. Lots of people ask us HOW we do it? Working long hot hours together? For us, it is a dream come true. To do what we LOVE, together.
They claim to be natural light photographers
Unless you are getting married in a field at 2PM and then having your reception end at 6pm in the middle of the summer you are going to need more than natural light. Photographing a wedding is all about handling complicated lighting situations on the fly. You must use on camera flash, off camera flash, adjust settings, set compensations, and constantly monitor environmental changes. Even during the “easiest” time of day to shot (around sunset) natural light changes quickly. The settings you had 3 minutes ago could NOW be severely underexposed.
Depending only on natural light severely limits a photographers ability to photograph your wedding. Lacking an in-depth knowledge of lighting techniques limits your opportunities for photos on your big day. For us, we can shoot from sun up, past sun down and on to midnight without hesitation. We enjoy crafting light as well as images. You would be surprised to know how many of our images are taken after dark ;
Their portfolio contains tons of beautiful shots of … rings, flowers, shoes, and other inanimate objects.
Yes, you want great photos of all the large and small details that made your wedding special. We do not debate that. At our weddings we can shoot hundreds of detail shots. BUT.. you will notice that on our site, they have their own small place. Our portfolios is filled with moments, emotion, events. It is great to be able to get some cute photos of those things but it won’t matter much if the photographer misses the pivotal shot of the “the kiss” or the first dance. You aren’t going to have a 40 inch canvas of your shoes over your fireplace. You want to be sure that the person you are hiring can capture the emotion and connection between you and your spouse as well as the overall events and feel of your wedding day.
No recent weddings to showcase.
Ask to see the three most recent weddings they shot, IN FULL. This not only speaks to how fast they proof and present their images, but seeing the FULL galleries will show you exactly how many images they “finish”. Pay attention to how recent the images are. If you are looking in January were these shot in SPRING? That means the images are closing in on a year old. Look for quality of the images and the number shown. Make sure the wedding images look like what you want YOUR images to be. So their images in broad daylight look pretty but what about in the dark reception hall? Can you make out the detail? Are they grainy? The images shown in the client galleries should reflect the same quality, style, and feel of the showcase images on their website. How many WOW images can you pick out of their entire gallery? Anyone can shoot for 8 hours and get 25-50 good images. Creating 800 fully edited, completely retouched, WOW images for EVERY wedding, that takes a lot of skill and time both behind the camera AND in front of a computer afterward.
They don’t understand Off Camera Lighting.
Ask any wedding photographer what two point and three point off camera lighting means. If they cannot answer with ease.. do not hire them.
They offer a “shoot and burn”
Some photographers who offer “FAST” turnaround times on their images are simply converting the files to JPG and sticking them on a disc for you. They are not truly FINISHING the images. This is called a shoot and burn. STANDARD turnaround time for 800+ images (which is what we normally produce) is 6+ weeks. Yes.. it takes THAT long to creating images that produce, ooohs, ahhhs, and words like brilliant, amazing, awesome, stunning, instead of “your wedding pics are so nice”. See the difference? Anyone promising you more than this… is likely making promises they cannot keep or has very little business.
Even worse, some photographers will hand over their RAW images!! Asking a wedding photographer to see their RAW images is like asking to see them naked! No one wants to see that. Trust me. Some people think that not showing the RAWS are HIDING something. Nope. We don’t consider wearing clothing to be “hiding” things… it’s just standard. So should photo editing be! If you wake up on your wedding day with a giant zit between your eyes, you do NOT want that appearing in every image. For us, that is something you likely would not even remember because, by the time you see your beautifully finished hundreds of images, it will be GONE from every one of them. We are experts in removing things like tattoos, scars, “back fat” (lol), and blemishes. Furthermore we strive to create good posing and positioning to full flatter EVERY bride and groom!
Why do you NEED Photoshop? You create GOOD, solid, technically correct images in the camera. You create AMAZING, STUNNING, AWESOME images, in photoshop.
Their prices are significantly less that the average market.
Just like the old saying goes, “If it seems TOO GOOD to be true, it probably IS!”. Good isn’t cheap and CHEAP isn’t good. We understand that there are often budgetary constraints. At the same time what is the price of regretting your wedding photos for the rest of your life?
A GOOD photographer, in Kentucky, on average, will charge $2800-3500 for a single day coverage (being 8 hours or more) and a disc of fully edited images (500+ images).
It’s like the Engineers triangle:
Questions to ask, to ensure you are hiring the RIGHT photographer:
1) Do you carry backup equipment? If the answer is NO- RUN far away! If the answer is YES, ask them is this equipment the SAME as your regular first string equipment. Anyone can carry a point and shoot and call it “backup” but you still wouldn’t want your wedding photographed on that if something bad were to happen!
2) Ask to see THREE complete galleries. A portfolio is nice but it often contains only snippets of the wedding day. Full galleries will give you a better feel for how many images you will receive and how well FINISHED these images are. Also, remember to check the DATES on these photos. If the last time this photographer shot a “good” wedding was several months or even a year ago… be leery.
3) How many weddings do you photograph per year? Any true professional should be photographing at LEAST 10-12 per year. This keeps them “in the habit”. Photography is a lot like riding a bike… yes it does come back to you but after not having ridden in years… it may take a bit. You don’t want your wedding to be the one that they are “getting warmed up” on.
4) Who will be shooting your wedding? If something terrible happens what is the photographer’s backup plan?
5) Who gets to choose the images on your CD and in your book?
6)Does the photographer edit the images, and if so how MANY will be fully edited. Does this include full blemish and body image retouching? Color treatments? Be very specific in asking what they consider to be “edited”. Many photographers pick their favorites to “treat” and dump the rest on a disc with a simple “crop and correct”.
7) Ask for references and actually USE them. Call the brides… ask them for the good, bad and ugly. This is the truest way to figure out what YOUR experience with the photographer will be like.
Ask if the photographer is insured or belongs to professional organizations which provide trusts or insurance.
9) Should our event run “overtime” what will the cost be, per hour, for that and how will it be billed? On site? Post event? Per hour or 1/2 hour?
10) How long have you been photographing weddings? (Why is this important? Because much of the “skill” of being a wedding photographer is acquired through trial and error… you want to be on the BACK end of the “error” period. Trust us!)
11) Will this photographer work well with the other vendors you have hired? Are they friendly and agreeable to having your family members also take photographs?