Finding the Right Wedding Photographer For You

01 Oct Finding the Right Wedding Photographer For You

Thank you to Butch Oglesby of Blue Moon Studios for this nice post on finding the right wedding photographer for you.

When planning your wedding one thing will become abundantly clear. There are lots and lots of wedding photographers out there. As we say in the South, “the woods are full of them.”

One reason for that is the relatively new influx of very good and affordable digital cameras. These cameras are smart! They can compute lighting very accurately and with autofocus it’s difficult to make an out of focus image. Basically you can point any digital camera at the subject close your eyes and a properly exposed and in focus image will be captured. That is under optimal conditions. A pro will know when the situation requires him to make changes to the camera’s settings.

But there are a few things these cameras can’t and will never be able to do. Good photography depends far more on a good photographer than a good camera. For example, I know some really great chefs and most of them have very good stoves. So if I got a stove like theirs would I then be a great chef? Hardly. These guys have spent years learning their craft and honing their skills. The same goes with good photographers. Most “good” photographers have several years of experience. Experience with the camera and in their chosen field. Photographing weddings is a discipline of photography that requires particular knowledge and experience. It’s not at all like photographing sports or babies or landscapes. Wedding photography requires not only good knowledge of photography, lighting and posing. It requires that the photographer be knowledgeable about weddings. Your wedding day will be like no other in your life and it’s different than most days in the lives of most non-wedding photographers.

A good wedding photographer understands what details will be important to capture. Like a close up of the rings, a beautiful image of the dress or the interaction of the bride and friends and family during the time leading up to the ceremony. And a good wedding photographer understands just how important those special shoes are will make pictures of them that will make all your friends jealous.

A good wedding photographer is also one who has good people skills. Wedding days can be filled with emotion and the last thing you need is a jerk photographer adding to the stress. Just the opposite! You need someone who can sense when tensions are a bit high and help soften the mood to get those beautiful images you want to remember forever.

So here is a bit of advice and questions to ponder when choosing your wedding photographer:

• Is he or she legal? That is, do they have a business license and insurance. While this won’t guarantee that the photos will be good it does show that you are dealing with an ethical and serious photographer.
• Do they belong to any professional organizations? We are members of theProfessional Photographers of America and to a local group called Alabama Wedding and Event Professionals. These groups offer us avenues for continued education and certification. AWEP also has a code of ethics that members must abide by.
• How long has your photographer been photographing weddings? While this is not always a guarantee that he or she will be any good, it does help you know if they will there for you on the wedding day especially if you are planning months before the wedding. Plus, skill grows with practice.
• What sort of equipment does he or she use and will bring to the wedding? If your photographer has one camera and a flash run away as fast as you can. It’s not whether they have top of the line equipment, but do they have enough equipment. Equipment failure has happened to me and will happen to all photographers if they stay in business long enough. One day we had a great top-of-the-line Canon camera simply quit working. The little mirror in the camera fell off leaving the camera useless. But, not to worry, we had more cameras with us and never missed a shot. Be sure your photographer comes with at least two good cameras and at least two good flash units and plenty of memory card for the camera.
• What is your photographer’s style and does it match what you want your photos to look like? Or, do you like his pictures? All of us have a style. Some photographers shoot very traditional images, some are really out of the box, some like a lot of editing after the wedding and some do very little to the finished images. Some shoot only posed images while some think pure photojournalism is the way to go, but most like a blend of the two disciplines. You need to look at lots of their photos ask to see a few complete weddings and see if what they actually produce matches up with what they advertise on the web or in a magazine.
• Does your photographer shoot in RAW or JPEG? These are camera formats and are not important that you understand them, but it is of great importance that your photographer does. A photographer who shoots with the camera set to RAW will almost always get superior images to one you chooses the JPEG format. Professionals will shoot RAW.
• Do you like him or her? You will spend a great deal of time on what should be the best day of your life with your photographer. He or she needs to be someone who makes you feel good and you enjoy being around.

These are just a few tips that I have. My goal is that you choose the photographer that is right for you and will give you the pictures that will be treasured not just for your lifetime, but will be treasures for your children and even grandchildren.