Why You Should Hire A Professional Photographer

22 Jan Why You Should Hire A Professional Photographer

Through the years we have had the opportunity to talk with lots and lots of women who are planning their wedding. Often when we ask if she has found her photographer we hear, “we have a family friend who will do it as a gift,” or “my girl friend has a really good camera and she will take our pictures.” Or some similar story.

Often in our interview process the bride will bring a friend with her who is already married and had one of these family friends make her photos. Or she hired a person who had a really good camera and just wanted to shoot the wedding and give her the CD of images. Usually these women greatly regret that decision.

Most of the time the images are not up to her expectations, the photographer didn’t have the experience to know how or what to capture and what would best tell the complete story of the most special day of her life. Those who received the CD of images regret most not having a professionally designed and printed album. Not to mention the  images did not receive quality editing. Even the best photographers in the world acknowledge that most their images need some editing before printing.

Your photographs are the most important part of your choices when planning your wedding day. Think about it; every other item you choose will be fade quickly into a dim memory shortly after the wedding.   Especially if you don’t have great photos.  It amazes photographers when we hear, “we’ve had to cut our photography budget because we’re spending so much on – flowers, food, entertainment, etc.”  The venue will fade from memory, you’ll not be able to hear the music, the cake will be consumed and the flowers will be dead and tossed in the trash.  But, the photographs from that day will become a part of your family history.  You will pass them down for generations and they will be among your most treasured possessions.

Some things to consider when deciding on your photographer:

1. How much experience does he/she have? I’m not belittling new photographers. But they should spend some time apprenticing with someone who has been there and has proven he/she can work in any stressful, poorly lit or other problem areas.

2. Does your photographer possess good people skills? On the wedding day the photographer has to work with many different people and in stressful situations. You will feel a lot of pressure on your wedding day. You don’t need your photographer adding to that. The photographer will have to work with your wedding planner or director. These people, especially the ones who work for the church, have very definite ideas of how your wedding should be conducted and often see the photographer as an adversary.  Sometimes there will be a family member who just wants to be a problem. It usually falls to the photographer to make sure the tempers and conflicts do not become a problem while making all those family photos you will want.  Can your photographer defuse any potential “situations” that might arise?

3. Does your photographer have good equipment? While good equipment doesn’t make a person a good photographer it can help a good photographer make even better images. Often part-time or amateur photographers will own what are called “kit cameras with kit lenses.” These are good cameras such as the Canon Rebel or the Nikon D5000, but they are limited in what they can do under the poor lighting of most churches and wedding venues.

4. Does your photographer have enough equipment? Lack of enough or back-up equipment can be a total disaster for your wedding pictures. This past summer we were photographing a wedding and one of our cameras just stopped working. The little mirror inside fell off. Fortunately we had two other cameras with us and didn’t miss a shot. If your photographer has only the one camera, any malfunction will put a complete halt to your photography. We also carry several flashes and even large radio-controlled flash units so that we can light up and entire room if needed. There really is no comparison in how good photos made with good off-camera flash units look as compared the on-camera flashes used by less experienced or equipped photographers.

5. Is your photographer proficient at photo editing? While almost all photographers know how to use editing software such as Photoshop, you need to see a body of work (especially wedding images) done by the person you plan to hire to see if it looks professional, or just cheesy. Can he/she design you a quality, professional looking album?

6. Does your photographer use a professional photo lab for making prints and album printing? The one-hour printing labs can do a very good job of printing, but these are the most important images of your life. You don’t want photos that are just OK, you want images that are great on high quality, heavy, archival paper. You also want a high-end quality album. The good album printers will only print for those who have commercial accounts with them.

7. How reliable is your photographer? There’s little doubt that your photographer will show up on the wedding day. But will he/she have your images ready to see in a timely manner, or ever? We’ve heard so many horror stories from people who hired a “discount” photographer and never got the photos or had to hound the photographer for months and even years to get them. Check references!

At BlueMoon Studios we consider ourselves to be highly-motivated, professional photographers.  We will do our absolute best to make your day wonderful and to produce memories through photography that you will cherish all your life.  Visit either of our web sites:

www.BlueMoonStudios.net or www.BlueMoonBrides.com

written by : Butch Oglesby