How to Find Your Perfect Wedding Photographer

June 17th, 2010

Sure I’m a lit­tle biased, but I feel that your wed­ding pho­tog­ra­ph­er is one of the most impor­tant invest­ments you can make for your wedding.

You’ve heard the age-old adage of how your flow­ers will die, your food will get eat­en, your dress will get hung up in the wardrobe for decades, but your wed­ding pho­tographs will live forever.
I’m not sug­gest­ing that with­out wed­ding pho­tographs you’ll have noth­ing to remem­ber your day by but there is a lot of truth in that old say­ing, I’m sure you’ll agree.

If your wed­ding pho­tographs will live for­ev­er, how do you go about find­ing the per­fect per­son to record your wed­ding day?

WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM A PHOTOGRAPHER?

As a cou­ple you need to work togeth­er to decide what you both want from a photographer.

*              Come to an agree­ment on whether you want a lot of for­mal pic­tures of your fam­i­ly and friends, or if you would pre­fer a more can­did approach.



*              Would you like lots of pic­tures of all the details that you lov­ing­ly arranged, or are pic­tures of Grandad laugh­ing at the best mans speech more impor­tant to you?

All of those things are impor­tant, but you need to work out what is more impor­tant to you both.

As an engaged cou­ple, the chances of you spend­ing a large amount of mon­ey on glossy wed­ding mag­a­zines is pret­ty high. I just know!

*              Which wed­ding pic­tures caught your eye?

*              Nat­ur­al or posed?

*              Did the posed ones look almost natural?

*              Have you been to a recent wed­ding where the pho­tog­ra­ph­er impressed you before you even saw the pictures?

Find out who these pho­tog­ra­phers are! The ones in mag­a­zines are there because they want you to hire them, they’re look­ing for more work because they love what they do!

Most pho­tog­ra­phers have a blog, they’re designed espe­cial­ly for you. Look for pho­tog­ra­phers in your rough area who have blogs and find a few that you admire.

Google this: “[your near­est city] wed­ding pho­tog­ra­phy blog”

You’ll most like­ly be inun­dat­ed with a large amount of blogs, some bet­ter than others.
If you are look­ing for some­one to cov­er your day in a pho­to­jour­nal­is­tic way, look on the WPJA for example.

WHAT IS IT YOU LIKE ABOUT THEIR STYLE?

Out of the few pho­tog­ra­phers that real­ly stand out to you, is there one that you can’t keep away from?

*          Try to pin­point the rea­sons why you keep on going back to see their pictures.

*          Look for orig­i­nal­i­ty and humour in their pic­tures as well use of initiative.

You don’t need an under­stand­ing of cam­eras and lens­es for these things!

Can you imag­ine your­self in their pictures?

If they have a blog, look through all their recent wed­dings and learn to under­stand their style.

What is their style of writ­ing like?

You should be able to tell if they have a real pas­sion for weddings!

BE SURE BEFORE YOU BOOK

Try to get to know them through their pic­tures and style before you even meet them.

*          Before you meet up, ask your pho­tog­ra­ph­er to bring a sam­ple wed­ding album or two.

*          Do you like the album and the lay­out of the images?

*          Are there oth­er options if it isn’t to your taste?

When you meet up, you must both like your pho­tog­ra­ph­er as a per­son. Could you be friends with them? You don’t have to become friends with them of course but you do need to be that com­fort­able with them.
They will be with you on the hap­pi­est and most impor­tant day of your lives shar­ing those spe­cial moments.
You would­n’t invite some­one that you don’t like to be a guest at your own wed­ding would you?

Your prospec­tive pho­tog­ra­ph­er needs to be some­one who is very inter­est­ed in you. You’ll know if they’re being genuine.

Notice that none of the advice I’ve giv­en is about megapix­els and spe­cial effects in Photoshop.
If you like pic­tures with spe­cial effects applied, then there is noth­ing wrong with that. Pho­to­shop does­n’t make a bad pic­ture good, in fact it often makes a good pic­ture bad.
I would rec­om­mend though, look­ing for a pho­tog­ra­ph­er with images that look as though they will age well; Pic­tures that aren’t faddy.

A few ques­tions you should ask your pho­tog­ra­ph­er are:

1.       Will you be the only per­son shoot­ing our wedding?

2.       Are your pack­ages flexible?

3.       What type of insur­ance do you have?

4.       Do you have back-up equipment?

5.       What will you do if you are sick and can­not cov­er our wedding?

6.       How long will it take for us to see the pictures?

Choos­ing a pho­tog­ra­ph­er does­n’t have to be hard.
You must sim­ply love your pho­tog­ra­phers work and have total con­fi­dence in them.
If you fol­low this advice, I’m sure you’ll find your per­fect pho­tog­ra­ph­er that can record your day just as you remem­ber it!




  1. Megan June 23rd, 2010 at 1:17 pm

    Great Arti­cle. Good not only for cou­ples look­ing for a pho­tog­ra­ph­er, but for pho­tog­ra­phers start­ing out need­ing to know what sort of things cou­ples are or should be look­ing for. Thank you!

  2. Jessica Horton June 23rd, 2010 at 1:26 pm

    Love all the action you captured!

  3. Laurie Peacock June 23rd, 2010 at 9:43 pm

    I com­plete­ly agree with this post. Great illus­tra­tions along the way too.

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