How to choose a GREAT wedding photographer!

Wedding season is soon upon us, and a lot of great photographers are booking up.  Every year we take only a limited number of weddings so that we can best care for our customers, have a quick turn around time and enjoy a few weekends in the sun camping!  With Bridal Fantasy tomorrow (yes I’m going with a friend of mine who is getting married!), I thought I’d share things I looked at as a photographer when I chose my own wedding photographer when Krister and I got married in March!

1. Are their images sharp and in focus?

Many photographers are new, and are in photography because they love it.  And who wouldn’t love photographing weddings?  Being there while couples are their happiest, and every one around them is wishing them well, and excited… being at the reception with the music playing and the couple in the middle of the dance floor looking at each other with so much emotion… it’s addictive.  There are as many ways to photograph something as there are personalities, and you may see someone who has a “great eye” (you may love the angle they chose for a specific moment, or some natural framing they did, etc.).  The “feel” of the photograph is part of it, but is the image in focus?  Is it sharp?  Many new photographers make their images small on their blogs to hide the fact that it isn’t a quality image.  Also, pay attention to photographers putting their photographs together in collages… look at each photograph separately by covering up the others, and determine whether they are hiding a bad photo by making it small and putting it next to other photographs.  Does the photograph look great on it’s own (noise, focus, sharpness, light/shadows, etc?).

2. What does their lighting look like?

Great lighting can do many things… it can help create great poppy colour, it can help skies be bluer, it can add a 3D quality to a photograph, it can be used to “slim” someone down, it can add a bit of fashion to a scene, or it can simply be used in a necessary place to add light to a place that is dark.  Our eyes adjust to light, so we may not notice that places are dark, but cameras do.  Shooting at extremely high ISO’s is what happens when a photographer doesn’t add light in properly, so photographs are noisy (they look a little pixely).  Alternatively in dark situations photographers may use a slow shutter speed which means that movement is captured, and the image looks blurry, not sharp.  Some photographers will bring external lights, but not know how to use them, so you may see “bad shadows” (dark shadows from someone’s nose falling across their face, or shadows off of someone’s arm onto someone else… or the worst: shadow outlines of the bride and groom on a wall behind them.

2b. What does their lighting look like in dark settings? (Reception, Ceremony)

Lighting is super important to us, so this is why I would repeat this… look at receptions and indoor dark ceremony locations and check out the lighting.  See the WHOLE reception if you have any doubts… ask the photographer to show you an entire wedding.  Sit and look through 900 photos and ask yourself if you would be happy being this couple with the images you see.

3. Do they take enough photographs?

This is something that is important.  While many photographers don’t limit how many photographs they take, some give very few images.  If a photographer says they’ll give you 400 images, think about this long and hard.  If you have 200 guests at your wedding, and large families on either side, you will almost certainly feel the story of your day is missing if you only receive 400 images.  Look for photographers that will take photographs of guests dancing, people’s reactions at your ceremony, and the smallest of details… the little hand-made place cards or favours you put out.  I don’t want to give an exact number here, but if it was me, 600+ would be something I’d be looking for (and I’d be super happy around 800).

4.Do they edit all of the photographs?

There are many, many photographs from a wedding.  Make sure your photographer edits all of your images (brightness, colour, sharpness, cropping, etc.).  Look really close at photographs… if you see black circles or little outlines this is usually a dirty sensor.  You will be surprised how many people don’t even edit this in their photographs!  Make sure you like the editing your photographer does!  If you love saturated colourful photographs, don’t hire a photographer who desaturates all of their images.  Be careful when you see too many black and white images.  While photographers love black and white (and we really do!) it can often be used to cover mistakes (bad colour, etc.).  Last thing on the editing… be sure you choose a photographer who’s editing will age well.  Some things that are “in” now, will be very “out” four years from now, so choose someone who’s style of editing won’t be dated right away.  Natural editing is timeless.

5. Do they make the bride look great?

A technically great photographer is awesome, but wouldn’t it be great if you came out looking awesome with your best features accentuated?  People all have the things they love and dislike about themselves.  Ensure your photographer brings out the best in the people they photograph.

6. Do they seem to “get” the personalities of their couples?

Do you see the personality show in the photographs you are looking at?  Is every couple posed a little differently or in different locations?  Sometimes photographers get stuck bringing their clients back to the same place over and over again, or posing their couples the same every time.  What is great for one couple may look a little funny on another.  If someone loves vintage and is posed super modern, or vice versa, we feel this is a disservice to the couple.  So, obviously, make sure your photographer has photographs somewhere in their portfolio that represent what you want, but try to stay away from cookie cutter photographers that do the same thing every time.

7. Do they capture true emotions?

Does the photographer stay on their toes enough to captures things as they happen (big laughs, tears, surprise and all the rest).  It’s great to have a few lovely posed images, or some fashion-styled photographs if that’s what you want, but I’m guessing that when you are both 50 (or when one of you is 50 and the other is whatever age difference) you’ll be drawn to the photographs that showed who you were.  Who you really were.

Obviously, these are our must-haves in a photographer, so if you disagree that’s okay :).  If you really, really disagree, come talk to me if you see me at Bridal Fantasy tomorrow.  I’ll be the girl with the camera walking around :).