Choosing a wedding photographer and cameraman is the hardest part. The effect of their work is visible only after the ceremony and then you can see if it was a good one.
It’s not an orchestra or a DJ who has a script and repertoire for every eventuality. It’s not a wedding dress salon that shows you the dress you’re going to order. Finally, it is not a restaurant that always operates in the same conditions, and the kitchen and waiters will not be surprised by anything. The photographer depends on the mass of factors that influence the final effect of the photos. More important are the weather, the lighting of the church and the wedding hall, and the behavior of the wedding guests.
Let’s remember that the photos shown in our portfolio are the best of the best and often taken in the most favorable conditions.
We don’t have any influence on the weather, and the windowless charming country church with wooden walls may turn out to be an obstacle impossible to jump over for the photographer, who seduced us with beautiful photos of the wedding in the open air.
What should you pay attention to when choosing a wedding photographer?
Look at the photos, listen to your friends. Recommendations from satisfied couples, which we know personally, is a great advertisement for a photographer. Recommendations from wedding internet forums should be looked at with a distance, especially if they come from people with a small number of entries.
Browse through the advertisements and visit the photographers’ websites. If you manage to collect a list of photographers whose photos suit you, you can send an e-mail with an inquiry about the availability of the date, a request to present the details of the offer and a price list. This form of contact will enable you to compare all offers.
Price of photographic services – reportages and wedding sessions
Costs are important, so you need to read the price lists carefully. Seemingly the same service, for some photographers’ costs $ 1000 and for others $ 5000. Why? Because one photographer offers an album for the price and the other only a CD. One works with a partner, the other with alone. Some photographers take outdoor photos on the wedding day, while others book an extra day for it, which obviously increases the costs. Perhaps the one for the thousand dollars will give us only 100 photos, which he will choose himself or with our help, and the more expensive one will give us the whole photographic material without additional charges?
It is also worth checking good the website from the photographers. Some of them have on their websites all the information you could probably need. Good example you can see by visiting a website from wedding photographers from Wien: www.itsyourday.at. There you find clear pricing list, portfolio, detailed service description as well as valuable advices. After visiting such website, we can already assume, that the photographers take their job seriously and it´s their full-time job.
Few photographers write on their website about the equipment they use, which is understandable, because the photos are their business card, not the camera and lenses. However, the truth is also that a photographer with better (read more expensive) equipment, it will be easier to photograph the already mentioned village church than the owner of the camera and lenses with weaker parameters. It is worth asking about it, as well as about the spare camera, which a professional wedding photographer should have in his bag. Having expensive equipment and “rescue camera” by the photographer also has an impact on the price of the service.
Meeting with a wedding photographer
Let’s pay attention to the place where we meet the photographer. If he invites us to his office, it’s a sign that he’s probably a professional photographer and doesn’t treat photography as an additional source of income. It can be concluded from this that he will devote more time to the processing of our photographs than, for example, a baker who only earns money at weddings.
In general, the relationship between the fiancé and the photographer is very important. Without good contact it is impossible to take good pictures. On this occasion it is worth mentioning that every photographer has his own style of work and you should ask about it beforehand, so as not to be surprised on the wedding day.
A portfolio of wedding photos.
Before we sign a contract, it is necessary to look at the portfolio together with the photographer and make sure that it is definitely his photos (there are cases of presenting not his own photos).
If there are only a few repetitive pairs in it, we are probably dealing with a beginner photographer. It doesn’t have to mean, of course, that he is weaker than “old professionals” (everyone once started). Sometimes it can be even the opposite, because a fresh photographer can also have a fresh look at the celebration and photograph it in an innovative way.
However, for poorly lit churches and wedding halls, when a photographer has to adapt to difficult conditions, I would recommend a photographer with experience, who has photographed in similar rooms more than once. He also knows the scenario of the wedding and wedding perfectly well and knows in advance when and what position to take in order to capture the most important moments in the best possible way.
Looking at the portfolio we should remember that the fashion for wedding photos are fleeting, and the admiration for computer effects can be illusory. What yesterday was considered to be innovative, today is already a standard duplicated by everyone, and tomorrow will turn out to be kitsch. An example can be the pictures popular a few years ago in junkyards or in water, which nobody wants to look at today. Classical pictures, called by some old-fashioned ones, will not share their fate and it is worth to decide for at least a few.