How To Choose The Right Wedding Photographer

How To Choose The Right Wedding Photographer

How to choose the right Wedding Photographer
So you’re now engaged! firstly congratulations and secondly allow me to
give a shameless plug for our Engagement Portraits (complimentary with all of
our Wedding Photography)

Now comes a big question, who will capture my big day?
Choosing the right Wedding Photographer is a crucial choice that boils
down to a number of questions that you need to ask both yourself and also
any of your potential Wedding Photographers. This article is designed to try
and help you to have a clear picture of who you are looking for when it comes
to your wedding day.

How much will my Wedding Photographer cost?
OR How much should I spend on a Wedding
Photographer?
The answer to both of these questions will
vary depending on any budget you have in
mind, your location, the time of year you're
getting married and many other factors.
While this is true please do me a favour?
don't go straight to the prices page of a
photographer before going to their
gallery/portfolio page first. It truly saddens
me when I receive an email direct from the
contact page with a bride just asking about
our prices. Money is such an ugly thing and
while I know it's certainly a consideration
you have to think about please choose your
photographer based upon if they are a good
fit for you all over, not simply that they are
the cheapest.

The amount of times i've heard about a
bride who asked a friend to take pictures or
an uncle who was a keen amateur and then
the results have been less than perfect or in
some cases brought the couple to tears, it truly upsets me. This is your

© Daniel James Photography – www.danieljamesphotography.net

wedding day, it's a special and perfect day to you that is meticulously planned
and you deserve to have every detail captured perfectly to look back on for
years and generations to come.

Ok and breathe. Sorry I just dislike discussing prices however you can, on
average expect to spend between £800 up to £2,000 on your Wedding
Photographer. There are exceptions to this both sides of course. (Just as an
FYI , we start at £850 for our West Midlands Wedding Photography but will
happily shoot further from home including internationally)

How do I find my Wedding Photographer?
Now the fun begins, searching Birmingham
Wedding Photographer alone will yield 1.4
million results so expect to need a cup of tea
when the search begins. Of course there's
also dedicated Wedding Fayres (though
experience has sometimes delivered shark
like pressure sells), specialist Directories and
mobile phone apps as well.

Truly one of the best ways you can hope to
find your photographer is through a referral
from a friend whose got married, however
what do you do when, in my case, my friends
photographer was no longer working as a
photographer? I literally sat in front of Google
and pulled around 50 pages of Google (thank
god for tabs in browsers!) searching Midlands
Wedding Photographer Galleries until we
found our Photographer at which point I then
checked her prices and booked.

So how do you dwindle down the thousands of photographers out there? I
recommend you to choose by style.



What style of Wedding Photographers are there?
A Wedding Photographer's style is there
absolute core, it's what they take with them,
knowingly or unknowingly to each and every
wedding they capture and it is that style that
you will wish for them to place into every one
of your photographs.
Now it seems logical to take style buzz words
such as 'modern' 'reportage' 'magazine'
'traditional' and incorporate them into your
Google search however unfortunately not
every Modern Wedding Photographer
describes themselves as that, perhaps they
have put Reportage Wedding Photographer
and so it can be both a help and a hindrance
to add buzz words into the search.
Ultimately you will know what style you like
and be on the look out on photographers
websites. I believe that when you see the
right photographer then everything fits
together but it's important not to rush to
quickly or fall for that photographer too fast.

What should I expect and what will I receive from my
Wedding Photographer?
When you think you have found the right photographer or short list of
photographers from their Gallery's/Portfolios it's time to start looking at their
main wedding information. Now this can be presented in the form of a PDF
downloadable brochure, in bullet points on their website, a FAQ page, in a
video introduction or perhaps in a 'request more information by filling in your
details' (though I am not a fan of these as I would rather have all the
information in front of me prior to making contact). When you have got the
information you're looking for some important specifics:Coverage - when will they start and finish capturing your Wedding day (some
Photographers will put 'unlimited' and actually mean 8 hours), some may offer
extra charges to cover past certain key times.


Amount of Photographs - how many edited images will be delivered to you
(usually you can expect 300+, we promise 300+ but often deliver 500-700
images depending upon coverage)
How will my Photographs be viewed? - often Photographers will deliver
your Wedding Photographs via an Online Gallery (such as we do) which will
also allow guests from the Wedding to view and purchase prints through.
Will there be any effects included? - Colour is always important however
some Photographs look stunning in Black & White or other effects such as
Vintage Wash which is included in addition to Colour & Black and White with
our work.
Will any digital files be included? Whether delivered via email, USB or
CD/DVD, digital files of your Wedding
Photographs is by far the most common
option for modern weddings, allowing the
happy couple to print what they want and
whenever they want to (make sure you
receive a Print Licence to alleviate any
potential copyright issues when taking
them to be printed)
What equipment do you use and what
backup strategies do you have in place?
- Professional grade equipment including
an extra camera body should be standard
for a professional photographer as well as
a strong backup strategy. Personally we
use 1x external hard drive as a main
backup, 1x external hard drive as a library
and then 2x more external hard drives
which are mirrored and stored in a different geographical location as well as a
DVD archive of all of our work.

How often should I meet with my Wedding Photographer before the
day?
Now this is a difficult question, if you have a Photographer based far away
then it may be difficult to meet face to face, however technology is there and
there's no reason why you can't Skype with them to have a good chat about
your individual needs. Where possible though we meet with our brides and
grooms at least 3 times prior to the Wedding, first we have an initial meeting


at our Shop to discuss their Wedding, show them some examples of our work
and albums and talk about our Wedding Photography Packages.
Secondly we see them in the Studio for their
complimentary Engagement Portrait which is a
fantastic opportunity to get used to having your
picture taken professionally (something many
people have never had done). Finally we
arrange a Venue Visit to have a good look
around the Venue for the Wedding to discuss
what in particular the bride and groom like
about it, why they chose it and ideas we have
for where we would like to capture their
photographs. This all comes together to help
the bride and groom to feel relaxed and
confident with us as their Photographers.
Aside from this we are available by e-mail,
Skype and phone if they feel they want to meet
more frequently or to discuss any questions
they may have.

In Summary
Ultimately you need the right Wedding Photographer as this is a once in a
lifetime day that you will look back on to re-live the day and you need
Photographs that capture every detail perfectly. If you compromise and get a
friend to do it, you may end up regretting it and also your friend will not enjoy
the day in the same way if they're worrying about getting your Photographs
right. Make sure that you get a contract with your Photographer to seal
everything together so that you're both clear on what you need and what you
will be receiving.
We hope this has helped you to work out which Photographer is right for you
however if we've missed anything please feel free to comment below and we'll
try and add it to the article.

Information Page Links: Wedding
Photography, Engagement Portraits, Wedding
Photography Portfolio


How To Choose The Right Wedding Photographer

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