The Greatest Guide To Texas Wedding Photography Service
You're getting married? Congratulations! And, you want your wedding day to be as beautiful and perfect as you've always dreamed. If you choose the wrong photographer, your day may be a lot less than perfect and you may not be satisfied with the images your photographer captures. Bummer. How do you choose the right photographer?
Here's how. Make sure your wedding photographer offers you these five things. Then you can relax and feel confident the love, special moments and important details of your wedding day will be captured in beautiful images for a lifetime of memories.
1. Do you like the photographer's work? Look at a fairly good selection of the photographers wedding images, not just a few photos on a web site. If you can see at least an album or two and a proof book of a complete wedding, it's best. The albums probably represent the best of the photographer's work, and the proof book shows all the typical images he or she captures during a wedding day. How do the images look to you? Are they pleasing to look at? Does the lighting and the color look good to you? Is the photographer's style what you are looking for? Most of our bridal couples are looking for a mix of photojournalistic images and classic posed traditional ones. Make sure your photographer is capable of, and comfortable with, taking the style of images you want for your wedding. If you don't like the photographer's work, there is no need to consider them further. Make sure the work you see was done by the photographer who will photograph your wedding. Some studios will show you a lot of good work from various photographers, but will not guarantee you will get the photographer whose work you like the best. Sometimes, a husband and wife team like ours is the best way to be sure the photographer's work you see is the work you will get.
2. Do you like the photographer's personality and mannerisms? Is the photographer confident, easy going and not a nervous ninny? Does the photographer have a good sense of humor? Remember, the photographer will be present through most of your wedding day, interacting with you, your wedding party, your family, and your guests. A demanding, inflexible, and uptight photographer can make your day unpleasant. I know you don't want that! Make sure you and your spouse-to-be get along well with the photographer you choose. If the photographer is going to have a second photographer help at your wedding, meet the assistant photographer and make sure you feel comfortable with them. To get to know your photographer before you choose them, it is really important you meet with them personally. You should make sure some of their testimonials from previous clients make you feel comfortable with the photographer's personality if it is physically impossible to meet with the photographer.
3. Does the photographer have a strong sense of commitment to photographing your wedding and a professional work ethic? Does the photographer use professional cameras, lenses and flash systems? Does he or she have at least some lenses that will produce good images in low light situations (f2.8 aperture)? Does the photographer use a soft box over the flash and keep the flash above the lens on both horizontal and vertical photos to minimize shadows in their images? Does he or she always bring a complete set of backup equipment, or bring a second photographer with another set of equipment, to every wedding? How will the photographer and their assistant be dressed on your wedding day? Ask them. Hopefully, they will professional enough to arrive dressed in a tux, suit, or dressy dress. Although, if your photographer is a man and he says he's coming in a dressy dress, you might worry a little about that:--RRB-. You should get the feeling that your photographer is dedicated to making sure your wedding day is wonderful, and that all of the love, emotions and important details will be captured in images you will be able to enjoy for the rest of your life.
4. Does your photographer have the experience to anticipate all the good things that will happen on your wedding day, and the experience to deal with the bad things that could happen also? An experienced photographer will have photographed enough weddings to anticipate and capture special moments during your day, and the important details that may easily be missed by a "newbie". An experienced photographer also knows that things do go wrong sometimes and will be able to anticipate and deal with them, often without you even knowing that something went wrong. That's why a complete set of backup equipment is necessary. My little kit of duct tape, extra cables, pen knife with scissors, and band-aids has been a life saver several times.
5. Does your photographer offer you the right value? Not the right price, but, the right value. It may not matter what their prices are if your photographer doesn't have all of the above four characteristics. That's a big part of the value they offer you if the photographer has all four. In this case, the price should be less important. Just make sure your photographer will provide what is really important to you and is upfront with you about costs for everything you want. Someone who offers a "low" price up front may sound attractive. But, things change when you find they charge extra for every location stop, for the digital image files, for a studio set up at the reception, and so on. A photographer who charges twice as much, but includes almost everything, can often be a better value for you.
This is an article by a wedding photographer about wedding photographers. I have tried to keep my advice unbiased.
1. What are they like as people?
You need to get along with your wedding photographer - as you are spending most of your wedding day with them and a negative relationship will show in your photographs. If you gel with a photographer it's a great starting point. , if they put you on edge for any reason run a mile.
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2. Look at their photos with a critical eye
It may sound obvious, but I've seen plenty of photographers taking big bookings without ever showing a single photograph - marketing on price alone. If you have booked a photographer without an extensive portfolio if they let you down, don't be surprised. There are plenty of good photographers just starting out who can be had for a bargain. There are also plenty who don't know their way around their own anatomy, let alone that of a camera.
Is there a good range of photographs? A good photographer will be able to get photos in even the most difficult of situations - commonly a darkly lit church or a difficult reception venue. If the photos are all outside on a sunny day it could mean that the photographer struggles with indoor shots. Ask to see a whole wedding here to get an idea of where the photographers weaknesses are (being a photojournalistic photographer mine are group shots).
Do the photos all look posed? Some photographers specialise in catching the action as it happens - but there are still a great many who work in the traditional way and pose the key events; cutting of the cake, first kiss. You will be able to tell.
3. Are they above board?
A professional wedding photographer will get you to sign a contract to protect both themselves and you. It is important to read the contract and raise any issues you have with it. You should not feel pressured into signing.
They will also be above board with the tax man - sadly there are still people in the industry who do not declare their earnings and these have also been known to disappear before the wedding - if a photographer insists on cash in hand it should ring alarm bells.
Thirdly they will be insured - check that your photographer has Public Liability and Professional Indemnity insurance as these protect you should the worse happen.
4. Are they prepared?
A professional will have back ups of everything - cameras, lenses - and they will have a back up plan for inclement weather. A photographer needs to be highly organised.
5. Do they bring help?
Some photographers prefer to work alone, others will bring assistants or second shooters. A second shooter will help cover your day more thoroughly - especially if you need pictures of both the bridal party and the groomsmen getting ready. An assistant will help the photographer operate by doing things like setting up lights, holding reflectors, changing lenses and backing up your wedding photographs.
6. What do you get?
Coverage - how long are they going to be with you? Are they covering the preparations, ceremony, formal shots, evening reception. (If a photographer is with you for the majority of the day it's nice to offer them food). Some photographers will dictate what they cover and others are more flexible.
Prints and albums - do you want an album or just a cd of images? If you are getting a disk find out if you have permission to print for personal use. Albums come in a range of styles. I will cover this at a later date - but you will have an idea of what you like and loathe. Ask to see examples. Do you want to get extra albums as gifts for family members.
Oh, and when do you get it? You don't want to be waiting half a year for your wedding photographs. A lot of photographers state around four weeks - but really this is a worst case scenario and they will want to get them to you whilst the post wedding excitement is still in the air.
7. The pre-wedding shoot.
Some photographers will offer a pre-wedding or engagement shoot - if you are camera shy this can help with your nerves before the wedding as well as give you material for wedding stationary or your website.
If the photographer is going to have a second photographer help at your wedding, meet the assistant photographer and make sure you feel comfortable with them. If it is physically impossible to meet with the photographer, you should make sure some of their testimonials from previous clients make you feel comfortable with the photographer's personality.
If you choose the wrong photographer, your day may be a lot less than perfect and you may not be satisfied with the images your photographer captures. If the photographer is going to have a second photographer help at your wedding, meet the assistant photographer and make sure you feel comfortable with them. If it is physically impossible to meet with the photographer, you should make sure some of their testimonials from previous clients make you feel comfortable with the photographer's personality.