Questions to ask your wedding photographer
Questions to ask your wedding photographer
We get asked many great questions when we meet with our wedding couples so we thought we might share a few tips on what we would recommend asking your wedding photographer when you meet.
Have you photographed at the venue before?
No two venues are the same so it is a good idea to ask if your photographer has photographed weddings at the venue before. Also ask if they know the local area and some great locations near the venue for your wedding photos. Sometimes a little local knowledge is invaluable if it gets a little windy, rainy or there are just too many guests wanting to chat with you while you are wanting to take some portraits! Having a couple of alternative locations to slip away to also gives you a break to have a moment and take it all in.
Can we see a complete wedding photo gallery?
This is an incredibly important one, a photographer might have a show stopping Instagram feed or a few photos on their website- this really doesn’t give you a good indication of the amount or quality of all the finished images you will receive. Ask to see a full completed gallery of a whole wedding- as this is actually an indication of what you will receive and preferably try to see a wedding photographed at your wedding venue. A typical wedding day has a lot of compromise for a professional wedding photographer things like weather, wind, sun, rain and time constraints play a huge part of where we are able to shoot on your day and how long we will have with you.
Can the photographer use flash….and we don’t just mean when it's dark…
It’s a big question and a definite yes or no as far as ‘will we go’ with this photographer! Ask your photographer if they use flash throughout the day- any photographer that doesn’t use flash or generally uses the term ‘natural light photographer’ will have you in the shade all day when there is a beautiful blue sky outside to be enjoyed and captured. Yes the sun may cause shadows - but having a photographer who knows how to compensate for this and fill in the light softly with flash is going to produce beautiful images and record your day exactly how it was. We often see ‘natural light’ wedding photographers galleries with two or three beautiful images of a couple under trees or against walls (in the shade) but if you look for images outside under a blue sky with the couple lit correctly many ‘natural light’ photographers struggle to achieve this simple task. This style of photography also presents a problem with family photos as a flash is essential to get quick, consistent, natural looking results where everyones face is lit correctly without shadows and squinting.
Do you colour balance and retouch our images?
We see this as being an essential part of our services to our couples- It is really not just the wedding day that you are paying for it is receiving the correct colour images that have some light retouching. This would be our minimum requirement for a professional wedding photographer
How long until we receive our images after our wedding?
We aim for 4-6 weeks to get our couples completed images to them. Now we do colour correct and lightly retouch our images so this is what you are waiting for after your wedding. Yes we could do less work and just colour correct your images and deliver your images in half the time but we prefer to give you a higher standard of quality in a reasonable time frame.
What camera gear do you use?
Now you don't need the make and model but as a minimum we would recommend asking if your photographer use professional equipment which for us means cameras that shoot to two cards as a minimum as well as having multiple cameras of this type along on the day.
Who will be my photographer on the day?
The price and work from the photography studio might be amazing but if you do not know who will be your photographer on your wedding day, you really do not know what your photography will look like. Ask to see your chosen photographers recent work- a completed gallery from a wedding is best. And if you can’t meet in person ask for a Skype meeting with your chosen photographer.
How many images do we get?
We get this all the time at meetings- yes we do shoot a lot of images at your wedding but we do edit afterwards. We make sure all images are sharp, exposed correctly and are different from each other- meaning you have a depth of quality images to choose from. Like any professional being able to work quickly and keep the day running on time results in you having a more relaxed day as well as us having the time to create stunning images. We would average around 80 finished images per hour the images are all of a finished quality that you would expect from a professional.
We are not really in to having our photograph taken….
(Not so much a question but we thought we'd add this in!) Yes, we understand - the thing is 70% of people tell us this at meetings so we have lots of experience photographing people who are not to keen on having their photographs taken!!! As we have captured so many weddings, we know how to make you feel relaxed and comfortable in front of the camera and know how to be quiet and unobtrusive to capture those candid moments too. Many couples are actually surprised how much fun they have while taking photos on their day!
The Vibe....
Finally but most importantly - it’s the vibe. These are people you hang out with on your wedding day, one of the most important days in your life- do they match your values? Are they going to fit in? And are you going to enjoy their company? They are not there to be another friend but an employed professional hired to achieve a consistent result in a timely manner so that you can hangout with your family and friends and enjoy your wedding and have the memories forever!
Shannon.
Have more questions for Shannon- visit our contact page here and ask away!
