Honesty time.
Allow me to be completely honest, choosing someone to photograph your wedding is a personal choice (and a big choice). If I were to be 100% truthful here, any guide on selecting your ideal wedding photographer written by me would be heavily slanted in my own favourâŚ.if I were to write a guide on the subject, but Iâm not writing a guide as such.
Instead, Iâm going to speak honestly about the things you should perhaps consider. Iâll keep my opinions as neutral as possible so as not to influence your judgement. What neither of us needs (or wants) is the wrong choice to be made just because Iâve cleverly written a helpful guide in my own favour and I sound nice and trustworthy.
Iâve purposefully not included any wedding images in this post, again so as not to subconsciously attract you into making a decision. This is a âwords onlyâ post, if you want to see the pictures I take, there are plenty on my website, so Iâll say if you see the truth of my writing by all means go explore.
Now thatâs out of the way letâs begin.
What to consider.
Your gut feeling.
With most big purchases you get this initial feeling about something. Itâs not always something you can put your finger on, but you get a feeling about it. Thatâs your instinct and usually your instinct is right. Itâs got you this far in life, found your other half for you and helped you do lots of other things, so trust your instinct. If it feels good, investigate more, if it doesnât, leave it alone.
Consistency
Look past the initial fancy shop window (website and social media) and have a good delve into a bunch of wedding pictures - Iâm talking full galleries here, recent ones. Ask to see some full weddings (and not cherry-picked ones, ask to see the latest ones), youâre looking for consistency - are the pictures in these galleries of the same standard as the ones on the website? This shows that your potential photographer can photograph consistently well throughout a day and not just strike out lucky with a few pictures at random times of the day. Really you want a consistent photographer if you donât like leaving things to chance.
Donât believe the hype (or bio)
A photographersâ bio is their second best-selling tool after their pictures. Some get professional writers to write it for them, so they come across well to anyone reading. A bio will usually tick all the right boxes, sound fun, friendly, have been a photographer for a while and all that good stuff. They donât sound too needy, salesy, boring or crazy as to put you off. A bio is basically a bunch of words, thatâs all it is. You arenât hiring a writer, youâre hiring a photographer, you arenât looking for a new best mate, a date or nanny for your kids and no-one is going to write a bio that makes themselves sound like Ted Bundy.
My point is, everyoneâs bio makes them sound good, and nice, and friendly and cool - ignore a photographersâ bio to a greater extent, that is my honest advice. Iâm not saying they are lies, but no-one ever intentionally wrote themselves a bad CV did they?
Personality
This is a tricky one. You will read on every wedding photographer blog post âHow to choose your wedding photographerâ that you need to get on with your photographer, and you do, you are (as every photographer states) going to spend a lot of your wedding with them. Hereâs the thing to bear in mind though - no photographer you initially meet or speak to is going to want to come across as anything other than lovely and friendlyâŚI mean can you imagine meeting one and them saying âOK, just so you know Iâm a bit of a stressy idiot if Aunt Edna gets in my way with her iPad for the third timeâ ?
Everyone will be on their best behaviour, so yes while itâs important to get on with them thereâs really no way to tell what theyâre going to be like on the day. Use your common sense and trust your instincts, if possible meet up (not always possible and certainly not a negative thing, geographic locations often make it impractical), have a video chat as an alternative (skype / Facebook etc). Some people are nervous about video calls, I donât really like them myself if Iâm being completely truthfulâŚthereâs something about seeing my own head on a screen that makes me uncomfortable, so youâre not alone! Just be yourselves and remember no question you ask is stupid - so donât feel stupid or awkward asking anything.
Itâs also worth bearing in mind that although you would expect your potential photographer to be relaxed, confident and come across well if you do meet - not all people were created equal, some photographers I know suffer with terrible nerves when it comes to meeting people in a âmeetingâ scenario, they may not come across well at all, but it doesnât mean they are bumbling idiots.
Approach
A photographers approach is different from their âstyleâ. The approach is how they get the pictures. The style is how the pictures look.
Wedding photography has changed a lot in the past 5 years, with most photographers stating they adopt a candid & relaxed approach to wedding photography. Now the truth here is, while a lot of photographers believe their approach is 100% candid and relaxed, how that fits your expectations of âwe donât want to feel like weâre being photographedâ largely depends on your tolerance levels for intrusion.
Some people are incredibly camera (and photographer) sensitive, while others are oblivious to a photographer on their day - they could be riding through your wedding on a unicycle blowing a trumpet and you wonât notice themâŚI canât advise what your tolerance levels are set at, but you can ask some things to gauge how noticeable a photographer might be. Questions such as:
Do you own a unicycle and a trumpet and will you be bringing them to our wedding? (OK Iâm just testing youâre actually paying attention with that one)
Describe how you photograph a wedding?
Do you ever need to re-create pictures i.e. stage them, or will you ask us to pretend to do certain things during the day?
How long do you set aside for portraits?
Technically there are no right or wrong answers to these, itâs up to you how you visualize your photographer being on the day, theyâll simply give you an indication if theyâre completely hands off and discreet or a bit more take charge and guide you for pictures type of photographer.
There is no right or wrong way to photograph a wedding, that all depends on you and what you want as a couple. The idea of not being disturbed on your wedding day (for some people) sounds dreamy, while others are more than happy to put a few hours aside for photography (and have a photographer being a photographer throughout the rest of their day), itâs totally up to you what you want as a couple.
How long do they stay?
It largely depends if you want a full story of your wedding day or just the main parts covering. Some photographers are happy to stay most (or all) of your evening for the price they quoted, others will charge per hour after a certain amount of hours have passed, while some will just cover up to your first dance (and maybe a bit after). Itâs an important thing to consider if youâre planning an evening party, not necessarily a deciding factor on choosing them, but something you will need to be aware of so you donât get hit with an additional expense if you get giddy and ask them to stay.
From personal experience of wedding evenings, they really get going a few hours after your first dance once everyone is in full party mood and your evening guests have settled in (and had a few drinks). Epic party shots generally come at this time (and after), rather than in the standard hour after a first dance time frame.
What do you get?
Things to consider here are, do you get full access to your images so you can view, share & download them at full resolution without watermarks. Do your family and friends have access to the images also (example via an online gallery that you can share) - this is especially useful for people who have family and friends spread all over the country or abroad, it saves you the rigmarole of finding a way to share with them. Some photographers charge extra for other people having access to your pictures, some even charge extra for you to have your proper wedding pictures.
Iâve tried to keep this advice as honest and unbiased as possible, I hope it helps someone. I appreciate it wonât fit with everyoneâs idea of what to look for and thatâs totally fine, everyone is different and wants different things.
Thanks for reading.
Paul x