Wedding Photography - what to look for

2011-12-08T12:28:00.000-08:00

This type of article has been published in many magazines and on-line usually by people who know very little about the subject or occasionally from knowledgeable photographers; hopefully I fall into the final category.

Photographers basically fall into two camps or three if you include the friend or relative who may be photographing your wedding either at cost or for free. There is no such things as amatures in this game, as soon as anyone asks for any money they are classified as professional and should therefore provide a professional product which you will treasure for many years to come. So what are these two camps, basically there are those who have other employment and use photography to boost their income and the second group are those that rely on photography as their main income. Both of these groups can produce excellent work and equally they can also produce rubbish so this is not an article on knocking the so called weekend warriors, far from it as I have seen work from the part timers that can beat a lot of professionals.

So how do you go about choosing a photographer?

Firstly I would suggest that you set a budget for photography and like most things in life with photography you get what you pay for. Photographers costs do vary but if you do the sums before hand it will give you an idea of the sort of price you should expect to pay. Start by considering how long the photographer will be attending you wedding, include some travelling time and then multiply this time by about four to get roughly the total amount of time a photographer will actually spend on your wedding, doing the photography, the post processing work, putting together the preview book etc. etc. Multiply this by the an hourly rate plus overheads that you would expect to earn then add on a large chunk of money for the album - anything from £150-00 to around £600-00 depending on the type of album you are looking for.

The sums above will only give you a rough idea of cost as each photographer will have there own idea on the breakdown of costs but it soon becomes clear that when you see adverts stating 'Wedding Photography from £50-00' it makes you wonder what you are getting for your money and more importantly will you be satisfied.

Now that you have a rough idea of costs ask around friends that have recently got married and ask how satisfied they were with their photographer, also ask what they paid but bear in mind that costs will almost certainly have altered since their wedding, also ask what they got for their money as their requirements may have been different to yours.

Use the internet to look at a number of photographers web sites, do not discount any photographers that do not have any reviews as it is incredably difficult to get people to write them unless thay have had a bad experience. Short list about half a dozen photographers to look at in detail, any more than this and it will start to get confusing and ask to see samples of their work and pricing. Remember a lot of photographers do not use real weddings in their saample albums but often attend portfolio shoots using professional models and construct sample albums from these. If all the brides are super slim, perfect features and the grooms are good looking and they are dressed in expensive looking dresses and suits then beware.

One of the things I always say to brides is that whoever you choose make sure you feel you can work with them, we have all heard of the photographers from hell at weddings just make sure you do not get one as people skills are equally as important as photography skills. Don't forget to check to see if your photographer is fully insured, has backup equipment of similar quality to his/her main equipment and what their fall back plan is if for some reason they cannot attend your wedding.

Once you have made your decision, book the photographer, I am supprised at the number of couples that go through this process and then delay a few weeks or months before booking and then wonder why the photographer is no longer available.

Good luck in searching for your photographer and all the best for your wedding a future life together.

Introduction

2011-06-23T11:39:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my Blog
Having been in the photography business for over 30 years I thought it was about time I shared some of my thoughts about the business. Some of my views will be universally accepted but there will undoubtedly be others that are not and from this some active discussion may very well arise.

Part of this blog will cover specific topics in particular weddings, what to look for when choosing a photographer, photography styles explained and anything else that might be of use to the happy couple or to other photographers out there. Other subjects will appeaar from time to time and if you like my style and think I ought to cover a particular subject then get in touch and I will see what I can come up with.

In the mean time whilst I get the hang of blogging please be patient as I get things set up.
David Edwards photography web site