Questions you REALLY need to ask your wedding photographer
questions to ask your wedding photographer. Hopefully, this will help wedding couples to figure out some ideas as to what they might want to know more about. (You won’t be able to ask them all!) Whether it’s about style, presence on the day, deliverables or pricing, wedding photographers are used to having LOTS of questions thrown at them! So don’t be shy, ask away
Certainly there are a ton of articles written by wedding and lifestyle blogs that advise couples to ask the most arbitrary questions! So make sure you’re asking the right questions. Ask about what matters to you. Your time is precious, and there are only so many questions that can be addressed during a typical 1.5 – 2 hour initial meeting.
The photographer’s experience
1. How many weddings do you shoot per year on average?
2. What do you enjoy about photographing weddings specifically?
3. Are you a full-time photographer or do you have another job as well?
4. Have you shot at our venue or a venue like it? What challenges did you face?
5. Do you have insurance? What does that cover?
If you’re concerned about the photographer’s level of experience, don’t simply ask ‘how long have you been shooting’. Why? Firstly, some photographers count ‘when they first picked up a camera’ as when they started shooting.
Also, it’s common for some photography dabblers to have shot a wedding years ago, but not a lot in the intervening years. You want to know how long they’ve been shooting weddings professionally, as well as how consistently they’re booking.
Photographers having a full-time job isn’t necessarily a deal-breaker. It just may mean they might not operate with the same level of professionalism as a full-time pro that spends 40+ hours a week living and breathing their business, and weddings!
Real Questions you could ask a wedding photographer
Lately I have been getting a lot of enquiries from couples asking me questions like “What camera do you use? Are they mirrorless? What type of lighting do you use? Can you describe your style? etc.” Wow, these questions are a bit senseless and I wonder, do couples really know what they are asking about? Do the groom and bride know how the model or brand of a camera impacts the final results? Honestly, do they understand the pros and cons of various lighting approaches? So, in response to a couple of brides asking me couple of these questions, I asked them why they were asking me?… Guess what, those questions came from wedding blogs, magazines and other wedding photographers as some kind of ‘recommended things to ask wedding photographers’… Eeeeek!
So to all wedding photographers, wedding bloggers, wedding magazines and generally the entire wedding industry – why on earth do you write the same articles guiding brides and grooms to ask questions like this, they don’t even fully understand them? You’re just wasting everyone’s time!
To set things straight and to stop this madness, I will write yet another article listing these questions you ask a wedding photographer and what the answers really mean, to help you understand them. After you read this article you will know all the answers and you will decide what questions ask your wedding photographer or not, which one are important to you, which are NOT. The list might be a bit long because: First, I’m trying to nail all questions; Second, I will also provide the basic background knowledge for couples, to help explain them what the answers of these questions truly mean to them. Furthermore, I will be leaving the comments section below this article open to discuss more about questions that are posted for those who need a little more explanation on some of the answers.
Can I see a full wedding set?
This is a must ask question! Actually, you should ask to see a couple of full wedding sets of pictures. These days it’s very easy as most professional photographers are using online galleries or cloud file hosting like Dropbox etc. If possible, you could ask to see weddings in similar venues to yours like: barn venue, dark indoor venue or open space venue. You also want to know that your photographer can work with any body type, not just “pretty-model” types of couples, so ask if they can share with you, weddings of people who look similar to you (ie: if you’re a plus size bride or if there’s a huge height difference between the bride and the groom, etc.)
What kind of lighting do you use?
If the photographer says “3 Canon Speedlite 600EX-RT controlled with pocket wizards or Canon ST-E3-RT” would that mean anything to you? I don’t think so, and that’s why this question drives me a bit crazy! Plenty of photographers call themselves “natural light photographers”. There’s nothing wrong with that, but usually this is a way of masking the fact that they have no idea how to use flashes. So the rationale behind this question is this: a great wedding photographer should be flexible in every situation. If it starts raining in your lovely park or field and you need to use some dark indoor location for photos, you need to be sure that your wedding photographer is able to shoot there too. If your photographer uses one flash only that is mounted to the camera, their photos may not be “wow”. If your wedding photographer can and knows how to use multiple flashes properly, definitely you will get more of a ”wow” in your pictures.
Choosing your wedding photographer
There’s no shortage of people out there calling themselves wedding photographers but how many of them could do your wedding justice? If you are like most other brides and grooms, you have probably spent hours deliberating over everything from the beading on the bridal gown to the roses at the reception and no doubt you will want every exquisite detail captured in your wedding photographs.
Your wedding photos are the only tangible items that remain at the end of the day and become even more priceless as each year goes by so you’ll want to take your time choosing your wedding photographer.
AIPP photographers must have a minimum of two years’ full-time experience in the industry. They have seen just about everything when it comes to weddings and are used to handling nervous brides and grooms, camera shy bridesmaids, pushy relatives, poorly lit churches and a whole host of diverse locations and situations. They also have the experience to suggest the most flattering poses and locations that lend themselves to gorgeous photography. Best of all, they know how to be in all the right places at the right time, without getting in your way. After all, you want to enjoy your wedding day!
What to Expect
A professional wedding photographer offer brides and grooms a range of photography packages as incentives to earn your business and add value to your wedding photography experience.
Choosing a Package that Suits You
Whether you choose the basic package of a premium photographer or the works from a less expensive photographer is entirely up to you. Do you place greater value on a larger album or on the photographer being at your wedding from start to finish? Will you be requiring many extra photos and albums for family and friends? Are enlargements for your home important or perhaps, having an incredibly creative album full of special effects?
From Booking A Wedding Photographer To Receiving Your Wedding Album. Everything Explained.
Couples are often confused about the process of booking a wedding photographer, how the photographer works on the wedding day, how their photographs are stored, choosing the photographs for their storybook wedding album, when will they receive their photographs and how can they use them. So, we thought it might be useful to share how we do things.
FIRST CONTACT FROM THE COUPLE
Most couples contact us by email, but we also receive enquiries from messages via our Facebook page, messages via our Instagram account and by telephone. We always try to respond to all enquiries within 24 hours. In the first instance we will confirm if we are available and point the couple towards our website so that they can view previous weddings we have photographed, what our wedding photography package options are and so they can read some reviews from previous clients.
We then wait to receive a response from them. We have been told many times that we shouldn’t do this and that we should contact the couple after a few days, then again and again until we receive a response from them. We aren’t really comfortable with doing that, but this would be the normal process for most wedding photographers. We prefer to provide as much information to the couple as possible, ask them to contact us if there is anything else we can help with, and then leave it up to them to decide if we are a good fit for what they are looking for.
WEDDING CONSULTATION
Once the couple has come back to us, we answer any additional questions they might have and offer them the option of a consultation. When we first started photographing weddings we would call out with every couple and explain how we photograph a wedding. It’s quite rare that we do this now though as most couples seem to prefer to do everything by telephone and email, so generally we do a telephone consultation instead. We won’t take a booking from a couple until we have done this first. We think it’s important to have a chat with the couple about how we do things to make sure that they are 100% happy with everything before we agree to taking their booking.
HOLDING DATES FOR WEDDINGS
We often get asked if we can hold a date, unfortunately this is something we can not offer even if it is only for a few days. We often get multiple enquiries for the same date. To try and be as fair as possible to everyone that contacts us, we operate on a first come first served basis.
CONFIRMING A BOOKING
Before we can confirm a booking, we ask our couples to make a deposit payment and complete a booking form. The booking form is important, it is provided by the company that provides our public liability insurance and we have to have a completed booking form for every wedding we photograph for our insurance to remain valid. For deposit payments we prefer bank transfer as the method of payment. Once we have received the payment, we will send a receipt by email.
How to Find a Wedding Photographer
You’ll want your wedding photos to be memorable in all the right ways. That means that you’ll need the perfect man or woman for the job. We’ve got some tips on how to find them.
Finding the perfect wedding photographer to capture your big day on camera is essential. Though taking stunning pictures should be their mission, a wedding photographer’s job goes far beyond holding the camera. They should know how to get all the right angles, photograph all the right people and be a blast to work with!
Where to start
Before you begin searching, make sure you have a few details of your wedding finalized. You should have the date, wedding venue and budget nailed down before you even start scoping out portfolios. This will help later down the line when you start looking at pricing info and have to check a wedding photographer’s availability.
Know your style
You should know the kind of look that you want for your photos. Different wedding photographers use different photography styles, so try to get a feel for what you’re into (it’ll make the narrowing down process much easier). Do you like a higher contrast? Is light and airy your thing? Keep a Pinterest board running to get a feel for the styles you like.
Read reviews
Want to know what went on behind the photos? Start reading reviews. Even though you love a particular photographer’s images, they could be a nightmare to work with. Note how the reviewers talk about their experience and whether they felt encouraged and confident while being shot. You want to feel at ease on your wedding day, not stressed – your wedding photographer has a big role to play in that.