What to ask the wedding photographer you are considering hiring.
Many couples have a hard time knowing where to begin when they are looking for a qualified wedding photographer. They don’t know what to ask or what to look for. I have compiled a list of things to consider requesting from your photographer and questions you may want to ask before signing on that dotted line. After all its not like people do this often. There is no previous experience to compare to. This only happens once and there are no do-overs when it comes to your wedding day.
Let’s start with #11. ( Bonus !)
11) Check your photographer’s reviews on several websites. Be sure to check out Yelp, The Knot, Wedding Wire, Google and Facebook.
10) Ask someone who has used them before to give you all the details. The good and the bad.
9) Ask your photographer if you can see a FULL wedding gallery that covers a similar time frame that you will be booking for your wedding day. From start to finish, it is helpful to see everything that a photographer includes when they present a complete gallery to a client. This also allows you to see all the shots, not just the featured perfect shots they have on their website. You are able to see the way they shoot everything from family formals to details. Some photographers can capture amazing photos in certain light but aren’t able to adapt to low light situations. You want to make sure they can photograph in diverse light and situations across the board. The last thing it shows you is about how many photos you will get from the entire day. If you plan to book 8 hours of coverage then ask to see an 8 hour wedding gallery. I usually have about 400-500+ in an 8 hour gallery. It’s a good idea to ask to see album samples too, they are very expensive so you want to make sure they are high quality and durable.
8) Ask what kind of formal training they have had for shooting weddings and how many weddings they have done as a second shooter or as a lead photographer. Most photographers that have been a second shooter have more experience. I would personally recommend that hiring someone who has at least 40-50 weddings as a solo photographer under their belt. Everyone learns ad improves at different rates but I personally didn’t feel 100% ready and confident until after about 50 weddings. It’s a scary thought but there are many hobbyists that just pick up a nice camera at Best Buy, claim a Facebook page and advertise as a wedding photographer and have no formal training ( I know MANY). Not good. There is a wide range of skills that a great wedding photographer should have, from being efficient with time flow to being good with kids and people posing that can only be learned with many years of experience. This is getting picky but ask to see a business certificate if you really want to be cautious. A certificate doesn’t promise they will be amazing but it shows they are serious about their career.
7) Ask what kind of equipment they have and if they have backup equipment . If they don’t have backup equipment, that means if anything goes wrong, they don’t have a replacement to shoot with. Also ask to make sure they have “off camera lighting”. The answer to that question should always be yes. There will absolutely be a need for off and on camera external flash at EVERY single wedding. This means that your photographer understands the need to correctly light any situation and they have professional lights and flashes that aren’t just the little ones that pop out of the camera.
6) Ask if you are getting all the images from the entire day with copyright release as part of the package. Also ask if those photos will be fully edited and if they will be in high resolution form. Many companies will give you the CD of images but they aren’t edited (edited takes more time). The reason you need high resolution is so that you can make prints larger than 8×10 and have clear prints, if they are low resolution they will print blurry. Basically all photographers are giving out the images plus copyright these days as part of the package deal so make sure you are getting them.
5) Ask if anything is outsourced, especially your album. Outsourcing means that a photographer sends your wedding photos to someone else to be edited or to make an album. If they say yes they outsource, this means some who wasn’t even at the wedding will be putting together the story of your day, which to me does not make sense. This also means someone you don’t know has access to your photos. I personally am not ok with outsourcing. It means a great deal for the person who was a participant ( your actual photographer ) to have emotional connection with what was experienced that day in order to properly design your album. Most big chain companies that have more than 5 photographers working for one company name are outsourcing their weddings.
4) Make sure the photographer is familiar with the city in which you will be getting married. It’s not crazy important that they have experience at your exact venue but make sure they know the city especially if it’s a big city. For example if you hire a small town photographer to shoot in the city of Chicago they won’t have a clue about traffic times and parking situations or even street navigation but if you have a big city photographer coming to shoot in a small town that would be no problem because they have basically seen it all.
3) Ask what kind of backup methods they use. Hard drive and Cloud is what you really want but I would be content with just Cloud. Backing up on hard drive is great but many things can happen to a physical hard drive. Water damage, fire or even corruption is possible. This is why its a great idea to have it also backed up on a Cloud server. It also wouldn’t hurt to ask how long they archive on the server. You can ultimately safe proof your images on your own as well by backing them up on your personal server to make sure you never lose them.
2) If at all possible have your engagement session with the photographer you plan to use for the wedding before you hire them for the wedding. You want to mesh well with the photographer. After all you and your family and friends will be spending quite a bit of time with them the day of. This way you are getting to know them and how they operate. If you aren’t digging them, then you have the choice of backing out. If they try to say that you have to book the engagement and wedding at the same time then they aren’t being flexible. Tell them your reasoning and they should be cool with it. I personally offer that with my clients and then if they book me for the wedding I allow them to pay later and add the engagement at a discount to their wedding package.
1) Ask to see the contract you will be signing and look over it carefully. The contract protects you as well as the photographer. If there isn’t a contract. Run the other way.
I hope this helps! I have been doing this gig for quite awhile so these are the things I myself would be asking the photographer I was looking to hire.
Chicago Wedding Photographer. Quad Cities Wedding Photographer. City Savvy Imaging is now taking weddings in select areas of the Midwest including but not limited to Indiana, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan and Iowa. Please inquire by email for open wedding dates and pricing.