The first thing to consider before you get down to price is “do you like them as a person”. Unlike all your other suppliers who will drop off and go your wedding photographers are there with you all day and if you don’t like them as a person you wont be comfortable with them and consequently they wont get the best photos of you
One of the oldest chestnuts in the wedding industry is “why are wedding photographers so expensive?” In a nutshell we aren’t!
Many people believe that a photographer charges a fortune, turns up, takes a few photos and then leaves. If you break down the hours spent travelling, photographing and post processing your wedding even a £1000.00 photographer is really working for about £25.00 per hour and could be carrying over £10.000 of kit with them to make sure your photos are superb. If you then break it down and consider what other suppliers charge you by the hour the photographer will be one of the cheapest
Some things to ask your prospective photographer are:
Is this your full time occupation? – There are some excellent amateur / weekend photographers out there but if it all goes south they have their Monday to Friday job to fall back on and can rebrand and start again. A professional photographer has a lot more to lose if they ever had a bad day at the office and ruined a wedding
How many people will photograph my wedding? – ideally you want 2 photographers for your wedding, one male and one female, that way everything is covered and both the bride and the groom get photographed at the getting ready stage and no-one gets left out
Do you have spare equipment? – Most good cameras and lenses nowadays are very robust and not much goes wrong but how bad would it be at your wedding if the photographer said “Houston, we have a problem” Check to make sure that your photographer has at least an extra camera, lens, flash card, battery etc so that if anything does go wrong it’s just a momentary delay
Are you fully insured? – This is a must and you shouldn’t consider anyone who hasn’t got the relevant insurances to cover themselves and you and your guests
How long will it be before I see my photos on line? – a good photographer should be able to get your photos processed and uploaded for you to see within 4 weeks, normally it is much quicker than that. Get this one nailed down as there are horror stories out there of people waiting up to 6 months to see their photos
Disk or Album? – fewer people now are wanting an album due to expense and a lot of couples just want a disk with their images on. If you opt for a disk only, make sure it is one with hi-re jpegs you can download from the disk. There are photographers who promise to supply a disk, only for it to be one that you can only watch on the screen but not download. You then have to pay a lot more to get your images
Copyright? – don’t get hung up on copyright, the majority of photographers will not give away their copyright, instead make sure you get full “permission” to use the photographs for all none commercial use. This means that you can download them, share them with friends and family, print them, put them on Facebook etc
Price? A good friend of mine says “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional, wait until you count the cost of using an amateur” If you pay peanuts for your wedding photographer then you may get monkey like photos as the result. Put another way, if I offered you two expensive looking watches, one for £50 and the other for £500 which one do you think will be the bum watch? There is an old maxim that says “If something looks too good to be true it normally is” Unfortunately if you pick someone who likes peanuts to photograph your wedding it’s too late afterwards to go back and reshoot it
Testimonials? – If the photographer cannot provide testimonials from satisfied clients then they are either brand new to the industry or they are so poor that no-one wrote them one – you MUST check this out. Testimonials from satisfied customers are key to the professionalism of the photographer
Who are you? – This is a sneaky one, some photographers are just salesmen, they will meet you, you like them, you book them and then on your wedding day they send another photographer to shoot your wedding. You need to ensure that the person you meet and like will be the one who shoots your wedding
What’s included in the price? – Another one you MUST bottom out before you book your photographer, make sure the price you pay is all inclusive and there are no very expensive hidden extras after your wedding
Advice – We shoot loads of weddings each year and even if you don’t use us we want you to be happy with the wedding photographer you choose so please feel free to ask us questions and we will do our best to help