It’s true, choosing a wedding photographer isn’t always easy. You are trusting this person to capture the best day of your life – not only in a beautiful way, but also in a way that shows professionalism, knowledge, and knowing that there are many things that could go wrong. So I have made a list of five questions you should ask your potential wedding photographer! Ask your wedding photographer these five questions, if you feel that they answer them accurately then I’m sure you will have a wonderful experience and a beautiful selection of images!
1 —Have you ever lost any wedding photos? What are you doing now to ensure that you won’t lose any in the future?
Your photographer should have multiple backup plans and fail safes in place. This ensures that every beautiful moment they capture actually makes it into your possession. To do this, your photographer should have two cameras with them on your wedding day. The cameras should be writing on dual memory cards, which they should then backup to multiple hard drives when they get home from your wedding. The grim truth is, even the most expensive gear can malfunction, regardless of its age or amount of use. Unfortunately, the gear doesn’t care if it’s your wedding day or not – when it fails it fails! So making sure that your photographer has more than one camera body is very important. The other important thing your photographer needs to do is back up all photo storing devices twice. This means dual memory cards, and dual hard drives. These devices only last so long before they just can’t store any new information. Dual writing safeguards against memory card failure. Likewise, backing up the images to multiple hard drives works the same way.
2 — Do they ask you whats important to you about your wedding day?
Not every wedding is the same, so make sure your photographer doesn’t treat it like it is! A good photographer will ask you and your fiancé what the most important aspects of your day are, so that they can accurately capture the story from that frame of reference. Maybe to you, couples portraits are what you are the most excited about — and this may lead to a conversation for providing more of these images on your wedding day. Or maybe photographs of you with your guests are special to you — so your photographer will make a point to get more of these types of images. There are so many different aspects and detail of a wedding day, it’s important to know what you treasure so you won’t want for certain images in your gallery. If your photographer doesn’t ask you this, don’t hesitate to bring it up yourself. However, if they do ask you, you know for a fact that they care about you and your wishes.
3 — How many photos will I receive and what kind of editing are you capable of? Do extra edits have an additional cost?
Most professional wedding photographers will fill your gallery with somewhere between 50-100 images per hour that they are shooting. That means, depending on your photographer, you may receive anywhere between 300 – 1,000 images! From an editing perspective that’s a lot to work on! This is why weddings have such a long turn around time (usually between 4-6 weeks) and sometimes blemishes can slip through the cracks. Will they edit these out if you find them in your finished gallery? To what extent does your photographer make cosmetic edits? This is something to look for in your contract!
4 — Is your business registered and do you have insurance?
These are important because you know without a doubt that your photographer takes their business seriously. Nothing is more dangerous than a service provider who does wedding photography as a side hustle.
5 — What happens if you fall ill or are otherwise unable to shoot our wedding day?
There are so many more important questions to ask your photographer, but I believe that these five are at the top of the list. If your photographer can answer these questions to your satisfaction, than you can rest assured that you have a professional who will without a doubt provide you with a quality finished product for you to cherish for the rest of your life!
A few final tips I suggest before you settle on the best photographer for you, is to meet them in person! You’re going to spend more time with your wedding photographer than anyone else on your wedding day! Like anyone you’re going to spend a full day with, you will want your personalities to mesh well.
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