Searching for the perfect photographer to capture the memories of your wedding day is a daunting task and very overwhelming as you look through photo after photo on social media as well as spend time browsing through website after website.

Carole Gabrielson at work during a recent wedding

In this blog, we breakdown the search into the five most important must-haves in a wedding photographer:

1. Quality

2. Experience

3. Professionalism

4. Artistic Style/Creativity

5. Price

QUALITY

The photographers that you are considering should have an extensive collection of photos on their website or social media. In addition, they should provide a link to a gallery for you to preview.

The gallery should serve as a portfolio containing images that are typically taken during a wedding day as well as visually tell a gripping love story. You will want to look for a good mix of close-ups, headshots, medium- and full-length portraits, and group shots.

A good wedding photographer will have a good mix of close-ups, headshots, medium- and full-length portraits, and group shots in the sample galleries..png

Things to make note of as you review their work:

In portraits, are everyone’s eyes open, and are the eyes in focus?
Is there any motion blur?
Are the subjects framed well in the photos using the rule of thirds?
Is there a variety of poses?
Is there a lot of grain or “noise” in the images?
Are the photos too dark (under-exposed) or too light (over-exposed)?

EXPERIENCE

If the amount of experience is not stated on the wedding photographer’s website, the experience of the photographer may be evident by the quality and breadth of their work. If you see images from many, many different weddings, it is likely they have covered enough weddings to have gained valuable expertise.

You may even notice how their artistic style and work will have grown and developed over time by comparing images from earlier weddings to ones taken more recently.

Experienced photographers’ images will:

be properly focused and framed
not have any motion blur
be perfectly exposed

You may even come across a photographer whose images are wonderful, but they do not possess an extensive repertoire of weddings that they have covered (yet!). If you find that their quality is good and meets your expectations, it is more than likely that the photographer has enough time behind the camera to produce excellent images for your wedding.

PROFESSIONALISM

All communications – verbal or text – should be polite and respectful, using appropriate language with no slang or foul words. In addition, as a professional courtesy to you, the photographer should always respond to emails, messages, and voicemails within 24 hours. Even it is just a quick response:

“I received your message and I’m sorry I missed you. Your questions and concerns are important to me. I’ll reach out again [very soon timeframe] to answer your questions. Or, if you prefer to set up a time to chat, I’m available [very soon and convenient times].”

When meetings are scheduled, your photographer should be prompt; you should not have to wait for them to arrive at face-to-face or virtual meetings.

Emergencies do happen. If one does arise, you should be made aware immediately and any changes to the scheduled meeting discussed and agreed upon. However, tardiness is a huge red flag as this indicates that they may not have respect for your time and should leave you wondering if they will be late arriving on your wedding day.

While meetings with you don’t require business attire, your photographer should be wearing neat and clean clothes, with no holes. Their outfit should also be appropriate to the setting; for example, workout clothing, including yoga pants, should not be worn to a meeting at your local favorite coffee shop.

On your wedding day, the photographer should arrive in comfortable business casual attire clothing and wearing sensible shoes as they will be up, down, standing for long periods, and moving quickly to be sure that they are able to get all the angles of the shots that they need or to capture artistic elements.

Photographing a wedding is hard work and requires standing and moving for long hours and their clothing should be able to withstand the day. There is nothing tackier than a photographer walking around a swanky venue with bare feet because they wore inappropriate shoes which are now causing their feet to hurt from standing and walking all day.

Keep in mind that the photographer is a vendor that will be attending your wedding and will likely have direct contact with venue management, your family and guests. Therefore, your vendors should be “putting their best foot forward” with their promptness, communications, dress, and demeanor.

ARTISTIC STYLE & CREATIVITY

Whatever the style that the photographer has – light/airy, dark/moody, or something else – it is important that their style matches what you are looking for in wedding day images. As you review their work, if you notice mostly dark/moody photos and your preference is light/airy photos, you may consider passing on this photographer as light/airy may not be a style that they can produce to satisfaction and meet expectations.

However, if you see a mix of styles on the photographer’s website and social media, it is okay to ask them which style they prefer to shoot or feel they are best at producing. Also, be sure to let your photographer know what style photographs you prefer.

When meeting with your photographer, it is helpful to bring a few example photos, either from their portfolio or one you found from another photographer in your research for wedding day inspiration. This way you can easily show what poses you would like to recreate and the artistic style that you prefer.

Creativity is also important when selecting a photographer as they will be putting together a visual story of your wedding. In order to tell your wedding’s visual story, you want to be sure to find someone who demonstrates creative talent and a “willingness to play”.

In their images, take note of the:

use of the light – for example, at sunset, the couple is backlit to give a halo effect
use of texture – for example, the photographer artistically placed the bride’s jewelry on lace from the veil or gown
use of setting – for example, the photographer used a wide-angle zoom to capture the gorgeous mountain backdrop behind the couple

Creative styling with a “Save the Date” signboard

You should also be sure to tell the photographer any poses or props that you would like to incorporate. In addition, your photographer should be able to answer the question “how would you pose me holding [prop]? Or do you envision another use for [prop] and how would you photograph it?” Mind you, there is no right or wrong answer to this question, rather you are looking for how they verbalize their creativity and comfort with suggestions of poses and props that you may bring them.

PRICE

Let’s be honest, it often comes down to cost and budget when hiring a photographer for your wedding. But the cost of packages and a la carte services are most often missing on almost all photographer’s websites.

Why? To lure you in.

You are in love, dreaming of your wedding day…images from previous weddings are strategically selected and placed on the website so that you can envision you and your soon-to-spouse on your big day creating drama and emotion to tug at your heart.

Once they have that emotional hook, you fill out the form or email. It is often not until a few emails back and forth or after a meeting, you are presented with a full price list and a better idea of how much their services will cost you.

This is not the experience at Wedding Photography and Films. All of our packages are value-priced with detailed lists of services and products are provided up-front on our website. This is so that our couples know from the very start what they are getting for how much. There are no hidden costs or surprise add-on charges.

Why? To lure you in.

We understand that booking vendors, especially photographers, can be stressful. We do as much as we can reduce that stress and work very hard to exceed your expectations for service, price, and quality.

Taking the time to seek out these five must-haves in a wedding photographer will not only save you money, but will also eliminate any potential disappointment from not hiring a quality, professional photographer that offers exceptional value for your budget.