Choosing the right wedding photographer is actually a pretty hard process when you see the mountain of wedding photographers out in the marketplace today. You have an entire range of prices, experience levels, quality, styles and personalities. You’ll find some wedding photographers are arrogant and self absorbed, you’ll find some pleasant to work with, some that are not worth the prices they charge and those that charge too little.

Today, we want to share with you some guidelines on finding the right wedding photographer for you and your budget.

In Line With the Budget

First things first, Carole and I recommend that you keep things in reality with the wedding budget. Over our twenty plus years of being in the wedding business, we’ve seen couples have a $10,000 then hire a $3,600 wedding photographer when in reality they should have hired one for $1,200 instead.

If you don’t know how much you should be spending use, this calculator to simply figure out the range that should be spending. Region is a minor part of the equation as well as the style of photography and people will tell you different ranges, but it mostly boils down to your overall budget and how much you’re spending at your wedding.

Someone with a $5,000 budget isn’t going to spend $3,000 on a wedding photographer and someone with a $100,000 budget ins’t going to hire one for $1,000.

The truth is that many wedding photographer overcharge for their services and they are no better than ones that cost half as much. What you are paying for is their “exclusivity” and experience of hiring them and only them. Hey, I get it, I’m in the business and have been for a longtime. (Other photographer hate that I tell industry secrets btw)

Here is an example of what I mean. Can you tell which image was the $3,600 photographer and which was a $1,700 photographer?

Well, just by looking at the images you can’t really tell, but the on on the right was done with a medium format Hassleblad H6D-50 camera (cost about $15,00 without a lens) and is high-end photographer that charges $8,500 and the other two were done with mid-range Sony cameras costing $1,798 and $2,400.

Those on the left are mid-range photographers in price, from $1,500 and $1,700 respectively. Sure this is a simple example but my point is this, you don’t have to spend gobs of money just because someone does great work, in fact, you can often times find others that are just as good for a fraction of the cost and more in line with the wedding budget.

Keep in line with the wedding budget (5-15% variance) and you should be fine. Couples often get wrapped up in the emotion of images and how they look and will fork out big bucks for someone that is great at what they do, without turning over other rocks in the garden to see what else may be out there.

Keep The Emotion Out

Keeping emotions out of choosing the right wedding vendor will increase your chances that you’re not going to go over the budget by leaps and bounds here. I see it all the time, a couple see someones work and suddenly falls in love with it, they meet in person and the photographer is up-playing the couple with the imagery as seeing them in those photos.

Listen, there are differences in budget, mid-range and high-end photographers and each has it’s good points and bad.

But here me out, if your a budget bride and you only have $1,000 to spend on wedding photos, don’t hire someone in the $2,400 range. If you’re a mid-range couple and your budget calls for $2,700, don’t hire a $3,900 photographer.

That’s like saying that my budget for a gas sipping point a-to-b car is $12,000 but I’m gonna buy a $45,000 BMW instead.

Keeping the emotion out of your wedding planning or hiring a wedding vendor is much harder than it seems, just remember this, wedding vendors like myself are business transactions just like paying a bill, get emotional after you book them and you’ll be fine.

How Best to Compare Us

I tell couples to use the 3rd-3rd-3rd rule when it comes to comparing wedding photographers. That’s Price, Experience and Quality, something I talk about in a past blog post.

In that, I explain why you should use this rule to help find the best photographer that fits in your budget, has the best overall experience with what they give AND their experience level, also take into consideration the quality of what you’re getting too.

There is a place for each type of wedding photographer out there, the major problem is that couples get wrapped up in day-dreaming and when they reach for photographers they can’t afford, it blows the budget so it’s best to stay in or below the range of what they should be paying for when it comes to images.

So, why would I be telling you this, after-all Carole and I do wedding photography and films.

Truth be told, there was a time I was much like most of the wedding industry at hand, trying to squeeze as much money from a client as possible. But, we’re not doing this full-time anymore, so we don’t have to be competitive with others and we can offer a more affordable price-point and still offer great value and make money too.

Something that I’ve learned over my career is that when I was operating as a full-time business, my mindset was a lot different than someone operating part-time and having no intention of returning to the full-time circuit.

Money isn’t the driving force in what we do. Don’t get us wrong, we need money to keep buying new gear, lenses, bodies, have a vacation and tuck a little away, but because it’s not our livelihood, we don’t have the sales pressure we once did and we don’t complete with others out there. That’s one of the reasons we typically stay booked a year ahead of everyone else.

Right Tools for the Right Job

Most couples don’t have a clue the difference between an entry level DSLR/mirrorless cameras and a professional one, but they are very different tools for very different jobs.

An entry level camera, like a Canon 7Ti for example, is a $500 kit camera thats designed for learning basic photography.

A high-end camera like a Canon 5D Mark IV or a Sony A7iii is designed for professional use and it comes with a professional price-tag.

All you need to understand as a couple getting married is that $500 camera isn’t going to operate in the way way a $3,000 camera will operate. That’s like comparing a Kia Rio sedan to a Formula 1 racing car, meant for two very different applications.

A couple of things to consider is how an image looks in low-light situations, is it grainy and dark or is it well lit?

Most professional camera bodies and lenses are going to do a wonderful job in low light situations, allowing more light into the lens and creating a better image all together. While having pro gear isn’t everything, it’s definitely something you want to look for when seeking a good wedding photographer.