Ultimate Guide: Wedding photographers and how to choose the right one
Getting married is an exciting, joyous occasion and your wedding planning process is hopefully much the same way.
If you haven’t found a wedding photographer yet don’t fret, today my wife Carole and I would like to share some valuable information that can help guide you to the right professional in your area of the United States.
With more than 119,000 photographers in the US according to datausa.io, there is a lot to choose from, so let’s dive into some helpful information to guide you along the way.
Types of wedding photographers
What are the steps to finding the right wedding photographer for my wedding?
In a nutshell, a wedding photographer sometimes called a ‘tog’ for short is a person that captures moments of your wedding day through the eyes of a camera and lens.
Today, most professionals use a digital style DSLR or mirrorless camera of various grades (prosumer to professional grade)
The purpose of them is to document everything important that happens throughout the day so you can have a record of it and ‘relive’ it over and over again.
As we talk about them today, you’ll start to understand there are many varieties, price ranges, and styles they come in, so it’s important to know what you’d like when searching.
The truth is there is no set price for any given vendor. You have pricing from just a few hundred dollars to upwards of $25,000, yes, $25,000.
There are, however, 4 classifications of wedding vendors and those classifications also group them together by the price that you pay, although sometimes they overlap each other.
Those classifications are budget, mid-range, high-end, and luxury photographers.
These will be the cheapest and least experienced types of people in the industry. Many times you will pay anywhere from a couple of hundred dollars upwards of $1,000 range.
They are generally known for being very vanilla in style and have very limited experience in what they are doing and thus why they are inexpensive.
The benefit here is that you can hire someone at an affordable rate for the full day, however, if something goes wrong or they use the wrong type of gear, you’re at a loss.
Best pricing
Least Experienced
Low-End Gear Typically
Prone to Making More Mistakes
Most couples will find someone in this category of photo pros.
These are people either full-time or part-time in the business with 5+ years of experience under their belts and they tend to be in the $1,500 to $3,000 range give or take.
They will usually have the right equipment, redundant gear, and back-ups for everything they do.
They are going to have a style among their own and can easily handle most situations that may arise at a wedding. You’re also going to get much better images than a budget photographer and you’ll be able to print very large images or canvas without issue too.
Most Commonly Hired
Most have Pro-Level Gear and Backup Gear
Offer Great Value and Pricing
Usually 3-30 years experience
Typically, these are the $3,000-$5,000 professionals offering more of a top-tier experience than the mid-range pro. The main difference is going to be in the type of images they take and the overall experience will be better.
This is a smaller segment of the industry, although more lucrative for the photographer, they tend to bring a more elevated experience to the couple and they rarely make a mistake to the couple.
More Expensive, You're Buying the “experience”, not so much the imagery
Will have Good Equipment and Backup Gear like the Mid-Range
Designed for Those with disposable incomes
This classification makes up about 3% of the entire group and they charge from $6,000 to $25,000+ depending on their ability, demand, and their know-how. These are going to be the top-end pros that you oftentimes see in magazines and events and they will be very difficult to book.
They are very selective on whom they take as a client and many times will travel overseas, perform work for celebrities and politicians and come with an entourage of people for the day.
Very Hard to Book and in High Demand
Very Artistic
Many times will have Expensive Pro-Grade grade in the $5-$50k range
This is a bit misleading, but photographers are so expensive because of your income, not their rates. It also has to do with things like demand for more than before in the terms of photos taken, edited, and processed.
In years past, a wedding photographer would take 500 images, all using 36 image rolls of film. Today, it’s common for a professional to take upwards of 4,000+ images if not more at your wedding.
See what is a normal cost to you is not always a normal cost to the couple up the road, so you need to look to your budget to find the true answer, more on that in a bit.
However, costs are also wrapped up in the quality of gear they have, the amount of time it takes in post-production, the location of the country, and their overhead as a business.
Let me put it to you in a way you can best understand.
If you are having a $5,000 wedding, you’re not going to hire a $4,000 photographer. On the other hand, if you’re having a $100,000 wedding, I’m quite sure you will not be hiring a $700 wedding photographer for the day.
Gear Quality
While most cameras may seem to be similar to the novice, there are huge differences in what they are capable of doing. From entry-level cameras designed for learning like the Canon Rebel t7 or the Nikon D3500, for example, may appear to be professional, but they are not.
Both of those models are roughly $500.
Most wedding photographers are going to choose mid-range cameras with dual memory card slots for redundancy along with great features like good ISO, a fast sensor, and high shutter burst.
Popular models like the Canon 5D Mark IV, the Nikon D750, and the Sony A7iii are common models found among photographers in 2021.
Taking a step further are medium format camera bodies with extreme resolution, upwards of 100 mega-pixels, costing tens of thousands just for the bodies alone. Those are much rarer to find among photogs and usually meant for high-end or high-resolution photography, like large billboards for example.
Additionally, glass or lenses are very expensive, sometimes more than the camera bodies themselves.
So, how can you tell if the photographer has a good camera or not?
Simply ask what kind of camera they have and research the model.
Additionally, make sure the photographer has the following:
A primary camera with dual card slots (you can just research or ask)
A backup or secondary camera
At least one good prime lens with a good f-stop
A good zoom lens good f-stop
A light or flash
Batteries and additional memory cards
Additional things are great to have, but as a good rule of thumb, a good pro will have these items at a very minimum.
Time is Money
Something I explain from time-to-time on the blog is time.
See, when you think of needing a wedding photo professional, you think about only the time needed on the wedding day, maybe it’s 6 hours, 8 or 12.
However, for every hour on-site, there are usually 2-3 in post-production. Additionally, the larger the wedding, the more prep time there will be too.
So when you think to yourself that you ONLY need someone for 10 hours on your wedding, what that says to pros like Carole and I is that you’re looking at closer to 30 hours of work. (10 X 3 + 2 to prep)
So that time is money and that’s where the bulk of the work is, in editing and post-production time.
While you think a pro will make tons of money, the truth is that many barely make a good living at it.
Take a look at this calculator we put together.
The Business Overhead
You can clearly see that there is a lot in the wedding industry. In the app above, there is insurance, business licenses, taxes, marketing and advertising, business operations like rent, internet, cell phone, and the list goes onward.
Without being too specific here, it can cost a business a good deal of overhead to operate in the black, so part of that money you spend helps cover the expense of the business.
One of the most common mistakes I see just about every week on social media like Facebook is people asking what they paid for wedding photos.
Well, you shouldn’t do that, it goes back to the affordability question from beforehand.
What is affordable to you may not be affordable to another couple, so asking generically will not give you the answer you’re seeking.
If you do decide to ask online, be very specific in nature.
Here’s a bad example.
“ISO a wedding photographer near the lake for my summar wedding. We want someone affordable with a second shooter and we’re on a tight budget. We want light and airy images.”
In the statement above, did it address the price? What about the date to see if the vendor is even available? Did it even tell you where specifically?
No, it didn’t
So you’ll get $500 people to $10,000 people and everything in between.
Now, let’s say the same thing, but be specific this time.
“ISO a light and airy wedding photographer for our September 3rd, 2021 wedding at Gabriel Estates. We have a budget range of $1,600 to $1,950 and we’d like to have a second shooter if possible.”
In that statement, it addressed the price range, the date, and style you’re seeking, and if it’s possible a second shooter. You will get a lot MORE leads in your price range and availability with this sentence.
When it comes to image styles there are plenty. Here are just a few to start with that are fairly common in the marketplace today.
Classic/Traditional - Striking, formal, and group shots. Think of wedding images that your parents most likely had, they document the day and there is a good amount of posing in them, mostly with the bridal party and guests throughout the day. The Focus is on the entire bridal party and guests, not just the couple.
Photojournalistic - Usually the most heartfelt and most popular style. Here, you will find mostly “in the moment” images with little posing or staging, capturing things as they happen in real-time. Photographers don’t have to do much with the couple or direct them as much as in the classic style. This is also commonly called the documentary-style or natural style, as they overlap.
Editorial (Posed all the time)- This is more for high-end and luxury photographers, but each image is perfectly posed and done artistically and tastefully too. While rare among the styles, think of images you may see in a wedding magazine or brochure, the professional will bring art with imagery to create wonderful, high-end images.
Dark and Moody- This is actually a much newer style and becoming the newest trend among couples seeking photos. The images are darker, although the colors are typically more saturated, they bring a more ‘real’ element to the images with the mood. You’ll find that more and more couples are asking for this style over the last 3-4 years and it’s only going upward in style.
Light and Airy- (sometimes called Pastel) - This trend has been around for the last decade and it’s starting to go out. Still popular, the photos are actually washed out to create this lighter than air effect. When this happens, color saturation is also taken out leaving an almost pastel look to the image. It’s currently the most popular style although fewer and fewer couples are asking for it in 2021.
All Black and White- This is more of a feature than a style as almost all photographers opt to add in a few black and white images to add a more intimate effect. The idea is to take out the color so you focus on the subject in the image, not the image itself. There are still a handful of pros in the market that only do black and white imagery, usually found in the luxury classification.
Landscape- (couple with the landscape in the background)- A lesser-known style, the photographer will incorporate backgrounds into the image with the couple. Mountains, oceans, and cityscapes, for example, these images are usually taken with the landscape being apart of the couples day.
Each one of these comes with a different area of focus with the color, framing, and tone, some mix things together and some do only one style on its own.
Great question by itself!
Many couples will relay on various questions from websites like Wedding Wire and theKnot and that’s a great start. To help get the most basic points across you should be asking the following questions.
Will, the photos be retouched and/or color balanced?
How many weddings have you shot, and how many do you do in a year? Also, what's your favorite part of a wedding day, and time of year to shoot?
What exactly is included in your packages?
How many hours of coverage do we get? What is the charge for overtime?
What are the deposit and total fee?
Will you be my actual photographer, or will it be one of your associates?
Do you have backup photographers who will shoot the wedding if you're sick?
Will there be a second shooter or any assistants? Is there an additional fee for each?
How long after the wedding do we get to see the photos?
How many weddings do you do at a weekend?
Will you follow a shot list? Or do you prefer to have free reign to capture the festivities how you see fit?
Do you bring your own lighting?
Do you have backup equipment or memory cards?
There are a few basic steps that you will take to narrow the field of professionals to a few that you’ll want to chat with.
Step 1: First, you need to know your budget range. It’s calculated by taking your overall wedding budget and cutting a slice of it out, then adding and subtracting about 9.7%. That will be your ‘range’.
We developed a tool to help with that, give it a try below.
Step 2: Once you have the budget range, you can then start looking around by casting a ‘net’ if you will to other vendors, social media, and the like too.
As we talked about earlier, be as specific as you can when you ask about it. You’ll want to weed out those far under and far above your budget range, so try to be as detailed as you can.
You’ll need to actually go through each link/Facebook page or website and see what they are about. You’ll find that some are just photographers, some, like us, offer both photos and video, others only do weddings occasionally.
You should be able to pick out about 8-10 good companies that look as if they would fit your criteria.
Using a spreadsheet, jot down their style, price range, contact information, and your first impressions of their work.
Step 3: From there, you’ll need to actually start doing research on them. From recent reviews to samples, it’s a good idea to get an idea of who they are before you actually make a connection.
Step 4: Once you are ready, reach out to them and try to either set up a phone call, video chat, or in-person meeting if you can. What you will want to do is use the questions from above to ask them and jot down their responses.
At this point, you don’t need to get a contract, if they offer one, tell them that you are interested in one and if they could show you one, that would be wonderful, just don’t sign it yet.
Step 5: From the larger group of candidates, you’ll need to widdle them down to about 3-4, so this is where talking among yourselves will be helpful. Talk about their work, what you liked or didn’t like, maybe there is something unique the vendor offers that strikes your fancy, but talk about them as a couple to narrow it down.
Of the 3-4 left, we do recommend returning contact to the others and in a nice fashion, let them know that you’re going in a different direction, this is so you don’t appear to be ghosting them.
We do recommend connecting back to each one of them through email and ask them about the terms of the contract. This could be a payment plan, maybe it’s about when the balance is due or a technical question about the delivery time, maybe something specific.
Step 6: At this point, you should be able to negotiate should you decide you want or need to do so.
Some companies have other things they could offer and many times by asking if they could throw something in to sweeten the pot and make the sale could be beneficial to you. Other companies already offer everything in a package so there may not be room to do this, but if you’re set on something like an engagement shoot for example, but the package doesn’t include it, ask and see if they’ll include it as a discount or free of charge to you.
What’s the worst that could happen, they say no?
That wouldn’t be the end of the world, but if you don’t ask, you won’t get it.
With all that information in hand, you should be able to make a great decision of whom to hire for the wedding day.
Regarding the wedding contract, there are a few things that should be set in place that protect you and of course the photographer, that’s the point of a contract, is to protect each other should something happen.
At a very minimum, you want to have the following included:
When the wedding takes place
Where the wedding takes place
What services will they provide while onsite (usually in bullet point form)
What will happen if you cancel the contract and what will happen if they cancel the contract
Signed and dated by both parties
You should ask for the actual signed contract, not a copy
There are other considerations that could be in a contract, such as refund policies, what happens if a vendor gets sick, and the like too. You’ll find that contract vary from business to business, so we suggest that you have the contract signed by both the photographer and yourself, and if you can ask for the original copy (sometimes you can have a second signed copy as well)
Reviews are fairly good form the standpoint that it shows the character of the business or person that you’re working within the first place. The idea behind a review to for you to have that ‘social-proof’ that they are as they seem, truthful, professional, and will do a great job on your wedding day.
Sometimes vendors may run across one negative review among a sea of good ones, that happens to most people and it’s fairly normal.
Think of it this way.
“You will NEVER be able to please 100% of the people you encounter 100% of the time.”
For example, if your wedding photographer has 30 reviews, one is a 1-star and the rest are 4-star and above, you may want to look at it as that person simply blowing wind to the vendor.
If that same vendor had 25% negative reviews, however, you may want to rethink them as it may indicate something isn’t right. It could be the customer service or the imagery itself, just understand that those with a track record of bad reviews may be a sign of trouble ahead.
The best places to look for reviews are going to be Google, Wedding Wire, Facebook (if they have them turned on), and theKnot.
The answer is, it depends.
if you’re having a large wedding, more than 150 guests, you may want to consider having a second shooter for the day to get detailed shots and act as a backup should the main photographer be tied up with the bridal party or something else at the moment.
My personal rule of thumb is the 150-guest number.
If you have less than 150, one photographer should be plenty for your 8-10 hour day.
If you have 150-300 guests, I’d recommend having a second shooter.
If you have 300-450 guests (yes, that does happen), then I’d recommend you hire the main photographer, then a second and also a third shooter.
This is a bit of a hard question to answer because each wedding pro is different, however, I can give you some guidelines for the answer.
Remember the 1:3 rule I talked about earlier?
If you take that and the number of weddings the photographer does each year, you should get a good, reasonable answer.
Take 30 weddings a year, each of them taking roughly 30 hours to complete from start to finish with the post-production, in theory, you should be able to get your photos back in less than a months time.
However, from experience, the more expensive the professional, the longer it generally takes to complete, upwards of 3 months’ time!
For Carole and I, our contract states 3-4 weeks, but we generally get everything done in about 2 weeks or less.
The best thing to do is two-fold:
Ask them what the turnaround time is, then verify that on the contract before you sign. That way, you’ll have the best idea of when you will get them back, if there are any ‘teaser’ images a day or two after the ceremony, and the like too.
Did you find our information useful?
If you found our info useful, sign up for our monthly newsletter by subscribing in the form below. And as always, feel free to connect with Carole or me about any wedding-related questions that you may have.