Wedding Photographer Guide, How to choose the best one for your wedding?
If you’re getting married and going through the wedding planning process, then you realize something, weddings are hard to navigate!
Worse, wedding photographers such as my wife Carole and I are literally a dime a dozen in any given region with a massive amount of price ranges, styles, camera types and packages.
That further confuses couples like you, that are looking for someone that is a good fit for your upcoming wedding.
Well, with people giving out opinions instead of facts, we’ve come up with this ultimate guide to help give you some knowledge on what to do, what to ask and what to avoid when selecting a wedding photographer.
“Someone with a $30,000 wedding budget is not going to hire a $500 photographer and someone with a $5,000 wedding budget isn’t going to hire a $4,000 photographer.”
Steps to choose Your Wedding Photographer
If you are a regular follower of our blog, then you know that we tell you that the first thing you need to do is figure out how much money you plan to spend. That goes for your overall budget and each sub category, like wedding photography.
Let me be clear on something. Someone with a $30,000 wedding budget is not going to hire a $500 photographer and someone with a $5,000 wedding budget isn’t going to hire a $4,000 photographer. Yes, there are differences between the two in what you get, like quality and experience, but thats the beauty of the wedding industry, we have various classes of vendors for different types of couples getting married.
If you don’t know that number, use our wedding photographer budget tool to help.
Start your search with Google or Facebook if you don’t know where to turn.
On Google, use your venue location along with the keywords you want, such as "Roanoke Wedding Photography”. In this example, Roanoke is the location where the wedding may be at, use your city, region or even state and “Wedding Photography” or “Wedding Photographer”.
On Facebook, search for your local wedding group page. In Virginia for example, we have many. Examples are Virginia Weddings, Roanoke Something Borrowed, Something Blue, DMV Weddings and Hampton Roads Weddings. If you don’t know, just type in your state and weddings, then search for groups and join them.
Do a social media query and be specific with what you are asking for in the query too. What we mean is this, input your wedding date, price range (the number from the tool linked above) along with what you are looking for in a photographer. Here are two real world examples, the first one is what you want to avoid doing!
“ISO a cheap photographer for our wedding coming up in October. I need someone affordable that doesn’t break the budget.“
“In search of a wedding photographer for October 21st, 2020 for our wedding in downtown Washington, DC. Our budget range is $2,500-$2,850.”
As you start to collect information, create a spreadsheet. We’ve created one that you can download and use for your wedding photographer search. In the spreadsheet, put the business name, pricing they charge, what they offer for that price. It will help you compare them visually.
Connect with each one that matches your criteria. For example, you may need 10 hours of coverage or 4 hours. Maybe you need a second shooter or you want lots of images, maybe you want a few. Based on what you want, you can start to weed out those that don’t match what you need, then connect with them and ask questions.
Questions to Ask Wedding Photographers
If you’ve reached this point using the steps above, congrats you’ve passed the most complex part of hiring the right photographer for your wedding. Now that you’re in the connection stage, we believe that you should ask questions. Some of the most important ones include:
Is our wedding date available with you?
Without having your date open, they can’t work with you, so it’s one of the first thing to ask
How long have you been in the wedding business? (thats important because the longer, usually the better experience they have)
Typically, longer experienced photographers will do a better job because they have the experience and they are able to adjust to various scenarios that could happen on the fly.
What is included in your _________ package?
You should always ask whats included in their package or packages that you are interested in purchasing. Let them talk about everything they have to offer within the package and make notes.
What is your refund or cancellation policy?
Most wedding photographers will work with you on rescheduling if you need too, take COVID-19 as an example, or a refund. Everyone is different, so make sure that whatever the policy, it’s in writing. If they say it and it’s not in writing, it doesn’t count legally.
Will there be a second shooter with you?
You may want a second shooter and if you do, ask. The cost will generally be more because they will pay the second shooter.
Will we have a print release with our images?
There is a difference in a print release and copyright release. Copyright release is usually not given because that means they are giving you the rights to the image and the photographer can’t use them. Print release is much more common and that allows you to print and share the images as long as they are not for profit use.
How would you describe your photography style?
While you may have seen samples or weddings they shoot, ask them about their style and see what makes them different? Some styles are ‘light and airy’, ‘natural’, ‘vivid’ and ‘photo-journalistic’ just to name a few. Make sure the style they offer is pleasing to you.
Do you have other weddings our weekend?
Make sure the photographer doesn’t have any other wedding your weekend. Why? Because you want them charged, feeling fresh and ready to go at your wedding and not drained with a ‘wedding-hangover’ from the night before. TRUST us, it happens to all of us in the industry.
Do you offer a warranty or satisfaction guarantee?
Not all professionals offer any sort of warranty or guarantee, but it’s worth asking about. A warranty will help if for example 3-5 years down the road your dog or child destroys your USB and all the files within it. Having a warranty helps replace that USB with copies of your images.
Do you have reviews from past clients we can read?
Reading reviews from past clients will give you a general idea of how the photographer is and will give you any clues that photographers may not tell you. For example, a nearby wedding photographer had mixed reviews because of the way she treated clients after the wedding day, taking much longer to get their images than agreed too.
Can we see weddings from the last few that you’ve done to get a sense of your work?
While seeing images on the website is helpful, ask to see a complete, recent wedding they did. Many times photographers will put pages together of a single wedding, where you can quickly glance at to see what they are producing for clients. It’s a good idea to see 1-2 of these to get a better idea of their work, beyond the sample images.
Wedding Photographer Secrets You Should Know About
There are some unknown secrets that wedding photographers won’t typically tell you.
The amount of time at your wedding isn’t the real price for your wedding and this is what we mean.
Say for example, you are seeking a photographer for 8 hours of your day.
In your mind, you have a budget of $2,000 for those 8 hours. Truth be told, your paying for far more than 8 hours, in fact, you’re paying for the prep-time before the wedding, the wedding itself as well as the post-production time.
“When you are hiring a photographer for your wedding day, you’re hiring them for far MORE than just the 7-10 hours you think you are for your wedding. ”
The average time for prepping for a wedding is about 3.7 hours and the average time is takes for post-production is closer to 20 hours. Combined with your wedding day time, say 9 hours on average, the photographer is spending closer to 33 man hours working your wedding and thats what you are paying for, not just the wedding day itself.
Typical Hours Worked at Wedding
Instead of paying $2,000 for 8 hours, your really paying $2,000 for 36 hours time instead. 8 vs. 36 is a big difference. Just remember that your paying for much more time than you think you are.
You’re Not the Only Client in the Pipeline
Most couples don’t realize that they are not the only client the photographer has to deal with. Many times, couples will enter this non-stop back and forth through email asking a multitude of questions and except fast answers.
Equipment is Expensive
Camera equipment for wedding professionals, those videographers and photographers, is very expensive.
When I first started working in the wedding industry in the 1990’s, a good camera for video would easily cost us $14,000 or more. Today, cameras are much cheaper in comparison, although they still cost a lot of money.
Let me give you an example.
Carole, my wife and wedding photographer is a Sony gal, she uses a couple of different bodies and lenses for her work. Her Sony 7aii and Sony a7iii cost roughly $2,800, then she uses Sigma lenses, a 30mm 1.4 and a 24-70 2.8 that cost another $1,800. That doesnt include flashes, batteries, memory card, holsters and the like. On a given wedding, she’ll carry about $6,000 in gear.
I myself am a Panasonic guy, mostly use the S1 for my main camera. Long story short, I carry another $11,500 in gear for my wedding films and video.
My point is that we need a lot of very expensive gear to get high-quality, professional images and videos and thats not something we generally talk much about with clients unless they happen to ask.
You CAN Always Negotiate
Competition hates when I talk about this point…
Something that we will never tell you, is that almost all of us will negotiate with you on price and packages. I say most, because most have room to do so, although they will always state the package you see, is the price you pay.
For example, let’s say that you’re a wedding photographer and you have a small package that cost $1,400. Let’s say the following is included in the package.
7 hours
800 images
Print release
Mini session
Well, if you look at the specs on the package, it may or may not be a good fit for your wedding. Maybe you need more hours or less hours, maybe you’re not wanting a limit on the images or maybe you don’t want the mini session included.
My point, ask about it.
Very few companies will lump everything that you need together, giving more room to wiggle with tossing in something or adjusting the price.
I will tell you that photographers are much more likely to add an hour or toss in something rather than knock down the overall price.
But, if you don’t ask, you won’t know the answer to getting a little something extra to close the deal.
What I will tell you is that photographers are not going to slash pricing just because you don’t like their price.
The Secret Behind Pricing
Price is based off of a photographers talent (experience), their demand and what they can produce for your wedding day.
First, talent.
Talent usually comes with age and experience. Someone with a years experience will usually not have the talent like someone with 10 years experience. That doesn’t mean that someone new is bad, it just means that they lack the experience that is needed if something suddenly pops up, like the ring bearer dropping the rings for example.
The better they are, the higher they generally will cost.
Second, their demand.
As a wedding photographer becomes more popular, they usually have a higher demand and with such, higher prices. Someone that is getting many leads is usually priced too low for their work, so they raise their price to effectively weed out couples that they feel are not worth their time.
There is nothing wrong with that, it’s just marketplace and the demand that customers put on them for their work.
Third, the packages and what they offer and can produce.
So, if you have a package that offers literally everything you need, like our complete collection, then you’ll pay more for it than a package that offers less like our Photo/Film Collection. The difference is an added engagement session and How-We-Met film. It boils down to what you want and what you are willing to pay for it.
Think of it this way, wedding packages are much like a new car. Each new car manufacturer offers a model car with various trims in it. Let’s take Honda for example and their Honda Passport. This is a mid-sized SUV that has 4 trim levels, a Sport, EX-L, Touring and Elite.
Each trim level is the same car, they just have different features and those features range in price from roughly $32,000 to $43,000.
While it’s the same car, it’s different prices because there is different things in them. Some have 2WD, some have AWD, some have fancier features, others have less.
Well, photographers are usually the same way, we all feature packages with various hours, what is included and what you get with each of us. Our business, Wedding Photography and Films, Carole and I do something different, we offer ‘collections’, which are packages that offer everything you need in them upfront, so there is no nickel-and-diming the couple to get more money from them.
And what works for us, may or may not work for the next person.
We’re all different in the industry and yet, we all want to achieve the same thing, to provide you the best images and videos we can for your wedding day.
With Hundreds of Wedding Photographers in my Region, How Can I Weed Them Out?
There are a few things you can do in order to help weed out who you need to work with and who you should skip when it comes to wedding photos.
Settle on a Style
Figure out what sort of style you like for images. While ‘light and airy’ is the current most common style, it’s a trend and it’s not the only style that couples like. A few popular styles also include:
Traditional
Photo Journalist
Dark and Moody
Natural
Read the Reviews
Reviews are a great indication of how the photographer is to work with and what they are like behind the scenes of their website and social media profile. You’ll want to look for key words like ‘Highly Recommended’, “Great to work with” and “Great People, Great Services” as just a handful of examples. Reviews will also give you any indications of possible issues that may arise.
Wedding Photographer Hours Wage Calculator
We’ve developed an online calculator that can help show what a typical wedding photographers hourly wage would be based on the price, number of photographers, hours worked, minus taxes, insurance and a few other line items.
For those photographers wanting to use this calculator on their websites, I have the snippet of code below that you can copy and paste.
<div class="uCalc_313108"></div><script> var widgetOptions313108 = { bg_color: "transparent" }; (function() { var a = document.createElement("script"), h = "head"; a.async = true; a.src = (document.location.protocol == "https:" ? "https:" : "http:") + "//ucalc.pro/api/widget.js?id=313108&t="+Math.floor(new Date()/18e5); document.getElementsByTagName(h)[0].appendChild(a) })();</script>
A rule of thumb to remember is that no person is going to please 100% of people 100% of the time, so if you see one bad review in a sea of good ones, then most likely it’s the person writing the review and not the person, so just use your best judgement.
Value-Added Services
Look for value-added services that might separate photographers. Things like free services, warranties, satisfaction guarantees are just a few things that you can look out for when seeking value-added in wedding photography. Some other things could be adding those free services like an engagement session in order to help book the sale. In either case, look for those services that offer great value, even those that are on the higher end of the price scale.
