One of the most important parts of
your wedding and defiantly one of the hardest decisions for your
wedding is deciding what photographer will capture the portraits
that will provide generations to come with memories of your special
day. Unless you have a close friend, who recently married that gives
you a raving review of their photographer; you will have to rely
on looking at a few portraits and asking a few questions to choose
your wedding photographer.
While there is no exact formula for selecting,
the perfect photographer; armed with the right information and questions
you will be able to make an intelligent choice.
Experience Level
Has the photographer photographed wedding before. If so how many
and how many years of professional experience does, he/she have?
Photographers come and go and only those with a true God given talent
will survive. While a fresh out of school photographer may be pretty
good, and everyone deserves a chance, you have to ask yourself do
you want to trust your wedding to a novice.
Meeting the Photographer
Typically
a photographer meeting centers on a portfolio of photographs that
the photographer has shot.
When looking at the photographers portfolio
look for magazine quality in his/her photography and most importantly
make sure it feels right to you. After all it is your special day
and the only opinion the counts is yours. When looking at the portraits
and candids pay particular attention to those that were taken in
low light surroundings. A good example of this is an older church
or reception in a banquet hall. Even though the lighting in the church
may be poor, the exposure should be clear, sharp, colorful, free
of dust and free of graininess.
The exception to this is if the church
of place of marriage prohibits flash photography. In this case, the
only way the wedding ceremony can be photographed is with high-speed
film or higher ISO setting on digital capture. Therefore, the image
may appear grainy and if done in color the colors of the churches
lighting will affect the colors of the image resulting in the colors
may be off.
The next thing to do is look for details in the bride's
dress. The brides dress should have details including lace, buttons,
(see picture to left) and transparent sections should not washed-out
by the flash. While you’re looking at the bride and grooms
portraits see if you see the different shades of black, and even
see the creases in the grooms tuxedo. For the photographer to capture
this kind of detail requires using expensive professional equipment,
and professional labs for processing.
Has the photographer been published?
Published work tends to give the photographer more credibility. Almost
all photographers do some other kind of photography besides weddings.
Ask to see the photographs other work including landscapes, commercial
advertising, and journalistic assignments.
Talk to the photographer
about the studio’s philosophy of shooting weddings, and the
type of lighting they prefer. Ask him/her how they are prepared for "Murphy's
Law" situations. Or to put it another way, do they have backup
equipment and arrangements with another professional photographer
should they be ill the day of your wedding. Finally ask them what
photographic style they use to photograph weddings Photographers
are passionate about their work and this spills over into the their
style of photography. Each photographer will have a particular method
he/she uses for recording your wedding and for the most part over
the past few years two different style of wedding photography has
evolved.
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