Congratulations - the big day is just around the corner!

Now, you just have to find a wedding photographer to capture all of those special moments. Unfortunately, not all wedding photographers are the same. In the following article, I would like to give you a few more hints on how to find just the right photographer for you.

First off, there are two categories of wedding photographers. Those who have a career in the field and those who do not. There are pros and cons of both sides.

Career Photographer (Pros)

- Experience, but they might not be talented

- Large client basis and lots of reviews

- Likely to have more equipment

Career Photographer (Cons)

- Could be less creative, as your wedding is just another way to make money

- Likely to charge for photo rights (that could be hundreds of dollars)

- You are paying for them to take your pictures NOT necessarily to give them to you. (Read the fine print)

- The equipment could be older

- The photographer might not be as familiar with present technology (Photoshop or digital cameras)

- Expensive!!

 

Not a Career Photographer (Pros)

- Each event is something new and exciting

- Flexibility - these photographers are likely to work around you, as they are not trying to make ends meet by offering the services.

- Pricing tends to be lower and more affordable

- Diamond in the rough

- Likely to give photo rights free of charge

 

Not a Career Photographer (Cons)

- Not as much experience, but they might be talented!

- Not likely to have an assistant or second photographer (If they do, ask about who that person will be.)

- They don't have as big of a portfolio

- They don't have the advertisement basis that the bigger studios have

 

Overall, you can see that there are differences. When looking for a photographer you should look at the images. It really doesn't matter how many weddings a photographer has shot as long as they have been doing a lot of portrait photography. So, is the photographer good at capturing a face? Does he or she know facial structure and how to work with different skin colors, textures, and bone structures?

Questions to ask your photographer and the answers they should give.

 

1) Do you shoot in RAW or Jpeg? Can you tell me the difference?

- RAW is a setting on the camera that allows a higher quality image after post editing. While a Jpeg image can be edited, the amount of editing is limited to a few things. RAW allows image exposure, clarity, contrast, blacks, lights, saturation, vibrancy, shadows, highlights, color balance, and many more items to be changed without hurting the photograph. The quality is not lost with RAW as it is with Jpeg. RAW is like having a blank slate while Jpeg is like having an already filled white board.

A photographer should shoot in RAW.

2) Have you photographed anything besides people and landscapes?

- A wedding photographer should be prepared to shoot inanimate objects such as table decorations, cakes, rings, and other such treasures.

3) Do you edit the images?

- This is a big one. Most photographers will indeed edit; however, find out what editing means to the photographer. Does that mean using iphoto and playing with contrast or does that mean using Photoshop CS2 or above? CS3 is an amazing program that allows professionals to edit the images. Look for a photographer that has a few years of experience with Photoshop, if they are shooting digital.

4) Who gets the photo rights.

- I can't stress this one enough! I have talked to so many photographers who were going to charge their clients up to $300 for photo rights. In other words, the photographer would make the couple a disk of the images, allowing them to send the images to friends and family. To be honest it takes maybe 15 minutes to make a disk. Legally, however, the photographer does own the images even though you are paying for a wedding photographer. You are really just paying for the service unless you have rights in the contract. Although prints are nice, having the edited images will be worth it! It should also be cheaper than $300, but then again, that's just my opinion.

5) Male or Female? Weird question, but it might make a difference to you.

- Personally, I have no preference, but often brides are not excited about having a strange man in the dressing room photographing them getting ready. The reality is that although a male photographer might be the most skilled photographer around, he might also just not make you feel comfortable, so if you are wanting those precious images of getting ready keep that in mind and figure out how to work around it by only having him photograph parts of it, or go with a woman if you can't get used to the idea.

I hope that helps!

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