When picking your wedding photographer their level of experience is one of the most important points to cover. From their website you'll see how often the bride and groom are posing in an stiff pose. All the poses should look natural and have an element of fun to them. Also, make sure this is their living, if you get a weekend photographer there basically learning on your dime.
Is their photographic style suited to your needs. Look for different lighting techniques, not just couples standing in a shaded area. Does the light come from different angles to accent the picture and people?
And do the images look like they are a moment in time or do they all look very posed.
Be sure when you meet them that they are the photographer you are going to work with. But if they are sending another photographer, have them bring that person to the meeting so you see them and get a feeling for their personality. Many times a strong aggressive person will shoot in that same manner. You don't want a control freak running around your wedding.
Their personality and appearance is very important. Would you be friends with this person if you meet them socially? Or spend more than 2 minutes talking with them at a party? It's a big day so tak this into consideration. You can tell so much about someone by their dress, grooming and also their car. Usually if one of these is a mess they all are.
Other Questions: (some questions may be repeated from the list above)
* Have you shot a wedding at my location before?
* Do you have an assistant?
* Do you have backup equipment and is it the same quality as the primary equipment?
* What time will you begin and how long will you stay until?
* When will the proofs be ready?
* Do we get to keep the proofs?
* Do you mark your proofs?
* Where and how are your proofs marked?
* How much extra for unmarked proofs?
* Do we get to keep our negatives?
* How long do you keep the negatives and will you sell them to us?
* Do you use high speed film to expose natural light?
* Do you have tele-photo and wide-angle lenses?
* Do you work well with the other vendors? i.e.: coordinators, caterers, videographers.
* Can you work from a photo checklist that we create?
* How will you be dressed?
* Do you process and develop your own film and prints?
And lastly pricing. A 2,000 and 6,000 dollar photographer can be the exact same except one is working to market to a higher end client and the other is not. If you don't look at the pricing and only the images you'll get a good idea what you like and then from the top 5 ask for the pricing. You may be surprised at the over pricing some photographers charge.
No comments:
Post a Comment