As an experienced wedding photographer, I know that the first question EVERYONE asks is “How much? ”  Of course that’s important , and its what we all do when researching a product or  service online.  We recently needed to buy a new microwave, after the one we bought just months before ceased to work.  Crazy I know, but I spent hours and hours with my mental list of what was important to me, comparing products and prices.  The prices bit was easy, as once I’d chosen the make and model, it’s a like-for-like straight forward search.

Wedding photographers though are human beings, so each and everyone is unique.  OK you can compare “packages”, but even if the  album on offer is from the same supplier, the number of pages, the cover and the number of photos included, let alone the care  taken over the design – how many revisions – and any additional charges  and the style – could all result in a totally different vision.

One of my hard drives failed last week – but fortunately the client’s data was safe, as I always back up the original files shot .  However, even though I had only had the drive for three weeks, I learned a valuable lesson.  I had chosen the cheapest possible drive of that size!  When I contacted the data recovery company so I didn’t lose the extra work I had done, they told me that 75% of the drives they get sent, were all the same as the make I had chosen – (a Seagate Barracuda ) .   Had I spent just 25% more I could have avoided this situation and the extra my mistake.  If only I had checked the REVIEWS!  It turns out that 25% of all reviewers complained that their drive failed – and gave it 1 star only –  so the average rating was a mere 3 stars.

We all would like our wedding photographer to be the best we can afford, so the moral of this story is to check reviews of your prospective wedding photographer before even contacting them to check they have the date available, and choose the best rated that suits you!

SO…..

1-Check what others are saying about your wedding photographer before you book.  Do a Google search to see what you can find. about them.

2 – Check if the person taking your photos is actually the person you thought it was, as many companies use freelancers with varied experience

3 –  Check how long they have been in business, as most of the avoidable mistakes are made when the photographer first starts up.

4 – Have a look at samples, both online and in person – if at all possible – and not just the 20 best photos they have ever taken – but ideally the full spectrum of a complete wedding.  Bear in mind though that from the original photos taken, the personal choices of the couple may be different from what you might have picked from the variety of pictures taken.

 

I once received a phone call from the bride’s mother – who had been the one actually paying for the album – saying “I don’t like the album!” “Why”,  I asked – “what is it that you don’t like about the album? ”  “It doesn’t have any pictures of my sisters in it”.  I explained to her that although I had definitely taken several shots of her with her 3 sisters, that the choice of images was entirely up to the couple concerned, and that although I shoot everything and everyone – both natural and posed pics – the only thing I could do for her was to design a different album  – just for her – with the photos that she really wanted to have in it.   The result was an entirely different wedding album!  The style and layout were different too, so it wasn’t just in the choice of images, to reflect her personality and tastes.  She paid me separately for this of course, but at least I could make her happy.

The link below is from an independent blog post I came across on Linkedin today, and it clearly outlines all the points I  think are important to you.

http://www.theparty.net/theparty-blog/wedding-planning-questions-for-your-photographer.html

 

If you want to see some of my work – and there is absolutely tons to see look on our websites:  http://www.reellifephotos.co.uk

http://www.leedsweddingphotographers.com

http://www.weddingphotos-video.co.uk/blog

and over 15,000 photos on our Facebook Page

 

 

This entry was posted on Thursday, January 22nd, 2015 at 4:28 pm and is filed under Reportage wedding photography, wedding advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.