Choosing a Wedding Photographer

When it comes to choosing a wedding photographer it is vital you do your homework and follow some simple but effective procedures to ensure you hire a wedding photographer who can create a beautiful album of photographs just to your taste.
After all, when the cake’s gone, the wedding dress is put away and everyone’s stopped talking about it, your photographs will be all you have left to remind you of the most important day of your life.
So to help you choose the right photographer for the job, we’ve put together a step-by-step guide to hiring a wedding photographer:
The Initial Search
Make sure you choose a photographer who either lives locally or within the same region as this not only helps to narrow down your initial search but also makes it a lot easier to arrange meetings in the months and weeks leading up to the wedding. The photographer is also likely to be familiar with your area and may be able to offer ideas for good locations for the wedding photo shoot.
View Samples
Make an appointment to see a number of photographers in your area and then take the opportunity to see examples of past wedding photographs they have taken. Most photographers will be able to offer photography in a range of styles to suit your wedding theme but ask to view samples of the style of your choice and ask how much experience the photographer has in this type of wedding photography. When looking at the samples check there is a good mix of portrait and groups shots, and whether the photos show detail in the faces and dresses and avoid distracting detail in the background.
Coverage
Before hiring a photographer make sure you decide what aspect of your wedding day you would like to have covered by the photographer. Will you only want the ceremony captured on film or do you want the photographer to be there all day, up to the first dance? Once you’ve made this choice you can tell the photographer on your first meeting, so they will know not to plan any other jobs in on that day.
Communication
Once you’ve decided which photographer to hire, it is extremely important to have an early meeting so you can outline exactly what you want as soon as possible. The photographer will need to know the date, time and location of the wedding, along with the kind of service it is, how many people you expect to attend, how many pictures you’ll want in the finished album, what size prints you’ll want and whether you’ll want larger photos to display on your wall at home.

JS Weddings

Hiring a Wedding Photographer

It is estimated that professional wedding photographers only shoot around 50 per cent of all weddings in the UK, which means there are a lot of newly married couples with only amateur – and often terrible – photographs of the most important day of their lives!

Although your cousin, uncle, aunt or best friend may have all the best intentions of making your wedding photos wonderful, the end result can often be disastrous because without the specialist equipment, knowledge and skill, getting wedding photographs right is a very tough job. In fact even amongst the professionals it is one of the most demanding types of photography.

For this reason it is advisable to always use a professional wedding photographer. You need to bear in mind this will cost more than paying a friend to do it and most of the best wedding photographers are booked months, or sometimes years, in advance, so you must book your photographer as soon as you set the big day.

There are many other benefits to using a professional wedding photographer. Among them are that the photographer will be timely – arriving at your wedding on time and getting the photographs done speedily – and a professional photographer will have all the right equipment and film to capture your wedding day in the best possible way.

Most professional photographers charge anything from £400 to £5,000 for their services depending on which package you choose and when you are getting married. Remember that your photographs (and the video, if you have one) will be your only permanent record of your wedding day, so it’s worth paying more to make sure your photographs are exceptional.

JS Weddings