Topics 1-5
#1: Experience
Please tell me about your wedding photography experience How many years? How many weddings? Are these consecutive years? Are the images I’m seeing taken at weddings? Weddings where you were the official wedding photographer? Am I seeing the work of the photographer who will be photographing my wedding?
How important is experience to you? Experience goes hand in hand with expectations. If you have little to no expectations then anybody is qualified to photograph your wedding. But, if you want better results than your guests are going to give you for free experience will count. Experience helps your photographer become more efficient, and develop their style. It helps them turn the vision in their head into a beautiful image. In short, it's one of the most fundamental things about wedding photography. Your wedding moves too quickly and there are too many opportunities to seize, The newbies will let them blow right by, not being able to anticipate nor execute on them. They will focus on the wrong types of image or overlook ones that you will later find important. Though not every experienced wedding photographer is a good one, at least they can show you what they are capable of doing for you.
As for the questions about the images taken by them at weddings where they were the main photographer its important because a lot of people show work that isn't their own. There are guests who are invited to weddings who bring serious gear and shoot it like they are the official photographer. Their underlying assumption is that it's better to ask for forgiveness than to ask for permission from the photographer in charge. . Unless the photographer in charge mentions something, they will often shoot along side of them, stealing their shots. When the photographer in charge sets up a beautiful shot and the guest photographer stands beside them and snaps the shutter, can you honestly say that they created this picture? In college we called this plagiarism. It would be an anomaly if it happens once or twice. This happens all the time. Who are these people? And where do these pictures go? Honestly, they post the work as their own on websites and make albums from them. If someone is fairly young and popular and a lot of their friends are getting married they can build a fairly nice portfolio of images from weddings they attended as a guest. If you start noticing that they are showing many weddings, but no complete ones, you've got an amateur on your hands. If in doubt, look at one bride and say "Hey, you mind if I call her and ask her what it's like to work with you?"
Another thing to keep in mind is that new photographers often hire models or ask recent brides they know to model for them. Photography is a lot easier to do when you have all day to get things done. To perform as well under tight timelines are far less likely.
The last thing to watch out for is another deceptive tactic. There are large studios that show some simply amazing work. You will be so impressed. It turns out that it’s the work of some head photographer who is brilliant. That won't be your photographer. Your photographer is someone that they hired from an ad in a newspaper last weekend. They bring with them little to no experience. Your resulting images won't come out anything remotely similar to what you've seen. So yes, it's important to ask. If you are going to get some other photographer, insist on seeing their work.
Experience and fraud
New wedding photographers go by many names. There are positive ones, "up and coming" "Unconventional" "Daring" "Passionate" "Artistic." And there are unflattering terms for them as well "Hacks", "Wannabees" "PWC (Person with Camera)." There is nothing wrong with being new and up and coming. However, there is one stipulation, the photographer has be honest about their experience and abilities. Far too often they aren't. They exaggerate, omit important information, lie, or become very evasive when answering questions. As a potential client, you have a right to have a realistic idea of persons experience level before you hire them. It goes beyond ethics, and comes down to fraud. If you make a decision based on inaccurate, misrepresented information this is fraud. It's a sad state of affairs when people will lie just to land a wedding, but this is the new reality. You can raise hell and threaten legal action in order to get all your money back while cancelling your contract. By this time you will have lost time, and most likely money. As your date approaches the amount of photographers free on your wedding date diminishes if you have a popular date. Thus, it's really in your best interest to do your homework before signing up with a photographer. Forget fast deals, or good vibes, and focus on facts. Use these questions and get specific with the people you're interviewing. Dig deep and find solid answers to your questions.
#2 What happens if my photographer gets sick? Have they ever missed a wedding? Have you ever subbed a wedding photographer?
This is often the problem with a one man show, if they get sick they have no fall back position. In the past we've helped out other photographers who have not been able to make a wedding due to illness or family emergencies. The important thing is that there has to be a plan. The larger issue goes like this. Someone books a date in June for a very small package for a lackluster couple, at a lackluster place. Then a better looking couple comes along and has their wedding at the Four Seasons. Thought they are already contracted for the date they book the larger package anyway and find some excuse to either back out of the wedding, or send in a flunky to take their place. This happens all the time. My advice, if you get bamboozled, take this person to small claims court. Hold their feet to the fire, not for you but for the next bride that comes along.
One guy in Orange County spent years telling people on his website about his great company, his work ethic, and his beautiful family, and gosh he even had a cross on his website so that you knew he was a good Christian. What he didn't know how to say was "I'm sorry I'm booked on your wedding day." Instead he would meet with clients, sell them on his work, and then on the wedding day send in someone they didn't know and never met as a sub. The story was always the same, this nice Christian family man was in the hospital, nearly every weekend of the year. So now that you've read about this, if this gets pulled on you, please insist on seeing the medical bills, or admitting forms. If you have been bamboozled call the district attorney or take them to small claims court.
#3 How do the payments work?
Most photographers want to be paid in full prior to the event. In reality, they cannot insist on this. What's worse is that photographers are going out of business left and right, taking deposits with them. Make certain that the terms of the payments are clearly written into your contract.. With any wedding vendor, including the reception site, be very careful about making large payments far in advance of the date. You could lose it all if they go under. You can also look into wedding day insurance to help cover your losses if your photographer ( or any other vendor) should go out of business.
Most photographers have something called a "non-refundable retainer." This is an amount of money that is usually between 25% and 50% of the total bill. What this states is that when you book your photographer they won't book other events for your date. If your wedding should get called off the photographer will keep this money. And yes, I know what you're thinking, this sounds like a good deal for the photographer, but not you. And what type of job can you get where you can get paid not to work? On the other hand, a good photographer often gets other inquiries about your wedding date, and turns them down. Sometimes they are for larger packages then what you may have booked, but a good photographer will stay loyal to you. This photographer only has so many dates in a year that they can book. So, when a wedding is cancelled the photographer does make money for not working, but not nearly as much as if he/she booked the date.
Off to a slightly different topic. We have seen a hand full of cancelled weddings in the past. One thing that catches each of the brides off guard is that the contract you sign with the reception site stipulates they get paid in full, even if your event is cancelled Weddings tend to cancel within 90 days of the event. Read the fine print, you will more often than not have to pay for EVERYTHING you contracted with the venue. This is often many thousands of dollars you will need to pay for an event where no food will be served, and no staff will work. Talk about a money maker for the reception site! Suddenly, losing your retainer with the photographer doesn't look so bad?
#4. Can you please describe your style? Do you do other types of photography besides weddings? How were you educated in photography?
What a lovely set of questions! This gives the photographer the chance to shine, and tell you about their amazing body of work, and belief systems. They can describe their style, and what they are tying to accomplish. Hopefully they have thought about it and have a fairly compelling answer. Make sure the words coming out of their mouth matches up with the images you're seeing. Some people want to be invisible, a true fly on the wall. This doesn't always work so well. It's an easy thing to say when you're first starting out because it lowers the expectations. A few studios do this style of photography very well, the rest tend to make images that your guests could make. So, this is usually a red flag. A photographer needs to be ready, willing and able to exert some degree of control over your wedding at crucial times like at the alter after the ceremony when doing the family pictures. You don't want to watch the time dwindle away as they futz with their gear and have your family members set up their shots.
I also get really nervous about people who have a passion elsewhere in regards to photography. If people have a specialty In studio photography, or fashion, or commercial, or sports for example, how does this translate into wedding photography? Perhaps they have some common photographic skills that are transferable, but it's not the same thing as being a wedding photographer. The equipment used to photograph a building is different that the equipment used to photograph a wedding . We've interviewed newspaper photographers before. Of anybody, these should be the people who are best suited toward wedding photography, especially the photojournalistic style. So far the results I've seen are marginal at best. It's a different world they are used to working in.
Education in photography is important. Photography is a learned skill. Many people are "self educated" which is fine, but if they cannot elaborate beyond that you can be assured that they put the camera on automatic and do point & shoot photography. Typically you want to hear that people have studied books, took courses, perhaps had apprenticeship under someone. Skills are more important than equipment.
One thing we hear about as a crucial criteria for hiring a wedding photographer is his/her 'eye." By "eye" it of course means style and vision. It's the ability to engage the viewer with an image. If you could rerun your wedding day exactly the same way with five different photographers you would be surprised how different our work would be. One album would be mainly black and white with a lot of photojournalistic images, another would be full color with stock portraits. Our eye is really our interpretation of your wedding day, and we are the hired journalist telling your story. With that being said, it does come back to skills. Take for example, the crying bride who is exchanging her vows. It can be an exciting image with a long lens and a shallow depth of field. The bride's face would be the only thing in focus. The untrained photographer may shoot it with wide angle lens and include the ring bearer in the background who is picking his nose at that precise moment. In the end, what was a very touching moment gets sent to the dud pile.
#5. How many photographers will I need for my wedding?
For a moment, let's pretend you are a new photographer. You've done a few small weddings. Things look fairly good for your future though you still have a lot to figure out. This weekend's wedding is getting you very nervous. It's larger than you're used to. You're worried about missing shots and not being able to deliver the goods. Just then your buddy calls you up and asks what you're doing on Saturday night. You say that you'll be at a wedding, and "Hey, do you want to come along? You can be my second shooter, I'll give you $50, a free dinner, and you can meet a lot of cuties." The second photographer has no gear so the first photographer straps his backup gear on him and they are now a crew. This is the origen of your typical two man crew. The main photographer is overwhelmed, stressed out, and needs a safety net. The second photographer is usually clueless; just a warm body. This sounds good on paper, but in reality the crew doesn't hold a candle to one, good, qualified photographer. The net/net is that an abundant amount of warm bodies doesn't make up for things such as skills, experience and ability But one thing is for certain, your wedding, now matter how large or small will be better served with 2 photographers according to them.
I really should have taken a picture of this, a large Jewish wedding at the Long Beach Hilton. This was an important wedding, how did I know? There were three photographers! I can hear the sales pitch now "One guy can be inside taking pictures of the room, the other outside taking pictures of the cocktail hour, and the third doing the romantics. " The reality was three photographers pointing their cameras in the face of the bride and groom, this couple didn't know where to look! It was one photographer and two buddies, or another way to look at it, they paid for three meals and got really only one photographer.
A lot of the weddings these days are smaller, and thus one good photographer can often suffice. Some people refuse to show up alone, which can be taken as a red flag. A second photographer can be a benefit for the right type of wedding. Otherwise, it can be an extra expense, and an extra meal to buy. If you are getting a second photographer, insist on seeing what their work looks like. It's best if you have a choice of who may be your second photographer.