Tips for Choosing a Wedding Photographer

							How To Choose a Wedding Photographer
   Without a doubt, selecting your wedding photographer is one of the most
important planning decisions you will make, and unfortunately often one of the
most frustrating decisions. Sifting through all the various photography styles,
options, approaches and personalities can turn the mellowest bride into a three-
alarm bridezilla.
   Don’t stress, instead just boil it down to the basics of the four P’s of
photography: Pictures, personality, price and professionalism. Whatever
photographer does the best job of combining the four P’s is the one for you.

   •   Pictures – Are the photos featured on the photographer’s website what you have always wanted
       your wedding photos to look like? Do you see a solid mix of photojournalism (unposed candid
       photos) and posed portraiture? Today’s couples don’t settle for coverage that consists primarily of
       hundreds of posed photos. Yet because photojournalistic wedding coverage is still relatively new,
       very few wedding photographers have the talent and energy required to take true photojournalistic
       style, spur-of-the-moment photos. Look at several entire weddings, not a “greatest hits” mix of
       many weddings.
   •   Personality – Great personality is every bit as important as great photos. All good
       photographers radiate a special energy, a vibe that pulls you in and lets you know that you and
       your wedding are important to them. Until you feel that vibe, keep looking. Keep asking yourself,
       “will we and our guests enjoy this person all day?” If you don’t like your photographer, it will
       show in your photos.
   •   Price – Exactly what are you getting for your money? Do you have the freedom to buy exactly
       what you want and only what you want? (See “Packages” below). Are reprint prices reasonable?
       Never feel that you had to buy something, or had to settle for something less than exactly what
       you wanted. Make all your special requests before signing a contract, and if the photographer is
       inflexible, walk away.
   •   Professionalism – Can you visit a great website with lots of photos, flair and information,
       including prices? Most over-priced photographers don’t list their prices on their websites. Are
       there lots of testimonials from happy customers? In many ways these days, wedding
       photographers can be judged largely by the quality of their websites. Does the photographer have a
       studio where you can meet to consult and see more work? Doe the studio reflect current tastes or
       take you back to 1975? Is this photographer promoting great photography or hooking you with
       some goofy special promotion of the month like free champagne glasses or a free Ipod? Free
       merchandise won’t matter when your photos turn out crummy or aren’t ready for six months or
       longer after your wedding.

If you found the four P’s helpful, here are some more important tips for finding
your ideal wedding photographer.

   •   Packages – in a word, why? Why should you have to commit to a reprint package, album or
       anything else before you see the results? What if you don’t like the results? You should have the
       freedom to make your decisions based on the results, with no time restrictions for ordering after
       the wedding. Discounts for big buyers are great, while being forced to buy reprints or albums
       before the wedding is absurd.
   •   Who exactly will cover your day? Ask to see work by the person who will cover your day
       – work done by any other photographer simply doesn’t matter. Meet with that person before
       signing a contract. If you can’t meet your photographer at the consult, walk away. That’s like
       buying a car without driving it.
   •   Film or digital? It is almost impossible to avoid getting sucked into wedding photography’s
       hot topic. Newer isn’t always better – film still beats digital hands down. The surge to digital
    wedding photography is based primarily on two facts. First, digital is cheaper. Film photographers
    who use a quality photo lab spend about $700 to $1,000 more per wedding to provide their
    customers with film quality and reliability. Secondly, a whole generation of 20-something
    wedding couples (the core wedding market) has been raised on digital photography and isn’t
    familiar with film’s superior quality. Look at film prints and digital prints side by side, and the
    difference is startling. Film is much richer and truer-to-life, especially when it comes to skin tones.
    Digital is lifeless and creates unnatural, unflattering “dead” skin tones. Also, film exposure
    doesn’t have to be precise – it can easily be corrected at a lab. That flexibility allows a film
    photographer to capture spontaneous moments without having to waste precious seconds adjusting
    camera settings. Digital exposure is rigid, it has to be exact. So while a digital photographer is
    adjusting camera settings, the spontaneous moment is gone. Digital photographers generally spend
    10 to 20 hours or longer color-correcting, sharpening, enhancing and retouching a wedding trying
    to overcome digital’s inherent shortcomings. That painful process is largely why digital
    photographers often take at least three months to deliver images to their couples. Film images are
    much faster to correct and don’t require all the fine-tuning, meaning they can be in your hands
    within weeks after the wedding. Film is also much more reliable – each image is embedded in a
    physical piece of film. Digital, while more reliable than it was a few years ago, is still fraught with
    technical glitches that digital photographers don’t share with customers. Your wedding can’t be re-
    created – stick with film and with a photographer willing to pay the extra money to make sure
    your day looks its best.
•   Proofs – will your proof prints be full-size 4x6 prints printed at a professional lab? Don’t settle
    for home computer prints, a proof book of small images or a proof disk only. Will you be able to
    keep your proof prints? You deserve to have actual prints of all your wedding images, not just a
    limited selection. And you definitely shouldn’t receive only a proof disk – flipping back and forth
    between images on disk when selecting your reprints gets frustrating very fast. Your photographer
    should gladly provide multiple proof CDs for your family and close friends so that everyone can
    enjoy your wedding. Don’t loan out your proofs (because they aren’t coming back!) – instead,
    give everyone important to you a proof disk.
•   Negatives – Are your negatives available for purchase immediately or do you have to wait to
    buy them? How long will the photographer keep the negatives? Never feel pressured into buying
    your negatives, but they should be available to you from day one or 10 years after your wedding.
•   Speed – How fast will your proofs and CDs etc. be ready after the wedding? Less than one
    month turnaround time is excellent, whereas two months or longer is simply lazy customer
    service. One of the greatest joys of your wedding photography is enjoying your professional
    images while you are still basking in the “honeymoon glow.”


Paul Sweitzer Photography                                            www.paul-photo.biz
414-778-0032 * 1-800-864-5530
Office: 8140 Stickney Ave., Wauwatosa, Wisconsin 53213
Studio: 6519 W. North Ave., Wauwatosa, Wisconsin 53213