Tips for choosing
your wedding photographer
By Todd Flygenring (New Regent
Studios Ltd)
One of the most important things that you need to access when
deciding on a wedding photographer, is that you need to find
a photographer that you can relax with and trust. Generally you
will be with your photographer more than any other person on
your wedding day. If you have a good relationship with your photographer
you will most definitely enjoy the day and most importantly have
results that you will treasure for ever.
It is vital when you are choosing a photographer that you choose
an actual wedding photographer not someone who just photographs
weddings every now and then. An experienced wedding photographer
will have a number of poses to use as standard, and they will
work with you to come up with more exciting and personal poses
to suit your personality and feelings on the day.
A number of Professional Photographers use albums full of images
from a variety of different weddings, when promoting their style.
This is a false guide as to what you will receive in own wedding
album. Ask to see a few Albums that past clients have actually
received. This is a true representation of the quality and style
of their work.
Reputable photographers will have a Standard Wedding Contract
or Form that they will use when booking your wedding. Simply
writing your name and phone number in a diary is not enough.
A deposit is generally required on confirmation of the booking
- approximately $300.00.
Find out if there are any hidden charges and what these are.
There is a large variation of prices for your wedding reprints,
with some charging as much as $12.00/6”x4” print.
It is definitely within their own right to charge as they wish,
however you need to be aware of the pricing before booking the
photographer. It is wise to order your reprints direct from the
photographer. If you are given the negatives or CD Rom of your
images, and you get reprints at you local lab, the photos will
be printed to suit their particular paper and color setup the
quality may vary from the originals. However your wedding photographer
will ensure his/her preferred lab prints to the highest quality,
regarding paper and replication of color.
A lot of people believe that the negatives should be supplied
however in this day in age most photographers (if they still
use film) use a High Resolution CD Rom to print the reprints.
This results in the quality being the same as the original, and
there is no risk of damage or chance of losing the negatives.
Also your photographer will most probably have a good storage
system for your negatives to ensure that they are dust, moisture,
heat and fire safe. This is most certainly far greater protection
than you can give them in your own home. Also if something did
happen to your images/album and the negatives were stored close
by, it may be disastrous.
The turn around of the photographs and albums should also be
assessed prior to choosing your photographer. You don’t
want to get married then 6 months later finally receive your
album. Some photographers use the winter months to process your
wedding photographs and make up the albums. This is something
worth knowing prior to having the photographs taken. A good realistic
turnaround would be three weeks for prints only and perhaps six
to eight weeks for a Magazine Album. However these times may
vary depending on the work load of the photographer.
One of the big questions these days is which is better digital/film
cameras? There are definitely benefits of both however I would
not say that one is greatly better than the other. Photographers
have been using film for much longer than digital and know how
to get the right results. Obviously if the photographer that
you choose has shown you fantastic results from either medium,
then that is the better option for that photographer.
Most photographers will have a back up plan just in case the
photographer suffers a injury or sickness prior to the wedding
day. Most often the photographer will do their best to appear
even whilst suffering from a injury or sickness, however if there
is more than one photographer within the company this would be
a big advantage should something severe happen.
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