Wedding Photography
Discussion
Okies, I need a wedding photographer for next August, so I need to start looking now, according to my 'planner' (no it's a month by month planner - I'm not paying someone to organise it for me :laugh)
So is this the right place to ask questions (and get sensible answers) about what I should be asking potential wedding photographers?
I know I need to get quotes, and look at their work etc, but how do I know what is the 'right' sort of price? And how do I judge if their pictures are any good? Is it just a case of I need to like what they show me??
It's all very confusing........
So is this the right place to ask questions (and get sensible answers) about what I should be asking potential wedding photographers?
I know I need to get quotes, and look at their work etc, but how do I know what is the 'right' sort of price? And how do I judge if their pictures are any good? Is it just a case of I need to like what they show me??
It's all very confusing........
Some cracking shots there.
I had a good friend do mine - here: www.alexandnicky.co.uk
If you want a quote, I could pass on your details?
I had a good friend do mine - here: www.alexandnicky.co.uk
If you want a quote, I could pass on your details?
Edited by altrezia on Wednesday 29th November 14:00
Oh sorry 
When I was asking around before I decided to ask my friend to do it, I was asking costs, the format that I would get the pictures in (i.e. printed / digital / film etc) how many photos you get (some only do as little as 70 photos - I got 360, plus another 100 or so he wasnt happy with)
I guess suggesting any special requirements you have, any particular photos you definatley want, and making sure that the photographer can cope with these is a good idea too.
When I was asking around before I decided to ask my friend to do it, I was asking costs, the format that I would get the pictures in (i.e. printed / digital / film etc) how many photos you get (some only do as little as 70 photos - I got 360, plus another 100 or so he wasnt happy with)
I guess suggesting any special requirements you have, any particular photos you definatley want, and making sure that the photographer can cope with these is a good idea too.
Just make sure that if its a large studio that the main photographer is going to your wedding and not one of the backup photographers/assistants. Multi operator studios have got a bad reputation for showing you quality work but allowing a lesser photographer shoot the wedding, that way they can rake the cash in by shooting more than one wedding on the day.
Price wise, well only you can decide that, I'm not into weddings my self but estimate a day rate of around £450 for the guy/gal to be there for the day then the cost of a an album (aound £150 I would imagine) plus prints on top depending on their "package". I would expect a starting figure of around £1500 - £2000.
Price wise, well only you can decide that, I'm not into weddings my self but estimate a day rate of around £450 for the guy/gal to be there for the day then the cost of a an album (aound £150 I would imagine) plus prints on top depending on their "package". I would expect a starting figure of around £1500 - £2000.
Questions we had were:
How much? This "quote" should include getting to the venue. They usually include a mileage in the charge with x per mile beyond that. It therefore may be worth considering a local photographer.
How long will you be there? Do you want feeding etc.
What do we get?
How long till we get it?
How much to order extra?
What styles are you comfortable doing (reportage, posed etc)
Ask to see examples of their portfolio.
Ask where they get their prints developed. Even if it means nothing to you, you can ask on here (I wouldn't know either but there are plenty of knowledgeable types here!)
Ask them for ideas - a good, creative photographer can make a real difference.
Make sure you get on with them - the last thing you want is a little shit pissing you off on your special day.
I haven't worked with dw@pr but have seen his work and it's fantastic. I'd also recommend my photographer, PM if you want his details.
How much? This "quote" should include getting to the venue. They usually include a mileage in the charge with x per mile beyond that. It therefore may be worth considering a local photographer.
How long will you be there? Do you want feeding etc.
What do we get?
How long till we get it?
How much to order extra?
What styles are you comfortable doing (reportage, posed etc)
Ask to see examples of their portfolio.
Ask where they get their prints developed. Even if it means nothing to you, you can ask on here (I wouldn't know either but there are plenty of knowledgeable types here!)
Ask them for ideas - a good, creative photographer can make a real difference.
Make sure you get on with them - the last thing you want is a little shit pissing you off on your special day.
I haven't worked with dw@pr but have seen his work and it's fantastic. I'd also recommend my photographer, PM if you want his details.
I'm a semi pro wedding snapper (in that I work weekends for a wedding photographer as I still have a full time job - tho that it hoping to chnage next year), so can hopefully offer some (sound!) advice
Key things...
As someone above said, make sure you see the actual photographers work. There are too many companies that use operators (or 'stringers') such as Kodak who have a network of agents and you may not get who you think you will.
With the company I work for, there is just two of us and we only operate two photographer packages (more of that in a mo) so the customer always knows who they are getting.
Make sure you see a number of complete albums by your selected photographer. That will give you a better idea of the quality, consistency and style of work they produce.
If a photographer only shows you select images from their work then I would suggest they are not as confident or proficient as they are trying to portray.
What style of photography are you looking for? Traditional or reportage. We find that most people need/want a bit of both which is where having two photographers helps. Normally one directs and looks after the formal and the other wanders round snapping the more informal shots.
Be wary with what people call reportage, I know a number of photographers who say they do reportage but I have yet to see evidence. To be fair many of these are old school photographers that are just trying to keep up with the changing style.
Costs - we charge between £1095 - £2000. The coverage is always the same, the difference in price comes down to how the images are presented.
We always take between 6-800 images and the album packages range from 80-120 in the formal album. We also give the customer the preview book to keep so they always have a copy of all images taken. That usually contains always in excess of 5-600 images as obviously when doing group shots we need to take a couple of each to minimise risk of blinkers or people not looking into the camera at the right time.
Make sure you are clear of the total costs before you book up. Many break the cost into components, such as a price for the day's coverage, then separate prices for the preview book, another costs for the album etc and it gets a little confusing which is why we simply quote one price for everything for each of the four packages
A bonus is if the photographer has a studio. We offer a free pre wedding shoot. Only needs to last an hour and we give them a free print but the great thing is we get to know the customer and they get to know us before the day so some barriers and any anxieties of the customer are broken down before the big day.
Also buy on line is useful if the photographer offers!
Our website if you want to look is here
www.eps-photography.co.uk
Just make sure you get out there and look at a number of photographers. Get along to wedding fairs where you will be able to see a handful of companies and be able to directly compare style, prices, choice and quality of albums etc
Hope this goes some way to answering your questions. If you have any more, just ask!
Good luck!
Key things...
As someone above said, make sure you see the actual photographers work. There are too many companies that use operators (or 'stringers') such as Kodak who have a network of agents and you may not get who you think you will.
With the company I work for, there is just two of us and we only operate two photographer packages (more of that in a mo) so the customer always knows who they are getting.
Make sure you see a number of complete albums by your selected photographer. That will give you a better idea of the quality, consistency and style of work they produce.
If a photographer only shows you select images from their work then I would suggest they are not as confident or proficient as they are trying to portray.
What style of photography are you looking for? Traditional or reportage. We find that most people need/want a bit of both which is where having two photographers helps. Normally one directs and looks after the formal and the other wanders round snapping the more informal shots.
Be wary with what people call reportage, I know a number of photographers who say they do reportage but I have yet to see evidence. To be fair many of these are old school photographers that are just trying to keep up with the changing style.
Costs - we charge between £1095 - £2000. The coverage is always the same, the difference in price comes down to how the images are presented.
We always take between 6-800 images and the album packages range from 80-120 in the formal album. We also give the customer the preview book to keep so they always have a copy of all images taken. That usually contains always in excess of 5-600 images as obviously when doing group shots we need to take a couple of each to minimise risk of blinkers or people not looking into the camera at the right time.
Make sure you are clear of the total costs before you book up. Many break the cost into components, such as a price for the day's coverage, then separate prices for the preview book, another costs for the album etc and it gets a little confusing which is why we simply quote one price for everything for each of the four packages
A bonus is if the photographer has a studio. We offer a free pre wedding shoot. Only needs to last an hour and we give them a free print but the great thing is we get to know the customer and they get to know us before the day so some barriers and any anxieties of the customer are broken down before the big day.
Also buy on line is useful if the photographer offers!
Our website if you want to look is here
www.eps-photography.co.uk
Just make sure you get out there and look at a number of photographers. Get along to wedding fairs where you will be able to see a handful of companies and be able to directly compare style, prices, choice and quality of albums etc
Hope this goes some way to answering your questions. If you have any more, just ask!
Good luck!
Some good advice from Snapper Seven.
Main things:-
- Meet them, see what they seem like in person - if it's a reasonably big wedding they'll need to have the chat to control 50-100 people and keep them interested, so personality important.
- Look at a good selection of their work, see if it's the sort of stuff you want.
- Make sure you're getting THEM, and there's no right of substitution (avoid Kodak and the other big firms).
- Find out if one photographer or two - two IMHO is a good idea for the reasons S-7 says.
- Get a good idea of how many photos they'll take and how many previews you'll get. Plus whether the previews are electronic only, small prints, 4x6's or whatever, and whether they're watermarked with the photographers logo or not.
As an example, we got married 6 months ago, had 2 photographers from early-on (10 or 11am), right through to sitting down for the meal at 3.30 or so. Don't know how many they took but we got 300 previews, all 4x6 in a nice bound album, with no watermarks or anything so we've got all 300 memories to keep, regardless of our album choices.
Can recommend the main chap - Sammy Southall (website is his name .co.uk) - was very good with keeping everyone interested, and took some very nice photos. Not as much reportage as we'd have liked, but still good. Plus he did a free 1hr preview shoot with us a few months before so we could get used to working together.
Main things:-
- Meet them, see what they seem like in person - if it's a reasonably big wedding they'll need to have the chat to control 50-100 people and keep them interested, so personality important.
- Look at a good selection of their work, see if it's the sort of stuff you want.
- Make sure you're getting THEM, and there's no right of substitution (avoid Kodak and the other big firms).
- Find out if one photographer or two - two IMHO is a good idea for the reasons S-7 says.
- Get a good idea of how many photos they'll take and how many previews you'll get. Plus whether the previews are electronic only, small prints, 4x6's or whatever, and whether they're watermarked with the photographers logo or not.
As an example, we got married 6 months ago, had 2 photographers from early-on (10 or 11am), right through to sitting down for the meal at 3.30 or so. Don't know how many they took but we got 300 previews, all 4x6 in a nice bound album, with no watermarks or anything so we've got all 300 memories to keep, regardless of our album choices.
Can recommend the main chap - Sammy Southall (website is his name .co.uk) - was very good with keeping everyone interested, and took some very nice photos. Not as much reportage as we'd have liked, but still good. Plus he did a free 1hr preview shoot with us a few months before so we could get used to working together.
All the q's we asked are above, but one piece of advise for you big day - play to the photographer, he's the one taking the professional pics - you'll get fab others from your guests, but his make up your albumn. Make sure you feel relaxed with them, and get on with them - ours was fab - he operates in Yorkshire/London area. Most of all - enjoy it!
One last thing, if you want group shots of aunt Fanny and uncle Burt etc make sure that the best man or whoever is getting everyone together does their job. otherwise the photographer will start running out of time trying to get people out of the bar, basically make sure everyone is cooperative.
We used a family friend who had never done a wedding before - His work was great and he gave us the high-res originals on DVD for free.
Until then his portfolio was mostly of houses for Country Life magazine and a few of models for clothing catalogues.
£150 for everything, 3 years ago.
Until then his portfolio was mostly of houses for Country Life magazine and a few of models for clothing catalogues.
£150 for everything, 3 years ago.
Is it still common practice these days for wedding photographers to hold rights to the digital images and charge for every copy you want?
Do many do prints at cost but also hand over the digital files if requested at no cost?
Spoken to a few wedding photographers recently and generally they charge for the work, then charge for prints while you have no right to the actual digital source file. Not like the old film days really so I wonder how they justify the cost!? How long might they store the files for, do they have off-site backup? Will you be able to request prints 5 years later and get them?
Dave
Do many do prints at cost but also hand over the digital files if requested at no cost?
Spoken to a few wedding photographers recently and generally they charge for the work, then charge for prints while you have no right to the actual digital source file. Not like the old film days really so I wonder how they justify the cost!? How long might they store the files for, do they have off-site backup? Will you be able to request prints 5 years later and get them?
Dave
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