Photographs are the lasting reminder of your wedding day.
They record the atmosphere of your wedding, your choice of dress, colours, venues and guests.
They will be on display in your home, and the homes of the people who shared the day with you, or those who were unable to attend.
They are a record of the most special day of your life for you to look back on with future generations.
It is important then to find a photographer who is well qualified, experienced and aware of the requirements for your special day. You need to feel absolutely sure that the photographer you choose will capture the essence of your wedding and be able to make you and your guests look a million dollars.
Important things to look for:
· A professional, working photographer should be updating his/her book regularly;
· The ability to capture a moment, an emotion
· A flair for making the ordinary appear beautiful
· The ability to make the images tell a story
· The confidence to work under any weather, light condition and time constraints
· Confidence in shooting one person or a group of 150+ people
· An eye for using different locations well to set the stage for the photographs
· Use of light to enhance the mood of the photographs (various conditions shown in the portfolio)
· Formal, posed photographs which work well to the eye
Look at the work and decide if it speaks for itself. If it does, you are ready and confident to move on to the next stage of the discussion: the fees.
Relationship.
You are commissioning an artist, and if there is a lack of rapport between you, this could show up in the final product. If you want wedding photography which feels personal, your photographer should invest time in getting to know you (included the pre-wedding shoot), and even in visiting your venue and pre-planning shots. It’s about building a relationship. After all, this is the person who is producing the images of one of the most important days of your life.
To help steer communication in a clear manner, a photographer should keep up to date with the details of your day, and should provide a contract or terms in which they sum up what is expected of them:
· What the photographer is expected to do and provide for the fee agreed
· What the clients are expected to provide in order to assist the photographer in getting the best shots possible
· Details of the shoot – where, when, schedule, guest list, etc
· Fees exchanged
Agreeing this few months in advance means that client and photographer are moving towards the same goal – everything running smoothly on the day that counts, and the resulting images being the best they possibly can be.
