Choosing a Wedding Photographer - Part 1

I have recently written an article crammed full of advice on choosing a wedding photographer. It looks at the many pitfalls couples encounter and addresses some common concerns and questions. It is quite lengthy so I have serialized it with each section published weekly. Please pass the link on (www.dpearce.typepad.com) to your friends who are also getting married.

Choosing your photographer is perhaps the most daunting task you will have after your venue choice and table plan. By reading this, I assume that you already realise that you need a professional photographer to capture your wedding, and not a friend or colleague who happens to have a nice camera and does it as a hobby. Wedding photography is a very specialist field to master, fully understand and execute well. It is not a fully transferable skill – for example a top end advertising photographer would have a hard time as it is so different, fast paced and instant. It is almost impossible to expect a friend to do a competent job, let alone a good one. They will simply achieve snapshots.

It is very hard to choose a photographer because, unlike virtually everything else you will choose for your wedding, prices vary enormously. Not in the tens or hundreds of pounds like cars or invitations but in the thousands often. This makes it very confusing as the majority of you will never have hired a professional photographer before. I hope to make it a little easier for you by detailing below why prices vary so much and if they are worth it.

It is difficult to know where to start, as there are so many aspects involved. First and foremost though, the golden rule is that whether they cost £500 or £5000 you have to love the photographers work. It sounds like common sense but how many times do you hear that someone hated their wedding photos? Usually it is because they did not follow the advice below and chose the wrong photographer or simply did not budget enough for one that could meet their expectations.

All photographers are not the same hence the vast array of prices. The industry in ungoverned so anyone can set themselves up as a wedding photographer – you could tomorrow if you wanted. This means that there are a great deal of people doing this at the weekend in addition to their regular job. This raises a number of questions, such as do they have full insurance, why don’t they do it full time, how can they devote 100% attention to your wedding, do they have all the equipment that they need etc? If they were good why are they not full time? You can usually spot a part timer as their prices are cheap and generally the quality lower than a full time professional. BUT – there are some brilliant part time wedding photographers out there and this will be evident in their work. They will work exactly like a full time pro and will have addressed the points coming in next weeks installment...