FAQs
- What advice would you give a customer looking to hire a provider in your area of work?
Wedding Photography has come quite a long way in the last 15 years, what was once an industry limited by experience and capability/ recourses, has flourished into the trade it is today. Any interested hobbyist can now call themselves a photographer, and for good or bad, this is the industry today. Clients Have tend to loose understanding about what makes a quality photograph, again the commonality of pictures has lowered our expectations. So, this begs the quest, what then is good photography? well art is certainly different from one individual to the other, and some clients like the look of photo filters applied to images they see on Facebook or Pintrist. In that respect, to each his own. As a consumer however the rules have still not changed. In order to be full aware of our services and what really gives you the best bang for your dollar. You need to understand some basics. Experience: this is still the biggest definer on what makes a good wedding photographer. Sure the neighbor's kid takes some cool images, but does he have the experience or know-how to handle challenging lighting conditions? How about equipment? has he invested in equipment that will improve your wedding day? does he have insurance just in case ANYTHING goes wrong? speaking of the negative, does he have a back up plan for when something does go wrong? at just about every wedding, something usually happened to my equipment, knowing how to handle stresfull situation is probably the biggest help experience will afford. Next to experience comes quality, can the photographer you meet with provide higher end products? not just your runoff the mill 1 hour photos from "Mega-Mart" I know I have my own labs, as well as my own quality publishers I trust with our $1000 albums. Quality also extends to the pictures themselves, do the files have a good consistency, or when the lights come on at the reception, do you notice a strong orange or blue cast to ALL the backgrounds? This kind of color change due to ambient lighting is a common sign that your photographer is highly inexperienced and doesn't understand fundamental concepts of color change. Work flow. I know that this one constantly get overlooked. What turn around does the photographer manage to do before basic proofs are given to the client? I have my own system that allows me to get print ready proofs to a client in under 4 days, though this is extremely taxing on my time. However if a client wants a more refined sweep done to their images they want for albums or display pieces, then I will do that on the next round. This for me is the most efficient process, however, most photographers like a one and done approach, this has good or bad results. if they get done in under a week, then be VARY skeptical, my first round edits are nothing I'd want to have published, they make for awesome 4x6 or even 8x10's but in an album or show piece, they can ALWAYS use some tweaking or enhancing. If the turnaround for this approach nears 6-8 weeks then ask to see some finished client works, to ensure that they aren't wasting your time waiting. great work comes from meticulous edits, however, terrible work comes from horrible procrastinators. "Show me the work" Always ask this of a photographer. make sure yu are seeing exactly what a client receives from the edits, all of them, not a portfolio, not an album, but the proof log, or full online gallery. We routinely pull three or four full client galleries, complete with watermarks and have them ready to view when a client asks, we give them as much time as they wish to go through hundreds of pictures. It's nice to see the albums, to have a good feeling for product quality, but it's just as crucial to understand the photographer's "hit or miss" rate I literally could go on, but I will save the rest for another time, perhaps when we meet?