How to Choose a Photographer

First, start by looking at least 10-20 different photographer's work, without any regard to price at all. Use a search engine to find online portfolios, or go to a wedding web site that lists photographers and look at as many sites as possible. Make a note of the kinds of photos you like best. Do you like artsy photos? Do you like black & white? Sepia tones? (That brownish, old-fashioned look.) Do you like more standard posed photography? Is there a style you can't stand?

Once you have an idea of what you like and don't like, narrow things down. Start looking online at photographers who shoot that style in your area, or those that will travel. Make a list of the top 10, and THEN start looking at prices. Choose 3-5 from your list that generally fit your budget, and start calling to see if they have your date available. I say "generally fit your budget", because don't assume that if someone lists a package for $2000 and your photography budget is $1500 that they can't work with you. Chances are they might be able to. If you've talked to the photographer on the phone and they have the date available, make an appointment to meet with them in person. Ideally you want to bring all of the people with you to the appointments that are going to be involved in the decision making process. Sometimes that isn't possible, but if it is by all means bring them.

Go talk to the photographer, and get a feel for their personality. Do they listen to you? Do they ask you questions about your wedding? Are they receptive to the questions you ask? Are they open to your ideas? Willing to work with your budget?

Look at their albums. Do they look similar to the photos you saw online? Is the print quality good? How do the enlargements look?

Ask to see an entire wedding. But if you do this (which I recommend) make sure you do it with ALL of the photographers that you meet with. You want to be able to compare apples to apples, not apples to oranges. Tell them ahead of time that you want to see an entire wedding, because most photographers will NOT show you an entire wedding's worth of photos unless you ask. Why don't most photographers volunteer this? It's not because their photos are bad. It's because if they show an entire wedding, and the other photographers show you only their most fabulous, selected "album-worthy" shots, you're going to go with the photos that look "better", when chances are if you saw the other photographer's entire weddings, there would be about the same percentage of fabulous photos. It's psychological.

Most of all, make sure that the person you are meeting with is the person who took the sample photos that they show you, and make sure they will be the person photographing your wedding. In other words, make sure that they aren't just the salesperson. It's important to feel comfortable with your photographer because they will be with you all day, but also keep in mind that many people are only super good at one thing. You want yours to be good at photography, and the proof is in the pictures.

© 2004-2008 Jacqueline L. Beck. All rights reserved.