A few days ago, an old college friend messaged me on Facebook asking if I had any tips for interviewing wedding photographers. Rather than give her a short two sentence response, I thought I would share some of my knowledge about wedding photography here.
I’m going to skip the clique suggestions like what does your package include, do you have backup photography gear, what’s your style, etc. since I’m sure you all know the routine by now. Instead, I want to focus on more thorough (but still important) questions that some people might overlook if they’ve never been through this process before.
Certainly, I could add a lot more than the 5 tips you see below but that would bore everyone to tears. So if you have more questions, feel free to leave a comment below or to shoot me an email. I’m always happy to help.
And cheers to Dueker and her soon-to-be hubby! Can’t wait to see the pictures!
1. How Do They Pick A Second Shooter
I’ve talked about this before when I discussed selecting our wedding photographers but I completely and totally 100% endorse paying for a second shooter on your wedding day (even if it doesn’t come with the standard package). I would never suggest not using one. The day goes by so quickly and they are so many people and moving parts that is nearly impossible for one person to shoot it all. So splurge and pay the extra money for a second shooter.
That being said, it’s important to know how your potential photographer chooses their second shooter. Do they rotate through their photography friends? Or do they have a standby person that they always use? Because photography involves coordinating lighting and angles and ensuring that you stay out of each other’s shots, it’s important that your photography team have some chemistry and synergy. This really only happens when two people have worked together for a substantial period of time. I would definitely prefer to have a photographer that uses the same second shooter every time—someone they feel comfortable with and on which they can rely.
So my recommendation would be to select a photographer who endorses uses a second shooter and has a trusted one that they always use.
2. How Do They Organize The Day
I’m a super type A personality so I prefer to run my schedule pretty tightly. I loved that my photographers made us a detailed timeline for our photography. It allowed me to figure out exactly when I needed to be ready and where everyone needed to be at any given time for our photo shoots. Cicely even went so far as to block out 15 minutes for me to get in my dress. This kind of attention to detail ensures that your photographers won’t miss any special moments or have to cut out any portrait time because they’ve forgotten a step in the day.
Make sure to ask your photographers how they keep themselves organized for the day of. Do they have a timeline they carry with them? How do they create that timeline? How do they keep themselves to the schedule? I can’t tell you the number of photographers I’ve seen walking around clueless on the day of so make sure you are picking organized, professional photographers.
3. Do They Shoot The Details
Since the wedding day goes by so quickly, you often don’t have time to appreciate all the little details on which you spent so much time—the programs, the menus, the place cards, etc. It was important to me that my photographers be able to capture those special details. For many of our details, our photographers actually took the items home with them to shoot (like our invitations, menus, and programs).
Unfortunately, I have also seen photographers completely ignore these details. If it’s important to you to have pictures of these things, ask your photographer if they do detail shots. And if they do, when do they shoot them, during the cocktail hour, afterwards, etc. This may seem like a small detail but you would be really disappointed to receive your gallery and not see any pictures of your invitations or your rings.
4. What Do They Wear
I know this seems like a ridiculous question but it’s here because I’ve seen way too many photographers (and other vendors for that matter) dressed inappropriately. Sometimes it’s not the main photographers that are the offenders but rather the second shooters that they bring with them. I’ve definitely seen second shooters in jeans….
So ask the photographers if they have rules about what they wear and what their assistants wear. There’s nothing worse than being in a super swank locale and looking over at a vendor with jeans and sneakers on—total mood killer.
5. How Quick Is Their Turnaround
It’s always nice to know how long it will take a photographer to get your images back to you. Some will be as quick as a few days while others may take longer. Our photographers were able to get a blog post of our wedding up a few days after we got married and then they delivered a disc with all of the images a few weeks later.
In asking this question, you will also be able to get a sense for their editing process. If a photographer suggests that they can have all of your images ready in a few days, I would be nervous that perhaps those images weren’t edited very thoroughly. Take this time to ask about their editing. What kinds of edits do they do on every picture? Some photographers will do basic edits on all the pictures but if you purchase a print or stick a picture in an album they will do a full-scale editing of the photo (airbrushing out blemishes, etc.)
These questions will help you figure out their photography knowledge and skill as well as their business and time management. The more you know about them and their process the better you will be able to predict the kind of product they will deliver.
So those are my five questions to ask a potential wedding photographer.
Can you guys think of any more questions (besides the basic ones of course) that people should ask potential photographers?
