Wedding Tips - Choosing A Wedding Photographer

August 31, 2008 by BellaB

Your wedding photographs are tangible records of your wedding and will serve as reminders of the moment you both promised to love, honor and cherish one another. This is the reason why choosing the right person or persons to take your wedding photographs is so important. Your wedding photographer must be a person that you are comfortable and will enjoy working with. During your wedding day you, your family and guests will be interacting with this person all day. Therefore, your decision to hire a photographer should be based on their style and personality, not just on price alone.

With the usual budget for wedding photography estimated to be between 5% to 10% of your total wedding budget, you and your future husband need to consider several questions before hiring a photographer. These series of articles are intended to help you make the right decision in hiring the person who will take lasting memories of your wedding day.

Know your Style

Before you start looking for a photographer, spend some time on thinking what photographic style you prefer, and then seek out those photographers whose work reflects your style. There are basically two styles that wedding photographers fall into - photo journalistic or formal. The majority of all photographers will claim that they have the ability to do both, in reality they will almost always lean to more to one style than the other.

Photojournalist considers it their job to record events, not stage them. The images are more candid and documentary-like. These do not mean that they will not be taking formal, portrait-style, pictures. They will take these pictures at your desired time and with the specific people you want to be in the formal pictures.

Traditional photographer treats every image as a posed portrait, even those you think are candid. They look to capture perfect moments employing artistry such as soft focus technique and ideal lighting to make you look flawless. While your formal photographer will ensure that your family, attendants and guests to assemble and pose in locations she or he has chosen, there will be a few candid shots, as well, but not as much as what a photojournalist will take.

Color, Black-and-White or Sepia

Color photographs captures all the details — the flowers, shades of your bridesmaids gowns, the decoration and wedding favors — that you worked so hard to put together.

Black-and-white is classic and timeless. There is a decided trend toward black-and-white wedding photography among couples who prefer a more candid photo journalistic approach. Although black-and-white film is less expensive, it is more expensive to process and print than color. If you want this type of pictures, make sure your chosen photographer is skilled in this area and does the developing in his or her own studio.

Sepia tone is an effect added to black-and-white photographs that alters them from the normal shades of grey to shades of brown. This is usually used to prolong the life of the picture. Most old or historical pictures are produced in a sepia tone. If you like this “vintage” look, ask your photographer to add the tint to your black-and-white wedding photographs.

In the end, it would probably make everyone happy to mix your album up with some of both. You might choose to have majority of your shots in color and a few in black-and-white or maybe in sepia or vise versa. If such a mix is what you want, look for a photographer who has the ability to deliver these.