Questions to ask perspective wedding photographer:

> Can you show evidence you are licensed, bonded, and insured? (You don't want surprises or liabilities!)

> What's in your contract? (Remember, contracts protect BOTH parties and should state clearly, in plain English (or your native language), the deliverables, scope of coverage, costs, time frames for delivery, penalties for non-performance and late payment, payment schedules, contingency plans, etc.)

> Is your style planned/posed, photojournalistic, or something else? (Some photographers just work off of a stock list of posed scenes. They capture the same boring scenes found in nearly all other couples' photo albums. Others will work from a list, AND cover as much as they can, in between. They record a lot of surprisingly good, spontaneous, joyful, funny, and interesting moments. Still others forgo the list and do only photojournalistic coverage, perhaps with a stylistic flair. These people are best employed along with someone who handles the stock list of moments, IF you have a demanding relative who insists on the classic posed album scenes.)

> Will the photographer have an assistant to provide additional coverage? (Often, multiple events are happening at the same time. The lead photographer may be staging couples' photos after the ceremony, prior to the reception, but an assistant could cover the reception.

> Do you provide videography services? If so, will you record excellent audio of the ceremonial vows, music, etc.? (Videography is traditionally a separate service, but more and more "hybrid" photographers are out there. Quality, even among traditional wedding videographers, varies considerably!)

> What sort of pricing structure do you use? Do you make your money from fees or print sales? (Smart photographers charge a fair fee for coverage, and price prints reasonably. Print prices may include post-production image processing, some degree of retouching, the print, and any print treatments such as spray, canvas printing, canvas stretching, mounting, matting, framing, glass, book composition and printing...

A true professional can provide images on CD or DVD, instead of or in addition to prints, but you need to know what level of post-production is performed on those images. Are they simple, unedited JPEGs? Have they been reduced in size for social media use only? Do you have personal reproduction rights? Are the images converted from raw files, retouched, cropped, color adjusted, and ready to print from full size JPEGs? All those details matter! You may think a disc should cost just a few dollars, but what goes onto that disc can vary from less than an hour's post-processing work to a week's worth of careful artistry! The latter can cost thousands.

A "slash and burn" wedding photographer may record JPEGs straight from the camera onto a disc, with no editing or post-processing, charge you one fee to do whatever you want with it, and run. This sounds like a deal, but may prove VERY disappointing.

Whatever you do, be sure to view samples of prints, samples of image discs, samples of video (i.e.; view samples of whatever is offered, and be sure you ask how much it costs!

> Be sure you establish clear boundaries over WHAT can be photographed, BY WHOM, and WHEN. POST notice of those boundaries at the venues. Smartphones are incredible distractions. Many young couples ban them from ceremonies and the posed photography session after. Most encourage smartphone use at receptions. But if you're hiring a pro, be respectful of his/her time and priorities. If 20 people jump in front of the paid photographer to steal the composition or the moment, is that fair to anyone?

Great wedding photography is not inexpensive. Good wedding photography isn't cheap! But in an age of digital everything, it's important to maintain perspective on memories, and what they are really worth in the coming years.

Questions to ask perspective wedding photographer:

> Can you show evidence you are licensed, bonded, and insured? (You don't want surprises or liabilities!)

> What's in your contract? (Remember, contracts protect BOTH parties and should state clearly, in plain English (or your native language), the deliverables, scope of coverage, costs, time frames for delivery, penalties for non-performance and late payment, payment schedules, contingency plans, etc.)

> Is your style planned/posed, photojournalistic, or something else? (Some photographers just work off of a stock list of posed scenes. They capture the same boring scenes found in nearly all other couples' photo albums. Others will work from a list, AND cover as much as they can, in between. They record a lot of surprisingly good, spontaneous, joyful, funny, and interesting moments. Still others forgo the list and do only photojournalistic coverage, perhaps with a stylistic flair. These people are best employed along with someone who handles the stock list of moments, IF you have a demanding relative who insists on the classic posed album scenes.)

> Will the photographer have an assistant to provide additional coverage? (Often, multiple events are happening at the same time. The lead photographer may be staging couples' photos after the ceremony, prior to the reception, but an assistant could cover the reception.

> Do you provide videography services? If so, will you record excellent audio of the ceremonial vows, music, etc.? (Videography is traditionally a separate service, but more and more "hybrid" photographers are out there. Quality, even among traditional wedding videographers, varies considerably!)

> What sort of pricing structure do you use? Do you make your money from fees or print sales? (Smart photographers charge a fair fee for coverage, and price prints reasonably. Print prices may include post-production image processing, some degree of retouching, the print, and any print treatments such as spray, canvas printing, canvas stretching, mounting, matting, framing, glass, book composition and printing...

A true professional can provide images on CD or DVD, instead of or in addition to prints, but you need to know what level of post-production is performed on those images. Are they simple, unedited JPEGs? Have they been reduced in size for social media use only? Do you have personal reproduction rights? Are the images converted from raw files, retouched, cropped, color adjusted, and ready to print from full size JPEGs? All those details matter! You may think a disc should cost just a few dollars, but what goes onto that disc can vary from less than an hour's post-processing work to a week's worth of careful artistry! The latter can cost thousands.

A "slash and burn" wedding photographer may record JPEGs straight from the camera onto a disc, with no editing or post-processing, charge you one fee to do whatever you want with it, and run. This sounds like a deal, but may prove VERY disappointing.

Whatever you do, be sure to view samples of prints, samples of image discs, samples of video (i.e.; view samples of whatever is offered, and be sure you ask how much it costs!

> Be sure you establish clear boundaries over WHAT can be photographed, BY WHOM, and WHEN. POST notice of those boundaries at the venues. Smartphones are incredible distractions. Many young couples ban them from ceremonies and the posed photography session after. Most encourage smartphone use at receptions. But if you're hiring a pro, be respectful of his/her time and priorities. If 20 people jump in front of the paid photographer to steal the composition or the moment, is that fair to anyone?

Great wedding photography is not inexpensive. Good wedding photography isn't cheap! But in an age of digital everything, it's important to maintain perspective on memories, and what they are really worth in the coming years.

Hi BurkePhoto,

Regarding your ending ...."it's important to maintain perspective on memories, and what they are really worth in the coming years", I completely agree. As a first generation American (mother one of eleven, father one of thirteen), I can attest to the power of photography to impact future generations, decisions, lives ... It also happens to be the direct reason I started in photography. "Priceless" has become trite but I cannot find better wording at the moment.

Having shot probably 30 weddings (and I can tell you I don't like them) what you really should do is consider the investment worth paying for; going cheap is not worth it. A professional wedding photography TEAM is consistently producing emotional imagery and not worrying about technology (it's second nature to them). They likely will ask for time away from the groups, the insistent family wanting to take jillions of cellphone images while the pro's do their thing. The suggestion of looking at an album is good; they should have more than one album of multiple weddings (versus one book of select shots of multiple weddings.) Most good ones will mix video and stills, and trust me if that's done well the videos will be far more impactful than books that are opened occasionally, or a bunch of facebook sized images.

Excellent wedding photographers are worth every penny; if they are charging less that $2k you don't want them unless you want to accept risk of inconsistent work.

burkphoto while you enumerated on many of the traditional issues your very elegant response is a bit dated... although excellent and extremely thorough...

Having current experience in the wedding i.e. bridal market I can assure you that wedding photographers who are doing both high end and mainstream work will be found on Wedding Wire...
https://www.weddingwire.com/wedding-photographers

TullyBoy I would encourage you to use Wedding Wire to get your head around the current talent in your market...

btw, a Wedding Wire presence is so vastly important to Wedding Photographers that they pony up funds to aid in getting top listing positions... I am on Wedding Wire as a Bridal Makeup Artist and trust me it is paramount to be represented there... my revenue stream for bridal makeup far exceeds what wedding photographers pull in (per hour)... My time for a trial session (which I provide a studio portrait) and at the actual venue is an order of magnitude less than the agony wedding photographers have to deal with...

Unless the bride wants me to do touch ups during the event (an extra) I'm gone before the ceremony starts... And I'm back at my studio cleaning brushes long before the photographer has a "wrap"

btw, I hold a cosmetologist license in makeup artistry and have professional liability insurance...

I wish you well on your journey TullyBoy and trust that you daughter's special day is absolutely fabulous... Please do consider the reality that this will likely be your daughter's most important photo-shoot.... To this end having an experience licensed professional bridal hair stylist and makeup artist is equally (if not more) important to enlisting the talent of a highly experience wedding photographer... enough said

Hello All. As an amateur photographer for 40+ years, I have had ample opportunity to take more spontaneous stills during weddings ( at the couples' /families' request or permission). Now, we have the honor of helping to select a wedding photographer for our daughter and her (wonderful) beau. While scanning my own thoughts and the ever present internet suggestions, it occurred to me that Ugly Hedgehog members might have unique and powerful insights and ideas on the topic. So .... what may be the most overlooked but valuable questions to clarify with perspective wedding photographers? Also, what "shots" might go overlooked that could be set up fairly easily? Any other thoughts for unique and "capturing" wedding photos? Any special ideas used when couple likes natural light outdoor pictures if the weather doeasn't cooperate that day? Thanks so much.

As the father of two brides, I found it very helpful to walk the venue with the bride, groom, and prospective photographer as the last part of the selection process. We discovered in two cases that the prospective #1 choice had shot the location previously and the walk produced discussions of the couples likes, dislikes, and expectations in specific settings. Obviously the time spent together helped to evaluate the chemistry between all parties. The process eliminated one candidate who had not worked the venue, to whom my daughter was attracted because of the "look" of his work. We became aware that his intention would have been to fit her wedding into his formula with little accounting for the couple's uncovered desires.