15 QUESTIONS FOR YOUR WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER
1. General – What You Need to Know
Wedding Photography is no easy subject and interviewing potential wedding photographers can be a daunting task. Regardless of if you are hiring us or another studio, we have created a list of 15 questions to help you find the perfect photographer for your wedding day.
While this list consists the exact reference of what questions to ask, you still need to pay attention to the soft-skills that are mentioned in “How Do I Choose a Wedding Photographer” during the meeting and conversation.
2. What is your primary style?
This should be your first and foremost question as this is the style of photography that interests you. We are primarily photojournalists with hints of fashion and fine-art influenced wedding photography techniques. For more about our wedding photography style and philosophy, check out our About Us Page
If you are seeking photojournalism, make sure you read our section titled “What are Wedding Photojournalists” to ensure you are actually getting a photographer that specializes in this area.
3. How many weddings have you shot, and have you shot ones similar to mine?
This is a great question to get an idea of how much experience your photographer has in general. Years are not a good gauge of experience since some wedding photographers may work part time, and only shoot five weddings a year on weekends. Thus, maybe they have five years of experience, but they have only shot 25 weddings. Your wedding photographers should be a full time photographers with a registered business, not a hobbyist.
4. How many times have you worked specifically as a wedding photographer?
This question is designed to find out if the photographers are specialized in wedding photography or they are “one-stop-shop-photographers.” More specifically, you would be better off looking for a photographer that specializes, not only in wedding photography but the style of wedding photography.
5. How many other events will you photograph that weekend?
We limit ourselves only one wedding per day so we can focus our attention on your wedding.
6. Will a contract of the services be provided? If so, can I get a copy?
There are a lot of studios that don’t create contracts for their wedding photography clients. You should require a contract from your photographer that details what services they will be providing, pricing, termination resolution terms, etc. A contract is created for your protection, and for the wedding photographer’s protection. It is best to hire a photographer that will build a contract with you, and be wary of photographers that “don’t typically create contracts for clients.”
7. What happens if the photographer is ill?
While it is unlikely that the photographer happens to get ill on your wedding day, there is still a chance. It is crucial that the photography studio does something to take care of the situation in case of illness. Either Nat or Bryan is qualified to take on the wedding alone is needed or if time allows we have very experienced photographers on call in our network of local professionals.
8. Do you have insurance?
Professional wedding photographers should have the proper insurance for their business. Insurance protects the photographer against equipment theft, but more importantly, it provides liability protection in case a family member trips over the photographer’s bag and breaks their leg. If a wedding photographer does not have insurance, chances are they are new to the industry or are not taking their business seriously.
We carry general business, equipment and liability insurance.
9. Does the package I am interested in include two photographers?
We always shoot together! Aside from the wedding site, there are many moments which one single photographer cannot cover completely alone. There is no way to capture the first kiss, and at the same time, turn around and get the tear in mother’s eye.
10. Does your studio outsource editing?
Another factor in how your pictures will look is the style of post-production that the studio employs. That is to say, they do post-produce your images. Be extremely careful, as many studios send their photos away to outside editing companies that don’t care about how you want your images to look or worse yet some don’t post-produce your images at all, rather they give them to you unfinished and straight from the camera. In this situation, you are not receiving a finished and professional product.
Unique to Nat & Bryan Weddings is a Post Production Choice. While we specialize in timeless post-production techniques, we allow each and every client to select which styles of post-production they like which we use to win we post-produce their images. This has everything to do with the fact that we personally edit every wedding in house.
11. Will you color correct my images?
Since color correction is the basic post-production, it should be used on every single image. Many photographers will not color correct any, or will only color correct “select” images from your wedding. This means that you may have a lot of pictures where your skin tones are orange, yellow, red or even blue.
We color corrects every single image from your wedding to make sure each and every image is a professional quality product.
12. What kind of equipment do you use? Do you have backups?
Our studio uses top quality camera bodies along with the finest quality lenses from Canon. While wedding photographers don’t necessarily need the best of the best, it is important to have a good set of equipment. Make sure your photographer has at least back up camera bodies and lenses, along with flash backups. Nothing would be worse than for the photographer to miss half of your wedding because their camera or lens broke, and they didn’t have a spare.
13. Should my event last longer than scheduled, will you stay? Is there an extra charge?
Knowing up front the photographer’s policy on overages is critical. You don’t want to be surprised when your wedding photographer asks for an additional $1,000 before they release your pictures to you. Even worse, you don’t want your wedding photographer to just pack up and leave when their time is up. With that being said we provide all day coverage and don’t leave the wedding until you do no matter what.
14. What attire will the photographer and their assistants wear?
Even though the wedding photographers are a big part of the wedding day, it’s important that they are not distractions. As such, it’s important for the photographer to blend in as much as possible. Furthermore, for religious or cultural ceremonies, there may be certain colors that are considered taboo. Make sure your photographers will be dressed appropriately for the occasion. Our typical Miami wedding photography attire is black or dark gray suit pants with a black dry-fit polo or dress shirt. We dress completely dark because we want to go unnoticed by the clients and guests so that we can capture the event as true photojournalists.
15. How long after the event will the proofs, album, etc be ready?
Each wedding photography studio varies in the time it takes to produce and deliver your pictures. Studios that do not do any post production or color correction may try to entice you by saying your photos will be ready within the week, or even the next day. However, most studios that develop and produce their images will take anywhere from 6 weeks to 6 months. So ask
We have developed a consistent production schedule in order to deliver an amazing product in an exceptionally quick manner. This schedule can be seen below:
1-2 Weeks for Engagement, Family, & Maternity Photography Sessions.
8-10 Weeks for Weddings