Choosing your Photographer
--Dustin Fife
My goal for this article is to not be biased. But you’re probably thinking, “A professional wedding photographer giving advice on choosing a professional wedding photographer…how can you not be biased?” I have no idea, but we’ll see how it goes.
1. Spend time looking. No duh huh? But the good thing is that you will soon discover what you like 
and what you don’t like. When we were looking for our photographer, we spent hours looking. We finally narrowed it down to two different photographers. One was incredibly creative, artistic, and stylish. But the photo quality was not up to par. We ended up choosing a more traditional photographer because we felt that good quality was more important than artistic interpretation. The more time you spend looking, the more you will understand what it is you want.
2. Look at their websites. But focus on the pictures rather than design. Good desig
ned web pages are deceiving in that they make can make the photographer look better than they really are. My suggestion: turn off the touchy-feely music and look objectively at the pictures. Decide if you like them or if you don’t. (There! I have proven my unbiasness—we have touchy-feely music on our website!).
One thing you might want to pay attention to: does their portfolio show the same couple over and over again? If this is the case, chances are they are pretty new to the business. (In fact, our first website had the same couple in about half of the photos.) Though beginners often outperform veteran photographers, there is still a learning curve that takes place. In all honesty, photographers learn by making mistakes. Typically it’s best to choose someone who has already made all their mistakes on someone else’s wedding.
By looking at their website, you should be able to narrow it down to a few photographers that you really like.
3. Decide how much value you place on pictures. You can ask yourself, “How important are the 
pictures?” (Ok, now I’m going to be biased). My thought is this: all the food will be forgotten, you can’t take the reception center with you, the rented tuxes will be worn by another wedding party in a couple days, etc. The only things that will remain after the wedding are your wedding rings, your dress (which will probably never be worn again), your spouse, and the pictures. For us, the photographer was the only thing we splurged on, and of all the times we have looked at our wedding pictures, we have never regretted it.
3. Decide your budget but be flexible. When we were deciding our wedding photographer, we set our budget at $300 before we even started looking. But when we found the photographer we wanted, he was a lot more than our budget called for. But it was important to us, so we chose him.
But at the same time, there are good photographers out there that are pretty inexpensive while there are really bad photographers who charge outrageous prices. If you find one you like who is way outside your budget, keep looking and chances are you can find someone you like who is within your budget.
5. Email them and see how good at communication they are. This is a great way to narrow down your pool of potential photographers. If you contact a photographer, and they t
ake a couple days to respond, chances are their communication won’t improve much after the wedding…yet that’s likely when you need good communication the most; you might need a print for the reception the next day, you might need the CD to make a slideshow for your trip to Aunt Edna’s next week, etc. It’s pretty sad when wedding couples don’t get their pictures until months after the wedding because of the photographer. (In fact, I once saw an ad in craigslist where a woman was telling everyone to not go with a certain photographer because she hadn’t been able to get a hold of him since their wedding—9 months before).
6. Meet your photographer before the event. With the Internet it is easy to find your photographer, book your day, and pay without ever meeting him or her until the actual event. But it is very important to meet him or her when possible. Keep in mind, on your wedding day, chances are that most people will be stressed. Then suddenly, this stranger with a camera is telling everyone what they’re supposed to do, where to go, how to stand, including you. It’s important to meet them to make sure that your personalities won’t clash. Your photographer can have a way of putting everyone at ease, or they can have a way of exacerbating the situation.
One other thing to keep in mind is that some photography businesses have multiple photographers who work for that company. If this is the case, ask to meet the one who will shoot your wedding, and ask to see their portfolio. Make sure that you are happy with that photographer.
7. Ask to see an entire wedding of theirs. Of course photographers only put their best stuff on their website, which has likely been heavily photoshopped by the time it gets published. We don’t know if they were scrounging to find enough presentable pictures to put on their website, or if they were having trouble narrowing it down because so many of their pictures were so fabulous, or if all their pictures had to be “repaired” in photoshop because they made so many mistakes. Ask to see an entire wedding (as the client would see it)so you can see the whole gamut of photos that the photographer takes.
Now one thing to keep in mind is this: the photos are someone else’s wedding party. Because you don’t have an emotional attachment to the people involved, you may not find them as interesting as the person who actually receives the pictures. Just imagine that those pictures will be of your family.
This is actually what helped us decide on our photographer. He had taken Amber’s sister’s wedding pictures. We saw from start to finish what a normal wedding looked like, and we were happy.
8. Some questions to consider. Before you make your decision, be sure to ask several important questions, such as:
Will I get the negatives (or digital negatives)?
Do I have the rights to print from my negatives?
How large can I print from the negative?
How soon before I get to see my pictures?
How are the pictures presented? (e.g. online, proof sheet, 4x6s, on CD)
As a fellow photographer said, “The more questions you ask up front, the more confident and relaxed you’ll feel on and after your wedding day. If in doubt, ask! And remember, there is no such thing as a dumb question!” (see http://www.iqphoto.com/choosing.htm). Honestly, we love it when a client asks lots of questions. The more they know, the more confident we are that they will be happy with our services.
I hope I've been successful in being "unbiased." Good luck finding your "photog."
--Dustin