How to Pick Your Wedding Photographer
You've narrowed down your photographers to three, but now you have the daunting task of picking "the one" and you don't know what to do next. Here are three things things that you need to look in a photographer for your wedding. The photographer on your wedding day should have the experience and abilities to make your day a memorable one and not just during the day but 10, 20 or even 50 years from now.
1. Ability to shoot in Low-Light.
Most weddings take place indoor and most likely in dimly lit venues. Therefore It is extremely important that the photographer has a lot of experience with lighting and the ability to use multiple off-camera flash lights to fill in the shadows and to also add backlight which gives that nice pop to images. The photographer's lighting should also complement the ambient lighting of the venue and not take away.
2. Capture unpredictable moments
The wedding day brings a lot of unpredictable moments. There are many fast and fleeting moments. An experienced photographer should be able to capture these important moments because they can anticipate when the shot will take place and they know the angles and where to shoot it. In my experience as a wedding photographer, there are moments that I can anticipate ahead of time like the way the groom reacts to seeing the bride for the first time during the first look or the first kiss during the ceremony. I always look for these moments because these are moments that have to be documented.and will define how you remember your wedding day.
3. Stick with the timeline.
Photographers are with the bride almost the entire wedding day. It is important that a photographer knows the timeline and even more crucial is the photographer must know to stick to the timeline and not just take pictures without being aware of when it is time to move on to the next part of the wedding day.
Throughout the wedding day, the timeline is what determines how smooth the wedding flows. Since the photographer is with you the entire time more than the wedding planner, they need to make sure that the bride and groom and the bridal party are keeping up with the timeline.
Extra tip:
Find a photographer that offers photo albums/books. If you want to remember your wedding day 10, 20 or 50 years from now, you need to have a photo album. The photos on your phone or a hard drive could easily get lost. I have a lot of experience in IT and have seen way too many hard drives fail and phones that were not backed up. Even backups can fail. The main takeaway is to have something physical that can be passed down to your kids and grandkids and it should have great quality that will last generations.
