Google for the best photographer in your city, see the profiles and choose according to your budget. Is this that much simple to book your wedding photographer? — Well, not really.
The decor will be gone the next day. The delicious food would be forgotten soon. People will stop talking about the event in a month. What will stay with you? What will you show to your children or even grandchildren with proud in your eyes? Yes. Only the memories captured by your wedding photographer will stay with you forever.
So, there is no chance of mistake in this. There won’t be any retakes. So, follow along to make sure you don’t miss on this part. Here is our comprehensive list of the things you should keep in mind before booking your wedding photographer.
1. Take references from your friends/relatives and research thoroughly by yourself:
You have to take references but must not trust them blindly. It’s very much possible that the same photographer can give you a completely different experience. There are many reasons why references may fail drastically! You will know why it happens in this post later on. However, the first step would be to shortlist 3-4 photographers.
2. Visit the studio/workplace of the photographers you shortlisted
If you and your photographer happen to be in the same city, spare some time, take the appointment and visit the photographer. See the setup. Alternatively, at least talk to him/her about the basic things like is he/she is well equipped? Is he/she has his/her team of photographers, cinematographers, and editors? Is he/she as well as his/her team members are well behaved and presentable?
Why are these things important? Because today many studios are barely having a team of 5 to 7 people are taking 3 to 5 weddings a day in a wedding season. Then they tend to outsource. Here comes the danger. If he/she gets a right freelancer camera person, you are lucky. Otherwise, the biggest day of your life is going to be ruined, and there is no way to correct that afterward.
Also, keep in mind that you are seeing only 1% of the images of a photographer on his/her website or social media profiles. Anyone can give you five great pictures out of 1000. So, consistency is the key here. It would be best if you look for a studio with a dedicated camera team and editors who are master at their craft and can address your requirements and deliver the stuff you like for your next generations to show off.
3. Experience, expertise, and gears:
‘No two weddings are the same.’ You can always expect unexpected at a wedding. Long hours… Less time… Less sleep… Weather… Location… Moods… Many factors in marriage require some experience. No matter how much you pre-plan, you have to be sure that something can come up out of nowhere. That is where the experience comes to your rescue.
There is always something new to learn and experience in the photography field. So, a photographer should be aware of the latest trends and should be a lifelong learner. With the proper skillset, he/she should have a proper gear set as well. With the advancement of photography, if you are not using a decent camera and lighting equipment, your expertise alone won’t produce breathtaking images.
4. Deliverables:
There are many things to consider in the field of photography, even after the wedding is over. For example,
Are you going to get all the images edited? Many photographers will only edit the photos that are going into the album. So, that will be 200 to 400 pics out of 3000 to 4000 images. So, what about the other pictures?
Are you going to get raw or hi-res images? Make doubly sure that you get those. You would not want to visit now and then to your photographer for a hi-res image and to also pay a fee in many cases.
Ease of use. Will you get all the pics sorted in respective folders? Like, you have separate folders for bride & groom, family, rituals, and guests. Just imagine, how convenient it could be to find a particular photo in a few seconds from 2000 photos?
Are you getting images on the cloud also? You should get a copy of all your pictures stored on the server of your photographer with password protection. So, you can find any of your images in seconds from your phone or can share with others.
Albums? Make it clear whether you want an album or not and that the cost of albums is included in the quote? Also, if included, then how many albums you will get? Who will make the selection? Clarify everything beforehand.
Short films. Make sure to ask the duration of the short films and the look and feel of it. Will there be full sangeet performances? Will you get the baarat with the original music? Questions should be asked and discuss before booking.
5. Delivery time:
How about having the best coverage of your wedding with many ‘A-ha’ moments but to get it after your first wedding anniversary? Not so cool, eh? Processing everything does take time. Especially during the wedding season. We understand that ‘Rome was not built in a day.’ However, it should be reasonable. It would help if you clarified the delivery time. In most cases, it varies between 2 to 6 months.
6. Same day edits:
How cool is it to see the sangeet performances and rituals of the previous days during your wedding day itself? Also, in a very cinematic way? Put a big LED display, ask your photographer to give a beautifully edited same day video as well as photos and wow your friends and relatives. It is nothing more pleasing than watching yesterday’s performances today on a big screen.
Leave a reply