How do you know if a photographer is good? =)

Date: 6/5/2009 12:42:34 AM
Author: strmrdr
basics: In focus and sharp, pleasing to the eye? no stuff growing out of peoples heads?

tone: are the faces properly exposed and a natural color?

exposure: Look for is detail in the wedding dress, does it look like a blob or are the details showing up?


Looking over the portfolio of the one linked:

basics - very good to excellent

tone: very good

exposure - good to very good, the dress is blown(blobish) in a lot of shots.


Then you balance that against price.

I would consider her at the low to mid range but not the top dollar range.

Date: 6/5/2009 2:17:40 AM
Author: SapphireLover
We looked at photographers websites. Lots of them were nice but blah. When we found our photog we just got a different feeling. We met up with her, got on great. Most importantly she showed us pics of weddings shed shot and even though we didn't have a clue who the people in the pics were, we were smiling all the way through. Her photos just radiated the joy and love everybody felt on their wedding day. All the other photogs we'd met left us feeling blah at the end of the meeting, annemarie left us beaming.

Date: 6/5/2009 6:37:52 AM
Author: Delster
Photographs are super important to me. I chose our photographer based on the same criteria as Strm, but in addition I had stipulated that the photos had to touch me, I had to feel real emotion off them.


I went through dozens of websites going 'meh', 'nope', 'nooooooooo', 'yeah, ok', and 'all right'. Then a friend recommended her wedding photographer, or alternatively her wedding photographer's assistant. I looked at the friend's wedding photographer and was only 'hmmmm'. I expected to be disappointed with the assistant. About 30 seconds after opening the website I was in floods of tears and knew that was the photographer I wanted. I ran the website by a friend who's a professional photographer to make sure they were technically good as well as having that emotional connection, and when I got the thumbs up I arranged to meet the photographer. We clicked, got along really well, and FI was delighted too, so we booked!


ETA - our photographer also brought two sample albums to our meeting in addition to the 'portfolio'. I think it's easy to put up a selection of your best shots and look like a whizz, but it's a very hard thing to consistently deliver the goods wedding after wedding. I ruled out any photographer who only had a selection of shots on their website and not an entire sample album (although I would have been prepared to make an exception for someone just starting out who maybe hadn't found a client willing to give the OK to their album being used, if I felt their photos were great and I wanted to find out more - and I would have expected them to bring a sample album to our meeting).

Date: 6/5/2009 7:57:21 AM
Author: laughwithme
Rosebud - the pictures on her website are, in my opinion, definitely 'good' - but, she has a fairly distinct style. I know nearly nothing about photography so excuse my wordage but she used quite a bit of sepia/black and white, and makes most of the photos seem almost 'dated' - but in a good way - like you're looking through an old photo album. Does this make sense? I'm only mentioning it because if this fits YOU and your style, then great! But if not - if you are more modern/contemporary/vibrant colors, then maybe you should keep looking.


Delster said it well and I had the same experience with our photog - we sat down and went through online albums of various people, and I didn't ever 'feel it' - then through facebook, I saw the photos of a high school acquantaince and thought, surely her photographer is outrageously expensive because those are incredible! Turns out, she is giving us the 2009 rate on her nicest package - so $3,600 for a ton of stuff (it's now at $4,500.) But most importantly - looking through her photos on her website/blog (she updates the blog daily) almost makes me yearn for my wedding day - its incredible, what she does with lighting and color and faces and people and emotion - she so gets it. Thats what you need to search for - until you know someone can capture what you want them to capture, and in your style. Good luck!

Date: 6/5/2009 3:59:51 PM
Author: neatfreak
Make sure to ask to see ALL the proofs for a few entire weddings. They often tell a very different story than just the carefully selected photos they will post on their website. Make sure that they have MANY great shots from each wedding-not just one or two lucky ones.

Date: 6/5/2009 3:40:05 PM
Author: rosebud10
New Question-


Can anyone recommend any Seattle Area wedding Photographers?


My photography budget is around $2000....


I will keep looking and if I find anyone else that catches my eye, I will be back for your expert photography opinions!! I'm so glad I asked you guys!

Date: 6/5/2009 6:04:13 PM
Author: strmrdr



Will try and find some to look at.

Date: 6/5/2009 3:59:51 PM
Author: neatfreak
Make sure to ask to see ALL the proofs for a few entire weddings. They often tell a very different story than just the carefully selected photos they will post on their website. Make sure that they have MANY great shots from each wedding-not just one or two lucky ones.

Date: 6/5/2009 6:57:44 PM
Author: cocolaw




thats such good advice!

Date: 6/5/2009 6:54:59 PM
Author: rosebud10



http://rubinphotography.com

Date: 6/5/2009 6:54:59 PM
Author: rosebud10

http://imprintsphotography.wordpress.com/

Date: 6/5/2009 8:15:16 PM
Author: Gypsy
Here's my advice (it's pretty minimal and might be redundant as I haven't read everyone else's responses).

1. They will be in your face ALL DAY. ALL FREAKING DAY LONG.
a) Make sure they LOVE weddings and brides. GENIUNELY. Not just photography, but WEDDING photography. It makes a difference.
b) Make sure you AND your groom like them.
c) Make sure they like you.
2. There are all KINDS of styles, start looking through theknot, project wedding, PS wedding pics and decide on the 'style' that's right for you.
a) Traditional
b) Photojournalistic
C) Mix style of the above
D) Really artsy and cutting edge
E) Lots of other styles out there
3. Post Production work is where ALL the time energy and talent pay off. Don't get me wrong, the people have to have a good eye, and temperment and have to know when to shoot. But the editing, processing, all that is the finishing touch, the polish to it all. Make sure your photographer does this.
4. MAKE SURE that you see AT LEAST 2 or 3 weddings they've shot. RECENTLY end to end. ALL the proofs. The good, the great, the terrible. ENITRE weddings -- soup to nuts. Ask if the couple had any special requests, and ask to see the shots that reflect those requests.
5. Find out how many proofs/shots they take normally.
6. Who gets the films, high res digitals? When? Who owns the copyright?
7. What does their contract say about what YOU are obligated to do. Some require meals (multiple ones) some require other things. Meals, for me make senes. Hot meals make sense. But seated as a guest and alcohol? Um. NO.

Best thing to do is get recommendations from REAL brides, from venues, from other vendors. Makeup artists, venues, florists, wedding coordinators, caterers all of these will have recommendations. Wedding Wire, project wedding and theknot's local message boards are good resources.

Another GREAT way to get recommendations is to find a photographer whose work you flat out love. Disregard the pricing. Call them up and TALK TO THEM. Tell them... I love your work, I can't afford you but can you PLEASE recommend three photographer's whose work you respect, who have a similar style/philosophy and who might be within my price range? Repeat as needed.

I don't know where you are or how much photography costs in your area. It is one thing I WOULD NOT skimp on, even if it means cutting elsewhere. Post on local boards (theknot again) and ASK for what they think the average costs of a GOOD photographer in your area are?

In Nor Cal? I'd say (honestly) 4-8K. 6K being about were many of them are. You can pay less. You can pay more. I'm just saying on average for the photographers with the experience style and services *I* wanted... that was the range.

Here for example is what I wanted:

6-8 hours of photography.
2 shooters.
ALL proofs processed, retouched, editted.
All my high res processed and editted films. All my proofs in an album. NO watermarks on the proofs.
A great personality and someone who LOVED brides. Someone who understood me. Someone who I liked.
Someone who on AVERAGE took 800-1000 shots (total between two shooters) for an event my size. And where AT LEAST half of those were of quality they would pleased to have shown. AT LEAST.
Someone who captured emotion, details, who was a blend of artsy and photojournalistic and all that jazz (there was a LOOK I wanted)

Date: 6/5/2009 10:42:19 PM
Author: strmrdr


I would hire this guy in a heartbeat

Date: 6/5/2009 7:47:00 PM
Author: vintagecushion
It's so hard to choose a photographer! I liked this from what I could see from the galleries. They're in Portland but I know lots of Portland photographers travel to Seattle for weddings.

http://laurenbphoto.com/

Date: 6/6/2009 12:53:27 PM
Author: rosebud10



Really? For some reason his pictures don't really speak to me though =( I like the other two's photographer's pictures better..... do I have bad taste in photography? Is it his style I don't like? I am not good at recognizing photography style...


Thank you so much strmrdr for your advice as always! You are always so helpful!

Date: 6/6/2009 6:55:47 PM
Author: strmrdr


that's kewl if you don't like his style keep looking.
As far as the techniques go he is above the others but the style is also different.
If you can find one that good with a style you like you would be set

Date: 6/8/2009 11:43:37 PM
Author: rosebud10


http://www.sarahbrookeportraits.com/


3 or 4 of the image left me thinking, what is she thinking, but she does have the strongest portfolio of these 3 in my opinion

http://brandonpatoc.com/ this one is just strange. if you like it out there then maybe

http://www.daletuphoto.com/
some technical issues but shows promise



I'm so glad I have your expert opinion! I am photography clueless! =D