Wedding How did you pick you photographer?

[sunnyd]

Help! Ladies, out of the hundreds of photogs available locally, how do you narrow it withouot looking at all of their websites and prices? It seems mighty overwhelming! Did you look at a few, decided you liked one and went from there? Where do I start?!

 

[Smurfysmiles]

I got recommendations from friends and then went to those photographer''s websites. I''ve only been engaged for a week and I''ve already got my photographer picked out!

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Want me to be honest? Yeah, I looked at a TON of sites.

I even looked out of state, but there weren''t as many great options around here. I guess the first thing is to narrow down what kind of photographer you want and what price range you want. That will eliminate a bunch of them most likely!

 

[CDNinNYC]

I was interested in a certain style of wedding photography (wedding photojournalist) and looked here. I found the website helpful because you can search photographers by location. Once you have that narrowed down you can view photog's websites, see their prices, whether cds/dvds are available, whether they provide negatives, etc... You can even access their calendars to view availability.

 

[mimzy]

i spent at LEAST 60 solid hours looking online for photographers over the course of three or so months. i did every type of search imaginable and looked at no less than 250 photographers websites. if i saw that i/we liked and was in our price range i''d bookmark it, then revisit it later. it took FOREVER but it really paid off. i was glad that we didn''t settle on someone that didn''t really fit our style because we were sick of looking.

just power through!

 

[sunnyd]

Man, I was afraid of that.

Another chart to keep track of!

ETA: That was to SLJS. Off I go searching again!

 

[SarahLovesJS]

Date: 10/8/2008 1:47:22 PM
Author: CDNinNYC
I was interested in a certain style of wedding photography (weding photojournalist) and looked here. I found the website helpful because you can search photographers by location. Once you have that narrowed down you can view photog''s websites, see their prices, whether cds/dvds are available, whether they provide negatives, etc... You can even access their calendars to view availability.

Ditto. I also looked at the Artistic Guild.

 

[marchswallowbird]

I started by checking out the reviews and forums on this site, ProjectWedding and IndieBride. I looked for photogs in my region that other brides loved. I also checked out photographers that were on a recommended vendors list provided by my venue. Then I checked out their websites. If they were too expensive or the style of photos on their website wasn''t what I was looking for, I eliminated them. Some photogs were already booked on my wedding date. I emailed those who didn''t have prices clearly listed on their websites. I met with one photog whom I loved, but when he was unwilling to negotiate at all on price, I regretfully scratched him off the list. I found another photog I really liked, and after a few rounds of emails, FI and I had a phone call with him (we live in L.A., the wedding is in Yosemite, the photog is in San Francisco). We booked him shortly after, on the basis of the phone call and the work on his website.

Most of the photogs I was communicating with were getting booked even though I began looking more than a year before my wedding date. The photog I booked had received another inquiry for my date, so I moved quickly to make sure I liked him and then booked him.

 

[sunnyd]

Date: 10/8/2008 1:49:51 PM
Author: SarahLovesJS

Date: 10/8/2008 1:47:22 PM
Author: CDNinNYC
I was interested in a certain style of wedding photography (weding photojournalist) and looked here. I found the website helpful because you can search photographers by location. Once you have that narrowed down you can view photog''s websites, see their prices, whether cds/dvds are available, whether they provide negatives, etc... You can even access their calendars to view availability.

Ditto. I also looked at the Artistic Guild.

Ooh thanks for the links!

 

[angielea]

After checking out recommendations from people at theknot, I also did a google search, went to wedding forums, etc, etc. Whenever I found a photographer that I liked, I added it to an excel spreasheet which listed, name, website, contact information, price, how many hours included, Digital negs included, and any pricing extras. It was a great help, to just make a huge list, and then go back and look at it again and narrow it down.

Having it all organized in front of me really helped. Good luck!

 

[Smurfysmiles]

wow after reading all this i feel really lucky im getting married in a small town i only has 10 to chose between but they are all reallly good

 

[angielea]

smurfy - I''m from Iowa, and I was still amazed by the # of photographers!!

 

[Sparkalicious]

Hi sunnyd!!

I just finished this process within the last couple of months and it was arduous. We interviewed no less than 10 photographers in the Seattle area! I had to make a spreadsheet to try and keep them all straight so that I could compare what they were offering versus our "musts" ...

Some of them were fantastic ... If you are interested in referrals, I might suggest the following:

Kate McElwee (she is darling, relatively new but really talented & super popular ... I think she''s starting to book up for next year already -- BEST pricing that we came across hands down!)
Jen & Jody
Kelly Chandler (*this is who we selected)
April Greer
In a Frame Photography
Janet Klinger
Starr Photography

That''s all I can think of right now but as far as your question ... how did we pick?! We were stuck and had to basically boil it down to the kiss principle - keep it simple ... We decided to uncomplicate the decision by just going with the photog''s style we most identified with ... That made the choice so much easier. Everything else just fell into place. Another impt consideration for us, however, was rapport. As long as we got along with the photographer, it was all good.

I don''t think that there is any way around it ... You''ll have to interview a few, maybe 3 of your tops from researching online and make your decision from there. Ask the right questions ... Here are a few you may wish to consider ...

Before your questions though, you may wish to consider the following:

What style of photography interests you?
- Traditional portraits, Photojournalistic OR a blend of the two

Do you black & white & color? Do you want e-pics? etc.

Questions/Steps ...
- Confirm wedding date availability
- Review lists of services
- Inquire about bait & switch, e.g., will the photographer you are interviewing and whose working you are seeing be the photographer taking your pics?
- Look at sample albums that show an "entire" wedding, start to finish, not just an album of best shots
- pay attention to photography style - are there a wide variety of shots, is the focal point in view, is the album cohesive and give the viewer a good feel of the day?

- How many weddings do you shoot a year/weekend etc?
- What do you love most about shooting weddings?
- How long have you been in the business?
- Do you use digital or film camera? Why?
- What is your philosophy/approach to wedding photography?
- Will we have the rights to the digital files/negatives?
- Will you be shooting the wedding solo or will there be more than one photographer? If so, how will the responsibilities be divided?
- What is your backup plan in case of equipment failure or illness?
- What are our package options?
- What is your turnaround time for proofs/final albums?
- What is your post-wedding process? Do you provide online proofs or hard copies?
- What sort of touch ups do you do?
- Do you offer online proofing albums so that guests can buy prints, if they choose?
- What is your payment policy?
- What is your cancellation policy?

- Check references.

These are just some of the questions we asked to help us figure out who the best photographer for us was ... Good luck with your choice and I hope that this helps!!

 

[Daydreamer7130]

We knew we were doing a DW so we looked at DW sites and thank God ours advertised where we looked. We looked at many online portfolios and then called them to see if our personalities meshed. They also did many extra things for us like set up our travel arrangements and resort reservations (for free) and stayed with us for a few days to get casual shots also. On the island, they took us out to dinner off resort and gave us a lovely island made wedding album as a gift for our personal candid shots. I LOVED (and still do) our photographers. I highly recommend them. They are a young hip couple too. We had a blast with them!

www.darrphotography.com

Cynthia