Wedding Please Help Me Pick a Photographer!

[kittybean]

I have two choices of photographers, and I really need to pick this morning. Please weigh in:

Photographer A:
- Photojournalistic style
- $2400 for 8 hours, two photographers, unlimited rights to all images, all high-res RAW files delivered on DVD (lower res also delivered on CD for fast proofing), 2000+ delivered of 5000 shot, all edited images online for proofing, option to add album for $750
- Pros: takes gorgeous pictures, is willing to work with guests and pose the portrait-style pictures, includes a second shooter, liked him a little better personally
- Cons: was 40 minutes late to his initial meeting with me (I''m afraid he may be late or unprofessional in some other way at the wedding), costs a little more

Photographer B
- Photojournalistic style
- $2160 for 7-9 hours (he will stay for my whole "event"), unlimited rights to all images, all high res JPEG files delivered on disc, about 1200 images delivered, online proof hosting for 180 days after the event, option to buy album for $300-$900+
- Pros: was the original photographer I wanted to use, takes gorgeous photos, costs a little less, seemed fine to work with
- Cons: a little bit of an "artiste" attitude, reluctance to help with posing portrait shots, shoots wedding by himself

I think the biggest differences are 1) the number of photographers (A has 2, B has 1) and 2) the price. I really need to pick one ASAP because I feel like I am stringing both along. Please impart your knowledge and tell me who you might pick.

 

[FacetFire]

Hmmm...have you talked to anyone else? Neither one sounds great to me. I think personality fit is important, and I CANNOT imagine working with anyone who was 40!!! minutes late to a meeting. That is incredibly unprofessional. There are many nice, easy to work with and professional photographers out there...

 

[buttercup80]

I completely agree with facetfire!

However, if you''re stuck with choosing between those 2, I''d go with option A. . . I have found that it''s REALLY important to get along with your vendors - *especially* the photographer, so I wouldn''t hire anyone who had "a little bit of an attitude."

 

[FacetFire]

Oh, I forgot to add that it worries me that Photographer 1 gives you the RAW files. RAW files need processing to POP and become well-saturated, sharp images. Traditionally, a photographer will shoot in RAW format, then process and edit the images to make them look good and then give you the jpg versions that include the processing changes. Unless you are a photographer yourself and prepared to deal with the editing, you don''t want the RAW images, you want the processed and edited jpgs.

Also, most professional high-quality photographers won''t deliever 1200-2000 images. That number is very high and means you will be getting a lot of extra junk images. To me, it also indicates that you will be getting images that haven''t been processed and edited as much. Simply speaking, it is way too time consuming for a photographer to spend quality editing time on that many images. Don''t just go by the images on their website. Those are usually MUCH more processed than anything they will deliver to you. Ask to see the 1200-2000 images that they delivered to a previous bride. Honestly, I''d prefer to find a photographer that would spend some more time on my images and deliver closer to 500 or so images.

I hope that helps! Good luck!