What Are You Paying Your Wedding Photographer For?

Planning a wedding is expensive. And a big part of that expense is hiring your wedding photographer. But what exactly are you paying your photographer for when you lay down all those big bucks? After all, are the pictures you will get from your wedding photographer printed on that much better quality paper than those you get from the drugstore or print on your own computer?

Weddings are expensive enough without spending money on things you don’t need. At the same time, however, you want to be able to look back at your wedding as a day that you can be proud of. You don’t want to look back at your wedding pictures and say, “I wish we had spent a little more money on a wedding photographer so we would actually have some decent pictures!”

If the actual product materials that make up your wedding photography are not much more than what you get from your local drug store then what indeed are you paying your wedding photographer for?

• Technical Expertise: Obviously, the first skill you are looking for is an ability to use his or her camera. That’s what we all think of when we start looking for a wedding photographer. We want someone with the expertise to know how to get the most out of the camera they use. But more than that, you want a photographer who knows how to make the most of the setting you have given them to work with. This includes knowing how to make the best use of the lighting available and how to modify the lighting when necessary as well as how to compose a picture regardless of whether you are looking for journalistic or traditional styled wedding photography.

To find a photographer with these skills you need to look through a lot of photographer’s portfolios. But don’t look at just any portfolios. Always look through portfolios that include entire weddings. You are paying them to take not just a few great pictures, but an entire wedding of great pictures and this is how you discover talents that qualify in the area of technical skill – by looking to see if they can take great photographs of an entire wedding.

• Interpersonal Expertise: A close second is the skill that sets a good wedding photographer apart from a great one. It is his (or her) ability to set the bride, groom, and the rest of the wedding party at ease. It is the ability to set you at ease. To find this you must personally meet your potential photographer and see if your personality clicks. If the photographer makes you comfortable and you want to use him or her get written guarantees that that individual will be the one shooting your wedding.
• Time & Labor: Of course, don’t forget that you are paying for the photographer's time, both at your wedding ceremony and in the lab afterward. Therefore, if you need to save money find a way to make the most of your schedule and / or cut down on the pictures that you want to take (for example: does he really need to photograph the entire reception or will the first half hour be enough?).
• Incidentals: Don’t let this category fool you. Some of the wedding photographer’s “incidental costs” are huge. They had to invest in a high quality camera and all of the lab equipment (including the building it is in). On top of that they have the small incidental costs like paper, film, and pens just like the rest of us.
• Popularity: As is everything else in life, the best photographers command the highest prices.
• Memories: Ultimately what you are paying for is the memories of your big day that will be preserved through his or her efforts. No, wedding photography is not cheap and only you can decide what it is worth to you. But if you do your homework, you will normally get what you pay for, and thirty years from now the memories preserved by a high quality wedding photographer will be priceless.

Wedding Photographer