How would you go hire a wedding photographer?

[hotdrop]

Yeah its happening... I'm getting hitched and I need to hire someone to document it. We reached out to all the friend of a friend contacts and I don't really like their work so I figured I'd ask some of the pros and semi pros here where they advertize and where I might get the best snap for my buck. Also any tricks to weed out posers and armatures.

Also what would be a fair price to pay for the job? Its a small backyard type wedding probably about 2 Hours of actual shooting and the rest in setup, travel and post processing. in Washington state on San Juan Island (Ill prob have to the photographer for travel time there). Its a pretty low budget wedding but I want some photos worth keeping so I want to pay enough that I can hire someone that will do the job right.

 

[tirediron]

Select a photographer the way you would any other service. Use web searches, telephone directories, talk to friends, and ask for suggestions from friends, families, and other wedding service providers. Once you find a selection that are available for your date, review their portfolios and disgard those whose work you don't like.

Next, meet with the photographer, FACE TO FACE, not via e-mail, not on the telephone, etc, and talk to the photographer; find out if he/she is someone you can get along with. If you wouldn't feel comfortable going for a drink with him/her, you probably don't want them at your wedding. Make sure they have multiple weddings to show you, and be wary of anyone who has many shots of the same wedding/event (think, "One trick pony").

As for price, if it's only a two hour event, then I'd would probably bill that at about $500 (as a rule of thumb, 1 hr shooting = 1 hr processing), plus travel and product

Make sure you sign an agreement which stipulates what the photographer must do, when he/she has to show up, how long they stay, what they cover, any 'must have' shots, what the turn-around time is, what you will pay, etc, etc. Be very wary of anyone who says that you don't need a contract.

 

[hotdrop]

Thanks for the feedback, the locals want 400-500 an hour... I don't really understand if they really spend that much time post processing or if anything wedding related just gets the 500% sucker markup.

 

[tirediron]

It depends greatly on where you live. I live in a smaller, rural area, so my prices in general are likely to be considerably less than a large city. Don't forget too, that a professional (as opposed to a "facebook fauxtog") is going to have a lot of equipment to pay for and maintain; When I arrive at a wedding, I'm bringing in between $10 and 15,000 worth of equipment. Many photographers include digital files in their price, or offer a print credit.. again, make sure you know what you're getting for your money.

 

[KmH]

$400-$500 an hour is a little on the low side for an established and well regarded wedding photographer in a decent sized market area.
At $500 an hour, 8 hours of shooting - the B&G getting ready, the wedding ceremony, and the reception - would be $4000.

A 2 hour assignment probably prevents the photographer from booking a full day job that same day.
Being a small wedding with fewer people in attendance the photographer gets less exposure and word-of-mouth advertising value from the assignment too.

 

[chuasam]

Most lower end pros would charge about $2,000 to $3,000 for an 8 hour wedding.
No pro would take a 2 hour wedding during peak season.

 

[Vtec44]

You look at the photographer's portfolio, complete portfolio from the beginning of a wedding to the end, then you ask for past references, then you meet face to face to see if his/her personality matches yours. If everything checked out okay and you love the work, you pay for what she/he's worth. What the photographer does, how long it takes, etc are all irrelevant. If you like the work, you will pay for it. If you don't then just move on to the next. Remember that it's a once in a life time event and you can't re-do. There's a saying, you get what you paid for.

 

[runnah]

Hire a friend who happens to own a DSLR.

 

[f2bthere]

Hire a friend who happens to own a DSLR.

How could that possibly go wrong?

Seriously, the OP clearly wants to be confident to get professional work and has made it clear they don't want to mistakenly hire someone not qualified.

Good advice from many above.

It's good to see that they have shots from several weddings so you know they have experience.

I also suggest you see full coverage of at least one wedding. It's easy to pull a few good shots from the best events, but you also want to know the photographer is capable of consistently getting good shots and what coverage is likely to look like for you.

Consistently good work takes a lot of focus and skill, which comes from a lot of experience. That's what you are paying for. Yes, good photographers also tend to have a lot of expensive gear, insurance, etc.

I would also get a sense for how they work. Do you want a photographer who is like a movie director and orchestrates the images or a photographer who is unobtrusive and captures the candid moments? These are two different skill sets (although some are good at both).

What types of images do you want to end up with? Do you want full resolution digital files, prints, an album? Decide what you want and find out what that will cost.

If you meet a few photographers, look at their work and get a sense of how you feel about them, you will probably know a lot more about what matters to you.

 

[Big Mike]

I went with a cheap & adequate photographer for my wedding, it's the one thing that I would change about it.

We spent lots of money on the food. We spent lots of money on the drinks (open bar). We spend money on the dress and the cake and the flowers etc.

We chose the photographer because we could get a good deal (he shot film and just handed it over undeveloped).

 

[EddyP]

Congratulations on your engagement!

It depends on your budget I guess; why not consider asking around your friends? Surely someone will know, or have at least, of someone who has hired a reputable photographer in the past? If this fails then why not just do a good old fashioned internet search and have a browse through your local results.

 

[gsgary]

I got married 3 months ago and had camera friends shoot it because I was not prepared to pay for any photographer I had seen local, the one I would have liked that shoots film starts at £3000 and for that I preferred to invite more friends, photos were low down our list of wants

 

[TheUniverse]

"Its a pretty low budget wedding"

So was mine and because I had shot weddings I wasn't about to hire a wedding photographer anway...

What we did was give "one-use" (can't think of what those things were called anymore but you sent the whole camera to the lab) cameras to everyone and we got plenty of shots we liked.

Of course, this was in the days of film. No idea what the equivalent would be today.

 

[Derrel]

SNIP> any tricks to weed out posers and armatures.

Well...stay away from electric motors and generators...those have armatures...so, you don't want that.

Some good advice has been given. Go for the best you can afford. If you don't have confidence in whoever has been hired, well, that's not good, and in such a case, it might be very worthwhile to have multiple people shooting this event, on a sort of free-style basis. You might have some friends or family members who are pretty good with a camera, or who are "into photography".

I can tell you one thing: I've recently seen some "professional" wedding photos shot by a two-person team, which were not really all that well done. My 'guest' shots made with on Nikon and a couple of lenses (a 24 and a small wide-to-short tele zoom) and no flash were as good or better than the stuff the "pro's" shot with their cameras. So...maybe you have an Uncle Bill or whatever?

The way I look at it--if any professional says, "I am the only one allowed to shoot any photos throughout the whole event," that person's either a fool, or a time-traveler from the 1950's.

 

[dennybeall]

If you go with a basic photography package, or even if you don't, you can consider an idea that I used for a reunion that would apply to a wedding just as well.
At the wedding you hand out small cards with an email address. Ask the attendees to send copies of any photos they take with camera or cellphones to the email address. The hard part is to find someone that can take all the photos (from the pro and the guests), fix any that need fixing and combine them into a presentation. You can offer copies of the finished product to anyone that sends pics?
You can expand the idea and ask in the wedding invitation for old photos of the bride and groom to be sent to the email address and make a slide show to be shown at the wedding.
The two presentations can be combined for a wedding album?????