Guide to Finding a Wedding Photographer

Which Wedding Photographer? The Big Decision

Finding the right wedding photographer may well be the one of the most important decisions you’ll have to make in your wedding planning. Don’t treat it as an after-thought, for long after your wedding day has passed you’ll find that the memories that stick are the ones that are captured forever in the photographs. And you want those photographs to fully capture the beauty, the emotions, the people present and all those priceless moments on your wedding day.

Reportage Photographers And Why You Should Use Them

For this reason, DS very highly recommends photographers who specialise in the photo-journalistic style (also called reportage/documentary style) of wedding photography. This is because their approach is to capture events as they unfold during the day, rather than focus on taking posed shots. For what better way to capture those memories than to have candid photos of events during the day. And this is where the skill of the photographer plays a huge part – the ability to anticipate as well as compose and capture artistically those special moments in the day through their photographs. And these are the photos that can, even many years on, bring back a flood of emotions of your wedding day.

But this is not to say that you should ignore posed shots, as they can produce some truly stunning images. However you’ll find that most reportage wedding photographers will also allocate some time on your wedding day for you to take posed photos. And the rest of the day your reportage photographer will be focused on capturing and documenting the wedding in an un-obstrusive way. What you do want to avoid is photographers that leap out in front of you as you are walking down the aisle so that he can capture the moment! A good reportage photographer will be prepared for that moment and will have the skill and right equipment to capture that photograph without having to stop you in your tracks! After all, photography is important but your wedding day should be about enjoying yourselves and sharing that special occasion with your loved ones rather than being ordered around by a photographer to continuously pose for one shot after another.

Tips on Choosing The Perfect Wedding Photographer

You simply won’t go wrong with any of the wedding photographers that we work with closely here at DS. We take photography very seriously as we’re also photographers in our own right (but primarily nature and wildlife photographers)! And we’ve therefore hand-picked some of the very best wedding photographers to work with and would very highly endorse all of them. But don’t take our word for it, photography is an art and appreciation of photography can be subjective. You should still check out their portfolio and see if their work captures your imagination.

Without further ado, here are DS’s top 7 tips on choosing the perfect wedding photographer:-

1. Check out WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association | www.wpja.com) – it’s a professional organisation of wedding photographers from around the world. The WPJA also hosts regular contests and photographers can receive awards/rankings as a result. This is a good guide but bear in mind that individual photographers can be more highly ranked than others due to more active participation in the contests and therefore don’t disregard a photographer simply because they’re not ranked.

2. Check out Dolce Sposa’s recommended list of Wedding Photographers - we don’t inundate you with an extensive list of wedding photographers, instead we’ve handpicked some of the very best wedding photographers in the business and therefore every photographer we feature and work with comes with our seal of approval

3. Always review complete albums of weddings from start to finish – photographers’ websites will often have a portfolio of photos which are a collection of favourites accumulated from lots of weddings. But you’ll want to see a complete album shot by your photographer(s) (rather than others on the team) to ensure a consistently high quality of work for the whole day. A full album will also allow you better see the photographer’s style, his ability to capture the special moments and also highlight any potential weaknesses or bits of his style which you may not like.

4. Meet the photographer - make sure you like the person, or at least don’t dislike them! Get him to talk about his style – and also get an idea of how obstrusive his style might be and whether it’s something you’re comfortable with.

5. Look at an actual printed album – yes we’re in the digital age but there’s still something to be said for having a high quality printed album to share with friends and family. Fortunately however, having the high resolution digital images will allow you in the future to re-print an album but why not get it right the first time round?

6. Consider photographic style – we’re not referring to the reportage style which we’ve already highly recommended, but to certain artistic styles e.g. over-use of fish-eye lenses. Some of this can look cool/interesting initially but the novelty factor can wear off pretty quickly. For lasting appeal, go for styles that are classic and timeless. For this reason black and white photography works well for wedding photography. Most photographers will give you an idea of the approximate mix between colour and B&W photography that they tend to shoot at a given wedding, so make sure you’re comfortable with this.

7. Number of photographers on the team (and who they are) – ask how many photographers will be shooting on your wedding day, and whether the principal photographer will be present. Some photography companies have different packages which may not necessarily always include their principal photographer. Ideally you should have at least two photographers, although some of the best photographers in the world do work alone and therefore it may be a compromise you have to make. But one photographer can only be in one place at a time and it may therefore not be possible to capture some aspects of your wedding day (eg pictures of both the bride and groom getting ready, or the groom’s expression as the bride walks down the aisle).

We wish you the best of luck in your search for your perfect wedding photographer, and hope that you find this article a useful guide. If you have any questions or have anything to add, feel free to comment below!

Photos courtesy of CKP Weddings, Jeff Ascough and David Pullum

Related posts:

1. CKP Weddings
2. David Pullum
3. Mark Wallis Wedding Photography
4. Jeff Ascough
5. WPJA – Wedding Photojournalist Association