The Importance of a Professional Wedding Photographer
When researching a wedding photographer, the price may shock you at first. Your first thought may be, “Well everyone has a cell phone these days so we’ll just leave it at that.” You also may think, “My cousin Sandy just got a new digital camera, I’m sure she wouldn’t mind.” But let me tell you what thought didn’t cross your mind.
Guests with their cell phone, nor your cousin Sandy, has any idea what they are doing.
So maybe Sandy loves photography so much so that she has watched a few YouTube videos. However, she doesn’t have any experience. She doesn’t have the important shots jotted down in the back of her mind because she has never done this before. Granted, she may be smart enough to bring a sticky note with poses and shots written down, but will she actually execute them properly?
The price tag of a professional photographer may come as a shock,
but I guarantee you that whatever the price is, you are getting a bargain. This is because photographers never get paid for everything they put into a wedding. It all starts with their initial interest in photography. They invest in equipment (which could potentially cost more than your entire wedding), they invest in learning and educating themselves (which again, can cost an arm and a leg), and they invest something that is truly priceless–their time.
When your photographer takes you on as a client,
s/he is ready to invest all of her time, love, and energy into your big day. Preparation for a wedding is a very important step that a photographer does, but sometimes the couple doesn’t think about that when hiring her. Starting with a phone/email consultation, to the in-person consultation, to learning about the couple to determine what poses will work best, the photographer puts in countless hours to get ready for your big day.
Once the big day arrives, s/he is attached to you.
S/he will follow you around and make sure s/he gets all of those important shots that s/he has learned to remember. Making sure that everything is photographed with the right settings, the lighting is perfect, and everyone is posed in a beautiful manner. Once again, education and time are a huge factor in the day.
Now the big day is over, the photographer is still not done working for you.
This is a crucial part for them in their work flow process. It is time to edit the photographs, which sometimes takes days, but often takes weeks. S/he carefully picks out all of the best photographs, hand edits them, and obsesses over every detail until they are absolutely perfect. This is where the most time gets put into making your wedding memorable.
After editing images,
s/he then is ready to meet with you for a print consultation to discuss which prints you would like to order; or s/he starts working on fulfilling pre-arranged print/album orders. After s/he obtains your order at the print consultation, s/he places and then inspects the delivered order. S/he then wraps up the entire process by sending your prints, album, and digital images to you.
Now, answer one thing for me:
Will everyone with a cell phone, or your cousin Sandy with her new digital camera, do all of this for you? Will they invest their time, money, and thoughts on you? Will they go above and beyond for you? And use years of education to make sure that every detail is perfect? Even if the answer is yes to most of the above, I can guarantee that the quality of the photos will be nowhere near where they need to be since most people don’t possess years of education.
So take my advice and invest in a good wedding photographer. At the end of the day you only get one wedding. So make sure it is well documented.
The importance of hiring a professional wedding photographer was written by Marianne of Precious Images Photography
Marianne is a professional photographer residing in Washington, D.C. And has been running her business, Precious Images Photography, for 8 years. She can be found online at www.preciousimages.photography.
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