10 Questions To Ask Wedding Photographers

THE TOP 10

Questions To Ask Photographers

BEFORE YOU HIRE THEM FOR YOUR WEDDING

Finding the right photographer can be daunting, especially if you don't know the right questions to ask. If you want to be sure that you'll have your wedding day beautifully documented and avoid tragedy (like having an amateur lose your photos), you'll need to hire a professional. Your wedding day only happens once.. your memories are too important to leave to chance.

Here's a list of the 10 most important questions you HAVE to ask your photographer before you sign that contract.

The Ultimate Checklist

To Ensure You Hire The Right Photographer

Ask to see at least 3 full, real & recent ELOPEMENT galleries

Question

Social media can be very deceiving, so please don't hire anyone based off of their Instagram feed. Ask photographers to send you at least 3 full galleries to look through (bonus if it's a similar to what you're planning). This will give you an idea of how they photograph each part of the wedding day, how they handle different lighting scenarios, how they pose their clients, etc. The galleries should be..

- Full galleries showing each part of the wedding (hundreds of photos, not a blog)

- Real weddings from paying clients, not a styled shoot with models

- Recent, taken within the past couple years

Question

read reviews from past clients

Look on platforms such as Google, The Knot and Wedding Wire to see if they have good reviews.

Reading reviews from past clients will give you a sense of what it's like to work with the photographer as well as the confidence that they have provided a good experience for other couples.

If you can't find reviews, that is a huge red flag! Having no reviews online either means they're very new or they have received negative reviews and deleted their listings.

How many weddings have they photographed?

Question

If you want an experienced photographer, look for someone who has shot more than 50 weddings as the lead photographer (not shooting under another photographer).

If you choose to hire someone who is new they will likely be cheaper, but the inexperience can be very risky on your wedding day since there are moments that will only happen once.

An experienced photographer has worked in every lighting scenario and can ensure your photos will turn out beautiful regardless of the setting.

What precautions Do they take to eliminate the risk of losing your photos?

Question

Ask if they shoot on a dual slot camera (which means there are 2 memory cards inside each camera). Your photos should be saved onto both memory cards while shooting incase one card corrupts.

How do they back up your images once they get home? We personally transfer all wedding photos onto multiple hard drives as well as a local and off-site cloud, and then we don't delete any photos off of the memory cards until the full gallery is delivered to you.

Your photos are too important to risk losing!

Do they have professional equipment & insurance?

Question

Equipment isn't a deciding factor of if a photographer is a professional or not. However, at a minimum they should be shooting on full-frame cameras, have flashes, back up equipment and insurance.

Wedding photographers should have at least two cameras and lenses on them incase something happens during the day. It's also imperative that they have flashes for low-light scenarios. They should also have multiple batteries, memory cards, etc.

Their business also needs to be covered by liability insurance. Most venues and national parks require proof of this from photographers before they are allow to work there!

How do their photos look indoors or once the sun goes down?

Question

There are plenty of scenarios throughout the day where using artificial lighting such as on camera flash or off camera lighting is crucial to be able to beautifully document the moment. This could be in the AirBnB while getting ready, during your intimate dinner, etc. If you want any photos at night once the sun goes down, be sure you can see some examples.

When looking through photographers galleries, look specifically at how their photos look in these low light scenarios. If the photos are blurry, too grainy or all in black and white, that could be a sign that they aren't experienced with properly lighting the space.

Do they make you feel comfortable?

Question

You'll be spending a lot of time with your photographers, so it's important that you not only like your photographers, but that you'll be comfortable with them being there for intimate moments of your wedding day.

Make sure that you get along with and vibe well with whoever you hire, and that they can make you feel comfortable while being photographed by them.

Look through their about page and their social media to get a feel for who they are as a person, and set up a phone call to talk to them before booking.

Do they specialize in what you're planning and what you're envisioning?

Question

It's important to look the photographers work and experience and see if it really aligns with what you're planning and what you're envisioning for your day.

For example, if you're planning an elopement in the mountains- find someone who loves shooting in the mountains and has experience with outdoor elopements in general. If you're planning an indoor ballroom wedding, find someone who specializes in that type of event and who's portfolio reflects that.

Consider hiring a local that will be able to provide guidance that destination photographer won't have the knowledge to help with.

What's in their contract?

Question

This is a big one.. you're going to want to make sure that if you decide to work together, there is a legal document outlining your agreement. If they don't have a contract, this is a huge red flag.

The contract should include all basic information about your event, the services provided by the photographer, the agreed price and payment plan, final product delivery, cancellation and rescheduling fees, etc.

This is really important to ensure that you and the photographer are on the same page and properly covered.

Do you like their style?

Question

This one seems pretty obvious.. but make sure you love their style! Consider the editing, how the couples look in the photos and overall feel of their images.

Remember that photographers do not adjust their styles by request of the client, so it's important to hire someone whose work you love as it is.

Why take our word for it?

WE'VE DOCUMENTED OVER 100 WEDDINGS & ARE 5 STAR RATED

Hey, we're Sav & Greg- the team behind Authentic Collective. We've been full time photographers for years and have documented well over 100 weddings together, resulting in over a hundred 5 star reviews across the web.

We want to ensure you hire someone who is capable of giving you the experience you deserve on your wedding day, and the photos you'll cherish forever.