Photography is one of the most important parts of your wedding day. As I tell all of my clients, the photographs that are taken is the only physical item of your memories. Here is some advice from Mark Dickinson of Mark Dickinson Photography.
Hello,
You’re probably wondering what to look for when hiring a photographer, I will help you figure those things out. There are many important features. One of those features is asking and answering the question do you get the copyrights to the photographs. If the photographer you’re hiring or looking to hire is not giving you the photographs’ copyrights or the rights to your negatives then there may be more costs in the long run.
Another very important feature of photography is what format the photographer shoots in. There are several shooting methods when shooting a wedding, family, or engagement photo shoots. Some of those are JPEG, RAW, RAW plus JPEG. In the long run, finding a photographer who shoots all of his photographs in RAW will give you the highest quality of photographs. Whether it’s web display, getting prints, or ordering specialty items, RAW format will offer the highest uncompressed form of image files.
However your computer may not be able to view RAW photographs. Your photographer should convert those into JPEG form for your viewing. An image converted from RAW to JPEG will be higher quality than one taken directly on the camera as JPEG form. This again will allow you to get the highest quality of prints and specialty products relating to photography.
Another very important part of selecting a photographer is reading over their contract. I show my clients a sample contract from a local photographer who has more repeating instances of their name in their contract than I’ve ever seen. It basically is so confusing and creates so many loopholes for the photographer to bail out at anytime. For instance listed below is a verbatim line with the name omitted: “unnamed photographer and client agree to cheerful cooperation from its guests and any other persons involved in the wedding in the event of conflict unnamed photographer does have the right to cancel during the event in the event that the situation cannot be corrected.” One very surprising term on this contract was that of “unnamed photographer will not compete with any other cameras or allow any other person to take photographs while the professional photographer is conducting photography at anytime. In the event of bystanders taking photographs while this photographer is conducting, unnamed photographer does have the right to require said persons to leave the premises or immediate vicinity there in so that unnamed photographer can continue their contractual agreement to provide quality photographer services.”
Now come on, we all know that we live in a social networking society. Everyone has cameras, everyone has cell phones with cameras. There’s no need for this, specifically with the technology that is in our hands as photographers you have to be within to 1/100 second to 1/1000th of a second to ruin a shot. What this photographer is basically saying is that ” this is my shot “.
But, I can understand that when several flashes go off at once it may affect the lighting on a shot. However, family photos are not as technical as when for staging a more intimate photography for the bride and the groom. Most of the bridal portraits and individual shots take place in a secluded location where most people are not around.
I think one of the most important features or requirements when hiring anyone no matter who it is, photographer, DJ, a jeweler or anyone that is part of your special day is communication. What I mean is they should be able to give you a clear understanding of what they’re explaining.
Quality of work is very important obviously, however make sure you see all of their work and not the best of the best. As you may NOT know some photographers will delete the bad ones or ones, ” that they think are bad” so you may not see half of your photos taken that day. I could probably continue about different features and benefits that some photogs may offer. Good luck with your search and if you have any questions feel free to email me even if I’m not your photographer. I will still try to get the answers for you.
Image by Mark Dickinson in Ponce Inlet
