It's that time of year! Lots of wedding proposals took place over Christmas and New Year's so couples are now on the hunt for a great venue and team of vendors for their special day. There are many websites and Pinterest boards that like to give advice to brides on what to look for when hiring their wedding photographer. But your decision can be really be based on one question that I wish more clients would ask but often do not.
Here's the question you want to ask.
Can you send me a link to a full gallery from a wedding?
That's all there is to it. One simple question that will tell you more about your wedding photographer than any other. At the end of the day you will want to know if they can perform from start to finish. Often wedding photographers are chosen based solely from their portfolio featured on their website or the photos shared on their blog. But let's look at the numbers.
Typical blog post = 30 photos
Typical amount of photos delivered for a wedding = 750 photos
Percentage of photos featured on the blog that were delivered to the clients from the wedding day = 4%
Typical wedding photographer website gallery = 50 photos
Typical amount of photos taken during the year by active working photographer = 50,000
Percentage of photos on their website versus photos taken during year = 0.1%
Yes you are seeing that correct. Just 1/10th of 1%. The photos on their website are really just a very tiny fraction of what the photographer is shooting throughout the year and a blog post is only featuring approximately 4% of the entire wedding.
Wouldn't it be important to see the other 96%?
Looking through an entire wedding gallery will also help you understand if the photographer can handle shooting photos both indoors and outdoors. Some photographers are very good at shooting with natural light, others that might have been studio trained are great with indoor controlled lighting. However a fantastic wedding photographer is someone that can handle any lighting scenario that is tossed at them. If you paid extra money for beautiful uplighting during your reception you want a photographer that can capture the fun of the party while also showing off the room ambient.
By looking through an entire wedding gallery you can also compare the photographers work to other photographers you are considering for the job. Not all weddings are necessarily created equal, some more elaborate than others and the photos might show that so be sure to not be swayed by the wedding decorations. In other words focus on the photos not the decor.
These days many professional wedding photographers use the cloud to deliver photos through innovative online galleries such as Pixieset (which is what I use), ShootProof, Zenfolio, SmugMug, and Instaproofs. By asking to see a full wedding gallery you can also get an idea of how those services look. While there are other ways of delivering files online such as Dropbox, the services mentioned above are especially designed for photographers to share photos with their clients and make the experience much more enjoyable.
In conclusion, while there are other important questions to ask a photographer before investing in them the most important one in my opinion is to see a full gallery from a wedding. Looking through their portfolio or blog is nice and might give you some ideas if their style is the kind you like. But choosing a photographer from photos based on less than 1/10th of 1% of the photos they shot during the year would be like judging a book by it's cover.
Hey David Johnson, maybe the next article you read should be this one: https://fstoppers.com/originals/why-i-cant-stand-photography-community-5....
LOL, or LEL
Presuming you are at the stage where the potential client is considering you they must have a certain impression of your work so far and they may just be comparing prices.As an old school photographer now "retired" I used to show actual albums in pre internet days.The same issue applied then. Was it a full sample of what you have done? No. But in engaging with the customer face to face all the technical questions could be answered and I did have albums loaded up with practically full weddings if required.The problem is so many shots are taken these days that their is a lot of repetition of each shot and best ones selected for expression etc.I think photographers knowing the basics is very important. I had a young photographer approach me about a year ago who was started out in portraits and some simple family stuff. People were very impressed with her work but she approached me because she had no idea how her camera worked and confessed to many panic attack moments both during and after shoot because she did not know what she was doing.I took her on board for some basic lessons from my home. She was turning back people asking for weddings as he had no confidence. I encouraged her that if she wanted to get started I would come with her and help her where needed and be a second shooter.Well we did her first wedding a couple of months ago and she came through with flying colours.I encouraged her to use "p" most of the time so she would not have the burden, because of time ,of thinking about manual settings as she had been learning during the year.A few times during the shoot we resorted to manual settings but mostly didn't need to.It was a difficult day in some ways as it was an outdoor wedding with thunderstorm and heavy rain.I have no doubt she will make a great wedding photographer.Maybe a question that should be asked is how many weddings have you done, how many years and do you have an assistant.My friend has not been to a formal school of photography like so many of us but it would have been sad if her couple had not been willing to book her as they would have missed out on some excellent photography.She had no wedding portfolio to show anyone prior to this wedding.So perhaps starting out photgraphers really need mentors. I have trained and mentored many young photographers over the years and recommend that people who are retired,like me or at whatever stage you are at, to help the newbies.I have always found it very rewarding. Many started heir careers helping me in weddings.
A lot of the comments dispute the number of photos (750) that I mentioned delivering for a wedding. The article is not about that. If you deliver more or less that is completely fine. The point of the article is that we should as photographers be willing and ready to share a full wedding gallery when asked. If our clients are paying for us to be there for 6-12 hours shooting their wedding and delivering a final product, why not be willing to share that with them?
Devils advocate and this isn't personal, just an observation to what you're presenting.
"Here's the question you want to ask.
Can you send me a link to a full gallery from a wedding?"
If they do a blog post with 30 pictures, the photographer (that's US, right?) is only showing you 4% of a wedding, so what about the other 96%?
They're asking me this question because someone on the internet said they should. After 80 pictures, I'd expect they should be bored with it. I love photography, and unless every picture was drop dead perfect (no matter how talented you believe yourself to be as a photographer...THEY WONT be..), I know I would be bored silly.
Do you want to be treated like hired help the day of the wedding (I don't and wont be), OR would you prefer to be treated with respect, like an expert, and a trusted professional? Would you like an hour and 15 minute late bride, hair not done yet, in a makeup chair, flipping through pinterest, and showing you the shots she wants you to "get" later? If you've set up boundaries of acceptable behavior, and taken control of the situation from the beginning, that doesn't happen. Showing images that haven't been edited for the situation immediately sets a bad precedent, it doesn't matter whether it's 600 or 1800 pictures. For your client, whether you think you're doing it or not, this gesture encourages "I'm entitled to it all" behavior, and that client can be a problem, no matter how talented you think you are.
My mindset is, I'm paid a creative fee for my talent, not the amount of files I produce. A side note: I don't give my files in every package, they're extra and you have to spend a good deal of money to get them. I spend a long time getting my bride to associate nothing but top shelf quality when they think about my work and that would be easily negated by showing a massive amount of images. If you think you're producing 600 portfolio worthy images a wedding, God love ya, you're not. Showing half that amount is still 300 pictures. Three hundred AMAZING pictures. I haven't SEEN 300 amazing pictures this year, and I'm damned sure I didn't take 300 AMAZING pictures at one wedding at any time.
Again, an observation, not personal.
The beauty in all of this is that we all have the freedom to run our business how we feel is the best fit for each of us.
Perhaps, I mean, umm yeah, I guess so...sure, why not?
The problem I'm having with what your saying (or trying to say...) is that your strategy of how you're selling your services has an immediate effect on US, working professionals who are also practicing the craft of wedding photography, and running our own businesses. It's not even a ripple effect it's an immediate, real-time effect.
We're not direct competitors as far as proximity on the physical map is concerned. However two minutes ago when I googled up the phrase "What Should I Ask Before Hiring a Wedding Photographer" you wouldn't believe what the first response was!! SEO is awesome. Try it yourself. Those girls call me up, too.
I'm not up on a soap box presenting myself to this group (and now anyone who types that phrase into a search box) giving advice that equates sheer volume of properly exposed shots with quality. Our clientele, quite frankly, doesn't know the difference. We do, most of us are experts.
If I wandered in and said the ONE thing you ask before hiring your wedding photographer was You should make sure your photographer provides you ALL of the outtakes from a day in RAW form. It's your day, right? You paid them, right? I would hope you'd question that, with all you have, because it's an incredibly bad idea.
I've looked at your website, your work is outstanding, it's impeccable. Just my opinion, you're selling yourself short by putting ANY emphasis on consistency over 8 hours.
I truly enjoyed it and I feel it may be the best single advice i could give someone seriously shopping. This would capture the totality of the photographer's wedding delivery. Yes, far far fewer are actually needed or wanted typically by the client but it shows how thoroughly they capture and document the entire process. I only shot my first wedding probably 3+ yrs ago and have been slowly growing that business. I continue to get better and more thorough with each wedding I do. On the other hand, there are very good established photographers who sometimes lose that attention to detail after years in the business and become overly complacent. This test would show that too if it was a recent wedding.
As to this being for brides and not photographers, I personally may use this as a sales tactic and encourage potential brides to do this comparison.
Day late on this one,
Gotta say I'm on the fence, not that I'm shy of having a client view a full gallery, but they aren't really looking for anything particular.
The formals are of strangers, they may not like the way they look, the details may be of things they don't like and they don't understand the importance of the shadow or composition.
No Trevor, despite your very significant bona fides, I'm going to make the suggestion that it's the recommendations over the work that carry the day.
If I know I'm getting a top 30 photog, then I'm going to be tickled, if I'm comparing that top 30 photog against jane or joe smith, and I'm looking at their work next to yours, chances are the star factor carries you across the line to a contract.
Would you like to see a full wedding?
"Sure, come on in to the studio and let's discuss the shots and how they were set up"
Context is everything in a wedding picture and it's the rare inquiry that can spot it in 750-1500 images.
Just my 2 cents
Seeing a set of highlights in a port is not akin to judging a book by it's cover. A better analogy would be a trailer to movie. What Trevor Dayley is proposing is watching a whole film in deciding on whether to purchase the new one. What if you haven't made a movie then how do you get your debut if nobody should give you a chance after seeing your highlight showreel.
Do you research. As a photographer and someone who knows wedding photographer. A portfolio is a good starting point. The main point is to make sure that you know what you want to make sure you get the right photographer. Start with Instragram here a list you should look at. http://www.adoramapix.com/blog/2016/11/02/instagram-wedding-photographer...
Very good article - I tried to communicate this to potential clients all the time but was never able to clearly spell it out like you have done here. Thank you for sharing.