When planning your wedding you have so many things to decide on, one of which is choosing a wedding photographer. With so many photographers out there it can be hard to decide who to go for as each photographer offers different things. Hopefully, this blog will help you think about the questions to ask and things to look out for when choosing your wedding photographer. It’s really important when comparing wedding photographers you fully understand what they offer so you know you are choosing a wedding photographer who is right for you.

Wedding Photography coverage time

Some wedding photographers offer packages based on hours others offer all day coverage. It’s important to understand what these cover. For example, the package may offer 8 hours of coverage, which sounds like most people’s normal working day, so should be enough time for your wedding to be covered? Think about a typical wedding timeline. you’ll be getting ready several hours before your ceremony with your first dance around 8pm. So hours coverage would start at 12pm or 12.30 pm. So based on 8 hours of coverage if your ceremony was at 12pm your photographer would miss your morning preparations and your arrival and your wedding guest’s arrival for the wedding ceremony. It’s also worth remembering these 8hrs are continuous, so this includes time when your having your meal or driving between locations. The 8hrs won’t be broken up during the day, as your photographer can’t really work for anyone else during this time. All day coverage usually starts at a set time before your wedding ceremony and continues to a set time after your first dance. This means you can relax knowing the whole day will be photographed for you. There’s no need to panic if things run late or worse having an awkward conversation about your wedding photographer staying or having to pay them there and then to stay late.

How many photo’s your receiving

Some wedding photographer’s packages will say how many images you will receive. For example, it may say 400 images, others will not offer an image limit, they are all included. Packages that offer a set number of images may for example give different prices for different amounts of images. So the more images you want to receive the more you need to pay. This can be a great way to budget and still receive lovely professional images. It does though mean that there is the potential you will miss out on some lovely images if you select a lower image amount.

With an all inclusive wedding photography package you will receive all the good photos taken on your wedding day. Things like duplicates, unflattering angles, blinks etc will be removed. All the other special moments will be included. So your not left knowing images were taken but are missing.

The format of the digital images

When choosing your wedding photographer make sure you understand how you will receive your images. Quite simply are you receiving the images in high resolution printable images or low resolution images which may look OK on social media but won’t print well. Some wedding photographers offer the low resolution images in their packages with an option to pay an additional fee to receive the high resolution images as standard so it’s important to understand what your photography package includes as they may not mention this when you book.

How you will receive your images

It’s really important to understand the format you will receive your images in. This could be a USB or it could be an online gallery or even both. Make sure you understand this.

What is included with a wedding album package

With a wedding album package, it’s good to be clear what’s included. So how many pages are included in the wedding album? How many photos can you have in the wedding album? Do you pick the images or does your wedding photographer? Do you have any involvement in the design or do you only see the layout when your wedding album is delivered to you? It’s also worth checking about the digital images. By this I mean will you only receive the images in the album or will you also receive the full digital gallery? Do you need to pay extra to receive the digitals alongside the album? Do you pick the album fabric or does your wedding photographer? These are all worth checking so you understand exactly what you are getting in your wedding photography package.

Wedding photography packages with two photographers

When booking a wedding photography package with two photographers it’s worth double checking the experience of the second photographer. You would expect them to be experienced and capable of working independently when required. Sometimes the second photographer is more of an assistant than a photographer. They may take some photos but in general, they are there to carry bags, hold lights and assist the main photographer. So it’s worth making sure you fully understand the abilities and what the second photographer will be doing on the day.

How are your images being stored and backed up?

You only get one chance to have those photos taken, once the moment has gone it can’t be redone. So it’s important to know your images are safe. On the wedding day what precautions does your photographer have in place to make sure your images are safe? Do they have multiple cameras and lenses? Do they have dual card slot so photos are saved on 2 cards at the same time in case one card fails? Is their second photographer ready to take over as lead at a moment’s notice if required? Are photos saved somewhere periodically through the wedding day? When your photographer leaves for the day how do they save and store your images? Are they saved in various locations? It’s really important to understand the answers to these questions.

How we work

The above are all things we’ve either noticed ourselves when researching or been asked about by couples. For us we try to keep things as open and honest as possible. Our packages are all day coverage, so around 3hrs pre ceremony to a little after your first dance. So your not worried if things run a little over. There is no image limit, so if the image is good you will receive it, we won’t be sat there deleting away lovely photos to hit a certain number to deliver to you. You will also receive all your image in colour and black and white. The images will be sent to you via an online gallery to view and then a USB either separately if you have a digital package or within your wedding album. If you do choose a wedding album package you are in control. You pick the images, we’ll then design a first draft which we’ll then work with you to tweak. You pick the cover, the fabric etc. It’s your wedding album and we want you to be happy with it. You also receive all of your wedding images with album packages, not just the ones inside the album. Both your photographers are primary shooters, what this means is we both are fully experienced as lead wedding photographers and will both be actively capturing your day, working alone at times and together.

All your images are kept secure on the day and afterward. We both have two cameras on us throughout your wedding day, all of which have dual camera cards which are all being written to. You’ll notice one of us pulling a laptop out throughout the day saving your photos to the laptop and to an external hard drive. This continues when we arrive home, making sure we have all your images. Your final images are stored in this way as well and in an online cloud based system for extra security.

We don’t want you to book us and then have any nasty surprises and extra costs that you had assumed were included. As to us, that’s really not fair and not how we want to work. When choosing your wedding photographer it’s really important, if you pick us that you know you can trust us and are happy with what you have booked.

To read more about how we photograph weddings head to our wedding photography page here.