Choosing a wedding photographer for your big day is a huge decision and overwhelming task. There are so many styles and personalities to choose from. Your wedding photographer is there, in person, with you for a large part of your wedding day. Therefore, you want to love their images, but their personality as well. Choosing a wedding photographer who fits your personal style as well as personalities is the recipe for a great wedding day experience.
Identifying Your Photography Style
There are various photography styles on the market, so it helps to start narrowing them down.
- Traditional/Posed: Think classic, frame-worthy photos. Smiling at the camera, perfect placement, great composition, everything looking perfect.
- Editorial: A touch more artistic than traditional, editorial photography is a mix of candid-looking photos that are still composed and prompted by the photographer to take place in great lighting. There is a little more freedom and emotion in editorial photography, but it’s not fully natural
- Photojournalistic: Photojournalistic photographers are “flies on the wall.” They truly just let the day unfold and capture it as it’s happening rather than posing. These photographers provide very little, if any direction. They simply find the beauty in the true emotions of the day.
I would consider my own wedding photography style to fall somewhere between traditional and editorial. I’m a huge fan of classic, perfectly composed shots, but I love to play with editorial photos for variety and to lean into the natural emotions of my couple, whether playful, romantic, energetic, or serious.
Then, within these groups of photographers you will find varying editing styles. Light and airy, subtle and natural, moody, etc. My best guidance is to just follow your eye and gut. What is your eye immediately drawn to? What editing matches the colors and vibes of your wedding venue? This is my biggest tip for choosing a wedding photographer:
Look for a wedding photographer whose style and editing matches the colors and themes of your venue.
Your photographer can’t control the colors and vibe of your venue. If you love light, airy traditional images but are getting married in a dark industrial loft, these styles will compete. Instead, seek out the colors and style of your venue within photographers’ portfolios.
Evaluating Portfolios and Reviews
When choosing a wedding photographer, evaluating their portfolio and online presence is key. In today’s world, you can find photographers through so many means: website, Google, social media, ChatGPT, wedding planning websites, and so on. Once you find someone you like, seek out the full breadth of their online presence. You will start to get a sense of not only their work, but their personality, brand, and client experience as well. Take note of the kinds of photos they share. Are they candid? Classic? Artistic?Indoor or outdoor? This should help you get a sense of the kinds of venues and couples they are drawn to working with.
Portfolio red flags:
- Look for a variety of weddings and events. You may realize they really only share photos from a handful of weddings and perhaps aren’t as experienced as it seems.
- Seek out clients that look like you. Have they worked with people with your skin tone or your personal style? If you can’t find clients that look like you, you may not be a good fit.
- Do the weddings in their portfolio match your vision? You should be able envision how your wedding colors, venue, or setting would look with their editing. If they don’t share weddings that match your vision or color palette, you may be gambling with the end result.
Consistency is everything!
Every wedding is unique: different venues, color palettes, locations, weather, and lighting, but consistency in style and editing should remain. Look at skin tones, whites, and blacks. Do they look fairly consistent from photo to photo? Or are the white tones sometimes warm and sometimes cool? If the editing doesn’t look consistent across weddings, you don’t want to gamble with not knowing what the end product will look like! Inconsistency can be a sign of an inexperienced photographer who hasn’t fully found their personal shooting and editing styles.
Read Client Reviews and Testimonials
Read Google reviews or look on The Knot, Zola, or other wedding planning websites. Really dig in to reviews and look for themes in what clients are saying. Do they love the unique, artistic images? Or do they speak more about the broader experience of working with the photographer? What words keep surfacing? And obviously, if there aren’t positive reviews, move along. Don’t risk your wedding photos with a photographer you can’t fully trust.
Key Questions to Ask Potential Wedding Photographers
Once you’ve found a few potential
- Have you ever shot at my venue before or something similar? – While I firmly believe your photographer does not have to have worked at your venue before, it’s nice to ask this and perhaps ask for their plan if they have never been to their venue. Do they research or scope things out ahead of time?
- Can I see two or three full wedding galleries you have shot recently? – I believe it is a red flag if a photographer won’t show you some full wedding galleries before booking. Social media and websites are just highlight reels. You want to see a full finished product before you book!
- What kinds of people/couples do you like working with? – I love this question because it provides the photographer a chance to talk about their ideal working environment. A great photographer relationship should be founded on mutual love for each other – not just their portfolio. If all they talk about is shooting pretty florals, they may not make the personal connection with you that I feel is important to appropriately capture your day and all its emotion.
- How do you approach posing or instruction? – This brings us back to choosing your personal style. If you want a photographer to tell you what to do in front of the camera, this is a great question gauge their confidence in that level of instruction.
- Do you shoot with a second photographer? How do you select them? – Every photographer has a different approach to this! None are wrong necessarily, you just want to be sure you know what to expect!
- How do you approach timeline management? – Some photographers like more time, some need less. Some like to be heavily involved in making your wedding day timeline while other require you work with a planner. Overall, it’s important to know what level of service to expect in this department.
- What is your image backup plan? – While this isn’t a fun question, it is important. You want to work with someone who has a clear plan for handling your precious photos.
Budgeting for Your Wedding Photographer
As a general rule, your photographer should make up 10-15 percent of your total wedding budget. However, it all comes down to your priorities and what a photographer includes in their packages. Every photographer is different, so ask about items like engagement photo sessions, hours of photography coverage (and price for additional coverage, a second photographer, and albums and prints. I love Zola’s Wedding Budget tool to get a good idea of spend in each category!
If getting great photos is a priority for your day, that needs to be reflected in what you spend. Overall, consider your photographer an investment rather than just a line item. While many parts of your wedding day only last the day, your photos are all you will have after it’s over. The images will provide you with memories and keepsakes for many years, rather than just the day of. With that in mind, please invest in photography for your wedding with the future in mind, rather than simply finding the cheapest option!
Conclusion
With so many options out there, finding the right wedding photographer for your style can be daunting. I hope these tips help you navigate your decision and find a photographer who delivers not just high quality images, but an excellent experience as well.
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