Important questions for your wedding photographer
When it comes to choosing the perfect wedding photographer for you, there are a wealth of questions to be answered, It is so important to form a good relationship with your chosen one and now being a wedding photographer myself, I always make sure I am there to answer any questions my couples may have in the run up to their big day. With that in mind I have compiled some answers to the top questions that I often get asked from my clients. I hope this will help you out in your decision making process and leave you confident you have picked the right person for the job.....
WHAT CAN I EXPECT TO PAY FOR A GOOD WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER?
Budget is important I know, but with wedding photography you are pretty much getting what you pay for. If you are booking a wedding photographer primarily based on how cheap they are than you can be sure that you are more than likely to be very disappointed when you receive your images. You will see on some wedding photographer's pages that they use the word INVESTMENT to describe their pricing information and you really should look at it like this. I personally considered my wedding photographer booking as THE most important supplier, he had one chance to get it right! So myself and my husband invested quite a bit of our budget in booking the right one! I am so glad we did. What clients can sometimes not consider when they are looking at pricing, is shooting the wedding day does not end there for photographers, we then spend 2-3 weeks editing and retouching your images. It is a heavy workload and that is why a wedding photographer charges an amount that reflects the time and effort they put in to creating your individual wedding portfolio. Overall, to expect to receive good quality images that you will love to look back on, you really need to expect to pay around £1,000-£2,000 plus depending on what extras your photographer is providing. I mainly shoot in the Hertfordshire and London areas of the UK but wherever you are based you can expect a good wedding photographer to charge a similar price to this. You can expect to receive online galleries, USB's, and prints within this price package. some wedding photographers use second shooters, this can also bump up the price but can be worth it if you want every single aspect of your day captured. Food for thought!
IS IT IMPORTANT THAT MY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY IMAGES ARE EDITED & RETOUCHED?
Absolutely! Raw images should really be for the wedding photographer's eyes only. The editing process is what takes your images to the next level. Wedding photographers who charge less than £1,000 for a full day's wedding photography are often just starting out and have little experience and/or do not edit or retouch their images. This is something to keep in mind. The majority of us love edited images, the sharpness, the colours, the mood; it's all created in post production. Cameras can only do so much! Retouching is slightly more complicated, it can involve anything from removing ugly objects from your photos to softening skin tones, removing wrinkles and blemishes etc. Retouching is a lot more time consuming and as a wedding photographer myself, I try to keep it to the bare minimum. I like my couples to be natural in their pictures and make up normally does the trick! Having said that if I find I have taken a beautiful photo of my couples and there is a bin or a piece of rubbish in shot I will always retouch and remove!
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT STYLES OF WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY?
Every wedding photographer has their own style, its what makes them individual and a big reason why you love their work in the first place. Whether you are getting married in a Hertfordshire stately home or a London pub, the environment is so important to the feel of your pictures. For a wedding couple, I would say look at wedding portfolios online and think what style you best respond to and what you would love for your big day. A style that is very popular with my couples is reportage. Reportage photography is a relaxed, unposed story of your day from start to finish. Reportage pictures document your day in a way that is unforced and unobtrusive. It is great for capturing moments of contemplation, moments of joy, moments of excitement, pretty much everything that a wedding day entails. The great thing about reportage is that it’s natural and most of the time the subject will not know the wedding photographer has taken this shot. A lot of couples opt for this style, it is less stress for them and their guests to not be constantly posing throughout the day. I would describe my own wedding photography style as reportage but I do like to throw in a few posed shots as part of my package! Posed shots are great for groups. It is my job as your wedding photographer to get the best out of your family and guests because those all important group shots are a must! A gentle bit of direction with a sense of humour is essential. A few posed shots are also a great idea for that moment the bride and groom come together for some alone time throughout the day. This part often makes the couple quite nervous but the best wedding photographers will always put the couple at ease and get the very best out of them. No cheese here!
WILL I RECEIVE ALL MY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY IMAGES?
This is a great question and it very much depends on the individual wedding photographer. When I got married 11 years ago, my Hertfordshire based wedding photographer offered a set amount of images with my package and I then had to go for a private viewing of my images and select the ones I liked. I found that when I became a wedding photographer myself that this really shouldn’t be the case. In my opinion, a wedding couple should receive ALL the images of their day as part of their package. Luckily most good wedding photographers provide this. I do not see the point of having wedding images of my couple on my desktop that the couple do not have access to because I only offered a selection with my package. Having said this, most wedding photographers will always edit out images that ‘didn’t work’ ie bad lighting, subject’s eyes closed, bad expressions. Sometimes shots just don’t work and we want our couples to see the very best selection of their images so these will always be taken out.
WE HATE HAVING OUR PICTURE TAKEN, WILL THIS SHOW IN OUR WEDDING PHOTOS ?
You are not alone! This is a subject that comes up an awful lot for us wedding photographers. Any good wedding photographer with experience, will be able to get over this hurdle with a few little tricks. I think it's important to put my couples at ease right from the very start. This is where reportage photography really comes into play as I am often taking pictures without any direction at all, allowing the couple to be natural and unaware of the camera. The posed photos are slightly different, I always approach these with a sense of humour, sharing a joke, it is so important to communicate with your couple and the results are so worth it. Great wedding photographers will always get the best out of you, trust in them to do their jobs. Believe me a good wedding photographer will not want any awkward uncomfortable shots in their work either, we want our couples looking their very best. Overall, let us work our magic, it’s what we are best at!
Natalie Martinez Photography
weddings + portraits + events
07984184902
LONDON AND HERTFORDSHIRE WEDDING AND EVENTS PHOTOGRAPHER
RELAXED AND INFORMAL REPORTAGE PHOTOGRAPHY