How to evaluate a photographer's wedding day work
Introduction:
Finding the right photographer to capture your wedding day is crucial. This article aims to provide insights based on common questions and conversations with couples over the years, hopefully it helps you in selecting the best photographer for your special day.
To do so, let’s specify the outcome you want from your photographer so that you will be able to assess and evaluate the various qualities of a photographer’s work base on the outcome.
Every wedding is different from the venue choice, the couple, the decor, down to the guests of the day but we can all safely say no matter how different each wedding is, we want
To find the photographer who is able to CAPTURE THE BEST of my wedding
Defining the Best of Each Wedding:
The Best from each wedding means that the photographer is able to capture a moving narrative/story from the wedding (not just cover it like an event), such that not only will you be able to reminisce your big day in a meaningful and touching way after your receive the photos, anyone who were not present at the wedding would be able to see how beautiful your wedding day was and feel the moments, joy and emotions of the day (when you share it with your families and friends or share it online)
The Importance of Narrative/Storytelling:
Could you remember the last great film/movie you watch and ask yourself why you love it, chances are the film provided a great narrative/story that moves you and from a wedding’s perspective, that means it’s more than just general coverage shots like an event but shots with context, meaning and between a good and great narrative photographer, the latter is able to capture it even more in depth, along with creative and and narrative shots, when piece together it flows like a moving narrative/story.
The "Emotional High" and Capturing Special Moments:
There’s something I personally call the “Emotional High”. In every emotion say a smile, an expression of joy and elation, the expression will run through a curve from the 10% smile all the way up till the 100% smile (the peak of the expression)
In all fields of work, there will always be a small number of professionals whose innate talent and potential excel above their peers, so similarly in the field of photography, not all photographers are equal, apart from the general technical competency that everyone can learn, using sports as an example, there will be special ones like Michael Jordan and Lionel Messi who is able to achieve much more in all kinds of situations, and especially so in critical moments, impromptu and challenging situations where drawing from general competencies is not enough and it requires a greater inherent talent, instinct and experience, to be fast, skilful and intuitive above others to be at the right place and right time to capture those special moments that many either couldn’t see, couldn’t react or pre-react fast enough to see and capture those special moments.
Proper Assessment of a Photographer's Work:
While exposure and exploration is mainly driven by social media these days, a lot of times, while it’s great to discover photographers through social media, we often
Make the mistakes of evaluating a photographer’s work and merit solely through it’s social media numbers (a photographer with very high followers and engagement must be better than someone who’s not - social confirmation)
Evaluating a photographer via the very limited images presented in fancy layouts on social media
Looking at a photographer’s Prewedding or Casual couple photos when you are looking for wedding day photographer
Let’s look at 1 - Evaluating a photographer’s work and value solely through it’s social media numbers
Growing social media numbers well and a photographer’s quality of work have much lesser relevance than most people would intuitively imagine. Growing social media is a different set of skills and effort which could come from different number of social media approaches from eg
Doing giveaways to grow followers fast
Diligently do likes for likes, follows for follows - always liking and engaging with others (especially among vendors) so that others will return the likes and engagement
Posting frequently
Working closely with popular/celebrity/influencer wedding planners (some photographers build a very strong relationship with wedding planners which handles mainly eg celebrities, influencers, personalities or high end weddings and these couples mostly will just follow the wedding planners recommendations instead of researching and checking out the photographers in the market. Such weddings make for great portfolio for the photographers to enhance social proof and their pricing power. Once I had a wedding where during the rest period, the videographer asked me about my rates, I shared mine and ask them as well. I was a bit shocked to hear that they are charging the high tier videography rates where they actually are very new to the scene (I’m not saying new means not good, quality and experience doesn’t always have a direct relation) and they only shot a few weddings so far but from an objective POV, I didn’t think their work alone merits the rates compared to the ones at the same price tier. So what I found out was that they recently shot an influencer/personality who’s also a friend’s wedding and through the exposure on social media, their inquires exploded for a few months. In the current social media era, we are influenced by social proof much more than we are aware so for couples who might not be very well versed in visual language might consciously or unconsciously assume if So and so Influencer/Personality/Wedding Planner use this vendor, then they must be good/among the best so with the high number of inquiries couple with the social proof effect, the vendor will have pricing power that is much more equated to the above than it’s true merits/quality of work - Base on a general closure percentage, the higher number of inquiries will result in faster booked out dates hence photographers/vendors can safely raise the rates to filter out couples who’s willing to pay the high rate. In my experience base on the current market rates of good photographers gauged on merits and quality of work, anything past 3.8k/day range, you are more or less paying for the marketing/social clout rather than merits of work.
Note: There are some photographers in the market who would not take any group photo on the wedding day (so eg if your family or guests ask for a photo, they would say no, so be sure to check on this too unless it’s not an issue for you.
Who is a greater chef? A chef who is able to make the best out of any ingredients and kitchen resources provided or a chef who is only able to get good dishes from the most premium ingredients and resources (you will notice some photographers only show works of high end weddings/wedding dresses/venues and photo ready couple (photogenic couples who’s great in front of the camera, influencers, personalities) so while you might like what you see for the photos posted on social, there could be many regular couples the photographer could only manage to get mundane shots and coverage out of the couple’s wedding day and those weddings are stashed away out of sight after delivery to the couple.
2. The limited images you see on the photographer’s social media profile.
To better evaluate a photographer's work, we need to peel beyond the social media layer and look deeper into the photographers’ portfolio of work though its websites and request for full wedding galleries (if it’s not available on the website). Some photographers portfolios consists of very limited photos or just some of the best shots of the day but a full day wedding (eg a 10hr wedding) will yield anything from 500-1000 photos (It’s not fully indicative of market numbers but that’s my average which from what I understand over the years from couples and market, the number is on the high side, some photographers capped the number of photos returned as well or their coverage doesn’t yield as much or as in depth a coverage to begin with) so how could we just conclude the merits of the photographers work simply base on a few shots on social media as compared to the full 500-1000 photos on a full wedding day.
Have you ever gone to the movies because of an exciting movie trailer only to find the movie pretty meh thereafter?
Apart from the limited photos on social media, another way to be mislead is evaluating the work base on the fancy photo layouts on social media. Photos can be made to look much better/cool by improving general/mundane shots through fancy layouts on social media but think about it, the hundreds of wedding day photos returned are presented to you in single images so you should evaluate photos base on its own and across the total collection of photos as a narrative captured for the entire wedding day and not base your evaluation on just a carousel of 10 images on Instagram/other social platform.
3. Looking at a photographer’s Prewedding or Casual couple photos when you are looking for wedding day photographer
Most couples would assume Prewedding and Wedding Day photography to be the same but they couldn’t be more different and choosing your wedding day photographer base on the photographer’s prewedding works (eg coming across some cool vibe prewedding/couple shots on social media) is a big no no.
In reality it takes quite a different skillset for each. Prewedding is a non time nor situation critical kind of shoot where the photographer can take his own sweet time to slowly position, direct and craft the shots (choosing a spot with better lighting or complement with own lighting etc) whereas wedding is a live event where things are happening fast and most of the situations there’s no chance at all for the photographer to have the time nor chance to direct or reshoot certain important moments should it be missed (eg key moments at solemnisation, march in/out, church etc)
In a way this is where experience does come into play for wedding day where a good and experienced photographer has experienced all kinds of wedding conditions and situations over the years, they have the technical, intuition and speed to react and capture the most (without missing critical shots) and the best of a wedding day compared to someone who’s new and inexperienced (that’s where it’s a bit risky to engage newer photographers though they might be cheaper because they are still at the stage of growing their experience and portfolio)
By the way that’s not to say Wedding day photography is a higher tier or more challenging photography than Prewedding. In fact similarly, it would be the same mistake to look for a prewedding photographer base on wedding day works. Some photographers can shoot wedding day well but they might not be good at engaging and directing couples or have the eye nor technical skills in lighting/composition etc for creative/artistic/editorial kind of shots. There’s only a small number of photographers in the market who are truly great at both.
Conclusion:
Evaluating a wedding photographer's work goes beyond social media numbers, images presented in fancy layouts on social media and limited images to show for a wedding. Look for those who can create a captivating narrative, look at full wedding portfolios, and understand the distinction between pre-wedding/casual couple shoot and wedding day photography. By keeping these factors in mind, I’m sure you'll have the insights to find the perfect photographer for your special day.
Congratulations on finishing the article and I hope this has been helpful and feel free to reach out should you have any questions we can help over mail or have a chat over zoom. Over the years I realised the couples I worked really well with and they get the most out of me are discerning couples who understand my work and know what they are looking for so here’s a bonus, a hidden discount code “CapturingTheBest” you can quote to enjoy an additional *$100 discount for bookings confirmed within 30 days from date of inquiry.
*note - for all wedding day packages