Questions to Ask A Potential Wedding Photographer (For Budget or Affordable Wedding Photography).

If you are in the beginning stages of your wedding photographer search, these tips, tricks, and questions are essential to ask. a potential wedding phtoograher – especially if you are looking to hire a lower budget photographer. None of this is meant to shame a smaller budget, but quite the opposite. I’ve been there – I shot my first wedding in 2017and I charged $800. Now I have almost 10 years of experience and I want to help you avoid hiring the wrong person.

When you are looking to hire somebody that “doesn’t cost an arm and a leg” or is more “affordable”, those are terms that a lot of people use when they’re looking to hire somebody kind of below the average range for photographer in their area. Lets give you some questions and tools that you can ask to make sure that you’re vetting your photographer appropriately so you still get really amazing, wonderful photos and good quality even if you have a smaller budget.

Your budget will to determine kind of what type of photographer you’re looking for.

In Chicago, New York, LA, larger metropolitan cities, your base photographer rate is going to be a lot higher for somebody like if you’re looking for full day coverage – they might be starting at four, five, six thousand dollars in that area. But if you live in a more rural area, like in the middle of Nebraska or Iowa, the base beginning rate for an average photography package is going to be different. So pricing is really dependent on a lot of different things and can change depending on your area. The most important thing you need to be doing is you need to be asking that photographer to do a video call with you before signing a contract or booking.

A video call will give you a chance to ask questions and make sure your personalities are a fit (and they are a real person). Watch out for any red flags. Not just for their work or themselves, but even just for their personality. You don’t wanna make sure that they’re not aggressive, that their personality generally clicks with you, and that you feel comfortable moving forward with them.

You MUST have a contract.

I don’t care if you pay them $2. I don’t care if they’re a family friend and you are not paying them. You need to have a contract. If they don’t have one, ask them to make one. Your contract should cover payment plans and expectations,, outline what happens if they can’t make your wedding (yes even if you know them), cancelation clauses, and more. I highly recommend looking at The Legal Paige as a resource if you are a photographer without a contract. Make sure you are comfortable with the terms before signing. They can tell you whatever they want verbally, but if it is not in your contract, then it’s not legally binding.

View Full Galleries and Past Work

If they’re a beginner photographer, they may have not done a lot of weddings, or they may have done some smaller elopments, or they may have been an assistant photographer. Make sure you’re able to see full galleries and you feel comfortable with not just making sure the images are focused and well composed. You also want to make sure that you like the editing style and the poses that they’re doing. Even if the venue or some of the factors might be different than your wedding day, understand what their current skill level is.

Questions to Ask on A Consult Call

-Does your camera shoot with dual card slot?

Some cameras only have space for one memory card. It writes to one memory card and so that is the only copy of your images. Some cameras have two card slots, meaning they can record the exact same images to two different memory cards. So if one memory card corrupts or there’s some type of an issue or it gets lost or damaged, there’s the second memory card that you have.

How do you back up our images after the wedding?

Do they come home and save copies of those images to a hard drive or to an online cloud system? Or just leave them on one memory card and hope their dog doesn’t eat it? (kidding) You should also be backing your photos yourself.

How do you deliver the gallery?

Is it an online gallery? Is a USB mailed to you? Do you have access to all the images or do you have to pay for a certain number (some big box compnies will offer you a select number of your images adn if you want them all you have to pay extra)? Understand what the expectation is before you sign a contract.

Do you have business insurance (if that’s something that your venue requires)?

Sometimes if you get married in your backyard or at a park, they don’t require you to have insurance. If your venue requires it can’t assume they have insurance.

Read Reviews.

A newer company may not have a lot of reviews online, but going to their Facebook page, going to The Knot or Wedding Wire, even searching their name on Google or just to see if anyone else has experience with them. Don’t base all feelings off a single review, but many bad reviews are a huge red flag. Also check out Reddit – some photographers are sneaky and know how to get their bad reviews removed.

When you’re hiring someone below market rate, they’re likely less experienced. I know that not everybody can afford the biggest wedding or don’t want to spend the most money on a large photographer. I hope these tips and tricks help you vet photographers who do a really wonderful job and give you amazing wedding photos.