Advice for booking wedding photographer

[Scottland]

Hi,

Myself and my fiancée are getting married in August 2016, and are in the process of finding a photographer. We've come across a couple we like, but having never done this before I've got a few questions I wanted to ask, and as I figure as there's a few photographers on here it would be a good place to ask...


What's typical for deposit/payment? Not in terms of cost, but we've seen some people want 50% deposit now and the rest xx weeks before the wedding, whereas others have asked for a couple of hundred upfront only.

Some of the photographers we've seen have most of their images in the same style of post-processing, I would assume most would have no qualms about us asking for a different style of processing? Or should we try and find a photographer who's style more matches what we'd prefer?

We'd quite like a short 5-10 minute video doing, but don't really want a full length video or the costs of having a videographer for the day. Do many photographers offer some video coverage as well? We're not looking to cut corners, but we literally just want a highlights video and it seems silly to spend quite a lot of money on a separate videographer for just that, we'd probably rather do without.

We're quite happy to just get pictures on a USB stick so we can choose our own for an album, and a public album (e.g. Flickr) to share with friends and family. We might decide to edit a couple ourselves to suit, is it out of bounds to ask for the raw images as well as the processed jpegs?


Appreciate any feedback or advice

 

[Scottland]

Find a photographer with the style that you like, period. Do not ask them to change their style. It's like asking a sushi chef to cook you Italian, it's just doesn't make sense. If you want Italian, go to a good Italian chef.

This was my thought too, like I said though - it's not they style of the images they're capturing it's just the post processing style.

Some tog offer videos, some don't, but those that who do will be at a costs. It's a different skill set and something you would have to pay extra for.

Yeah, expected to pay extra but haven't found that many that actively offer both so wasn't sure if many did it at all.

As for RAW, you can ask, but most will say no. Nothing stopping you asking. These will normally come at a cost extra though if they do release them.

I figured as much, just the inner geek in me wanting to play in photoshop. Probably wouldn't use them anyway when it came down to it

Hope that helps.

It does, thanks

 

[Scottland]

Thanks for all the replies guys.

Don't underestimate how long it takes to process images and how difficult it is to get good consistent results. Getting unprocessed images is only worth it for people that really know what they are doing. My sister and her husband are both photographers and they actually do some weddings themselves now. He makes a lot of money selling images on Getty. My friend that did similar is also an accomplished photographer.

Oh, I know how long it takes - we don't want the unprocessed images to do ourselves, but in addition to the processed jpgs that we want the photographer to do - that's a large part of it I know. To be honest the raw thing was more curiosity than anything, it would be nice to have them in addition but absolutely not that bothered about it and certainly wouldn't affect our decision.

I don't know many wedding photographers that are willing to change shooting or editing style. I shoot for B&W and I like bright and strong colors too. A lot of wedding photographers use a washed out lightroom preset which I'm not a huge fan of myself.

We've seen this, the 'vintage' look. I don't like it, and we've come across some photographers that really over use it. Also the big, bold, vivid colour thing, not our cup of tea - we just want nice, natural, balanced pictures.

You won't get a photographer that offers a video too, ie one person on the day doing both. It just doesn't work. Is he supposed to shoot or your film your vows, kiss etc? Plus the rest of it. And half the cost of a video is in the editing anyway so the most you'll be 'saving' is half.

If you want a video then spend a decent amount and get it done properly or don't bother and spend the money elsewhere/save it. A half-hearted attempt will be pointless and you just won't watch it.

Some photographers will shoot with a partner, so I wasn't sure if this would allow some video options. We don't really want a 60min+ feature film, only a small highlights video, so we'd rather not have one at all then pay ~£1500-2000 for a specific videographer when we only want a 5-10 min vid. As you say, there's plenty of other places we can spend that money!

 

[Scottland]

..snip

It's not that I underestimate it, it's just that I don't know what people do and don't 'offer'. We've spoken to a few videographers who quoted for a ~60min film and a small highlights video, but we only want the latter - hence the query here

Similarly we've come across a couple of photographers' websites that say they will do both. If that means they're likely to be more jack of all trades, that's all we want to know really...

As for processing style, I completely understand what's been said - like I said it's what I thought too I just wanted to hear from some of the photographers on here for reassurance.