I am looking for a wedding photographer. Are you?

How to find the best one?


” How to find a wedding photographer? ”  –  ” 10 steps to find a wedding photographer ” –  ” We will help you to find your perfect photographer”  And I am pretty sure we can find tens or even hundreds of similar titles across the internet. Unfortunately, 9 of 10 articles have been written by big wedding portals or people who aren’t photographers. It is the same if I will give you advice on how to pick your favorite wedding cake. I am in the wedding industry for a while and I see wedding cakes at every single wedding. Should I write articles about how to find the best cake? NO! So why do not get some info about how to find a photographer from the source? From the photographer.  

Why am I trying to advise you on how to find a photographer? Who I am?

I am Marek Kuzlik and I am a Coventry-based wedding photographer. I am the only photographer in Coventry approved by The Master Photographers Association.  I am the winner of the best wedding photo 2020 awarded by the Master Photographers Association. And I am going to tell you how and what I would do to choose a photographer for my wedding day. Maybe it will be a nice guide for you. Definitely, it will be some info for you from the source.

In this article, I will be talking about:

  1. style
  2. budget/prices
  3. Testimonials?
  4. Portfolio
  5. packages
…but before that, I will give you an example, king of visualization of the process of finding a photographer for your wedding day… I will compare wedding photography to the shelf full of perfume. We will find their beautiful bottles, which in photography I can compare to a photographer’s style. Some of the bottles will attract our attention straight away. Some of them won’t. The same is in the wedding photography world. Some styles will be better for us than others.  I think you will agree with me if I say, this is the first step of selection. In a case when we do not have a targeted specific bottle of perfume on the shelf… (a wedding photographer) after we will find a nice bottle, we will try it. We will check the smell of it. In photography, I would say, we will check a photographer’s offer. What photographer may do for you?  And the same in the perfume world. The smell of one will be amazing and we may fall in love and the other will be awful, not acceptable to us. The same story is with photography packages. One photographer will offer only full-day coverage and ask for it £1800 when we will need a photographer for an hour or so. And the other one won’t offer a photo album but we will love to have one. One photographer will treat the full day as 8 hrs only. And for the second full day will be from preparation until the second dance and maybe longer, which finally will give you 12 hrs or so. I hope it is not so complicated 🙂 For some of us, the price won’t be a problem because we will look for something special, for quality work and products we may expect from the photographer… Tell me who of you did not hear about Chanel No5? Possibly everybody did. Not everybody can afford that. Not everybody wants it. The same in photography.  

The first step.

Find a photographer. Find many photographers across the internet. Find those photographers who you like and do not think about the financial aspect of it. Make good research in your area. Then start checking packages and prices. I am aware that everybody will have different budget ad expectations. On one side someone will try to find a top photographer for a couple of hours and on another side, someone will be looking for a photographer for a full day for a couple of hundred pounds. In my opinion, before you will ask for prices, set your expectations and budget, find many photographers you like doing their job, and then try to clarify if they can offer you what you will need. As a bride or groom, don’t be scared to ask a photographer or any other wedding supplier if he or she can make a bespoke package for you. Sometimes you can get a very good local photographer for really good money.  

Style.

I’ll be straightforward at this point to keep it short. A wedding day requires mixed styles from a wedding photographer. If a photographer claims that he or she has a traditional, reportage, creative or contemporary style. It is good to ask WHEN? It is difficult to say that I do pure reportage wedding photos when I am taking group photos. During the wedding ceremony, we will need to do pure reportage rather than creative photography. In this case, if possible of course, we can try to find an option to take some more creative shots if we find a nice light, etc. but we won’t be able to set off-camera flashes in the ceremony room because the registrars won’t allow us. We have to remember that during the legal part of the wedding day our creativity is very limited, the same with the traditional approach. We have to capture those moments as they are. Am I right? Instead of asking for a specific style of a photographer, I would ask…  What would you do for us on our wedding day?  The place of your wedding day, the time of the year, the weather, and many different factors may affect the final photo story of your wedding day. I am sure a good photographer will mention it.    

Budget. 

Organizing a wedding day we need a budget. A part of the budget will go for a photographer. And the question is, how much to spend? We can find a lot of adverts when someone is offering a full-day package for £300-£400 with an album. And you will find many adverts where you will be asked for around £1000 -£2000 for a day. Now we may ask the question why is so big a difference? What I can expect from a photographer who charges £400 for a day of photography and an album? If it won’t be a scam, we may expect a couple of hundreds of photos. And I believe some of them will be nice.  The question is if we will get photos from every single moment we might expect to. let’s be honest. If a photographer asks £400 for a day, it can’t be a full-time job, skills won’t be on the same level as a photographer who charges 4 -5 times more. Editing skills possibly will be on the lower level too and an album can’t be from the top range as well. I think it gives a clear indication that for £400 you can’t give the same amount of work and quality as a photographer who charges £1000 unless you are a philanthropist and you love to add money to your business rather than earn money. Who agrees? Don’t forget. Most of us will get married only one time and the wedding day will be very important for us. And possibly photos from the day will be important too. As an award-winning wedding photographer from West Midlands, I would consider paying more for better results.  

Testimonials?

This is the best one for me. I found in many articles kind of pressure to read and base on the reviews. OK, do this if you want but at the same time, be aware of…? Being in the industry for over 9 years I had contact with many manipulations. You can pay to win an award, you can pay for nice words, and you can pay for likes on social media (that’s why I have only 1.9k on my Facebook ). I am careful with it. Every single business not only in the wedding industry may design the public view. Not all of course but some use “fake” testimonials, reviews, audiences and other methods of communication with the public. Another kind of testimony might be a recommendation from a couple who previously used a photographer. That is real and true. I wouldn’t ask a venue for the recommendation of a photographer because usually, the money is involved in it. And I can tell you it based on my experience. If the venue recommends you a supplier it doesn’t mean they are the best. It means the venue will have extra money if you will pick those suppliers. I’m not going to say that’s bad, that’s the business, that’s kind of marketing for.  

Portfolio

I think it is my best point. We have to split the photographer into 2 groups. The first one – is a photographer who presents a lot of photos in the portfolio. From different parts of the day and different weddings. This group is transparent for potential couples. The second group of photographers hides their photos. In the portfolio, you can find 10-20 best-ever photos collected over the years. And the question will be… what do other photos look like? Why a photographer doesn’t want to present them… hm. I have many theories for that but I do not want to be biased and I prefer to give you the opportunity to choose. As a smart couple, you have to be aware that not at every single wedding we – the photographers can take “signature” photos. All of us top photographers will create for you great photos and it doesn’t matter where we will take those photos and in what kind of lighting conditions. Looking at a portfolio put attention to :
How a photographer sees the light.
Very often when I look at portfolios of other photographers I can see very flat images in places where we can easily find nice ambient lighting to shape the image. At this stage, we do not need a good camera but some knowledge and creativity.
Composition
You do not need specific knowledge about it. If you will look at the photo you should feel that the overall look of the image is nice for your eye. day/night photos We all love sunset/evening photos. When looking at the portfolio, think about what time of the year you are getting married. In the summertime, sunset is very late, very often after your first dance. When do many photographers finish their work? After the first dance? Clarify that a little bit before you will sign the contract. When looking at day photos, have a look at the light, and how a photographer can capture the light.
full wedding photo story
Ask a photographer to present you with a full story from a wedding day. best wedding photo albums

Packages

Be careful! Read. Ask. And read again. And ask for more details about packages. I am dealing with many couples each year. I can hear very often – ” we had a meeting with another photographer who had a similar offer to yours but your sample albums are just amazing, well better not comment on it. Will we get something similar?” My answer is NO. You will get a better one, the new one because this one I’ve just presented is used. And we have some laughs. I would like to make you more sensitive to the details in the packages. If in the offer you can see e.g 400 images in an online gallery. Is it mean you or your guests will have a free download of those photos? Not always. If you will find in the offer a wedding photo album. Is it mean a high-end wedding album? or it will be a cheap photo book with poor-quality photos from a supermarket? Never knows until you will ask or touch the sample. Another point is the total cost of the service. Or maybe hidden costs? Before you will make any step forward, make sure if there are any extra costs and rear an agreement to avoid any bad surprises.   A photographer who will video your day… or a video man who will photograph your wedding Across social media, we can find a lot of “masters” who will take photos of your wedding day and at the same time will create a video of your amazing day. I was writing about this topic in the blog titled “PHOTOS + VIDEO PACKAGE. DOES IT WORK?” and here I will keep it very short.  You can’t run fast and drink coffee at the same time. You can’t take photos and videos a wedding day if you want good effects. If you can accept it, well. Your choice. However, if your wedding day is important to you, I would recommend considering one photographer and one video man.
  My website: MK Wedding Photography Instagram : mk.wedding.photography Facebook: Mk Wedding Photography