Don’t be a Sepia Bride! Questions to Ask Before Booking a Wedding Photographer
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Your wedding day is one of the most special moments of your life, captured forever in photographs. But what happens when those photos don’t turn out as expected? The recent Sepia Bride controversy has highlighted the importance of choosing the right wedding photographer. In this post, we’ll explore how to avoid becoming the next viral wedding photo disaster and provide you with essential questions to ask before booking your photographer.
Tips from the European wedding photography community
At the European Elopement Guide, we are lucky to have a whole community of incredible wedding photographers, with decades of experience combined. So we asked them for their top tips and advice so that you will make the right choice for you when it comes to booking your wedding photographer.
Compare Different Photographers
When I first speak with a couple, I actively encourage them to go away and compare prices and styles of lots of different photographers before they book me. I explain to them that different photographers have different styles of editing, such as muting the greens or warming up the skin tones, and to look at different examples so that they can see the difference. I make sure that they understand and agree that if they book me, they will get my style. – Jo Greenfield
Communication is key!
Talk to your photographer about any concerns you might have and ask them to show you a gallery with different lighting scenarios to get a better idea of how your images might turn out. Make sure you get to look at a full gallery or even multiple galleries with different weather situations: photos on overcast days will not look the same as on a very bright day. That way you will get a better idea on how your images will turn out. – Sandra Ardizzone
Questions To Ask Before Booking Your Photographer
At the European Elopement Guide, most of our team our photographers, and we’d be lying if we said that some of the questions that you’re told to ask in many articles don’t make us cringe. While there are definitely some things you do need to know, there are also things that aren’t important (we’ll cover those at the end).
Questions about style & approach
Most of the complaints from Sepia Bride came down to a misalignment of expectations when it came to editing style and approach, as she loved the photos, but not how they were edited.
Can we see some full wedding galleries
You should never judge a photographer’s work by their social media alone. Social media feeds (and even websites) are usually highly curated to reflect a cohesive style. However, you’ll want to make sure that you aren’t booking them just for the handful of “hero” images you see published. Looking through full galleries gives you an impression of how they capture a whole wedding day, and the consistency of their shooting and editing style.
Things to ask for:
- Galleries from weddings at the same or similar locations to yours
- Examples of galleries with different weather conditions
What is your shooting & editing style?
Styles vary a lot between photographers, not just in how they edit, but also in how they shoot. Most photographers won’t have a problem with you asking them to explain their approach.
Things you can ask:
- How do you approach shooting our day?
- Do you shoot candidly or will you also pose us?
- Can you explain how you edit/your editing style?
- Do we receive images in color and black & white?
Tip – within the industry, it’s common for photographers to describe their work using terms such as “bright and airy” or “film-aesthetic”. If you’re unsure exactly what that means, ask them to explain it in non-photographer language.
Will the weather affect how our images look?
If you want to understand how the weather and lighting might affect the look of your images, then ask your photographer. Depending on their style, bright and sunny or dark and overcast days might look quite different. This is another reason to also ask to see galleries from different weather days.
Can i request changes to the edits at a later date?
If you’ve picked a photographer that’s a good match, you shouldn’t need to request any edits. It’s perfectly normal for photographers to get the odd request for a black & white photo to be included in color, or vise versa. Usually you’ll find details about any additional editing, whether it’s included, and if it comes with additional costs when you get a copy of the contract to sign.
Questions about their Services
What’s included in your Packages?
Photographers all have different approaches to photography, and also different approaches to how they create their packages. If it’s not clear to you what’s included, then make sure to ask them.
Who Will Shoot Our Wedding?
Are you booking a single photographer, or a studio/team that works with multiple photographers? Make sure you know who exactly is going to be the primary photographer, and if you can, meet them for an online chat to get to know each other before the day.
How & When Will Our Images Be Delivered?
You’ll probably find this detailed in their FAQs and in the contract, but if you’re not sure, then ask. Things you might want to know include:
- How will our images be delivered? Online gallery, prints, album, etc?
- For online galleries, how long will it be online?
- How many images are we likely to receive?
- Do we get high resolution (print quality) images included?
- Are downloads free or do we need to pay extra?
- Can we print photos ourselves or do we have to do it through you?
What’s the procedure if you can’t shoot our wedding?
This should be outlined in their contract, and if it isn’t make sure you discuss it with them. An experienced photographer will have a procedure if they can’t attend for a reason beyond their control (such as illness or an emergency). Make sure you understand what that procedure is:
- Will they send someone else or refund your booking?
- Will they be the ones to edit and deliver the photos so they match the style you booked?
Questions you don’t need to ask
What Equipment do you use?
Nine times out of ten, there is really no need to ask a photographer what kind of equipment they use. If you’ve seen full galleries of their work and you like it, does it matter if they shoot with Sony or Canon? It doesn’t! If they are a professional who has been in business for a number of years, trust that they have the gear to get the job done. Really, the only time you might want to ask this question is if they are less experienced and may not yet be shooting with professional standard equipment. You’ll want to make sure they have a camera that shoots with 2 memory cards and have backup equipment.
Do you do photography full-time?
For some reason, photographers who only work part-time are sometimes snubbed. But honestly, it shouldn’t matter. Whether someone does photography full-time or not has no reflection on their dedication or the quality of their work. Quality over quantity.
Can we have the raw files/all the unedited photos?
For 99% of photographers, the answer will always be NO. Unedited raw files are their intellectual property, and they are not representative of the final product they deliver. It’s like asking a Michelin-star chef for the ingredients so you can cook the food at home. The magic is in the finished product, not in the raw ingredients. I’ll also let you in on a secret – not every image your photographer takes will be a good one. Sometimes the camera miss-focuses or an image is poorly exposed. That’s normal. Photographers don’t expect every image to be perfect, and that’s why you’ll receive a final gallery that’s curated and has all the bad images removed. If your photographer does offer you the option of having all of the raw files, this is usually detailed in the contract, and is likely to come at an additional cost (and with an NDA).
When Should You Ask These Questions?
When you have an initial call with a photographer, the most important thing is to check that the vibe is right and that your personalities match, since your photographer will likely spend more of the day with you than anyone else at the wedding (including your new spouse). Bombarding them with 100 questions can make it feel less like an informal chat, and more like a job interview.
Whilst you will want to know the answers to these questions for your own reassurance, it doesn’t necessarily mean you need to ask your photographer each of these questions directly. You might find that many of these questions get answered in the initial stages of your correspondence, on an FAQ page on their website or in their pricing brochure, so you won’t need to ask them all right away. Many may also be covered within the contract you sign with the photographer, so it’s important to make sure you read everything thoroughly and ask if there’s something you don’t understand.
