What should you ask your South Wales wedding photographer before booking ?

I thought I'd write an article to help newly engaged couples on what they should think about asking their South Wales wedding photographer before booking. Normally most photographers will provide a no obligation meeting between them and the happy couple; this is usually a zoom call or face to face chat over coffee so that each can get to know each other a little and to make sure both are on the same wavelength before deciding to book the photographer for their wedding. I'm sure you've read these sort of articles on bridal websites, but having this direct from a photographer will help you with some common and vital questions you should ask your wedding photographer. These are as follows:

1. What is your photography style?

Photography styles vary between photographers so its important to select the style that you want for your wedding. Are you looking for a relaxed candid or documentary style or a traditional formal look ? or a mix of both ? Whilst most good photographers can adapt their style it's important that you are both on the same page. We also as photographers shoot in RAW meaning that all our photos are unedited so we can basically put any filter or preset on any photo. This allows us to turn any photo from colour to black and white or any range of filter. Most photographers will have their own custom filter that matches their style.

2. How many years of experience do you have?

This is often overlooked as a question and there are quite a lot of new photographers out there that may pull the wool over your eyes with a great portfolio of single one off images, but its really important you ask to see a full wedding gallery from your venue if you are unsure in any way. So its vital that you book someone with at least 5 or 6 years experience in my opinion. That way they should have well over 150 weddings behind them.

3. Have you shot at our venue before?

Again as above this is a valid question, which should weed out inexperienced photographers. Although for anyone who is highly experienced with 10 years wedding photography this shouldn't be a problem either. It often only takes me half an hour to run through a new wedding venue to know and figure out the logistics of the wedding day.

4. Can we see examples of weddings you've shot at our venue?

If your photographer has worked at the venue before it's important to ask to see a full gallery of images or full wedding "set" from the wedding venue. This will show you the entire day from a previous wedding.

5. Can we see a full wedding gallery from start to finish?

See above!

6. Can we customise our wedding photography package?

Don't be afraid to ask for a bespoke quote or package for you wedding day, this will be specific to you and tailored to your requirements.

7. Can we see examples of your work in various lighting conditions?

If you are getting married at a dark wedding venue or in winter this question is worth asking also. Castle wedding venues can be notorious for having darker ceremony rooms due to the fact they are often in basements or rooms without windows. Cardiff Castle is a classic example of this with a badly lit ceremony room where the only lighting is candles. Your ceremony will have a different look to it if the photographer needs to use flash throughout the ceremony or strobes coming in at a different angle for off camera flash.

8. Do you have backup equipment in case of failure?

This is a vital question ! All wedding photographers should have two of everything!  Two cameras, two zoom lenses, two wide angle lenses, multiple flashes, spare batteries, spare battery chargers, basically two of everything incase of kit failure on a wedding day.

10. How many photographers will be at our wedding?

Depending on the package you are interested in will determine how many photographers are at the wedding. Do you want to book a second photographer ? Second photographers are able to capture groom prep on the morning of the wedding and are also ideal for weddings with over 120 day guests as there is a lot more to shoot. Anything below 120 in the day though in my opinion can be overkill. A good experienced photographer will be more than capable of shooting the day by themselves. Quite often you will see with less experienced photographers that they offer two anyway or even a free assistant. This is usually because of their inexperience of running the day by themselves.

11. How do you approach group photos?

Family group photos vary these days with couples now having more relaxed weddings, There are still vital shots that need to be taken at every wedding, such as the happy couple with their parents, bride with bridesmaids, groom with best man and ushers and other family groups. Ask your photographer how they approach this.

For example do they take the large group photo of the entire party from height? There's no point in taking a photo of the entire wedding party if you can't see the people at the back. A good photographer will either use a drone, a step ladder or a window at the venue to shoot from height for this photo.

Below is a wedding group photo taken by drone from a recent wedding in Ibiza :

12. What is your turnaround time for delivering photos?

My turnaround is 4 to 6 weeks. Videographers will take a lot longer to deliver the film though as editing video is a lot more time consuming. Expect up to 4 to 6 months or longer for video.

 13. How many photos can we expect to receive?

This varies depending on how many guests you have, the location of the wedding and also other variables such as if its a winter or summer wedding. Also if you are getting married at 11am you will most likely receive more photos than someone getting married at 4pm as its a longer day. But photographers should give you a rough idea based on the time coverage of your wedding and guest numbers in the day.

14. Are you insured ?

This is often an overlooked question. All professional wedding photographers will have public liability insurance as well as public indemnity up to one million.

For a full list of wedding packages and prices please see my price page here.