Professional Wedding Photographers

The professional qualifications of the photographer

Anyone can purchase a camera, and call him or herself a wedding photographer. But saying it doesn't necessarily make it so. Wedding photography is a specialty; one that requires all the right equipment, the right training, lots of experience, and a real love of photographing weddings. Weddings are perhaps the hardest type of portrait photography there is, because the photographer has to capture everything beautifully, in a short period of time, with an artistic eye, and no chance to do it over again should anything go wrong.

Look for someone who specializes in wedding photography; someone whom you can obviously tell from talking with them loves to photograph weddings. This doesn't necessarily mean you shouldn't consider a "weekend warrior" - someone who works another job during the week, and photographs weddings on weekends, but understand that they will probably be in the lower end of the service range, because they don't have the time to do much of the after wedding work.

Ask the photographer how many weddings they photograph in a year. If it's only a few, then this may not be someone who really specializes in weddings and has the equipment, knowledge, skill and presence of mind or "cool" to handle the requirements of a wedding. If, on the other hand, they photograph a very large number, they may emphasize quantity instead of quality.

Ask the photographer what type of training he or she has, and how often they attend classes to keep their skills updated and fresh. A photographer who has been in the business for 20 years, but doesn't attend continuing education classes may in fact be "stuck in the 70's."

Insist on seeing an entire set of wedding photographs, not just an album that shows the best print or two from each of a number of weddings. The only way you can fully assess what you're likely to get is to see a whole wedding, or at least a very substantial subset.

You can also judge a photographer by the presentation he or she makes. Look for someone who obviously cares enough about photographing your wedding to give you a well prepared, well thought out presentation of his or her work.

Look for someone who is a member of the professional organizations, like Professional Photographers of Ontario, and Professional Photographers of Canada. Members of these organizations have made a commitment to the highest standards of business and professional ethics, and usually are participants in a program of continuing education, which these organizations provide.