It’s your wedding day, and with all the other preparations to arrange for, you are probably dizzy with anticipation, but in order to choose the correct photographer, you will have to keep your head from swimming and follow a steady course. Remember that a good photographer does not just “take” pictures, but instead is preserving memories.
Some of the things you may ask a photographer after seeing their portfolio of wedding pictures are if they have years or months of experience in taking wedding photographs in Seattle. Can the photographer give you a list of happy wedding couples that found their photography to be exactly what they wanted? Is there perhaps an online photography portfolio available? Is the photographer experienced in both film photography as well as digital photography? Extremely important of course is if the photography cost is amenable to you, and does it fit into your budget?
Has the photographer won any awards, and if so what were they for? What kind of photography schooling has the photographer had? Does the photographer attend photography seminars to enhance their photographic knowledge, or at least keep up with the latest photography ideas and technology?
Part of finding good wedding photographers in Seattle is also to find out if your personality matches the photographer, as well as the enthusiasm that the photographer shows in being your wedding photographer in Seattle. For instance, a photographer may be very laid back and utterly creative in photography, while the bride and groom may be very traditional and staid.
Because a wedding photographer in Seattle needs to capture the fun as well as the essence of this very important day for you, you need to match the creativity in their photographs with what you envision. If you are thoroughly romantic, most of the pictures you will desire will all have a degree of romanticism in them. For instance, perhaps a shot against a wall that shows only the shadow of the couple embracing each other. That shot would not only be creative but would have the kind of imaginative photography you are seeking.
Carefully study backgrounds of shots that they’ve taken. Do they know how to handle the camera in such as way that the background does not engulf those people in front of it? Yes, this is technical knowledge, but you want to make sure that the photographer has that technological knowledge and does not just shoot everywhere like a garden hose and hope that some shots turn out to be good. Good photography is an art, and the photographer has to have a good eye for photography so that the shots are well balanced and the people are not leaning unless they were supposed to be leaning.
If you love shots that feature special effects, look for them in the photographer’s portfolio and communicate to the photographer why you liked it, and what the effect was. The more you can communicate with your photographer, the greater your highly memorable shots will be!
Above all, make sure that your photographer will be carrying extra equipment. There’s nothing more disappointing than to find out that the photography equipment failed, and there is no backup equipment!