Tips for choosing your wedding photographer
By Todd Flygenring (New Regent Studios Ltd)

One of the most important things that you need to access when deciding on a wedding photographer, is that you need to find a photographer that you can relax with and trust. Generally you will be with your photographer more than any other person on your wedding day. If you have a good relationship with your photographer you will most definitely enjoy the day and most importantly have results that you will treasure for ever.

It is vital when you are choosing a photographer that you choose an actual wedding photographer not someone who just photographs weddings every now and then. An experienced wedding photographer will have a number of poses to use as standard, and they will work with you to come up with more exciting and personal poses to suit your personality and feelings on the day.

A number of Professional Photographers use albums full of images from a variety of different weddings, when promoting their style. This is a false guide as to what you will receive in own wedding album. Ask to see a few Albums that past clients have actually received. This is a true representation of the quality and style of their work.

Reputable photographers will have a Standard Wedding Contract or Form that they will use when booking your wedding. Simply writing your name and phone number in a diary is not enough. A deposit is generally required on confirmation of the booking – approximately $300.00.

Find out if there are any hidden charges and what these are. There is a large variation of prices for your wedding reprints, with some charging as much as $12.00/6”x4” print. It is definitely within their own right to charge as they wish, however you need to be aware of the pricing before booking the photographer. It is wise to order your reprints direct from the photographer. If you are given the negatives or CD Rom of your images, and you get reprints at you local lab, the photos will be printed to suit their particular paper and color setup the quality may vary from the originals. However your wedding photographer will ensure his/her preferred lab prints to the highest quality, regarding paper and replication of color.

A lot of people believe that the negatives should be supplied however in this day in age most photographers (if they still use film) use a High Resolution CD Rom to print the reprints. This results in the quality being the same as the original, and there is no risk of damage or chance of losing the negatives. Also your photographer will most probably have a good storage system for your negatives to ensure that they are dust, moisture, heat and fire safe. This is most certainly far greater protection than you can give them in your own home. Also if something did happen to your images/album and the negatives were stored close by, it may be disastrous.

The turn around of the photographs and albums should also be assessed prior to choosing your photographer. You don’t want to get married then 6 months later finally receive your album. Some photographers use the winter months to process your wedding photographs and make up the albums. This is something worth knowing prior to having the photographs taken. A good realistic turnaround would be three weeks for prints only and perhaps six to eight weeks for a Magazine Album. However these times may vary depending on the work load of the photographer.

One of the big questions these days is which is better digital/film cameras? There are definitely benefits of both however I would not say that one is greatly better than the other. Photographers have been using film for much longer than digital and know how to get the right results. Obviously if the photographer that you choose has shown you fantastic results from either medium, then that is the better option for that photographer.

Most photographers will have a back up plan just in case the photographer suffers a injury or sickness prior to the wedding day. Most often the photographer will do their best to appear even whilst suffering from a injury or sickness, however if there is more than one photographer within the company this would be a big advantage should something severe happen.