There are lot of couples out there that don’t know which questions to ask a wedding photographer before hiring them. As photographers, we truly want every couple to feel informed, regardless of who you choose in the end. Your wedding is a once in a lifetime moment, let’s make sure your memories are captured right.
1. Ask to see full galleries from recent weddings.
Why?
Because you want to check if the photographer takes quality photos the entire day. We’re not looking for magazine worthy photos in every shot, but it’s easy to cherry pick the best moments for the website and then hide all the others that don’t look good.
How did the photographer handle challenging lighting situations?
Do you see any photos that are poorly lit, dark, crazy bright, or just don’t look good?
How do the family photos and group photos look? Are there enough or did you barely see any? Is everyone posed nicely?
Are there photos of the property or of the details of your day? Do you care about these photos or not so much?
Are there nice portraits of the groom? Or did the photographer only focus on the bride?
During the reception – are there plenty of photos of family and friends? Or did the photographer only focus on the couple?
It’s common that couples won’t even realize they haven’t seen a full wedding gallery. Sometimes it can be overwhelming to show an entire gallery to someone who just wants to start with getting a feel for the photographer’s style, so it’s common to only see a selection of photos on a website at first.
However, it’s incredibly important that you ask any photographer that you’re interested in to see multiple full galleries from weddings.
This is one of the best questions to ask a wedding photographer before hiring them.
At Chiha Studios, we always have full galleries we can show you. Go check out our full gallery from a wedding we photographed on the French Riviera!
2. Make sure the full galleries are from real weddings
It’s very common nowadays for photographers to showcase images from a curated photoshoot that is meant to look like a real wedding or a real couple. This is why this is the next question to ask a wedding photographer. These are great images to look at, but it’s important to see how your photographer handles a real life wedding environment.
3. What is the turnaround time on the photos after the wedding
There is not an industry standard here – there are a lot of different ways photographers approach the editing process after a wedding. So you should not make any assumptions about how long it will take. It’s unfortunate that some couples don’t ask this question before hiring their wedding photographer and then are surprised when it’s been months and they still don’t have a clear answer on when their photos will be ready. It’s always best to ask and understand what happens after the wedding.
At Chiha Studios, your photos are typically ready 4 weeks after your wedding. When your photos are ready, we do something special that is part of the Chiha Studios Experience.
We host a Photo Premiere for each of our couples. This is a special viewing presentation of your wedding photos. We do this either in person or by zoom.
During the Photo Premiere we’ll watch a highlights slideshow of your wedding photos. Some of your photos will be printed and framed for you to see and touch. We’ll have a full mockup ready of your wedding album to review and finalize together. It’s an amazing part of the experience that couples really cherish.
4. What does the process look like from start to finish?
It’s good to understand the process and the steps that take place from pre-wedding to post-wedding.
At Chiha Studios, we have a clear process that we share with every couple on consultation calls. Here’s a simplified version of what that looks like with us-
- Initial Contact / Consultation Call
- Reserve your wedding date
- Expert advice & planning guidance
- Wedding Day!
- Photo Premiere & Ordering Appointment
- Take home your beautiful photos
5. How does the photographer approach couples photos?
See how specific they get. What you need to ask yourself is do you feel confident that this photographer can guide you and help you get amazing couples photos. Or do they leave it up to the couple to think of their own ideas, to pose themselves, and look natural.
We never expect our couples to know what to do in front of the camera. We’re here to help you every step of the way. In fact, most tell us they feel unsure or awkward, or uncomfortable. We always want to reassure our couples that we can confidently help them feel more relaxed in front of the camera and we have special tricks and ideas that we use to do this. Just ask us and we’ll share exactly how we do this with any couple.
6. How does the photographer approach family photos and wedding party photos?
Is there a clear game plan that this photographer implements? Or are they ad libbing on the spot after you’ve just asked them this question?
Some photographers let the couple figure out how to organize these photos on the wedding day.
This is not what we would advise.
Check out our blog post on how to avoid chaos when it comes to family photos and wedding party photos on your wedding day.
