10 Questions to Ask Your Wedding Photographer and 2 More to Ask Yourself

What Your Wedding Photographer Should Tell You Before You Sign a Contract

By Nina Callaway

Before you can hire a wedding photographer, you need to know if their style of taking pictures works with what you envision for your wedding.

Here are some important questions to ask any wedding photographer:

What’s your primary style? Posed and formal, relaxed, photojournalistic, creative, artistic, candid, traditional?

Do you shoot in color or black and white? Or both? Do you shoot in a digital format that can create both color and b/w versions of the same picture?

What kind of input can we have on the direction of the shots? Can we give you a shot list to work from?

Are you the wedding photographer who will actually take our pictures? If not, can we meet the person who will be?

Can we meet any assistants who will also be our taking pictures?

How many times have you worked specifically as a wedding photographer? How many were similar to the size and formality of our wedding?

How many other events will you also photograph that weekend?

What kind of equipment will you bring with you? How intrusive will lighting, tripods, other equipment or assistants be?

Do you develop your own film?

Can we buy the negatives from you?

After you’ve asked these questions of your potential wedding photographer, there are several questions you’ll want to ask yourself:

Do I like this person? Do I get along with them or get a good feeling from them?

Do I like their work as a wedding photographer? Is it well lit, focused, well framed? Looking at their books, do I feel like I have a good feeling for the wedding?

Don’t forget to call their references. While it may feel a bit awkward to call a stranger, it can be invaluable to have an outside opinion on a potential wedding photographer.

Remember, your photographs will be one of the most lasting aspects of your wedding – you’ll want to make sure you find the right wedding photographer for you.