Every couple has that one friend that wants to take the wedding photographs. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but there’s a lot at risk. There’s a huge difference between a professional photographer vs your friend with a professional camera. It takes experience and creativity mixed with technical knowledge to create a beautiful image. We don’t want to stop you on the track, but I just want to highlight some important points. You can go through these points, before hiring your friend with the fancy camera as your official wedding photographer. Enjoy and share this article!
My friend does it for free as a wedding gift:
That’s great news! But, before you say yes to anything read the article below. This might change your opinion about your friend photographing your wedding. Because your friend has a nice camera and knows some photographer jargon doesn’t mean they are professional photographers. There’s a lot to consider before taking up your friend’s offer. Some questions you should answer before even considering your friend’s offer includes:
- How much wedding photography experience does your friend have?
- How many weddings did your friend photograph before?
- What percentage of weddings your friend photographed was he/she paid for.
- Does your friend have the technical knowledge it takes to work in any environment?
- Does your friend have a back-up plan in place if something goes wrong?
- Will you still be friends if all your wedding photographs came out bad or didn’t come out at all?
- Will your friend be enjoying him/her self at the wedding? or will he/she just work the entire wedding day?
- Is your friend the type of person that can focus on work while being social?
If you have really great explanations of the above questions, then you might consider taking your friend’s offer. If not, then tell your friend you prefer to hire someone who doesn’t have a personal connection to your wedding day.
Professional Wedding Photographers:
When you hire a wedding photographer it is important to understand the role of one. Wedding photographers have loads of experience and knowledge. They photograph loads of weddings and understand how things work. There’s so much happening at a wedding. A professional photographer will know when to focus on what. How to manage the day and what times are best to get the best photographs.
Your photographer is probably one of the only people that will be in your face the entire time. He/she will almost guide you through the day – because light doesn’t wait for one. If the sun sets it sets. When hiring a professional wedding photographer you know you have someone who understands weddings. You have seen their work and love it.
Photographers do come at a price, just like everything else in life. Photographs will be one of the very little memories you will have left of your wedding day. Hiring a wedding photographer is an investment.
Experience:
Professional wedding photographers have loads of experience. They understand what to do and not to do in certain situations. With experience comes loads of knowledge about the industry. There’s nothing that can beet a professional photographer with experience. Weddings are stressful to photograph. There’s a lot happening around you at the same time. Professional photographers know what to look out for. Also knows when to look out for certain elements.
If your friend is a professional wedding photographer and actually charge people to photograph their wedding, then it’s a different ballgame. We are talking about your friends that bought a professional camera and doesn’t have previously paid job experiences. This will not help you if your friend doesn’t know about light, how it works and when it’s the best time to shoot etc.
Knowledge:
Wedding photography or any photography as such requires some technical knowledge. You need to understand how your camera work, what the settings are for and when to use it correctly. With this technical knowledge mixed with the photographer’s experience, you get magical photographs. There’s a lot happening on your wedding day plus the photographer needs to be in control of his/her camera. They should know what setting to use when.
Weddings usually have low light conditions -, especially at the reception. This is not in everyone’s capability to get great photographs during these situations. A professional photographer will have the knowledge to pull it off. You will still get great photographs because the photographer has the technical knowledge of how to make it work.
What if something goes wrong:
Professional wedding photographers have back-up gear with them. This means that you are covered in case something goes wrong. Anything can happen. From camera gear that falls till camera’s that stop working. Everything is possible. When hiring a professional wedding photographer you know the person comes prepared. That’s why you hire a professional after all. Photographers know what to do when something goes wrong. They also do it without you even noticing something went wrong. That’s great! Who wants to know if something went wrong on your wedding day.
If your friend takes your photographs and something goes wrong. What then? Most people we know of are not friends anymore because of mistakes with their wedding photographs. If your friends are important to you, rather celebrate the day with them. Don’t let your friend stress on your wedding day to get the perfect photographs. Your friend might not have a back-up plan if disaster hits on your wedding day. This can cause you to lose your imagery and also your friendship!
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Write-up: Vivacious Weddings
