Things Your “Cheap” Wedding Photographer Won’t Tell You

They’re cheap because they have no experience photographing weddings.
I see this all the time. Brides scouring Craigslist or wedding vendor sites looking for the “cheap” photographer. The cheapest they can find. Most “newbie” photographers will offer to do your wedding at rock bottom prices.

You are going  to see a body of their work and a complete wedding they have photographed. So many getting started are just satisfied with “something in focus” and have little else to offer. The real skill comes from other things like lighting, composition, and proper exposure. Automatic won’t cut it and few have learned how to use a camera professionally. The camera doesn’t take the photograph, the person behind it does.

Newbie (aka Cheap) Photographers usually aren’t “legal”.
A legal business must be properly licensed, insured, and collect and pay sales taxes to the State they work in. There are WAY too many that call themselves “professional photographers” who aren’t. If something should go badly wrong, then you have little or no recourse for what you just paid them. Hiring one of these means you are taking more than a little chance, but you are taking a very big one. Make sure your photographer is fully legal to do business in the State you live.

I do a number of 2nd marriage weddings. There are 2 things I find to be true-

1. Those who went “cheap” the first time KNOW that those “bad photos” from the first wedding didn’t turn out so good because they cut back on their photography. They want a professional this time.

2. They had good photos from their first wedding and realize how important a professional photographer is.

There is really no “middle ground” here. I get that you are paying for it yourselves, but if you have to “cut costs” someplace, consider paper instead of linen napkins. And if you have done that already, then ask a family member to help. Ask your friends to help out instead of giving you that $100 turkey roaster they had in mind you’ll only use once a year.

More importantly, ask someone who has hired one of those “cheap” photographers if they would have done it differently and hired the professional and paid their prices. Most will tell you they wish they had. Scrimp where you can, just not on the important things you want to have to remember your wedding day in 10, 20, 30 years from now. You won’t realize how important it is until you discover you don’t have it.

But I ONLY want a disc! Your album is too expensive anyway and I can design one myself!Fear not dear bride!

But then again, maybe you should. Because that “disc” you want and can only afford is probably going to come back to bite you in a few years.

Discs are only good for a few short years- 5-7 to be exact! They get scratched, heat affects them, cold affects them and the technology will make them obsolete! “I can put them on the Cloud” you say! There have been MANY a business that went out of business because of “the Cloud” failing, Cloud companies going out of business or data getting corrupt. Bits and bytes aren’t forever as you might think they are. Hard drives crash and even newer computers today don’t come with CD/DVD players- they are becoming obsolete FAST.

So you go with a USB drive! Same issues, only perhaps worse. I have seen way too many USB drives fail inside of 3 years and if all your wedding photos are on that and that’s all you have, your done. AND if you have one of those “cheap photographers” who figured it out that your $600 wedding wasn’t making him a “lot of money” or that he or she hated it after all, there is no guarantee they archive your photos or even have them if this happens to you.

And if you think “designing your own album” is easy, 95 out of 100 brides who go that route never do it. They find that it’s more work than expected, they get shoddy products that don’t last, and images that aren’t properly prepped for making an album, so even that isn’t good. A professionally designed and produced album is something you will cherish and preserves your wedding day memories better than anything you get. Ask someone who had a “disc only” that lost theirs, or found it corrupt after a few years and their “photographer” has moved out of town or “quit taking pictures”.

It’s a pretty sucky situation if that happens to be you.

I’m sending out 20 emails to photographers and whoever gives me the best price, I am hiring!All photographers are the same, right? Some just charge more than the others, right?

Far too many brides approach their wedding photography that way. And far more get hurt in the process.

If you think that is all there is to it, then by all means go that route.

But if you are really concerned that you get the right photographer for you, go another route. Sure, send inquiries to as many as you want. DON’T ask for prices please, but find photographers by looking at several of their websites and looking through compete weddings they have online. Many will only show you their “best photos”. If that’s the case, ask to see a complete wedding they have photographed.

Once you have found 3 or 4 you really like, then PLEASE don’t think you can “text it in” or hire them by an email. GO SEE THEM. Sit down across the table and have a conversation about your wedding plans, your style, your ideas! You might discover they have the personality of “Gorgon the Ugly” and is someone you would rather not even BE at your wedding. You will be better off asking them “when can we sit down together and discuss my wedding photography” and THEN if you really like them, get pricing and go from there. Trust me, if everything clicks, paying their price is going to result in photos you LOVE rather than risking getting those you absolutely are ashamed to show anyone.

We just don’t care that much about Wedding Photographs. Beside, all our friends will have their phones and we can get all the photos we need!Sounds good, right?

There is one thing I can promise you- you will never know the value of what you don’t have until the time comes when you don’t have it and wish you did- especially with your photographic wedding memories. Think I am wrong?

Just ask someone who thought that this was a “good idea” and it didn’t turn out so good. Special days like this usually only happen once a lifetime and preserving that day with photographic memories are always preserved for generations, not just “for the day”. Any mother who is asked by her daughter to see her “wedding album” and doesn’t have one to show, usually has a lot of regrets when that day comes.

And your friends phone pictures? Well, if you want 43 pictures of your first kiss and 34 of your first dance together, all poorly composed and poorly lit, then I guess you can go that route. Rarely do your friends with their phones have the capability or skill to give you those photos you will always cherish. A good professional photographer can and will.
Bonus! We have no choice but to “go cheap” as we can. Do you have any advise?

I wish I had some great words of encouragement.

Good wedding photographers are always very experienced and have done a LOT of weddings. Their images are spectacular because of education, training, and experience. “Cheap” photographers usually don’t have that same level of necessary requirements to properly assure you success. Many aren’t “legal” and are just starting out. Some are doing them “on the weekends” just to make a little extra money!