14 Questions For Your Wedding Photographer

Before you hire a photographer, even before you meet him or her, you must know what you are going to ask them. In this article, we give you 14 questions for your wedding photographer before you hire him or her

Wedding Photography is no easy subject and interviewing potential wedding photographers can be a daunting task. Regardless of if you are hiring the Thejcreative Studio Wedding Photography Team or another studio, we have created a list of 15 questions to help you find the perfect photographer for your wedding day.

While this list consists of the exact reference of what questions to ask, you still need to pay attention to the soft-skills that are mentioned in “How Do I Choose a Wedding Photographer” during the meeting and conversation.

• What is your primary style?

This should be your first and foremost question as this is the style of photography that interests you. Thejcreative Studio is primarily a photojournalist with hints of fashion and fine-art influenced wedding photography techniques. For more about our wedding photography style and philosophy, check out our Portfolio page.

If you are seeking photojournalism, make sure you read our section titled “What are Wedding Photojournalists” to ensure you are actually getting a photographer that specializes in this area.

• How many weddings have you shot, and have you shot ones similar to mine?

This is a great question to get an idea of how much experience your photographer has in general. Years are not a good gauge of experience since some wedding photographers may work part-time, and only shoot five weddings a year on weekends. Thus, maybe they have five years of experience, but they have only shot 25 weddings. Again, look at our experience gauge in the “How Do I Choose a Wedding Photographer.” section for a gauge on what we consider experienced.

• How many times have you worked specifically as a wedding photographer?

This question is designed to find out if the photographers are specialized in wedding photography or they are “one-stop-shop-photographers.” More specifically, you would be better off looking for a photographer that specializes, not only in wedding photography but the style of wedding photography.

 

[RELATED READING: GET THE BEST WEDDING PHOTOSHOOT]

 

• How many other events will you photograph that weekend?

Larger studios with multiple master photographers (such as Thejcreative Studio) will often double and even triple book dates since we have the resources. However, smaller studios may plan multiple weddings on a weekend without having the resources. Imagine a studio with a single wedding photographer shooting 2-3 weddings on a weekend, the attention to detail, and to the client, the service could suffer in these circumstances.

• Will a contract for the services be provided? If so, can I get a copy?

There are a lot of studios that don’t create contracts for their wedding photography clients. You should require a contract from your photographer that details what services they will be providing, pricing, termination resolution terms, etc. A contract is created for your protection, and for the wedding photographer’s protection. It is best to hire a photographer that will build a contract with you, and be wary of photographers that “don’t typically create contracts for clients.” And yes, you can get a copy

• What happens if the photographer is ill?

While it is unlikely that the photographer happens to get ill on your wedding day, there is still a chance. It is crucial that the photography studio does something to take care of the situation in case of illness. Thejcreative Wedding Studio has three equally skilled master photographers (Jonathan, Sharon, and Fred) that can take over in case someone is sick.

• Does the package I am interested in include an assistant?

If your wedding has 50 or more guests, you should make sure you step up to a package that has an assistant photographer. Aside from the wedding site, there are many moments in which one single photographer cannot cover completely alone. There is no way to capture the first kiss, and at the same time, turn around and get the tear in the mother’s eye.

• Does your studio allow me to choose a certain style of post-production?

Another factor in how your pictures will look on is the style of post-production that the studio employs. That is to say, they do post-produce your images. Be extremely careful, as many studios don’t post-produce your images, rather they give them to you unfinished and straight from the camera. In this situation, you are not receiving a finished and professional product.

Unique to Thejcreative Studio is a Post Production Catalog. While we specialize in timeless post-production techniques, we allow each and every client to select which styles of post-production they like which we use to then post-produce their images.

• Will you color correct my images?

Since color correction is the basic post-production, it should be used on every single image. Many photographers will not color correct any, or will only color correct “select” images from your wedding. This means that you may have a lot of pictures where your skin tones are orange, yellow, red, or even blue.

As Thejcreative Studio, we color corrects every single image from your wedding to make sure each and every image is a professional quality product.

 

[RELATED READING: HOW TO GET THE BEST PHOTOGRAPHY PACKAGE FOR YOUR WEDDING]

 

• What kind of equipment do you use? Do you have backups?

Our studio uses top quality camera bodies (Sony A7iii) along with the finest quality L lenses from Canon. While wedding photographers don’t necessarily need the best of the best, it is important to have a good set of equipment. Nothing would be worse than for the photographer to miss half of your weddings because his camera or lens broke, and he didn’t have a spare.

• Should my event last longer than scheduled, will you stay? Is there an extra charge?

Knowing up front the photographer’s policy on coverages is critical. You don’t want to be surprised when your wedding photographer asks for an additional $1,000 before they release your pictures to you. Even worse, you don’t want your wedding photographer to just pack up and leave when their time is up.

• What attire will the photographer and their assistants wear?

Even though wedding photographers are a big part of the wedding day, it’s important that they are not distractions. As such, it’s important for the photographer to blend in as much as possible. Furthermore, for religious or cultural ceremonies, there may be certain colors that are considered taboo. Make sure your photographers will be dressed appropriately for the occasion. Typical, Thejcreative wedding studio attire is black pants with a black polo/T-shirt/ Shirt or dress shirt. We dress completely in black because we want to go unnoticed by the clients and guests so that we can capture the event as photojournalists.

• How long after the event will the proofs, album, etc be ready?

Each wedding photography studio varies in the time it takes to produce and deliver your pictures. Studios that do not do any post-production or color correction may try to entice you by saying your photos will be ready within the week, or even the next day. However, most studios that develop and produce their images will take anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 weeks

1-2 Weeks for Engagement, Family, Newborn, Anniversary Photography Sessions.
3-6 Weeks for Weddings and Receptions

• Do you do videography? Is there an extra charge

Yes, we do both photography and videography. However, if you want both for your wedding there is a package for that with a different price from photography alone or videography alone. Once you have seen you want both photography and video from our studio, then we can send you a photo+Film package for your wedding day

Creative. Clean. Different. We are a group of creatives in Nairobi, Kenya with a passion for storytelling. Founded in 2015, our studio has been recognized as one of the best weddings and portrait Studios in Kenya by various websites, and groups.

We would love to serve you on your big day and so we welcome you to THEJCREATIVE STUDIO