As I promised in my last post, I am dedicating this post to helping couples find the perfect wedding photographer. Although I am a photographer myself, as a married man, I have also found myself on the other end of the proverbial stick, (or camera, as it were), so I feel I do have some legitimate and useful advice to offer.
Any couple in the Lower Mainland who has spent a week or two looking at Wedding Photography websites, will have already noticed that Vancouver has one of the highest concentrations of wedding photographers in the world. This is probably due somewhat to the city's attractiveness to the artistic set. That, together with the city's non-traditional proclivities (fewer couples marry), means that there's a huge supply of talent vying for a limited demand. It creates a near perfect storm for those on the market for a photographer, as fierce competition can't help but drive prices downward.
All the more reason to go the professional route when deciding who to put in charge of documenting your nuptuals on digital film. But just because you can get bargain basement prices, does it mean you should? Consider the fact that a fairly high percentage of those offering photographic services in Vancouver are new to the field. After having offered their services free of charge to a few friends, they have now arrived at a place where they feel ready to do it for pay.
Many of these startups undoubtedly offer tremendous quality for the price, but the proof is in the pudding, and figuring out what exactly is in the pudding can be tricky. Therefore, my first piece of advice is: when shopping for your photographer, you should be spending more time looking at their images than at their price page.
As you browse the images on the various sites, ask yourself, "How are the images composed?" When you look at them, do you feel drawn in? A well composed image should have this effect. To help you understand this, compare any snapshot taken with a point and shoot camera or smartphone, with the images on the site you are browsing.
How do the images compare? If you see a lot of similarity to the way elements are distributed in the frame, consider it a red flag. One fairly simple example would be the placement of people in the picture. Typically, an untrained person will place heads about halfway between the top and bottom of the frame. If it is a full body shot, they may cut off the feet as well. Without going too much into the why, I will simply point out that this manner of framing the subjects may leave you wondering who the subject acutally is, or confused about what exactly was going on.
A good photographer sees the world differently from others. There is much about this that I could explain at length, but this blog is not for teaching the fine art of photography. Suffice to say, that a good photograph should leave you with a sense of the story behind it. You should sense instantly what you are supposed to be looking at. The image should communicate what the people in the picture were feeling at the moment it was taken. A good photograph wears its heart on its sleeve.
As it turns out, there's much more to say about this than I have time for at the moment, so I'll have to break this into parts. In my next post, I will cover the aspect of lighting, and how to tell if a photographer knows how to use it. See you all in a few days.
Any couple in the Lower Mainland who has spent a week or two looking at Wedding Photography websites, will have already noticed that Vancouver has one of the highest concentrations of wedding photographers in the world. This is probably due somewhat to the city's attractiveness to the artistic set. That, together with the city's non-traditional proclivities (fewer couples marry), means that there's a huge supply of talent vying for a limited demand. It creates a near perfect storm for those on the market for a photographer, as fierce competition can't help but drive prices downward.
All the more reason to go the professional route when deciding who to put in charge of documenting your nuptuals on digital film. But just because you can get bargain basement prices, does it mean you should? Consider the fact that a fairly high percentage of those offering photographic services in Vancouver are new to the field. After having offered their services free of charge to a few friends, they have now arrived at a place where they feel ready to do it for pay.
Many of these startups undoubtedly offer tremendous quality for the price, but the proof is in the pudding, and figuring out what exactly is in the pudding can be tricky. Therefore, my first piece of advice is: when shopping for your photographer, you should be spending more time looking at their images than at their price page.
As you browse the images on the various sites, ask yourself, "How are the images composed?" When you look at them, do you feel drawn in? A well composed image should have this effect. To help you understand this, compare any snapshot taken with a point and shoot camera or smartphone, with the images on the site you are browsing.
How do the images compare? If you see a lot of similarity to the way elements are distributed in the frame, consider it a red flag. One fairly simple example would be the placement of people in the picture. Typically, an untrained person will place heads about halfway between the top and bottom of the frame. If it is a full body shot, they may cut off the feet as well. Without going too much into the why, I will simply point out that this manner of framing the subjects may leave you wondering who the subject acutally is, or confused about what exactly was going on.
A good photographer sees the world differently from others. There is much about this that I could explain at length, but this blog is not for teaching the fine art of photography. Suffice to say, that a good photograph should leave you with a sense of the story behind it. You should sense instantly what you are supposed to be looking at. The image should communicate what the people in the picture were feeling at the moment it was taken. A good photograph wears its heart on its sleeve.
As it turns out, there's much more to say about this than I have time for at the moment, so I'll have to break this into parts. In my next post, I will cover the aspect of lighting, and how to tell if a photographer knows how to use it. See you all in a few days.
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