If your expectations are high and you want something original, you need to choose very carefully, with open eyes, rather than facing disappointment after. A professional photographer has made his/her life’s dedication to photography, just as a Doctor or a specialist would commit. You have ONE chance only to capture your day. And while we’re all looking to save money, saving $500 now to cut corners won’t matter too much ten years from now.
Your wedding photographs are in some way the only vivid record you’ll have to keep. Entrusting someone inexperienced to capture your big day is an enormous risk.
Consider this-
1) Professionals Have All The Gear They Need
Expensive cameras don’t equal great photographs and cheap cameras don’t equal bad photographs. A great photograph is captured because of the mind behind the machine. Most enthusiastic amateurs with an eye on the professional market will have a camera that is more than sufficient for the job and a lens that will ensure sharp images. They probably will have a flash unit that is tough enough to handle a big dark room and maybe even a stand to prop it up on for interesting formal photographs. This is all well and good, and provided nothing goes wrong, they will have the tools to capture some nice images.
But what if something does go wrong? Professionals will be ready with backups of the crucial gear, and the knowledge of how to work around gear that may have conked out. This usually isn’t the case with amateurs, and it isn’t fair to expect it of them.
2) Professionals Have the Time They Need
A wedding is eight or more hard-core hours of shooting with very little time to collect your thoughts and figure out what to do next. Your photographer will capture 1000 or more images. Have you ever gone on vacation and taken that many photos? It’s a lot of photographs to deal with. And while you probably didn’t do much with the photos from your vacation, your photographer will need to meticulously comb through all the photographs one by one, removing the duds and tweaking and processing the rest.
For an amateur without an established workflow it probably will be a long time before you see your wedding photos. After all, they have jobs, families and lives to attend to. A professional, on the other hand, has an established workflow, will have budgeted his time, and will be able to deliver your photographs in their best condition, and in a timely manner.
3) Professionals Have Plenty of the Right Experience
Shooting non-wedding events—parties, concerts, etc.—does not adequately prepare a photographer to shoot a wedding, though it does provide a necessary foundation. Professionals have followed a variety of paths into wedding photography and have had plenty of time to learn what to do and what not to do.
Your wedding day will be a complex event with a lot of moving parts. Your photographer, while capturing images of you and your spouse getting ready, will have to find time to snatch shots of the details—like your rings, dress, shoes, jewelry and decorations. When you have finished getting ready, he’ll have to shift gears immediately into the ceremony where he’ll need to remember where he can and can’t go without disrupting the ceremony and distracting the guests who are trying to focus on the commitment you’re making. Then, almost instantly, he’ll have to arrange and pose a big collection of people he doesn’t know and who aren’t accustomed to being photographed and really just want to party. And, he’ll need to do it in a short amount of time. When that’s over, he’ll have to change gears again to shoot in a variety of shifting light situations where the ‘auto’ mode on the camera is woefully inadequate.
There are countless things that could go differently than expected. What if the DJ brings some dance floor lighting effects? The professional photographer knows how to make his equipment meet the challenge. An amateur might not. What about a guest with a camera fighting for your attention too? The professional knows how to handle them gracefully without sacrificing the images you’ve paid him to create. What if the wedding planner hasn’t warned him that you’re about to cut the cake? The professional will be ready and forceful enough to wedge through the crowd to catch it in time.
In conclusion, everyone has to start somewhere, but save money elsewhere.
There are lots of ways and places to save money on your wedding. But don’t risk losing something you’re going to cherish for the rest of your life. Save on the cake, or the flowers, or the decorations, or the food—the things that will be gone the very next day and forgotten in a week by almost all of your guests. But trust the important, life long things to a professional who fully grasps the importance of the job.
Every professional was once an amateur with a lot to learn. If making mistakes is key to learning, you don’t want your wedding day being the classroom. Instead, if you have a friend who wishes to build a portfolio or get into the game, ask your professional photographer to allow him to shoot as well. With a little coordination between your professional photographer and your amateur friend, you can rest easy knowing the photography is under control and you can feel good about giving your friend a chance to gain experience he might not otherwise get.
After all, friendships are important and you don’t want something like bad images, or worse, no images, destroying them. Hire a professional, and set you mind at ease.
