Tips for selecting the right wedding photographer for YOUR Pittsburgh wedding!

Choosing a wedding photographer is a daunting task. Your wedding is a once-in-a-lifetime event and you don’t want to trust just anyone to capture the memories that you’ll cherish for the rest of your life. Here are some tips that can help you select the right wedding photographer for you.

Experience – Pretty much anyone can run out and buy a camera and call themselves a Wedding Photographer. But that doesn’t mean they’re any good though… Fortunately we live in the era of the internet and most photographers have web pages these days. By browsing through the web pages of wedding photographers in your area, you can get a feel for the quality differences. Here are some things to look for when viewing a wedding photographer’s samples. Are all the pictures from just a very few weddings? If so, that may raise a red flag about the experience level of that photographer. How long has the photographer been shooting weddings? You probably don’t want your wedding to be some photographer’s second wedding. Another thing to keep in mind is that if a photographer does have a lot of experience, that doesn’t mean that he’s any good either. If you see from his samples that none of his images are from the same wedding, it might mean that the photographer’s quality is lacking. Even if the photographer has shot a hundred weddings, one good shot per wedding is not a good sign of a quality wedding photographer. After you’ve narrowed down your choices a little and it’s time to meet your favorite photographers, ask to see a couple complete weddings. This will show you not only their style but also their consistency.

Style – You probably already have in mind the style of photography you prefer. It’s usually a subconscious preconception of how you think your wedding should look. When you look at different wedding photographer’s samples, they to discern what their style is. Is their style more traditional, or a little more modern? Modern is not necessarily better, if you want your wedding to be more “traditional”. One style is not better than another, just different. Make sure that you aren’t assuming that the photographer will shoot your wedding in the style you want. Most wedding photographers shoot in “their style” and you should select a photographer’s style that matches your expectations, not the other way around.

Personality – This is something you just can’t get from the Wedding photographer’s web page and it’s one of the most important aspects of selecting a good wedding photographer. Weddings can be a stressful time for most Brides, and the last thing you need is to have a wedding photographer that adapts and goes along with the flow. Is the photographer charming and personable, or a prude and a pre-Madonna? Will the photographer be a help or a hindrance at your special event? Make sure that you think you two can get along well enough to insure that your memories end up being positive ones.

Price – Price is something that will vary wildly from wedding photographer to wedding photographer. Maybe you’re the type of bride where price just doesn’t matter, but for most others, the wedding budget is serious business. You don’t want to spend a fortune, but you realize that a professional needs to make a living too. Most wedding photographers have packages from you to select from. While this gives you a place to begin your comparisons, be aware that some wedding photographers count on selling you additional products after the event is over. Make sure that you think this through and figure out ahead of time the quantity and types of pictures that you’ll want in the end. Usually, the prices for purchases outside the wedding photographer’s package, can be quite pricey and the markup on Photographic prints can be huge. So if one photographer offers the extras you want, (framed prints, mother’s albums, wedding party gift prints, etc.) you’re probably much better off. Just make sure that you ask about the price of the “extras” when attempting to compare wedding photographers.

Ownership – One way to control the cost of your wedding photography is to select a photographer that offers you the ability to purchase either the negatives or the files from your wedding. This is not the norm in the wedding photography business. Most photographers count on making money from additional sales and giving the negatives or files away keeps them from taking advantage of that captive market. (You!) It’s amazing the markup on prints. If you can get own the files, you’ll probably save a ton of money. Most photographers that offer you the negatives or files will also be able to suggest and quality lab to have your prints made. That way, you get the quality and not the cost.

Available Light Photography::Night Photography

Photography needs light. Without it, there would be no picture. On the other hand, having more of it doesn’t necessarily produce better pictures.
Actually, some of the most interesting photos can be taken in low-light situations - at dawn, in the evening, at night or in dark rooms.

That ray of light filtering through the trees of a wood or falling on the face of a person sitting in the dark is much more effective than broad daylight.

But: how to capture high-quality pictures when it’s dark?
There are just a few options:
1.use a fast (highly sensitive) film or push develop your usual film (you should try that out beforehand...
2.if you have a digital camera: set your ISO setting to a higher than normal value
use a flash
3.use other additional light sources like spots, or a reflector
4.use a fast lens
5.use a tripod

Fast Films

Isn’t this perfect? You just use a different type of film and you can shoot away as usual. Well, in a way that’s true, but, of course, the higher speed has its price (otherwise, we’d all be using 800 ASA film most of the time...). Not in terms of money but in terms of resolution: high-speed films are grainier and less saturated than normal films (did I mention that my favourite film is Fuji Velvia, which has 50 ASA?).
This may even enhance some photos - but it takes a bit of experience to predict where this is the case.
Push development means that you use your normal film but manually set the camera to a different ISO setting. Upon coming back, you ask your lab to push develop the film at the higher setting. Some films can be easily pushed, others not. Results vary and it is wise to try this at home rather than at a remote travel destination.
Oh, and make sure to reset the camera for the next film, if it doesn’t do this automatically...

ISO-setting

See above. There’s no escaping the laws of physics. However, digital cameras at least allow you to see the result immediately...

Using a Flash

I wrote another section on this. However, with night photography, there are some interesting additional options. For example, you can put your camera on a tripod set it to “bulb”, walk around and use the “test” function of your detachable flash to illuminate certain parts of a big object, - like a building.
Professional camera systems also often offer a way to trigger several flashes at the same time - either controlled by the inbuilt camera flash, or cables or a remote control.

Another nice effect is using coloured filters on your flash, thereby illuminating the scene with blue, green or red light (or a combination of several colours).
Still, I think the main application of a flash is to illuminate the foreground in order to reduce the contrast with a brighter background (“fill flash”)

Lamps and Reflectors

Spots and lamps are indispensable for studio photography, but you usually won’t have them with you while travelling.

On the other hand, a collapsable reflector or even a pocket mirror may give you the chance to shine some additional light on a detail in the shade.

Fast lenses and anti-shake


Fast lenses allow you to take sharp pictures when other people have to use a tripod. You can take a picture inside a church, inside a museum or at a theatre performance without using a flash (very often inside such buildings, photographing is allowed, but not the use of flash or tripods).
Just as for other things, there’s a price tag attached to this:
- yes, fast lenses are more expensive
- a fast lens only allows you to take pictures in the dark because you can open it more than a slower model. This means that you are dealing with a wide-open aperture. Thus, the resulting photos will have very little depth of field. Good if you have a subject that you want to separate from an unimportant background, but a problem for shots where you would like to show foreground and background tack sharp.
Anti-shake systems avoid that problem.

Tripods

my preferred way of taking pictures in the dark: I use a slow film (Fuji Velvia), put my camera on a tripod, set the camera to auto trigger or use a remote control and bracket. This usually results in very saturated pictures. Beautiful for landscapes and city panoramas, the only problem being that any movement will be blurred.
Another factor to consider is an esoteric concept called “reciprocity failure”. Normally, you can easily make use of different combinations of exposure time and aperture. The total amount of light will be the same, but the background will be more or less blurred (the smaller the aperture, the greater the depth of field...).
This can be easily predicted and many cameras provide you with a simple way of selecting different combinations. However, for very long exposure times, the film behaves differently and doubling the exposure time will not make the image twice as bright. Here you have to voluntarily “overexpose” your photo.
Unfortunately, different films behave differently here, so the best approach is to take many pictures with different settings (bracketing).
Some other hints: with very long exposure times, it’s often best to close the view finder before pulling the trigger. And: a small flashlight comes in very handy when you want to put in a new film, change your lens, or check whether you have put all equipment back into your bag...