15 Questions to ask your photographer

Wedding Photography is no easy subject and interviewing potential wedding photographers can be a daunting task. Regardless of if you are hiring the GasparianFOTO 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 is an exact reference of what questions to ask, make sure that you are also paying attention to the soft-skills that are mentioned in our section “How Do I Choose a Wedding Photographer” during your meeting and conversation.

1. Can I see the final product of an actual wedding that you have done?

This should be your first and foremost question because what most photographers do is "Cherry Pick" the best shots and make only those available as their portfolio on their websites. But the question you should ask, what about the rest of the images from that same day. How did the rest of the images came out right before and after that sample you have. As a bride you want to make sure you photographer is getting consistently good images and also see how he captures the progression of the day.

2. What is your primary style?

This one is also an importantl questions. GasparianFOTO Wedding Photography are primarily photojournalists with hints of fashion and fine-art influenced wedding photography techniques. For more about our wedding photography style and philosophy, check out our About Us page. If you are seeking photojournalism, make sure you read our section titled “What are Wedding Photojournalists” in order to ensure you are actually getting a photographer that specializes in this area.

3. How many weddings have you shot?

This is a great question to get an idea of how much experience your photographer has in general. Years are generally not a good gauge of experience since some wedding photographers may work part time, and only shoot 5 weddings a year on weekends. Thus, maybe they have 5 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.

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

This question is designed to find out if your photographers are specifically wedding photographers, or if 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 in the style of wedding photography that you are looking for.

5. How many other events will you photograph that weekend?

Larger studios with multiple master photographers (such as GasparianFOTO Wedding Photography) 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 client service could suffer in these circumstances.

6. Will there be a contract of the services to 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 create a contract with you, and be wary of photographers that “don’t typically create contracts for clients.”

7. 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. GasparianFOTO Wedding Photography has three equally skilled master photographers (Pye, Chris and Justin) that can take over in case someone is sick.

8. Do you have insurance?

Professional wedding photographers should have the proper insurance for their business. Insurance protects the photographer against equipment theft, but more importantly it provides liability protection in case Great Aunt Sophie trips over the photographer’s bag and breaks her leg. If a wedding photographer does not have insurance, chances are they are new to the industry, or simply aren’t taking their business seriously.
Gasparian FOTO Wedding Photography carries general business, equipment and liability insurance.

9. 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. In addition, aside from 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 mother’s eye.

10. Does your studio allow me to choose a certain style of post production?

Another factor in how your pictures will look 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 Gasparian FOTO Wedding Photography 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.

11. Will you color correct my images?

Color correction is the most basic post production that should be done 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.

Gasparian FOTO Wedding Photography color corrects every single image from your wedding in order to make sure each and every image is a professional quality product.

12. What kind of equipment do you use? Do you have backups?

Our studio uses top quality camera bodies (5D Mark III) along with the finest quality L lenses from canon. Click here to see exactly what’s in Our Photography Toolbox. While wedding photographers don’t necessarily need the best of the best, it is important to have a good set of equipment. Make sure your photographer has at least the following items along with backups. 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.

We have prepared a list of must have equipment that we believe a professional wedding photographer should have. This is a bare minimum list, so be wary of any wedding photographer that doesn’t have these items.

Primary camera body

• At the minimum some sort of a Full Frame camera body
• Highest Level Professional Body – Canon's 1D, 5D Mark III or Nikon D4 or D800

Secondary camera body

• It does not have to be "Full Frame" camera body, but at least should be one of the higher end crop sensor models such as Canon's 7D or Nikon's D500

Lenses (these are must have lenses)

• Canon 70-200mm F/2.8 L IS USM (or equivalent specs by other brands)
• Canon 24-70mm F/2.8 L USM (or equivalent specs by other brands)

On camera lighting

• Canon Speedlite 580EX II (or equivalent by specs by other brands)

Off-camera lighting (for large dance floor type scenes)

• Canon Speedlite 580EX II (or equivalent specs by other brands) w/ Remote triggering accessories
• Full studio flash w/ Pocket Wizard Trigger (or equivalent)

13. Should my event last longer than scheduled, will you stay? is there an extra charge?

Knowing up front the photographer's policy on overages 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.

14. What does a photographer wear to a wedding?

Even though the 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 GasparianFOTO wedding photography attire is black suit pants with a black polo 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.

15. 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 the next day, or even within a week. However, most studios that develop and produce their images will take anywhere from 2 weeks to 6 months. Gasparian FOTO Wedding Photography has developed a consistent production schedule in order to deliver an amazing product in an exceptionally quick manner. This schedule can be seen below:

• 1-2 Weeks after event – Album design ready, blog teaser posted
• 2-3 Weeks after event – Proofs are available online
• 3-5 Weeks after event – Album is delivered (this depends on how much revision is required from the original album)